Doctor Who, "The Rebel Flesh"

[major_clanger]

Having been Otherwise Occupied over the weekend, I've finally watched "The Rebel Flesh".

I don't know if David Brin ever met John W Campbell, but Kiln People has certainly met Who Goes There?, and we saw the result on Doctor Who.

The end-of-episode cliffhanger was telegraphed frequently and blatantly but it was no less fun for that, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this particular mess gets sorted out. Probably via iPlayer again though, as we'll be in Oxford next week for the Write Fantastic event.

Comments

[rmc28]

You're the only other person I know who made the Kiln People connection ;-)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Of my friends list, alitalf did too. I'd not heard of it, but will try to make time to look it up, and Who Goes There? too.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Kiln People (or indeed Kil'n People as it was published in the UK) has stuck in my head partly because of the main plot idea but mainly because bugshaw re-enacted key scenes with Jelly Babies...

[steer.livejournal.com]

Oh that is genius!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I spotted the Kiln People similarities, but I think it may turn out that this is the origin story for the Autons so the similarity may be coincidental.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Um... didn't we already see the origin story for the autons in 1970? (Which clearly puts their origin as a consciousness far before this story in time).

[daveon.livejournal.com]

The same thought occurred to me that it was the Autons, and hadn't the Nestene been explained in the 70s?

That said, this looked, sounded and felt like a Pertwee episode.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Actually the opening shot and setting reminded me more of a different Pertwee story... I forget the name but a Silurian episode which begins in one of the sea forts in the channel.

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

The Sea Devils.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Ah... thank you. I love that episode, particularly as I'm quite often on boats near that seabase.

[pmcray.livejournal.com]

I was definitely thinking Autons, but then I had been watching "Spearhead from Space" again last week (they've really cleaned up the print for the special edition). Of course, the Autons feature in "Rose" and we don't know what Ten was doing immediately before in order to be aware of the attempted Auton invasion. Of course, Rory was plastic for 2000 years, which is why he is empathising with Jenny so much. Other people have suggested the Sontarans as apparently the set design is reminiscent of something in "The Sontaran Stratagem". Obviously the Doctor knows a lot more about what is going on here than he is letting on. Having an Auton origin story (I think SfS it is suggested that the Autons are billions of years old) that takes into account everything we know about them seems rather reminescent of the kind of thing people got up into the novels, but I have seen a couple of suggestions that Moffat is heavily channelling the EDAs this season, particularly the works of Lawrence Miles. It seems those evenings down the Fitzroy weren't wasted on the Moff.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I loved Kil'n people. Great book. It did vaguely chime with the Dr Who for me too.

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

We were thinking that this - specifically the end-of-ep cliffhanger - potentially explains the events at the start of episode 1 of ths series...

[steer.livejournal.com]

I thought that but someone (River Song perhaps?) said that the body was not a clone or a copy? I guess they could kill "original" and continue the series with copy. However you still have 200 years of "running" in the timeline of the one that dies to explain.