I see that we are pretty much on the same page as regards this. As you say, just far too much going on, and all of it absolutely frothing cracky crazy, to really pass verdict on it one way or another. I'm starting to think that Ten's death and resurrection and how it's handled is going to totally make or break this story, one or the other. But then, wasn't that always going to be the case?
The Obama love... I like Obama, I think he'll do good things for America and the world if he gets the chance, and I can completely see why he gets the support he does from some Americans (and conversely kind of shake my head at the he-wants-to-make-us-all-speak-Russian hysteria from his right wing opponents). Yet, the kind of blind hero-worship he gets from the non-American world is, imho, naive in the extreme and kind of embarrassing, and seeing Rusty fall into the same sort of stuff here was a bit WTF, but not in a good way like the rest of the WTF in the episode! My main concern though is that, as you say, it dates the story very badly, as do the superficial attempts at socio-political consciousness, mentioning the recession and anything.
You see, when classic Who did politics, it did it metaphorically and it often made very good points - witness Happiness Patrol's satire of Thatcherism, or indeed any one of a hundred other examples. When NuWho touches on politics, it's only as skin-deep window-dressing, and it usually comes off as just a ham-fisted attempt to be contemporary, when what they should be aiming for is timelessness. Ah well...
And don't get me started on the stuff about Donna and her boyfriend, and the idea that poverty is something some superhero can rescue you from overnight with a wave of his magic wand...
But Wilf was awesome, and Donna was Donna, and Tennant was great, and Simm was as amusing as ever (and do you think he was sort of draining those people's energy to make them into skeletons, or was he actually...er...eating them...? O.o). And the WTF Cliffhanger of Doom will have me counting the days until next week; plus it looks like some of the really cracky fan theories that have been going around for a while now are actually going to turn out to be true...
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The Obama love... I like Obama, I think he'll do good things for America and the world if he gets the chance, and I can completely see why he gets the support he does from some Americans (and conversely kind of shake my head at the he-wants-to-make-us-all-speak-Russian hysteria from his right wing opponents). Yet, the kind of blind hero-worship he gets from the non-American world is, imho, naive in the extreme and kind of embarrassing, and seeing Rusty fall into the same sort of stuff here was a bit WTF, but not in a good way like the rest of the WTF in the episode! My main concern though is that, as you say, it dates the story very badly, as do the superficial attempts at socio-political consciousness, mentioning the recession and anything.
You see, when classic Who did politics, it did it metaphorically and it often made very good points - witness Happiness Patrol's satire of Thatcherism, or indeed any one of a hundred other examples. When NuWho touches on politics, it's only as skin-deep window-dressing, and it usually comes off as just a ham-fisted attempt to be contemporary, when what they should be aiming for is timelessness. Ah well...
And don't get me started on the stuff about Donna and her boyfriend, and the idea that poverty is something some superhero can rescue you from overnight with a wave of his magic wand...
But Wilf was awesome, and Donna was Donna, and Tennant was great, and Simm was as amusing as ever (and do you think he was sort of draining those people's energy to make them into skeletons, or was he actually...er...eating them...? O.o). And the WTF Cliffhanger of Doom will have me counting the days until next week; plus it looks like some of the really cracky fan theories that have been going around for a while now are actually going to turn out to be true...