From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   THE REBEL FLESH   
      
   2 episodes: The Rebel Flesh, The Almost People. Approx. 88 minutes.   
   Written by: Matthew Graham. Directed by: Julian Simpson. Produced by:   
   Marcus Wilson.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   The TARDIS materializes on an island in the distant future, the site   
   of a top-secret mining operation located in a medieval monastery. The   
   miners are pumping incredibly corrosive acid in an operation so   
   hazardous that the miners used to lose a person per week. But now   
   technology has stepped in with a solution: The Flesh. Organic, living   
   but not sentient, the flesh can be molded to become a "ganger," a   
   physical avatar for its users. An industrial accident is no longer a   
   hazard to a human miner. Only the flesh dies - and it's easily   
   replaced, to the point that it's more upsetting to lose equipment than   
   to lose a "man."   
      
   But the Doctor recognizes that the Flesh is life of a far more complex   
   nature than the miners realize. When a storm hits, the miners' Flesh   
   duplicates become aware individuals. Now there are two of each   
   individual on the island. The Doctor wants to resolve this mess   
   amicably, and is well on his way to doing so - until Cleaves (Raquel   
   Cassidy), the supervisor, decides to take the direct approach. She   
   kills one duplicate, and in so doing starts a war.   
      
   The Doctor barricades the humans in the monastery's most secure room -   
   the chapel. There, he makes the most shocking discovery of all. Not   
   only is there a duplicate of every member of the mining team. There is   
   a second Doctor, as well...   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: After his very emotional performance in The Doctor's Wife,   
   Smith is much more subdued here. A good choice. If he did that level   
   of emoting in every episode, it would get old fast. Here, he's very   
   much the traditional Doctor: showing up at a location, investigating   
   strange occurrences, and trying to save people from their own foibles.   
   Mostly, he's just providing a steady presence to anchor the episode,   
   though he does bring some fireworks to bear at the very end.   
      
   Amy: Continues to see flashes of the eyepatched woman, first glimpsed   
   during her walk through the nightmarish children's home in Day of the   
   Moon. She is very protective of both the Doctor and Rory. When the   
   duplicate Doctor appears, she refuses to accept him as being fully the   
   Doctor, referring him as "almost" the Doctor and refusing to fully   
   trust him.   
      
   Rory: His compassionate side gets more focus. He bonds with Jennifer   
   (Sarah Smart), even after learning that she is a ganger. His decency   
   helps her to stabilize and convinces her to try to trust the human   
   workers. That ends up making her the most bitter of the gangers after   
   Cleaves fires on them. Even then, Rory is the most appalled of the   
   regulars and the first to disarm Cleaves. He insists on staying behind   
   to find the "real" Jennifer when the Doctor leads the others to the   
   more defensible chapel. His pragmatic side also shows itself. Though   
   he wants to save both Jennifers, when one half-accidentally kills the   
   other, he does not waste time with recriminations. He accepts what has   
   happened, then focuses on protecting the one that remains.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   The equivalent of the Silurian 2-parter from last season, complete   
   with a very traditional "Classic Who" structure and a (too-)   
   substantial amount of moralizing. If this were a classic series story,   
   it would be a Pertwee.   
      
   Still, it should be said that Matthew Graham's second Who story is a   
   vast improvement on Fear Her, the cheapie he churned out for Series   
   Two. The direction of the story is clear very early on, but it is   
   never less than entertaining. The monastery provides for some suitably   
   creepy atmosphere, and the transformation of one character from a   
   genuinely sweet and likable individual into a monster is surprisingly   
   convincing.   
      
   Most of the holes aren't with the story itself, but with the   
   backstory. Why are they extracting acid and pumping it to the   
   mainland? We don't really know, and it's not something the story's   
   overly concerned about. The "solar tsunami" is presented as a planet-   
   threatening crisis in Part One. Turns out, it's just a bad storm. They   
   might as well have just used a garden variety thunderstorm to provoke   
   the accident. But I guess that wouldn't have been "sci-fi" enough.   
      
   The guest characters are a mixed bag, with only Cleaves and Jennifer   
   managing to emerge as anything other than stock figures. The other   
   characters (yes, including the white-haired dad) are ones I'd have to   
   look up to even tell you their names. The story also doesn't quite   
   sustain its 90 minutes. There's definitely more running around between   
   different bits of the monastery than is truly narratively necessary   
   and, after a while, it just becomes wearying.   
      
   More interesting than the main story is the ending - an ending which   
   seems to indicate that the show is now ready to start really dealing   
   with some of the questions raised by the season opener. I think the   
   first Act of this season is now done, and look forward to seeing where   
   things go from here.   
      
      
   Rating: 6/10.   
      
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