Not everything in good drama needs to be spelled out. Sometimes it's good that some things are left for the audience to figure out for themselves.

It's well established elsewhere that the Doctor "cares". It doesn't need to be spelled out again here as the audience can work out his reasons.

If Class was not a Doctor Who spinoff. If the Doctor as portrayed in Class had been a brand new, never before seen, character it would be different. To establish the new character was "caring" it would have needed to be made explicit at the beginning, or, to create dramatic tension, require that it turns out that the governors are benign and that the new character knew that.

Actually, if this supposed new character was not going to be seen again in the series, it wouldn't have mattered why he setup this particular group of defenders of Earth.

I agree that not everything need spelling out but I don't think this is one of those occasions. It's not the main show, it's a spin-off. Some people may not have seen its parent show, so are unfamiliar with the Doctor etc. Not everyone who watches spin-offs watches the original show. So, to me, in that situation it needs spelling out.

Really? Doctor Who is a worldwide phenomenon, certainly everyone in the UK knows he's a hero. He's embedded in the culture now.

Does Star Trek need to establish the captain is a hero and clarify his motives in every episode just in case someone watching has never seen it before?

Those who care know he's the Doctor and a hero and can figure it our. Those completely new to the show don't need to know or care about that. They wouldn't know his apparent behaviour is at odds with what's been established elsewhere and needed explanation.

Class is not a worldwide phenomenom. Hence establishing this in the spin-off creates cohesion and a link that can make things add up. That is my point.

I honestly don't get why my point keeps being misinterpreted? Am I talking in riddles or something?

Class is not a worldwide phenomenon, agreed. I don't believe I'm misinterpreting what you've said. For me the logic is straightforward. I simply disagree that explanation of his behaviour is necessary for the reasons I've given. You don't seem to have understood the points I've made.

Your points seem to hinge on its being the way it is 'just because'. It's a very blase way of handling things which to me is the problem. Setting up this group of people to fight off alien threats and its reasons never being more than 'just because' is bad.

There has to be more to it than that.

I can't see it any other way.

I don't see how you get from what I've tried to explain to "just because". That suggests you have not fully understood my points.

1) Fans can explain the Doctor's behaviour if they think about it for a moment.
2) Non fans, who do not know the Doctor's character or background, will take him at face value as just a "good Samaritan" alien who's helping out the Prince as best he can by taking him to Earth and setting up some protection. For them there's no contradiction to be explained as they don't know the Doctor's history and the character's motivation is straightforward.

3) This may yet be resolved anyway if the governors turn out to be benign, or some other agency is revealed to help out.

You might prefer it, as a fan, if it was explained and if the series were more strongly tied into the Whoniverse at large, but that's just a preference, not an indicator of poor writing.

While there are plenty of other problems with the writing, in my view, this isn't one of them.

Point 1 of yours fills the 'just because' tag if I'm honest. That just comes across as 'well you know, so what's the point'. I still don't agree with it.

Point 2, I'm not sure viewers will take to it as you say they will. You're putting them down in a way I think. Jus taking things at face value like that I don't think is what they'd do. Surely they'd question it more and want to know more about this man?

Him just being there and doing that really plays down the significance of him setting up this band of alien fighters.

As I've said before, 5 episodes into 8 and the little that we know of the Governors to me is badly written. We've got a creepy and somewhat evil-acting headmistress who's trying to lure one of the leads into something against her will.

That's hardly benign. I think their introduction was weak, they've been weakly handled since and for us to care with just three episodes left says it all to me. The build-up in the writing has been so chocked full of things that plots like the governors have faded into the background.

YMMV, of course. We'll have to agree to disagree, it's subjective after all.

This was a great character episode, really spiced things up. Would have liked Quill to be in it though as i felt he could have used it, but really enjoyed it though.

Just watched ep6. Not sure about it. It was good that they examined the inter-relationships which went a long way to explain why the "team" haven't been a team up to now, but it was at the expense of any sense of excitement and pace (not enough running along corridors, I guess!).

Next week looks as though it balances that out though...

K

I found it very exciting and intense

Well, I enjoyed that! Good, character-based 'bottle' episode which needed the cast to rise to the occasion, which they proceeded to do very well, I thought. All good, but particularly impressed by Vivian Oparah and Greg Austin as Tanya and Charlie. It was very well directed too, particularly considering it was a one set episode.

And it was Quill-lite! Obviously the marvellous Ms Kelly was busy shooting next week's episode, which looks intriguing.

I'd say this episode was probably the best so far of what has been an engaging series.

Just watched ep 6, some good character stuff and the single set did not limit the scope of the drama which was very tense and great final scene, but i'd better not say more about that......

Best episode yet, easy. And they didn't even have to use Miss Quill.

Best episode so far. I really enjoyed it.

Sort of a Naked Time (original Star Trek ) / Midnight story. A character study really of our main heroes. Not bad.

I downloaded this series to watch on the train this weekend as I was travelling, and I am officially hooked. It's a little bit cringey and obvious in places, and I think April and her parents (particularly her dad; the mum isn't too bad) are letting the side down when it comes to acting, but overall I'm hooked. Episode 3 and 6 have been the best out of them so far. Quill and Charlie are just fascinating characters, but oddly enough Episode 6 has been my favourite and that didn't feature Quill very much at all.

It's been years since I've watched any Doctor Who but the school setting really appealed to me and I'm glad I decided to give it a go.

Had to catch up with the sixth episode - the episode I was most looking forward to and the first I really had to wait for! It was worth it though, as it was the strongest episode so far.

It made the most of its confined space, and consistently built on all the characters - barring Quill, everyone got a fair amount of time here. Genuinely felt sorry for Charlie throughout - whilst sort of being the quasi-protagonist, he's not actually been the focus of the show until now apart from in the pilot where he had to fight for screentime between everyone else including The Doctor.

I still worry someone is going to die, and my money is on Matteusz unfortunately. His relevance in the show so far makes him feel like one of the main cast so his omission from the main cast list is still rather odd.

Elsewhere the effects were used sparingly but are continually good with the show, and the acting is up to scratch almost entirely throughout. I think the weakest is Ram - the character seems the most changeable and erratic mood-wise but it sometimes seems a bit forced. Some of his insults sound a little forced as well, whilst others fall a bit flat.

Looking forward to seeing Quill's story next week, and it's odd to think that it wasn't so long ago the forum went into cynical meltdown at the announcement of this show - now here we are as it approaches its first series finale.

So how successful is this program doing? have there been figures to how many people are watching.. I gave up after episode 2, but am curious to see how it does with ratings as it can effect other projects like it...

I've posted its performance in the iPlayer chart for all the episodes, and it's hardly a star performer.

Episode 6 didn't appear anywhere on the chart until after 11pm Saturday night, when it just scraped into the top-40. Then, it crept up overnight and reached the top-20 by 4am! I assume it's mainly being watched by night owl grown-up men rather than teenagers.

Then it steadily dropped back down over Sunday and was out of the top-40 on Monday. It appears to be the weakest performance so far. The episode was an improvement (a cross between Heaven Sent and Midnight) but I suspect that, by episode 6, people have already decided whether they like it or not. I wonder if they'll go ahead with a second series anyway, just to create a box set release they hope will trickle revenue over the years. I have no idea what the budget is.

Thanks... So nothing to write home about, pretty poor if anything... Which is what I expected going by what I thought of the first two episodes...

I have just watched all 6 episodes.

Who are the Governors and what is their motives? Are they good or bad? Why are they interested in Quill and Charlie?

Unless you go into the realm of spoilers, no one knows. Story arcs are supposed to rise as they go in order to maintain the intrigue for the casual viewer, not just repeat the same vague initial hint over most of the episodes and then hurl the rest of the arc at us at the end of the series.

It's as frustrating as watching Moffat's series 6/7 arc unfold, and I suspect the payoff will be just as unsatisfying.

Episode 2 name-dropped the Governors a couple of times. Episode 4 then introduces someone who is working with the Governors and specifies that they're independent of UNIT, whoever they are. Episode 5 touches upon the resources they have, and how much they've been pre-empting everything that's been happening. If you ask me (as much as you didn't) that's a rather well-paced arc-building exercise for a series consisting of only eight episodes.

RTD was guilty of arcs that repeated the same vague hint over and over in three of his four series. Moffat has done the same to some degree several times over as well. Both have also had varied degrees of success when it comes to sufficient arc writing. I'd say The Governors have remained an intriguing 'in the shadows' kind of element to Class. I really don't see how it could have unfolded in any better a way, especially without knowing how it's going to pan out still.