Jayne Gudkov Review: The Almost People

The Jayne Review - “The Almost People”

Well, now it all makes sense, and yet, it doesn't. I am just going to get into this weeks likes and dislikes (even some hates) – starting with . . . . .

What I hated:

That it took 2 episodes to explain that the Amy we've seen since “Day of the Moon” was not our Amy, but a doppelganger swapped for the real Amy by the Crazy Eye Patch woman and possibly other unknown entities.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the episodes, I did, but I just got the feeling at the end that we could have just had that scene with Amy at the end of “The Curse of the Black Spot”. I know that's nit picking , but hindsight, that's how I feel.

Added to that, as much as we all loved “The Doctor's Wife”, in this season of Amy's pregnancy/The Crazy Eye Patch Lady, it sticks out like a sore thumb. You can tell that it was thrown into this season's schedule where it was for some unknowable reason. This is a one-off episode, so to speak, that would have been better served if it had been rolled out as a Valentine's Day special (in keeping with the BBC's penchant for holiday episodes), for if nothing else it was a love letter to the series by Neil Gaimon, and a love letter from the Doctor to the Tardis (that I still get teary eyed at while re-watching – it's my second favorite episode ever after “Blink”).

What I didn't like:

Seems like there are sonic screwdrivers all over the place. The Doctor throws his to his 'ganger before taking off, yet he has another with which to undo Amy-ganger's physical being. Does Sexy just spit them out when needed from the Tardis console?

There really was no reason for Cleaves' and the Doctor's 'gangers to stay there – they could have made it to the Tardis well before The Flesh would make it through the door. I mean I get that they really needed to make sure that The Flesh never made it off the island, but the company they worked for could have done that.

The 'gangers on the Tardis are “stabilized for good, they're people now.” So why doesn't this apply to Amy's???? And for all that the Doctor carried on about the 'gangers being people too, he just kills her??? Not to mention leaving Cleaves' and his own to perish, a little more on that later. Was he just BSing them???

OK – What I liked:

That we finally have an explanation of Amy's lack of wardrobe changes. Evidently, as we saw with The Flesh, it just copies everything about its original, including its clothes, and here we all thought the BBC costume budget was low (kidding).

That we have an explanation as to why The Crazy Eye Patch Lady has been appearing. Seems that the Amy-ganger has been having some sort of a psychic overflow from Amy proper, she seeing the Crazy Eye Patch Lady peering in on Amy while in her incubator/delivery room/really white place, for lack of a better way to explain?

The Eyes Have It! That wall full of eyes was too funny.

On a personal note, I used to chat with a couple of Welsh lads on a “LOST” message board and they hailed from Caerphilly, it was nice to see Caerphilly Castle used as the main setting for this episode.

Thanks for reading,

Jayne :)