First broadcast 28 May 2011.

There is the episode, and there is a cliffhanger ending. It is really worth discussing each separately, and it should be noted that discussing the cliffhanger means revealing what happens.

“The Almost People” follows on from the previous week’s “The Rebel Flesh”. The Doctor (Matt Smith), Amy (Karen Gillen), and Rory (Arthur Darvill) are trapped in an acid-mining facility with a group of human technicians and their artificially generated “flesh” duplicates. Fearing only one group can survive, they are effectively going to war with one another.

The ethical quandaries of the previous episode continue: are the “Gangers” – as the duplicates are called – real people or simply simulations of them. If one of them remembers and celebrates his son’s birthday, and his Ganger does as well, are they both the father? It is interesting material, but in a search for a narrative resolution nothing is quite as well handled in this second part. When one of the characters literally asks “who are the real monsters?”, you know you are in wobbly territory.

“The Rebel Flesh” concluded with the Doctor receiving a Ganger of his own, and that provides fodder for the episode’s most interesting scenes. It proves particularly interesting in regards to his friendship with Amy. The Ganger Doctor possesses the pre-existing one’s thoughts and memories, and so cares deeply for Amy’s welfare. Amy, on the other hand, instinctively distrusts the duplicate, and that cause some intriguing frictions between them.

The episode’s climax relies on some rather poor CGI, which is unfortunate. In terms of plot there really is only enough here to sustain perhaps an episode and a half, and that leads to a considerable loss of momentum as this second part progresses. It is not the fault of the cast, who are all really effective. There is just not quite enough here.

Then there is the cliffhanger ending in which – turn away now if you haven’t seen it – Amy turns out to be a Ganger herself, and has been since before the start of Season 6. On one level it is surprising and suspenseful, and answers the lingering question of Amy’s quantum pregnancy. On the other, it is deeply tonally misjudged to have the Doctor spend literally two episodes lecturing the audience that the Gangers are real people with proper emotions and valuable lives – and then promptly disintegrate the Amy Ganger with his sonic screwdriver. It is incredibly sloppy writing. If the Amy Ganger does not count for some reason, the dialogue needs to express why. If the Amy Ganger does count, then the dialogue needs to express more clearly why the Doctor makes the choice to murder her.

“The Almost People” is 40 minutes of something rather pedestrian followed by 5 minutes of something quite frustrating. It could have been – and should have been – much better.