[MI7]

OK, thought I'd best go into more detail on stuff.

From a purely writers standingpoint, this is probably the best episode we've had all season. Structurally, plot wise it is very sound. There isn't the array of gaffes and bloopers that we get with most episodes and everything seemed to have an explaination worked into the dialogue quite naturally in a way that didn't seem forced. In fact, almost all of the dialogue I'd say was rather excellent. Well almost all of the dialogue was good. Some parts felt rather like it was Steven Moffat speaking rather than the characters in order to push the oh-so witty dialogue...

Of course, this is giving the liberty that this is one of two parts and assumes that the unresolved matters will be resolved in the next part. As a sound script, it could easily go tits up in part two.

The monsters, despite having a rather awful names (Vashta Nerada? wtf) were very original and worked exceedingly well despite (or perhaps because of) their unseen nature. Of course this all became unravelled with the "let's chaze ppls with ded skeletun n funy catchfrase lol" scene...I digress, but bonus points for the monsters. Even if the "Count the shadows" spiel seems a bit like a variation on a theme of "Don't blink".

The music was basically a whirling cacophony of doom that never fitted the mood and often (especially at the beginning) sounded like a terrible Harry Potter knockoff. I shan't speak any longer on the abomination that is this episodes score.
The episode seemed to sag a lot in the middle for me. Nothing really happened, with all the exposition either over in the early stages of the episode or saved until the end. This meant an episode that was basically two interesting sections (and I did love the first 10 minutes or so, perhaps the awesomeness of the opening made the rest more of a disappointment than it would otherwise have been) bookending a lot of nothing. The Doctor and friends talk for a bit, they stand here, they stand there, they repeat the same shadows crap over and over and over again. They contact little girl with no result. They ring little girl in exactly the same scene as that one from The Empty Child. Etc etc etc.

The characters themselves were utterly 2D and cardboard cliches...you have pretty airheard assistant, arrogant scientists confident in their own knowledge who of course so, so regret treating airhead assistant as stupid when she tragically dies, entrepreneur who cares only in his own interests at the expense of others. And the random guys who are never really elaborated on. You could see the assistant dying as soon as she entered that random passageway. It's a horror movie staple.

After this shocking plot development, we are then given five minutes of tear-jerking rubbish in a scene that makes RTDs ham-fisted emotional scenes look positively subtle. I mean it just goes on, and on and on. I really couldn't care less about whether her transmitter made an echo of her after death. She was a character I neither connected to nor cared about, and her death had no effect on me. I wouldn't care if Microsoft Sam was eaten by pirranhas and then transmitted a message of himself after death, and this is basically the same thing.

The cliffhanger is possibly the worst ever, tying only with The Sontaran Strategem (and people on the Steven Moffat, sorry Doctor Who Forum are saying that this is the best cliffhanger in the history of Doctor Who.I mean, wtf? Utopia? That one in Caves of Androzani? Army of Ghosts for God's sake...). A villain is slowly shambling towards our heroes. Big whoop. Catherine Tate is saying the same thing overandoverandoveranadoverandomgitsinmymindpleaseg etitoutitburns. There's no real peril here. We've been shown that ER woman has a sonic blaster for cutting through walls merely seconds earlier ffs.

The twists, which have been leftfield and original in previous Moffat scripts, are now tired and, honestly, predictable. Even I (who lets almost all twists go way, way over his head until they are spelt out for him) worked out that the "saved" people became the data nodes about 25 minutes in. The 'shocking reveals' of Donna as a data node and 'Dave is really dead' could also be seen coming about a mile off...

So yeah, I think I covered everything I disliked with this episode and I hope the 80% of people who rated it 5/5 understand and appreciate why I simply did not enjoy this episode. God I loved The Empty Child so much, disliked The Girl in the Fireplace but still rewatch and and enjoyed Blink. But this was such a letdown for me.

Also apologies for the overwhoring of italics and bold. I'm just in the mood for it.