I'll remember it with affection. I thought it was beautiful.

He's still the best judge, but I'm struggling to see why anyone would give someone a 10 for that QS.

Foot was off the floor, the routine wasn't perfect so Kara's 9 was spot on imo. I think Craig is the most consistant judge and strangely I've found myself agreeing with him more and more this series. Len, Aleysha and Bruno's over marking for certain contestants has been pretty blatant over the last few weeks.

No if the judges concentrated on technical scoring, they could easily say - this was difficult choreography with a small mistake but I mark it high because of the difficulty level. This was perfect but not challenging and as such I cannot give it a 10.

The problem is that most of the marks are too high. Correction - what I mean is that there isn't enough variation in marks.

However, sometimes when the choreography is 'difficult', this is because the professional has moved too far away from the basic dance - the specific reason that Len had difficulty with marking Kara's AS high. All credit to him (even as a Kara supporter), the AS is NOT a free dance.

Good points.

In DWTS, one week, the marks were divided-5 for technical skill and 5 for artistic interpretation; just like ice skating. I know all things DWTS is looked down on here, but I thought that week was good as the judges had to justify their marks, not just gush or grouse.

(Frankie, I am completely delighted to find you like Kara!)

I choked when he gave Pamela a 10 tonight. He's a real stickler for minor things (and sometimes wrongly, as shown by Karen and James this series), and other times he lets dances like that get a 10. But, on the bright side, it didn't affect the leaderboard.

I don't see what the problem has been with Craig's marking. I've just watched the rumba again, and that's twice now he has deducted a point from Kara for lifting because, er, she was lifted. Watch the interaction between Kara and Artem after Craig mentions it, and you have your answer. Remember that earlier in the series they were allowed to get away with lifts, and it was agreed that the lifting rule would be strictly enforced. Craig duly enforced that rule. What's the problem? Yes, on both occasions Kara and Artem danced beautiful dances, but after all it is the semi-final now, and perhaps if Natalie, Aliona and James had chosen to ignore the rules Scott, Matt and Pamela might have received even better scores too. Granted, the show is about entertainment, but it's also a competition. Competition only works when you have rules and when those rules are enforced. As in that other great triviality, sport, it is the imposition of often arbitrary rules to create a common standard to work towards that creates the environment for the audience to be engaged and entertained, and that, in my view, is why Strictly Come Dancing is by far the best of the reality shows. In my my view, therefore, Craig enhanced the show by enforcing the rules and was totally correct to do so.

Icarus, I would have no problem with Craig's 9 for Kara if he enforced the rules just as rigorously with Pamela in this instance. There was huge gapping at the beginning of that QS, James dragged her round for the turns and there was tap-dancing IN A QS.

There were just as many mistakes in Pamela's routine as there were in Kara's as far as I could see.

I used to think that he was the fairest.

Good grief, the years people have been moaning about the marking on SCD. Some things never change.

When a move is not supposed to be a lift, if it becomes one that's a mistake, not a lift. There's a difference between a move like Kara and Artem's that was not supposed to be a lift and is therefore 'legal', and deliberately choreographing a lift which no matter how you executed it, would be 'illegal'. The question is, for such a minor mistake - a foot being an inch out of place - is it worth deducting a whole point?
On another note, you can clearly see Aliona's foot leave the floor in her tango, but this was only commented on by Craig, who incorrectly believed that it stayed in contact with the floor. So the issue about whether other pros would have choreographed something different is not valid here: Aliona is a clear case of someone choreographing something the same, and again failing to pull it off. However, I don't grudge Kara or Matt their tens because it is such a small mistake - the fact that Craig did not see Aliona's lift and Alesha, Len and Bruno didn't see Kara's lift shows how tiny these mistakes were.

Well, they don't have any scores above 10. And Pamela's top line problems aren't her fault. Her neck is too short naturally... what is she supposed to do about that?
And when did she fall over?!

I feel very sorry for Pamela. She's become the judges' pet, and now everyone keeps thinking she doesn't deserve her marks. If you think Kara is under-marked, you should be annoyed at the judges, not pick on another celebrity.

I do agree that Kara is in a league of her own. But every week she's had some mundane mistake which has kept her from the perfect score. And that's because Artem keeps pushing her with his choreographies. Personally I'd rather see that than a simple, but perfect dance.

And I don't there's any question in the fact that Kara is the best dancer on the show, not even amongst the judges. The rest is just logistics.