Final Word on the Subject

Yes, it should have been a goal. Yes, England should have been credited with scoring 2 goals, not one.

However, a 4-1 defeat was a rather kind result (albeit a record tournament defeat for England); if everyone had taken their chances and been accredited with goals, I suspect the final score would have been Germany 10-3 England. So, after four games in which the team barely raised themselves above mediocre, let's blame Capello only insofar as he slavishly used the 4-4-2 formation, and the England players, with the possible exception of Calamity James, for turning in displays that would embarrass a pub team the morning after a bender.

That was the Golden Generation, that was.

I am almost glad the goal was disallowed. Can you imagine the fantasies the media could have dreamt up if we had lost 2-1?

On the basis that I drew them in the sweep at work, I now transfer my allegiance to Ghana and Japan in that order, though I suspect that the trophy may have Argentina's name on it this year.

Final Word on the Subject

Yes, it should have been a goal. Yes, England should have been credited with scoring 2 goals, not one.

However, a 4-1 defeat was a rather kind result (albeit a record tournament defeat for England); if everyone had taken their chances and been accredited with goals, I suspect the final score would have been Germany 10-3 England. So, after four games in which the team barely raised themselves above mediocre, let's blame Capello only insofar as he slavishly used the 4-4-2 formation, and the England players, with the possible exception of Calamity James, for turning in displays that would embarrass a pub team the morning after a bender.

That was the Golden Generation, that was.

I am almost glad the goal was disallowed. Can you imagine the fantasies the media could have dreamt up if we had lost 2-1?

On the basis that I drew them in the sweep at work, I now transfer my allegiance to Ghana and Japan in that order, though I suspect that the trophy may have Argentina's name on it this year.

Finale

Now it’s all over, I shall write down my overall impressions, I think. I’ve avoided saying much about until now (at least I think I have; my memory wanders around leaving doors open all the time).

I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire season, though I was annoyed by the RTD-like plot holes in the WWII episode. I’m not sure that I like the humpbacked iDaleks, but since they have been horribly overused since the show was resurrected in 2005, what the brutes look like is of secondary importance. The Silurian episodes were well written but slow. I have recently rewatched classic Who stories featuring the same and their near relations, the Sea Devils. Let’s say that the special effects and prosthetics are now immeasurably better and move along. Silurians and Sea Devils make for well-written, worthy and deathly dull stories. They are not good villains; or at least they haven’t been so far.

Never strictly grounded in anything but the lightest tints of science fiction (despite Andrew Cartmell’s attempts in the late McCoy era), Moffat seems to have given up any such pretence and gone for the technological fairy tale, where the Doctor is more of a wizard whose magic just looks like machines. It was sign posted right at the start, in The Eleventh Hour, where the entire sequence with him and the eight year old Amelia Pond is a simple rewrite of Pooh’s first meeting with Tigger.

I think it works; I think it works well and the show may be careering off in a direction that highlights its differences from any other fantasy drama on TV, which can only be to the good.

I can’t see the fez ever being cool, though.

Finale

Now it’s all over, I shall write down my overall impressions, I think. I’ve avoided saying much about until now (at least I think I have; my memory wanders around leaving doors open all the time).

I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire season, though I was annoyed by the RTD-like plot holes in the WWII episode. I’m not sure that I like the humpbacked iDaleks, but since they have been horribly overused since the show was resurrected in 2005, what the brutes look like is of secondary importance. The Silurian episodes were well written but slow. I have recently rewatched classic Who stories featuring the same and their near relations, the Sea Devils. Let’s say that the special effects and prosthetics are now immeasurably better and move along. Silurians and Sea Devils make for well-written, worthy and deathly dull stories. They are not good villains; or at least they haven’t been so far.

Never strictly grounded in anything but the lightest tints of science fiction (despite Andrew Cartmell’s attempts in the late McCoy era), Moffat seems to have given up any such pretence and gone for the technological fairy tale, where the Doctor is more of a wizard whose magic just looks like machines. It was sign posted right at the start, in The Eleventh Hour, where the entire sequence with him and the eight year old Amelia Pond is a simple rewrite of Pooh’s first meeting with Tigger.

I think it works; I think it works well and the show may be careering off in a direction that highlights its differences from any other fantasy drama on TV, which can only be to the good.

I can’t see the fez ever being cool, though.