Giving her a perfect 40 for what appeared to be quite a boring foxtrot round the floor will do her no favours with the general public.

Her rumba last week really did have the wow factor, but this dance didn't, however technically flawless it was (all my opinion of course)

her and Vincent were the best; as the judges had already overmarked someone who was not as good, they had nowhere else to go. Moreover, I trust Craig's votes as he's the most honest and if he thought she deserved a 10 then that's good enough for me.

Its obvious you are a Tom fan and so can be forgiven for this rant about Rachel as she is a close rival.

She may get to the final but she won't win as she is too unpopular.

I couldn't agree with you more! I think after this recent fiasco, that the SCD production team are going to be relooking the way in which votes are counted, as well as perhaps stipulate a certain amount of hours to be put in for practise.

A smile crept onto my face whilst watching Rachel's foxtrot, and I was enthralled for the duration of the dance.

To my mind, she was thoroughly deserving of a perfect score.

Rachel has been steadily improving. The jive was the only dance where she could have done significantly better.
Lately she has been the best dancer on the show.
What are the judges supposed to do - not give her the best marks?

It was a lovely dance - beautifully performed in a subtle and understated way - but no wow factor for me but that's the Foxtrot. I much prefer the sizzling Latin dances for spectacle.

One point that puzzles me though is that, last night, posters were saying she didn't do heel leads in the dance - wonder if that was true. If so, she shouldn't have got 10s.

OT for a second - re. Tom's tango, I have to confess I've never heard the criticism of leading with your arms not your body before and I've watched all the series. Have I missed something or is this a new one?

Bit unfair to Tom if it is a new judging criteria.

The dance is on the BBC website now.
You can check for yourself about the heel leads.
One person said she stumbled twice.
Have fun looking for those.

Tango. No, the arms never lead the dance. Not any dance.
They frame and they may support but the drive comes from within. Bodily.

Thanks for the answer. So was it a fair criticism of Len to Tom that he didn't bodily lead the tango?

I was too busy studying his face to notice but it's an easy mistake to make.

She didn't deserve a perfect score if only because of that HIDEOUS meringue-mess of a netted skirt...

Technically it was good, but it lacked any excitement- I found it dull. Compared to Tom's tango and Austin's cha cha, it wasn't that good imo. I can't help feeling the judges are overmarking her to guarantee her a place in the final, because I think she lacks the support of the voters. She is good, but I think she was picked out for the final before Strictly had even started.

Fastfoward to a Rachel and Tom final.

Seriously? As much as I love Camilla, and taking into consideration that Tom seems to have more support 'out there' than on DS, I really can't see Tom getting to the final. I think he'll miss out by one place.

I'm tired of seeing ignorant comments like that.

Why did they need to give her a 40 to make her #1? Why was 40 better than 37? Does she get bonus points for the 40?

Seriously? I thought it was worse than Christine's.

Well, I think I am slightly biased because Austin is my favourite, but I thought his was slightly better than Christine's. Hers was very good though, but I'm worried she's the one who has left this week because I thought the judges undermarked her.
(Please don't tell me who went, I'm trying to resist the temptation to look at the spoiler!)

I had the opposite problem with both of them. Austin was phenomenally stiff, but Christine was flopping all over the place.

I didn't notice that in either of them, but then again I have no idea about dancing.

Heh, well as long as you enjoyed it!

Surely it's to try and maximise the influence over the viewers. If they tell us that she's perfect there are some who will believe it.

I do hope though that there are enough viewers with eyes and opinions of their own to spoil their plan.

I cant see Tom ever being in the dance off - Austin vs Rachel dance off, judges will save Rachel.

I doubt it. The judges know well enough by now that the more extreme they are with their marks the more they piss people off.

I think they genuinely believed she deserved 40. Perhaps their reasoning was skewed through bias, or perhaps it looked different in person.

I really don't like Rachel, I can practically see the pound signs in her eyes whenever she gets those 10s from the judges.
The judges obviously want to pinpoint someone as the one to beat so that the underdog doesn't get the most votes again.

At the moment I feel like Tom deserves to win the most because he loves dancing so much, if Rachel beat him to it I would be very mad.