Doctor Who 2008 episodes 04+05

Lesson of the Day: Militarism is bad. Who'd have thunk?
Now it's obvious - someone with a lot of sense had an idea for this season of the Doctor, namely the return to the pulp Science Fiction roots of the show.
I am the first to admit that this is a great idea, since it brings us bizarre invasion plans, mind control, evil clones, the theory that those who control the world's cars can control the world's future, explosions, Martha Jones, Agent of U.N.I.T., Sontarans, breakneck pacing and absurdly simple solutions to complex problems.
So yeah, this season (and this two-parter) is a lot of fun, but I find it a little disappointing to see that the writers seem to copy many of the flaws of pulp skiffy. All is well as long as there's action and absurd situations, but as soon as the characters' psychology comes into play, the show delivers only trite clichés. Come on, you couldn't really think of something better than the traitor who gets betrayed by his bosses and so redeems himself by doing the right thing? Oh look the companion's mother is...annoying! What a surprise! Whoa, no real person acts this way? But how else can the plot work? Or the beautiful character arc we developed in about five minutes on the loo!?
Still, this is much better than the earlier experiments in being intelligent and meaningful that only showed that the show's writers took itself for much more clever than they really are (episodes by Moffatt and Cornell obviously excluded - these people are clever).

A wish for the future: Could someone, anyone, please write a competent military commander? I am not a fan of the military at all, but this is just ridiculous.