Asking because most stories seem to be part of a building overall arc, but a lot of the Moffat/Matt Smith-era stories, specifically, seem to be disjointed, as if they were rough drafts that were dropped into the arc when writer's block struck on the 'real' arc stories. This one, for example only references the main arc during what I call 'dead space' in the story that, if edited out, would have zero effect on the episode's story.
And on the subject of 'dead space', I'll look to the gratuitous elephant in the room. Thomas Thomas. The writers misssed a golden opportunity with his scene because they could have had Strax reward him with a product-placed Coca-Cola, or a product-placed candy bar, or something as this scene wasn't a humorous 'nod' to the Tom Tom GPS system, imho, but a product shout-outs. The only other time I've groaned this badly at "Obvious reference is obvious" was the Weakest Link/Big Brother/Etc., tie-ins on "Bad Wolf", but even those weren't as flop-hard as Thomas Thomas.
All that aside, this episode felt very weak, rushed, and empty with the Doctor and his companions discovering things a bit too easily, guessing or 'just knowing' answers all too readily, and things wrapping up far too nicely (or not at all...did he rescue anyone other than Clara from the poison? What were their reactions?, etc.,) in order to get this episode on the virtual shelf ASAP.
There are far beter episodes out there - you can easily skip this one and not miss anything of the overall arc except how the kids got onto the TARDIS in the next episode.
And on the subject of 'dead space', I'll look to the gratuitous elephant in the room. Thomas Thomas. The writers misssed a golden opportunity with his scene because they could have had Strax reward him with a product-placed Coca-Cola, or a product-placed candy bar, or something as this scene wasn't a humorous 'nod' to the Tom Tom GPS system, imho, but a product shout-outs. The only other time I've groaned this badly at "Obvious reference is obvious" was the Weakest Link/Big Brother/Etc., tie-ins on "Bad Wolf", but even those weren't as flop-hard as Thomas Thomas.
All that aside, this episode felt very weak, rushed, and empty with the Doctor and his companions discovering things a bit too easily, guessing or 'just knowing' answers all too readily, and things wrapping up far too nicely (or not at all...did he rescue anyone other than Clara from the poison? What were their reactions?, etc.,) in order to get this episode on the virtual shelf ASAP.
There are far beter episodes out there - you can easily skip this one and not miss anything of the overall arc except how the kids got onto the TARDIS in the next episode.