PRODUCTION INFO
Name
The Almost People
Series 6
Episode 6
First Transmitted
28 May 2011
Final Ratings
6.72m
CREW
Written by |
Matthew Graham |
Directed by |
Julian Simpson |
Produced by |
Marcus Wilson |
SYPNOSIS
As the solar storm rages, Jennifer, a Ganger driven mad by the memories of being decommissioned, is seeking revenge. She can remember every excruciating second of every execution and is determined that the humans will pay. And she isn’t just talking war, she’s talking revolution. As the crumbling factory fills with toxic fumes and drips lethal acid, the Originals & wait desperately for the shuttle from the Mainland to rescue them. But Jennifer has other ideas.
Can The Doctor convince the terrified factory workers to embrace their own humanity and work together with their Gangers to overcome a monster of their own making?
NOTES
The Almost People was the sixth story in the sixth series of Doctor Who.
The episode’s working title was Gangers.
While the episode premiered in the UK on 28 May, the US premiere was delayed one week to prevent a drop in viewership over the Memorial Day weekend. A Good Man Goes To War also aired one week late as a result.
This two-part story is thematically similar to the Series 5 two-parter The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood. In both stories The Doctor attempts to broker a peace between two lifeforms on Earth, only to have the truce shattered by mistrust on both sides.
This is the ninth time the actor playing The Doctor has portrayed a different character in the same story.
This previously happened with: William Hartnell (The Chase and The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve) Patrick Troughton (The Enemy of the World) Tom Baker (The Android Invasion and Meglos) Peter Davison (Arc of Infinity and The Caves of Androzani) David Tennant (Journey’s End)
N.B.
Although Edmund Warwick was credited with playing the android Doctor in”The Chase“, some shots of the android were of William Hartnell.
The Doctor and the Ganger Doctor repeatedly tell Amy to breathe. As The Doctor knows her real body is in labour, this is a reference to the Lamaze technique of childbirth.
Amy says, “There can be only one.” This Highlander reference does not seem to be acknowledged by the Ganger Doctor.
There is a Stokes basket (a type of litter used in altitude and other types of rescue) on the wall of the communications room. The style has not changed much in the intervening centuries.
Amy tells the original Doctor (thinking it be the Ganger Doctor) about her viewing his death two hundred years in his future. (The Impossible Astronaut)
When Rory and the Ganger Jennifer lock The Doctor and the others in the acid room, The Doctor shouts at Rory angrily through the window, calling him “Roranicus Pondicus”. Amy called Rory’sAuton duplicate“Roranicus” when he told her his name. (The Pandorica Opens)
As is routine for post-2005 Doctor Who, a “NEXT TIME” trailer for the next episode is shown at the end of the episode