There’s a strange part of the story when the team first arrive, with this dialogue:
[QUOTE=The Rebel Flesh]
Amy: “So where are these Dusty Springfield-loving monks, then?”
Doctor: “I think we’re here. This is it.”
Rory: “Doctor, what are you talking about? We haven’t even been here before.”
Doctor: “Hmm?”
Amy: “We came here by accident.”
Doctor: “Accident? Yes. I know. Accident.”
Rory hurts himself on the acid pipe.
Doctor: “Acid. They’re pumping acid off this island. That’s old stuff. Fresh acid, you wouldn’t have a finger.”
Intruder Alert alarm goes off.
Doctor: “There are people coming. Well, almost.”
Amy: “Almost coming?”
Doctor: “Almost people.”*
[/QUOTE]
My point is it seems that the Doctor knew where he was, and what was going on inside. Either he’d been there before, or there’s something timey-wimey going on at the heart of it, perhaps arc-related events.
Later he seemed to know what the consequences of the organic doppelganger goop was going to become (perhaps from events that ensue in a timeline he has visited before).
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
The Almost People is the title of the next episode
The Doctor seems to know a lot he’s not letting on - in addition to the above scene, he not only isn’t surprised that some in the post-knockout group are gangers, but he also seems to have little trouble spotting them among the humans - he knew the woman was a ganger (Cleeves?) before he handed her the hot plate of food. He also knew about his ganger self at the end - all that “Show yourself!” business, he knew there was a ganger Doctor in the chapel and why shouldn’t he? All that touching and sonic’ing of the goop, he deliberately generated the other Doctor.
Thought really, for someone who has entirely changed his body ten times over he shouldn’t have looked quite so squicked about it.
Remember Amy at the beginning saying whatever you’re doing I want to be a part of it? Well, maybe this trip had been planned. Either that, or he’s just assuming Sexy brought them to that place/time for a reason.
ooo! That would explain how the Doctor could go 200 years on one regeneration, because our Gallifreyan friend can’t even seem to last a decade with the same body.
Oh, wait - but a ganger Doctor wouldn’t regenerate, would he?
I could argue that stepping into the TARDIS at all is a subconscious death wish, but no, I don’t actually think that. Rory is probably a little paranoid the universe is out to get him, but I don’t think Rory wants to die.
Dammit! I guess that means this thread is going to be off limits for us Americans after next week, since every episode will now be a week behind. :mad:
I don’t think that, but I do think it’s relevant that Amy repeatedly sees Rory die. Not the subconscious death wish thing, but the “he is supposed to be dead” thing seems likely to me.
The whole “schedules out of whack” thing could be avoided if, say, the BBC would allow people all over the world the use of the UK iplayer thingy for a (reasonable) fee. Then we’d all get to watch the episodes on time, there would be fewer illicit downloads/pirating/etc, and they’d have a better notion of how many fans are actually out there.
