"a woman won't bite, guys."

I suspect Russell T Davies loved John Simm's The-Master-as-Tony-Blair in "The Sound of Drums" so much it obscured those weaknesses.

"Wait, what? Nina was killed in a Soviet prison. Did I miss an entire subplot where that was orchestrated by the CIA?"

I wonder if Sesame Street will resurrect "Twin Beaks".

"But none of it hangs together"

David says to Walter that the human race is failing so I guess the colonists' behaviour is demonstrating that.

It's nicely set up in a few lines that Hurt's character is *exactly* the kind of person who would get too close.

One of the things I like about Ridley Scott's commentaries on his films is that they are a little masterclass in filmmaking. What the purpose of this scene is, why this character is introduced in this particular way etc.

Good ideas, especially the narcolepsy one. Here are mine:

Good ideas, especially the narcolepsy one. Here are mine:

I think of Awake as Life
on Mars done well.

I think of Awake as Life
on Mars done well.

John Simm's Master was an of-its-time joke about Tony Blair, which only really worked once.

Did he have a decent plot, unlike the first two?

I wonder if the problem is the editing spoiling the pacing. Individual scenes are well paced, such as Delaney slowing questioning Brace, or Sir Stuart Strange's accelerating excitement as he quizzes Helga, but between scenes the tempo of the episode seems to change randomly.

I know this is a bit obvious, but when he was talking to Godfrey about sailing away I did wonder if he was speaking metaphorically about dying. Which I doubt Godfrey would have found reassuring.

I think one issue is that some of the direction is not very good. For example, the warehouse heist/spy's ball sequence:

Remember someone was poisoning Horace Delaney with arsenic. Place your bets as to who…

The Americans blackmail James for gunpowder with the location of his factory. He (and us) are supposed to be shocked by this, but an American agent, the giant, already tried to assassinate him there.

This is a show with lots of individually great moments and several great performances, but it doesn't quite tie the plot threads together tightly enough to be a great show overall. For example: