thats the point. My 2 year old was in a trance right the way through. Understood that the people were being "nasty" to the whale and that the whale was happy when they stopped.

I'm a bloody genius and I still expected the whale to do one once it was 'freed' of the torture. To say it was of a higher intelligence obviously means it was also a born victim, ferrying ungrateful swines around after years of abuse (bit like my mum).

This may have been addressed somewhere else, so apologies if I come across as thicker than some of the truly gifted amongst us, but when the whole ship shook at the end, was there an offscreen event involving some sort of whale harness falling apart or something? Spacewhale anatomy has never been my strong point, but I was wondering how the humans had access to an open part of the creature's brain (touch of the Ood perhaps?), as well as how the Doctor and Amy were expelled from its mouth but safely back into the ship? Either some complicated whale harness has been in use or else the whale has mouths and brains and indeed tendrily tail things which grow in inconvenient places.

Just because you would leg it, doesn't mean it would. Are you daring to claim to understand magic whale psychology better than someone like Amy who has spent at least five minutes in space? Either that of that whale has a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome. Think the shaking was a combination of the whale speeding up - of course we're supposed to think it's because the place is breaking apart.

Knives. Hacksaws. Chainsaws. Potato peelers. Whatever you've got!

The Doctor said something about an 'overflow pipe' but a bit of hand-waving took place. Perhaps it shook off the pipe when it was freed?

No remarkable insight - just my humble opinion based on the experience of seeing threads full of comments posted during the episodes. Plus a bit of life experience. Sorry if my opinion offends... it's only that (you could tell as I said "I think".

Of course, you're free to bow to me if you like. Or indeed put me on your ignore list. I'm pretty sure that's where you're headed John!

I guess the reason so many posters had problems with this episode was that they pushed the "FORGET" button at the end

The real plot-hole is that a spacecraft doesn't need propulsion to keep going in space, so the poor whale would only need to be electrocuted when they wanted to change speed or direction/

Id be more concerned with the fact that when they were in the mouth its opening appeared to be no more than a few meters across when in fact when you see it on the external shot it should have been many hundreds of meters (if not miles) across, and as to why it would need big nasty teeth if its so friendly (they suggest a predatory carnivore) AND why there is a breathable atmosphere in its mouth/body, since a creature who travelled in space would neither want or need an oxygen supply and would probably be harmful to it.

Ssshhhh! I don't think anyone else noticed that

Explained at the beginning at the show and the last Davidson's adventure, the Tardis can give oxygen in places where oxygen does not exist. Therefore explains how the Doctor and Amy can breath within the Whale. As for the teeth, friendly creatures have teeth look at dogs for example.

As for why it is so small, did you not see the Confidential show they only had a small area to film in and then the rest was CGI. Considering the show has had cuts etc, why waste money for such a small part of the show!?

Sorry but speaking as someone who thoroughly enjoyed TBB all three times so far, I have to take issue with this: the Doctor can "extend" the Tardis's Oxygen bubble (which given we breathe mostly nitrogen is odd, but let that go) not make it pop up where ever he wishes...if the bubble was extended to the extent of reaching the whale's innards then all those caught within it would be breathing a double atmosphere...not likely.

Now, it may well be that Star Whales have a breathable atmosphere in their innards, which given their unknown physionomy is entirely plausible...

...obviously the scale of the whale had to be reduced for set constraints as anyone who saw The Empire Strikes Back will remember in the poor glove puppet that popped out of the asteroid to try and eat the Millenium Falcon in the original version of the film...

...none of these things spoiled my enjoyment of the episode but I can understand why others may not feel the same

what i want to know is why the whale had scorpion tales coming out of its back through the ship?!

At the risk of sounding thick, the only thing I don't understand is how Amy knew that the whale had volunteered. She seemed to realise it all of a sudden, for no apparent reason (unless I missed something, which is entirely possible).

i think that its due to this series being about what you dont see originally, so like amy saw all the pointers, such as the whales scorpion tail thing playing with the kids, the fact that it turned up when the children were crying on earth and that it did not eat the children, meant that the whale had come to help, essentially to volunteer

I have watched the episode three times now, and each time on my own, no phone, no typing away on the net no family around (well at least on two watches)...and I loved the episode...yet I am happy to admit that their were many mistakes in it, and can understand the reason as why many are confused. So what excuse have I got for seeing those mistakes? Maybe it's what Ting has been "politely" being saying on other threads, it's too intelligent for the likes of me.

And she'd already been thinking about what the Doctor does, and why he does it - she saw the parallel.

The entire plot was subtext which is obviously why some people are scratching their heads.

Yep, I think you've got it in one. In fact, the series 'being about what you don't see originally' seems to be a recurring theme (like the door in the previous episode).

To quote a famous philosopher: "Spack off!"

Maybe the problem some people are having is that they don't have an 8 year old to explain to them what's happening?

Sorry...couldn't resist - I actually really enjoyed the episode and didn't find it especially confusing, not everything was explained explicitly, but then I don't think there's a problem with allowing the viewer to deduce some things from an episode.

*paints placard*

Save the (space) whale(s)!

A plot cannot have subtext: dialogue can have subtext but a plot, i.e. the driving storyline can have multiple layers (as in the case of TBB) but not subtext.

I thought he said Sperm Whale at first but then thought 'WTF is a sperm whale doing in space?' but then i rethought and it was a Space Whale which obviously makes more sense.................stupid name for a Doctor Who Alien

My only issue is wondering how every other country, including Scotland as it suggests, got an engine for their ship, but Britain didn't. I mean I can come up with reasons why. Perhaps we got the technology from America, but the information was lost and we were unable to receive it again from them due to solar flares disrupting radio transmissions. That, I could go with. An explanation would have been nice.

Apart from that, fine. Just that bit kinda annoys me.

When the whale threw up the Doctor and Amy I wonder where they ended up cause wouldnt they have just been thrown up into space?

The ended up in a overspill pipe as stated by the Doctor in the next scene.