Jayne Gudkov Review: The Rebel Flesh

The Rebel Flesh – Episode 6.5

Episode 5 of Season 6 (I am American – we have seasons – as is natural), on the face (no pun intended) of it, seemed like a straight forward ripping off of a story that's been done over and over, in my mind I think of Heinlein's “Starship Troopers”, the story being that of “natural” humans versus clones and whether clones are actual beings or merely easily disposed of copies. I mean in the opening scene we see what they think of clones when they let D C Chris Skelton, I mean, Buzzer's clone just melt away in a vat of acid while making jokes about his lack of balance.

Anyway – onto my likes and dislikes.

What I liked:

A dart board in the Tardis. There seems to be an effort to make the Tardis more of a home, from the bunk beds in Amy and Rory's room to

Crazy Eye Patch Lady!!!!!!!

“What are you doing down there?” to the Tardis slowly sinking into the acid soaked ground.

Rory finally finding a damsel in distress that he could be a knight in shining armor for (Jennifer). I mean Amy has totally emasculated Rory from making him take her surname at their wedding (not that there's anything wrong with that) to her boldly going wherever she wants to go and dragging him along no matter how dangerous the situation. It was in interesting study in their roles versus the standard roles of women and men (men defenders of women).

What I didn't like:

That this story has been done 1000 times, but it does set up a moral dilemma for the Doctor, so maybe the story will redeem itself in Part 2, “The Almost People”. The moral dilemma here is whether, after making his stand that Clones are People Too, does he allow the clone of himself to live? (more on that in the Theory section).

That I knew from the second that the vat of “Flesh” blathered on with a “Trust Me” I knew that a clone of the Doctor would be showing up.

“I have very wide feet.” Something tells me that that statement was the Gallifrey version of the “Big Shoe Theory”, that if a guy has big feet he is well endowed in other areas. Wide feet on Gallifrey meant the same thing???? For a guy who's not all that into kissing, he's making penis size jokes?? This would have been funny from Captain Jack, not the Doctor.

The Overall Story of the Season:

We had a “blink and you missed it” appearance by the Crazy Eye Patch Lady, the story starting with The Doctor wanting to drop Rory and Amy off for some fish and chips so that he could go do things, evidently I assume, related to either Amy's pregnancy or The Girl In The Space Suit.

I am going to go out on a limb here, and this is NOT based on any spoilers that I have read. I have actually been trying to stay away from spoilers for a change this season, so this is totally supposition on my part.

My going out on a limb is that I am going to make a prediction here, the prediction being that The Doctor that we saw being killed in the very first episode, “The Impossible Astronaut” is the clone we saw made in “The Rebel Flesh”.

THE CRACKPOT THEORY

I'm sure that like most of the theories and predictions I made over the course of the run of “LOST”, where 99.8 percent were wrong (the one I got right was that Hurley would eventually become the “Jacob” of the island), this will probably be wrong, but I have a strong feeling about it. Something down the line, be it nature, the universe, the Guardians, whatever, may manipulate the companions to Utah and the killing of the clone, for while the universe is a better place with The Doctor, having two is a problem.

So the basic theory is that the clone of the Doctor we saw at the end of “The Rebel Flesh” was the Doctor that was killed in Utah.

Yes, I know this raises questions, like why did Canton Everett Delaware III need to be there to identify the Doctor and assure River, Rory and Amy that it was actually him is a bit of a mystery, and how the clone was about 200 years older than the real Doctor. It's just a gut feeling, but I think that with all of the effort that River, Amy and Rory are making to be sure that they don't tell the Doctor about his future, I get the feeling that it's the Doctor who is actually holding out on them and Delaware is in on the scam.

That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it (probably until next week LOL).