Yes, that was about as sophisticated and original as anything Gareth Roberts has written.

Hum.

What was the point of the psychic woman? Even as an exposition projector, she seemed a bit superfluous.

Well, okay, so we’ve got prophecy again. In series two and three, it was the Face of Boe, in the year Five Billion (also in series one!), talking about the Master.

In series four and four-and-a-half, it’s the Ood, mostly in the forty-second century, talking about… well, the Master. Presumably. Again. With the woman channeling the Ood, who have a part yet to play.

Prophecy Planets. (Or time zones. Not as catchy, though.) This is a new kind of continuity. I’ve not seen this in other shows.

Other thoughts.

Shame about the fly people. Why kill them both? You’re just spoiling the potential for interesting scenes later. I’d have liked to see them join up with UNIT as mechanics.

Regarding the bus, how does that work, exactly? There’s no obvious means of propulsion or steering; it’s just got floaty things on its wheels. By what means is it moving around? I could maybe understand if the Doctor were adjusting the lift on the different hover pod things, to use gravity as a driving force — gliding, basically. That’s not what’s happening, though.

As some Internet people have noted in passing, on top of the dead end of the psychic woman — maybe more of a problem than the other forgotten passengers, or the pointlessly-killed fly men, as the mere existence of a psychic would seem to suggest some significant story purpose — is all the business about the dead people, the civilization that used to be here. They go into a mess of detail, and dwell on the subject for many grim and portentous beats. All to set up, what, that these monsters can destroy a world? Thanks for that.

This story is full of so many random details that go nowhere — and then the details that they do carry through don’t make much sense.

In the end, we don’t even hear much about these metal sting ray things except a few sterile facts. They’re nothing except a time limit to ensure that our heroes hurry in getting the bus back. Which they do only as slopplily as I’ve noted.

Just… what’s the point of this episode? That’s the problem I have with most things Gareth Roberts writes. They seem to exist just to take up space, throwing around random narrative objects and pointing at them as if they’re inherently meaningful.

This is embodied in all the fan-worship in his scripts — whether it’s the Doctor dripping nonsense over Agatha Cristie (“You know why you’re the greatest writer ever? Because you’ve been hurt, so you know how people feel!”) or the gratuitous Doctor Who Love Patrol, strung all through this episode.

In place of the most rudimentary thematic or plot or character development, Gareth Roberts’ scripts seem to consist almost entirely of people outright telling the viewer that things are important, hoping to catch the viewer up in naked faux enthusiasm. And then it’s that rapturous glee at particular things existing that saves the day. Every time! Good old JK Rowling! Good old Shakespeare and his words!

Ugh.

I’m assuming Moffat won’t hire this guy?