I think this episode just reflects how very, very little we've come to expect from Who. A soggy collection of story elements that sort of slop into each other with little purpose and no tension. A collection of blandly irritating cliched characters (those lifeless kids) and the annoying (that bloody mum). Dr Who has become like a fine whiskey cask filled with cold tea.
Did pre 1935 brits know what "spacemen" were?
Were woman allowed to drive?
I thought only kids were evacuated and the women worked?
Who isn't scared of weird men in spacesuits (which they wern't familar with) lying in a crater with no face speaking after falling from an unknown source?
Quote: Jamey @ December 25 2011, 11:53 PM GMTWere woman allowed to drive?
Of course they bloody were.
Quote: Jamey @ December 25 2011, 11:53 PM GMTI thought only kids were evacuated and the women worked?
I don't think they said they were evacuated, they went to a relatives house to get away from the bombing.
Quote: Jamey @ December 25 2011, 11:53 PM GMTDid pre 1935 brits know what "spacemen" were?
Does it really matter? There was certainly sci-fi before that.
I think that's what the more well-off people did. I bloody would have.
Quote: Jamey @ December 25 2011, 11:53 PM GMTWho isn't scared of weird men in spacesuits (which they wern't familar with) lying in a crater with no face speaking after falling from an unknown source?
No face? He had a helmet on backwards.
All that would have been ok if it was going for cheery fairytale Dr Who story lubricant. Ya know, "ooh you won the lottery clear off" or "I cleaned your pigsty flatup with magic"
but if the story it's self is so soppy and wet...
Quote: sootyj @ December 26 2011, 12:04 AM GMTAll that would have been ok if it was going for cheery fairytale Dr Who story lubricant. Ya know, "ooh you won the lottery clear off" or "I cleaned your pigsty flatup with magic"
Eh?
A lot of the time, Dr Who effectively shortcuts issues. By more or less saying it's a TV show and giving the audience a big wink.
It's very effective and lets the show cover lots of stuff without getting caught up in intermidable explanation.
Got a big stiffy when the wooden king in the tower was revealed. Really fantastically creepy and mysterious. And some of the best production design of recent years - but they pissed it away with no decent story or explanation.
And more 'magic' story-telling where problems are resolved by 'wishing them better.' (The mother getting home by thinking of it really hard). 
Moffat simply cannot write.
Note to Arabella Weir: it's 'deteriorating' not 'deteriating'.
It certainly looked great the wooden king and even that soft focussed Lancster. Which gave it all a lovely fairy tale soft pallate look.
But it's writing made the big mistake beloved of good old Star Trek Voyager. A technobabble solution for a technobabble problem.
The king and queen certainly looked great, like old school Ray Harryhausen. Pity as monsters they were such damp squibs.
Okay. I'll give you nits Stott. The main thing that bugged me was that three years was supposed to have passed between the spaceman falling out of the sky (I'll allow that. War of the Worlds anyone? Her reaction to said spaceman. War of the Worlds anyone?). The children did not age at all. Given their presumed ages specs @ 10 at start, sister @ 13 there should have been a marked difference in at least their height. I speak from the experience of watching Riley Major grow several inches in a matter of months, let alone years.
If you want another nit, Alexander Armstrong was far too old to plausibly have been on active during the war. However, never let believability get in the way of a good in joke, except in this case it was merely distracting waiting for Ben Miller to turn up.
Bill Bailey et al under used. Was Arabella Weir badly written or just badly acted?
And yes, we got the screwdriver doesn't work on wood the first time.
Could have done without the Ponds. At least it was a River free zone.
I just hope that Sherlock will be worth it.
Are there any other capable scifi writers out there who could write for the BBC?
And like I say if it was a god, exiting story that zipped along all would have been forgiven. But this made last years enjoyable albeit soppy epic look like the Matrix.
Quote: chipolata @ December 26 2011, 7:41 AM GMTThe king and queen certainly looked great, like old school Ray Harryhausen. Pity as monsters they were such damp squibs.
Well they weren't in fact monsters in the end, so as monsters they were certainly bad.
Quote: KLRiley @ December 26 2011, 10:00 AM GMTOkay. I'll give you nits Stott.
How kind. 