Series 6 (2011)
Episode title: The Rebel FleshFeaturing: Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams
First shown: 21st May 2011
Guide: The episode starts in a mysterious factory dealing with some acid substance. Three people, Buzzer, Jimmy and Jennifer are taking readings of the substance when Buzzer, who is messing about with Jennifer, falls into the vat and melts. Though enduring death, all three of them are very calm and relaxed about the incident with Jimmy noting that the suits they’re wearing cost lots of money and there will be a lot of paperwork to fill in for this. Jimmy and Jennifer leave the room and walk down the corridor a bit before bumping into Buzzer, alive and well. Meanwhile, on board the TARDIS, Amy and Rory are playing darts while the Doctor is still conducting his pregnancy scan on Amy. He decides that Amy and Rory should go for fish and chips while he does some stuff but Amy insists on staying with him. The TARDIS enters a solar storm and crash lands on a future Earth at a monastery on an island. Music can be heard coming from within the monastery so the trio go to investigate, setting on an alarm as they do so. They get surrounded by Buzzer, Jimmy, Jennifer, Cleaves and Dicken in a room containing identical bodies of Buzzer, Jimmy, Jennifer, Cleaves and Dicken.
The Doctor, Amy and Rory discover that the five people are working as contractors for the military, pumping the acid substance from the island to the mainland. Due to the dangerousness of the work they carry out, they use flesh replicas to carry out the tasks. If a flesh replica dies, a new one is made. The Doctor pretends to be from the weather division of the military and uses his Psychic Paper to fool Cleaves, the group’s leader. She takes the Doctor to the room where the flesh bodies are made and the Doctor tries to scan it but finds that it tries to scan him. Cleaves reveals that the substance can create an artificial form of life controlled by the originals in the harnesses that the Doctor, Amy and Rory first found when they went inside the monastery. The Doctor seems unconvinced that the substance does only what Cleaves said it does. The Doctor tries to warn them to evacuate because of the oncoming solar storm, but Cleaves decides to continue working. The Doctor tries to disable the cockerel on the top of the monastery that’s providing the power for them to work in, but fails and is knocked unconscious, as are the rest of them. The Doctor seems to wake up first and goes looking for the others. They all regroup and are told that the flesh bodies would have died when the storm struck and knocked everyone unconscious but then they hear music playing from another room. They go to investigate and find that the flesh bodies didn’t die. Jennifer gets scared and goes to the bathroom, accompanied by Rory to keep her safe, where she finds that she is one of the flesh bodies and that the real Jennifer is hiding somewhere. Meanwhile the Doctor is saying that the flesh substance they all used took the memories and personalities of the people who used them and now they think they are those people. Cleaves is then also revealed to be the flesh body Cleaves as opposed to the real one.
The Doctor goes out to try and find the TARDIS but finds it has sunk into an acid pit after the solar storm, so goes investigating instead while Amy goes looking for Rory and Buzzer and Dicken go to get the acid suits. Buzzer and Dicken find the suits gone while Amy finds Rory trying to look after Jennifer and the Doctor finds the remaining flesh body clones. He convinces them to meet with the real versions so that they don’t feel scared of each other and get along in a new co-existence. However, Cleaves disagrees with this and tries to disrupt the union between the two parties, which she successfully does so by killing Buzzer’s flesh clone. This causes the flesh bodies to flee and creates a war situation between the humans and the flesh clones. The Doctor takes them all to the safest room in the monastery, the chapel, where they intend to barricade themselves in. Just before they enter the chapel, the flesh Jennifer finds the real Jennifer and a scream is heard, prompting Rory to leave to go find her to save her. The others barricade themselves inside the chapel to find a flesh clone of the Doctor telling them what’s going to happen. The episode ends on this cliffhanger.
This episode is the first of a two part storyline. You can read the second episode guide of the two parter by clicking here.