Ian Waite thought that Chris and Lalia were stand-out performances and was not surprised that they sailed through.

Karen criticised Brian's "driving"? So? The judges were marking Ali, not Brian...

... and Ali got a 10 'coz she danced better than Ricky, who they gave a 9 to.

Have a look at post 96 on this thread.
I thought Ali's charleston was great but the VW should not have got a 10 because of the mistakes from Brian.

I thought ALL the Charlestons were great - but Chris & Ola's was the best all round effort

Last night on ITT Craig & Bruno were waffling about Chris and Laila not swivelling from the ankles (or something) which was why they got marked down - but they went all quiet about that when they were watching Ali's. Given her injury - I'd be VERY surprised if she had managed to do what the others apparently had not!

You just have to watch it and listen to the judges comments at the time to see she did do the swivelling etc that was missing from Chris and Lailas.

Ali had great swivel and bounce. She was technically the better dancer. Whether people found her or Chris or Laila more entertaining is down to personal taste.

Ali nailed the scissor technique. I thought she looked awkward getting out of lifts and tricks, but other than that I thought her technique was brilliant.

Or maybe everyone disagrees with Paace's critique of Chris and Ola's Charleston so doesn't think it's actually worth taking up any associated 'challenge'?

The judges are there to score the dancers on a tecnical level, not for their personality or entertainment value -- that's up to the public. You just admitted that Chris is technically inferior, so why does it surprise you that the judges gave higher marks to Ali, who is miles better technique-wise?

And me saying Ali deserved the higher marks is not "Chris bashing", I was merely stating the obvious.

Sorry I don't buy that - Ali and Brian crashed into two couples in the VW - which could have been avoided - and should certainly have been penalised by a points deduction for them

She is the judges pet - they wont want to penalise her though will they

I'm a Team Cola supporter and I fully agree with what your assessment in this instance - as long as it refers to the Charlestons (NOT the VW group dance ).

However, I think the concern is that the judges are in general dismissive of public opinion and automatically judge Chris differently to the way they judge Ali or Ricky.

Witness Bruno saying that Ricky ending up in the dance-off was 'a scare': it implies that he should be somehow protected because he's technically good.

And when there is a scenario where the producers/judges (who will know how the public vote) can influence the choice of finalists and get rid of the public's favourite - as Chris appears to be at the moment - that is a legitimate concern.

PM for you Servalan

I'm not so sure how much I agree with this. Granted, I'm not a Team Cola supporter (nor am I a supporter of anyone who's left - though if pushed I'd prefer Ali to win on the basis of her having done the least to irritate me over the series).

The judges are meant to mark on a different criteria to the audience, so I hardly think it's surprising that the ones they believe to be technically better will attract a higher scores to the ones who are crowd-pleasing but technically lacking. I don't think they mark Ali/Ricky differently to Chris (or Laila) because they're dismissive of public opinion, but because they're better dancers. Should they give Chris higher marks because he's more entertaining, even if he's not dancing as well as others? (I do agree that a 10 was too high for Ali's charleston, and that it wouldn't have killed them to knock a couple more marks from Ricky - but then I also think that Chris had too high a mark and Laila too low. The only one who got an appropriate score in my opinion was Natalie.)

As for Ricky's dance off being a "scare" - I honestly think that all that was meant was that, with a few blips, Ricky's consistently been good - and unlike Ali, consistently been safe. This week he wasn't so good, and he ended in the dance off, and I suppose that would be surprising for the judges who have just seen a good dancer have an off day.

I think the whole problem we're having where a popular contestant can't reach the final is more to do with the producers not coming up with a contingency plan after Jade's withdrawal than favouritism.

How can you be so sure?

You are clearly very anti-Ali. She is the better dancer -- get over it!

It is Brian's job to ensure there are no collisions. He managed to create two.

So no, Ali should not have been scored a ten for that. She may not have been in the driving seat, but you can't penalise the male celebrities for something the female celebrities can't do - that isn't a level playing field.

And yes, Ali is better technically - but that's not everything!

That is not the point. The point is that the VW is danced in a circular formation - not cutting diagonally across the floor

As well as after the collision with Anton, it looks like Brian almost clouts Ricky & Natalie beforehand as well. Can anyone discern whose fault that is, because if it's Brian & Ali's fault AGAIN it makes the score look even more ridiculous?

Natalie C hit the nail on the head on Breakfast this morning. Very honest. She wanted Chris to win and felt he could win provided he avoided the dance off. So really, at the end this is what SCD is all about sadly. Forget how well anybody actually dances. To keep out of the dance off is unfortunately the prevailing obsession and it will be so long as they keep this farce of a system at this stage.

It is as far as the judges are concerned.

Anyway, I don't know how the VW wandered into this debate...we were discussing the Charleston.

The fault is with both Ricky and Brian there. Ricky veered out from the line of dance and cut the corner, so he got in Ali and Brian's way, although Brian should have slowed down more to avoid it.

Listening to the judges' comments on Saturday, but more especially Craig and Bruno on ITT yesterday, I have a feeling Ricky has disappointed them with his inability to keep mistakes out of his dancing. They'll be watching him like a hawk from now on so he could find himself in another dance-off.

IMO Ricky's marred, not spoiled but marred, every one of his dances since, and except, his quickstep, with little memory errors and sometimes not so little timing errors. In addition there's his free arm which often looks as if it's dangling lifelessly, again last Saturday.

But to knock him out in a head-to-head, Laila or Chris would still have to get a whole lot better at any of the 10 standard dances. They can't rely on the Charleston again.

I would have thought an all-nines from the judges would still be justified, but ten? For that Charleston?

You better explain yourself in the Choreography Corner, Karen!

Im sorry but that is not the case at all. Watch the VT again, Ricky is following the line of Natalie and Vincent around, he did not veer out of the line of the dance at all, which is confirmed if you watch Chris and Ola who were behind Ricky and followed his line around the front of the dancefloor.

Brian cut through the middle of the dance floor, which you can only do if you are going to do a fleckerl. After crashing into Laila and Anton, he carried on cutting across the dancefloor into the line of Ricky and Natalie. Ricky had his back turned with Brian began moving Ali towards him to had no chance to avoid them.

It was Brian's fault, completely.

Please re-read my post. As I said, the judges were marking Ali, not Brian.

They mark the celebs down for the pros choreography all the time, why not for their floorcraft? It hardly helps the "judges are totally impartial" argument when Flavia says that if the judges see collisions the couples may be marked down and then that mess happens right in front of them and everyone gets away scot-free.


I meant before Brian cut across the dance-floor, not afterwards. I was watching on iplayer and it looks like he runs into Ricky there as well as after he hits Anton & Laila.