The Almost story.

I was a little worried about Matthew Graham’s contribution to this years Doctor Who. I was disappointed with his season 2 story, Fear Her. This story, along with Boom Town (Season 1), 42 (season 3) and Planet of the Ood and The Unicorn and the Wasp (season 4), have all been highly disappointing, at least to this viewer.

I had also been disappointed as a whole with Bonekickers and Ashes to Ashe, both penned by Graham and writing partner, Ashley Pharaoh. Both of these series had their own problems, which for me stemmed from the writing and the stories being told. I went in hoping that this would be better.

I was disappointed to find that I was wrong about the Rebel Flesh suffered. The story concept is strong. The idea of your creation turning on you has been a staple for horror and science fiction films for many years. The flesh is a wonderful creation and I can see it reappearing in future stories.

However, the problem with the story is that it jumps to much and I, as a viewer, can’t connect with it. I also found the pace of the first episode was to quick and we have a lot of events that we rush past and are not given full justice.

Beside this there are plenty of good points about the story. I quite enjoyed the cliff hanger ending of a duplicate Doctor, though I did see it coming from early point. I also liked the deepening of the Rory character. Amy, seemingly and quite rightly, is the central companion and closest to the Doctor. Because of this, she gets more time to develop. Rory is becoming his own man, and though we know this love triangle will work out and everything will go back to the status quo, its nice to see him develop.

The director has to be praised for his work. It’s a technical nightmare when you have to have the same person, on screen, in two different positions. Also the locations, though seemingly odd, look great and I fully believed that it is one location and not several, as we discovered in Doctor Who Confidential.

All in all, this episode, to me, is a bit of a failure. I hope that the concluding part, The Almost People, will rescue the story. I doubt it, so I give this story.

5/10