15 Years Ago, 'Doctor Who' Perfected A Classic Sci-Fi Trope

The story follows the Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams as they investigate an acid factory that protects employees by using synthetic replicas called gangers. The gangers perform dangerous work because they are treated as expendable. During a solar storm, the gangers begin gaining independence and turn against the original humans. A ganger version of the Doctor exists, with synthetic flesh struggling to represent a vast lifespan and leaving remnants of earlier Doctors’ voices. The gangers seek freedom while humans try to escape a ganger who uses synthetic flesh to morph into a terrifying monster.

"The Gangers' synthetic flesh makes for some monstrous images. BBC Studios "The Almost People" is the second part of a two-part episode arc in Season 6 of Doctor Who. It follows the Doctor (Matt Smith), Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) as they explore an acid factory that uses a strange technique to ensure employee safety: synthetic replicas, called "gangers" as in short for "doppelgangers, do the dangerous work, since they are seen as expendable. However, during a solar storm, the gangers are starting to gain some independence and are turning against the original forms."

"In this episode, we learn that there's a Ganger version of The Doctor, even if the synthetic Flesh doesn't quite know how to handle his vast lifespan, meaning we hear some remnants of past Doctors, including the voices of the Fourth and Tenth Doctors. The Ganger Doctor and the other Gangers seek to get their freedom, while the remaining humans try to escape Ganger Jennifer, who uses the Flesh to morph into a terrifying monster."

"One of the most common - and interesting - approaches for a Doctor Who story is to take an original sci-fi story and find a way to insert the Doctor. As onetime showrunner Steven Moffat said in an episode of Doctor Who Confidential, "You know you've got a good idea for a Doctor Who episode if you think 'Well, I've just blown that feature film idea forever, haven't I?'" 15 years ago, a perfect example of this set up Doctor Who for an epic mid-season finale, taking a classic sci-fi premise and doing it in a way only Doctor Who can."

Read at Inverse