With this review Im going to start at the end and then move right back to the start. I will try to limit the spoilers but I apologise if some sneaky little ones get out. The end of “The Almost People” is a literal jaw dropping moment that immediately sets up next weeks episode, which is also the mid series finale. After next week we will have to wait 3 months for an answer to any questions we may have. Although with Mr Steven Moffat at the helm, probably none of our questions will answered, we will just have countless more to beg to be divulged!! Anyway, back to that ending, all I have to say is “Well, I wasn’t expecting that!” Everything we thought we knew about Team Tardis this series has just been tipped right on its head and it doesn’t even give us pause for breath as the Doctor demands answers from something he never expected coming. He announces that he will find the people responsible for this betrayal of his trust and make them pay. And when he says this, we are right there behind him, following the Doctor to war!
These two episodes feel like a classic Doctor story that has been brought into the 21st century. You can easily imagine the second or seventh Doctor in place of Smith and it would still work. With using the old idea of trapping the dr in a prison or on an island, it really does help set the dark tone and speedy pace of these episodes. Thanks to the presence of sentient clones or “gangers”, each character and actor, apart from one gets to show different sides to their personality as an external voice. This works best with the Doctor whose internal voice and his habit of questioning himself all the time takes on the presences of a separate Doctor. It really does show Matt Smiths acting range and how he is obviously enjoying having someone with his thoughts and feelings to bounce ideas and plans off of. The actors who play the factory workers and their gangers really show their acting ranges with being able to play two parts of their personalities as separate people. Everyone is great in these episodes, especially Rory and Amy, who are at polar opposites throughout the story with their views on the gangers. Rory believes that they are individuals and not just copies, a belief that is further reinforced when the “ganger” Jennifer explains how she is real and that her feelings and memories can’t just be a copy. She feels real so why can’t she be? Whereas Amy believes that copies are copies and that a person can’t be cloned and remain the same. This stems from her memories and feelings regarding the real Doctor, how they have been through so much together that no “ganger” could be the same as her Doctor. Something that Amy, however firm she thinks her belief is, has to question later on when the Doctor and his” ganger” explains a bit of a switcheroo! It goes to show how Amy and Rory are their own people but further strengthens their own love for one another as the story progresses.
The atmosphere is these episode’s is soaked with a horror movie vibes as well as a bit of a who done it when people are trying to guess who is a “ganger” and who is “real”. The final moments of the story really play out like a Cronenberg film. Its all dark corridors, shape shifting and a frantic chase towards the safety of the Tardis. Its exciting and once again full of atmosphere.
Over all I enjoyed this two parter, it’s a fantastic story that actually has ramifications on the wider series, rather than being a “filler” episode ala Curse of the Black Spot. It leaves you with even more questions than you had before, but then again, what else does Doctor Who excel at, especially under Mr Moffats reign. It perfectly ramps up the excitement for next weeks episode and I personally cannot wait!!
