The Plastic "Oh No!" Band; and, "To Be"

[steepholm]

ETA: Spoilers for "The Almost People" below...

Well, I don't know. Surely there was plenty of time for everyone to get into the Tardis without any need to sacrifice the plastic versions of the Doctor and Whatsherface? All they had to do was amble the twenty yards from the locked door to the Tardis, and all would have been well. Instead they spent a good two minutes arguing about it - almost as if the idea of having two versions of any individual person was too much to cope with.

And why did Jen suddenly turn into a monster? And - and - if being in the Tardis is enough to make plastic people human, why didn't that apply to Amy? And anyway, what makes it okay to squish plastic Amy, when the previous episode has been all about showing us (albeit clumsily) that plastic-people-are-people-too-and-who-are-the-real-monsters and so on?

Not happy, in short. The "Almost People" just didn't think things through, but worse it didn't feel them through either. But still intrigued by the obstetrical episode seemingly promised us.

But the best part is that it inspired me to see if I could find a Youtube version of the philosophical cartoon To Be, which I first watched twenty years ago. And it's there - a far more interesting and clear-headed exploration of the issues raised by tonight's episode. And, because it's Canadian, it has a bilingual cloning device!

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

And anyway, what makes it okay to squish plastic Amy, when the previous episode has been all about showing us (albeit clumsily) that plastic-people-are-people-too-and-who-are-the-real-monsters and so on?

No, that made no sense at all to me. The friend with whom I was watching suggested Flesh!Amy was different because she was still dependent on Real!Amy, but that seemed to contradict the case that Cleaves and OtherFleshGuy were about to make to the company about the remaining Gangers.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

The more I think about it, the more disgusting it seems. From what the Doctor said, Amy hasn't been "real" Amy for quite a while - presumably since at least the beginning of the series when the whole business of the on-off pregnancy began. So, the Amy who grieved for the Doctor she saw shot, the Amy who swung across the deck like Errol Flynn, the Amy who cried over dead Rory and bawled over old Rory, all these were merely a simulacrum and it's just fine to swat her like a fly, even though her experiences and feelings were just as genuine as the "real" Amy's.

Didn't anyone think this through for, like, a moment?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

The cut from 'Amy vaporised' to 'Amy in maternity ward (or not)' encouraged me to read it as Amy, or Amy's consciousness, being transferred, not just our attention. In other words, what you are pointing to here is so odd, so wrong, that I just didn't read it that way.

You're probably right, though. I live in hope (how many more episodes do they have to disentangle this?) but I fear the worst.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope you're right about the transfer of consciousness, but everything we learned about the Flesh prior to that would suggest otherwise.

The one get-out clause is that the Doctor said he needed to learn about Flesh in its early stages of development (or something like that) in order to deal with the Amy situation - so it's possible the whole mechanism has changed by the time we get whatever version of the technology Flesh Amy represents. We'll have to wait and see, I guess...

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I presume the swap occurred during the second episode when Amy was captured by the Silence after telling the Doctor she was pregnant, and then they rescued an Amy who said it had been a false alarm. I suppose they'll have a go at explaining it next week - it would be extraordinary if Rory didn't raise objections after his experiences during the previous two episodes. Oh dear, I hope they're not going to mess Rory's characterisation up.

You're also right about Jen - why is she the most bloodthirsty of the Gangers when she's the one who's received most kindness from a human? The only thing I can think of is that she's displacing her guilt about killing Flesh!Buzzer earlier on, but if that was the idea I think they might have spelled it out.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I presume the swap occurred during the second episode when Amy was captured by the Silence after telling the Doctor she was pregnant, and then they rescued an Amy who said it had been a false alarm.

That sounds very plausible.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

But apparently I am wrong, given remarks made in the accompanying Confidential, which I have finally got round to watching.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was a horrible mess. A lot of money is spent on this show, so why can't a little of it be spent on clearing up the internal inconsistencies?

Also, why did they call it an abbey when it was clearly a castle?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Also, why did they call it an abbey when it was clearly a castle?

That's the bit that's been bothering me - together with the sheer implausibility of mining something that's so caustic it dissolves every substance except the containers and conduits you put it in.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the monster wasn't moving that fast, was she? I think that at the least subconsciously, they felt they had to get everyone down to one version; if there's any substance at all to the 'competing timelines' idea then it could be a genuine part of the narrative. On the other hand, this two-parter, while I mostly liked it, was a bit sloppy.

if being in the Tardis is enough to make plastic people human, why didn't that apply to Amy?

The Doctor lied? Believe you're a real boy, Pinocchio, and you will be.

And anyway, what makes it okay to squish plastic Amy, when the previous episode has been all about showing us (albeit clumsily) that plastic-people-are-people-too-and-who-are-the-real-monsters and so on?

Yeah, there HAD to be a better way to deal with that.