What's Wrong With... Rose

And so we come to the revived series, which we might have to call something else as and when the programme returns in two / five / ten (delete as applicable) years.

I was very much in two minds whether or not to continue this thread after the TV Movie, as I felt there's a lot less to mention in brisk 45 minute stories, but we'll carry on for now.

One of the concerns people had about Rose back in the day was that too much emphasis was going to be placed on the companion, and not enough on the Doctor himself. This grew out of the way in which Ace had been developed back in the last two seasons of the classic era (a name we definitely won't have to reconsider in two / five / ten years...).

The biggest problem here is the Nestene plan. They've previously tried to take over the planet using Auton shop window dummies, and it failed, so why attempt it again - especially if you're going to activate them in the middle of the night when the streets aren't going to be as busy as, say, a Saturday afternoon.

Previously, the dummies had merely been used as a diversion, to throw London into a panic whilst the real weapons - the life-like facsimiles did the actual work. Here, they only copy one real person to locate the Doctor - and then do it really badly. Surely their techniques should have improved with time, rather than gotten worse. How Rose could fail to notice that Auton-Mickey wasn't the real thing is anyone's guess.

On their two earlier invasion attempts, they had to use a human(oid) agent to establish a bridgehead, and take control of a factory before they were in any position to begin their main plan. There's no sign of anyone here carrying out the Master / Hibbert role.

How did the Nestene set up its base and manufacture its Autons without the help of some human agency?

Why did it previously go to the bother of creating a body for itself if it could simply inhabit a vat of plastic?

A question that goes back to the Pertwee Nestene stories - is Nestene plastic specially made, and only it can be manipulated by them, or can the Nestene weaponise any existing forms of plastic? It definitely looked like the former in the two earlier stories and, if that's the case, how could they possibly have created and installed their wheelie-bin outside Clive's house in such a short space of time - especially with Mickey sitting in the car in sight of it? The suggestion is that they have taken over a normal bin and used it as a weapon - which goes against the "special Nestene plastic" business.

We live on an increasingly polluted planet - but the Nestene could get the same chemicals they're after, naturally occurring, from lots of uninhabited worlds with little or no risk.

Going back to the beginning of the episode, setting aside the fact that if the sun is reaching New York then it can't possibly be 7.30am in London in March, we have the business in the department store basement. The Autons have powerful guns in their hands, so why do they wake up so slowly - giving Rose plenty of warning? Why not simply chop her down or shoot her?

Likewise, why do they fail to shoot her and the Doctor instead of chasing them out of the building.

If they've activated because of the presence of the Doctor in the building, why don't they know he's planted a bomb? If instead they've activated because of Rose's presence, then why not for the Doctor - who they know all about?

If a bomb goes off on a street such as this one, which we'll assume to be Oxford or Regent Street (relatively narrow with tall buildings either side), the blast would shatter windows for miles around - certainly the ones opposite where Rose is standing. She'd have been blown off her feet and through one of those windows.

A big shop blows up in the centre of London, and prompts little response from the authorities next day? Hardly likely.

The Doctor traces the plastic arm to Rose's flat the following morning, presumably because it still poses a danger - so why did he let her walk off with it in the first place?

She gets the arm in the West End, and lives in the Camberwell area, so why did she wait to get all the way home before binning it?

For the N159 bus to be running it has to be after midnight, which is a very odd time to do late night shopping. I know this as I used to use it at least once a month. As it's 10.30pm when they begin their run across Westminster Bridge (as clearly seen on Big Ben), then it must take them at least 90 minutes to get across.

It's not a huge difference, but going to the Golden Jubilee footbridge at Embankment rather than to Westminster Bridge to cross the river would have saved some time, if you're in a hurry to save the planet.

Presumably the footbridge is the route the Autons used, for the TARDIS to already be in the base before the Doctor and Rose got there?

In the UK, late night shopping usually refers to up to 8pm, or 10pm at the very latest, and even then numbers of shoppers are low. Not as busy as the scenes we see here.

How fortuitous that the Thames happens to be so low at this time for them to spot the secret entrance to the base. Low tides at the end of March usually come around 10pm and then again after 3am, so they're too early for the first, and a long time must pass between arriving on the South Bank and spotting the entrance.

Everything suggests that "anti-plastic" is supposed to work like a toxin or virus. Why then does it cause the base to explode?

And surely the collapse of a huge chamber beneath the London Eye would have some impact on the surface.

We'll later hear that the authorities know all about the Doctor and the TARDIS - enough for the words "blue box" to trigger an alarm. With CCTV covering the West End, and all along both the Embankment and the South Bank - sites of several major tourist locations - then they ought to have seen the TARDIS and its occupants.

This ought to have gotten the attention of UNIT. (This will be even sillier once Torchwood comes into play).

It also makes a nonsense of the business about Mickey being suspected of murdering Rose. They would have seen a woman matching her description with the Doctor during these events.

Then there's Clive. I can imagine noting a figure standing on the grassy knoll watching the JFK assassination might pique some interest for a conspiracy theorist, but was he really so equally interested in the eruption of Krakatoa and the sinking of the Titanic to have spotted the same figure in different images relating to those events? Everything in his shed seems to point towards a specific interest in astronomy and UFO's, rather than general conspiracy theories or famous disasters.

It is suggested that these events all took place before this episode - yet the Doctor's only just now noting his appearance in a mirror, as though only recently regenerated? I doubt very much he would have gotten dressed up as an Edwardian gentleman without seeing himself in a mirror.