Doctor Who Series 6 Episode 5 - The Rebel Flesh (Part 1) - Review
Starring: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill & Sarah Smart
Written By: Matthew Graham
Directed By: Julian Simpson
Most
Doctor Who viewers
that go into episodes already knowing who's written them, will have
had reason to be worried by The Rebel Flesh and
The Almost People,
penned by Matthew Graham. His only previous writing credit for Doctor
Who was 2006's Fear
Her – an episode widely
regarded as the worst entry to the revived series (although Love
& Monsters takes that
prize if you ask me). I've personally always found Fear
Her to qualify as more or
less decent – not terrible but certainly nothing extraordinary
either. Nonetheless, I am intrigued to see whether Matthew Graham can
improve, and what he can achieve with a two-part story.
The
TARDIS is caught up in a solar storm, bringing the Doctor, Amy and
Rory to a remote island on 22nd
Century Earth. On the island is a monastery that has been converted
into an acid pumping factory. To prevent injury or death in the
dangerous conditions, the factory's workers utilize a programmable
matter called the “Flesh” to create doppelgängers controlled by
each worker. However, when the solar storm hits the island, the
Gangers become independent, and it's up to the Doctor, Amy and Rory
to prevent an outbreak of war.
The
Rebel Flesh does
get off to a shaky start as a result of some mixed production values,
CGI and effects work. While I appreciate that things like CGI and
practical effects shouldn't compromise a great story, when the
results are this mixed (which itself is a rarity in modern Doctor
Who),
it can become hard not to notice it. Sometimes there is some
genuinely great production work to be found in The
Rebel Flesh,
such as the solar tsunami that sends the TARDIS off course and later
hits the island. The prosthetic make-up used on the Gangers also
looks very creepy. It ended up reminding me somewhat of Voldemort
from the Harry Potter films,
particularly the lack of a nose and the discolourment around the eyes
and mouth. However, when we look at scenes such as when the Jennifer
Ganger struggles to control her humanoid form in the bathroom, then
the less impressive production values start to show up. The long
stretching of her neck, as well as the super-stretch of one of her
arms as she punches Rory does look a bit … silly. It was probably
intended to be creepy or scary, but it just doesn't end up that way.
The direction from Julian Simpson isn't some of the sharpest the show
has to offer either, and this becomes particularly noticeable when it
comes to delivering some actual scares.
But
as so much of Classic Doctor Who has
proved, low production values aren't too much of a problem if the
script works, so does the writing for The Rebel Flesh
work? Well … not really.
The Rebel Flesh may
only be the first half of a two-part story, but in the forty-five
minutes that it has, it doesn't make all that much progress. Just
look at the workers of the acid factory – barely any of them are
developed beyond the basics. Characters like Jimmy and Buzzer are
nothing but red-shirts beyond maybe one or two identifying
characteristics. I also noticed another character here who's
literally so undeveloped that I don't think they get a single line of
dialogue, and they just seem to be lingering around in the background
in most scenes. Looking it up online, I've found out that the
character's called Dicken, and played by Leon Vickers, but if I'm
supposed to care about them and are having to look up that
information, something's not right. The two characters that have the
most attempted development are Jennifer and Miranda, but each one is
still flawed in their own way. Jennifer is designed to be sympathetic
and Sarah Smart does the best she can with the role, but some of the
dialogue she's given feels very stilted and unnatural. On the other
hand, Miranda fares even worse, coming across as very cold and
stuck-up, but with no motivation or reason to be. It does feel as
though she's just a horrible character purely to
advance the plot.
I
will give credit where it's due though, and while quite a lot of The
Rebel Flesh doesn't work, it
has at least got a solid premise at its heart, and a decent setting
to explore it in. The idea of human workers duplicating themselves
and controlling their own disposable doppelgängers, to prevent harm
to themselves, is quite a neat bit of sci-fi, and doesn't feel too
far out or fantastical. It's an idea that I could genuinely see
becoming a possibility in the future. The setting also works quite
well too, and the facility being installed in an old abandoned
monastery is an interesting change from some futuristic, gritty
space-station that we may have come to expect.
However,
while this premise could work
and provide an entertaining two-parter, it suffers as I've said, from
characters or production values that simply don't work to their best
ability. It doesn't help that Matthew Graham's script can frequently
let it down too, especially when he tries to include a moral dilemma
which he just doesn't to be able to handle. First of all, posing the
question of whether humans and Gangers can co-exist does feel like
it's ripping off last year's The Hungry Earth and
Cold Blood.
While I know the moral dilemma in that two-parter was itself borrowed
from Doctor Who & The Silurians,
for The Rebel Flesh to
try it again so soon after it had last been done, just makes it feel
like a rip-off. The moral ambiguity is also far less effective here
too, primarily because the time it takes for the Gangers to go from
finding a peaceful compromise to starting an all-out war is just too
short. Caused by an unprovoked and out-of-place physical attack from
Miranda, there's also very little moral ambiguity to be found in the
dialogue. Once the Gangers flee and regroup, one of the first lines
of dialogue we hear from them is “We have the advantage
now. We have the acid suits. We can move freely, strike at will”.
This single line just makes it obvious who the bad guys are supposed
to be, and shoots down any hope of the audience having to make a
moral choice.
So
was there anything else from The Rebel Flesh
that actually worked? Well some smaller details and little moments
fare slightly better, such as the use of the Doctor, Amy and Rory.
The Doctor doesn't get a huge amount of focus in this episode, but
Matt Smith still does a great job with the material he's given, and
judging from this week's cliffhanger, it looks like he'll have a lot
more to work with next week. Amy meanwhile is pretty much sidelined
in this episode and has very little to do, although in this
particular instance, I don't mind that as it allows Rory to step up
to the plate. As ever, Rory continues to be a really great character,
and the time he gets to spend with Jennifer over the course of this
episode is time well spent. It is nice to seem him take the
initiative and try to help someone he doesn't even know all that
well. (Skip ahead now to the next paragraph to avoid
spoilers!) This week's
cliffhanger also closes the episode on a high, with the reveal of the
Ganger Doctor. Admittedly it was a little bit easy to guess, seeing
as it kept saying “Trust me,”
throughout the episode, and nearly every bit of Doctor Who
merchandise as of late has been
branded with “Trust me, I'm the Doctor.”
However, it's still fairly eerie to see Matt Smith in the Ganger
makeup and I am interested to see where next week's episode will go
with this reveal.
In
conclusion, I can't really deny that The Rebel Flesh is
a weak start to this two-parter. The saving grace is that it
definitely has room to improve with next week's The
Almost People. As it stands
right now though, the characters are severely underdeveloped, the
moral dilemma this episode is trying so hard to run with is flawed
and unoriginal, and both are being let down by some shaky production
values. Nonetheless, I'll still await next week's episode with my
fingers crossed and hopeful that it can make some much-needed
improvements.
Find
my review of Part 2 here: https://ojgreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/doctor-who-series-6-episode-6-almost.html
The Rebel Flesh
4/10
So far...