The Rebel Flesh

Rather than the usual plot synopsis with commentary I normally do, I thought I'd try something different this time, since there really wasn't much plot to summarise.

Let's start with the basic premise here. We've got this Flesh stuff that you can program to take any form you want and then have a person remotely control. This is clearly established by the opening scene and several lines of dialogue. But wait, it actually contains a copy of the user's mind? That's how the whole "coming to life" thing works? So if you're piloting a doppel, you're directly controlling it from your harness, but it also contains a complete copy of your mind, so it could actually act independently if you wanted? Why? If you always have an operator directly controlling it, why do they need to copy the mind into the doppel? And if they always have to copy the mind into the doppel, why wouldn't they just do that and not bother with the operators?

Apparently they're unstable and won't last very long, so I guess you need the originals on hand to recreate them, but honestly you could have one person just run this entire place single-handed. Get one guy duplicated several times, recopy him each time a doppel wears out or gets killed.

Actually, why are these people even there in person? The whole place could be staffed entirely by doppels created on the spot from people who are back on the mainland. Even if you need to be in the harness to directly control them the whole time, you can still do that remotely. Why are these people all here in this highly dangerous environment? Isn't the whole point of this technology to allow this work to be done without risk?

That whole mess aside, things become even stupider once the plot, such as it is, gets underway. You've got these doppels that have now "come alive", and they're exact duplicates of the originals. Except that they're murderous psychopaths. Oh wait, no they're not, they're exactly teh same as the originals. No wait, murderous psychopaths again.

Or maybe the originals are all murderous psychopaths? Actually that seems the most likely explanation, since they all seem pretty keen on killing the doppels. I mean, you find you've been accidentally duplicated, and your first thought is to kill the duplicate? "Two of me? This is not acceptable. One of us must die." What? Who the fuck thinks that way? Where did the violence even come from?

Add to that the fact that the whole place is full of deadly acid and you'd think everyone would have bigger issues on their minds than what to do about the duplicates. But no, apparently everyone's first thought is "How can I use this dangerous situation to my advantage in killing the other me?"

I don't understand why anyone in this episode is doing any of the things they do. This does not make sense. I guess this episode doesn't infuriate me so much as just confuse me.