The Hospital Porters

[The Cyber Mistress]

WTF?

I've watched twice now and I still don't get the point of them. Am I missing something?

[Scott]

I'm at a loss. I have no idea why they were there other than perhaps as a reason to have that connection from Earth, but even then it seems far to convenient to have them at the very hospital where Rory works. It all felt really sloppily written.

[ardalyon]

They are there to get the plot from A to B, and maybe to give the viewer a fright and a visible enemy. There doesn't seem to be any deeper motivation.

[Nyki]

Yes, that would be why the writer put them in, but they don't really make any sense within the story.  Why would the Shakri want human samples/hostages/whatever when the plan is simply to wipe out humanity?

[Exterminate]

There was very little sense in their appearance at all. As Nyki says, they didn't need to be carting off humans when the cubes were doing all the work anyway.

[ardalyon]

I agree they are a somewhat clumsy plot device. It's a bit like Starsky and Hutch -- within the time limits of the show they don't really have time to do any real detective work so they they just ask Huggy Bear!  The sonic screwdriver is getting a bit like that as well. Any problem, sonick it.

[Vampyros Adric]

I completely agree with everything that has been said and indeed I have my own, more fundamental problem. What the heck was Brian doing going to work with Rory at all? I know a little about hospitals and they don't allow people's dads just to pitch up. Even as a dramatic device it leapt out so wildly that my reaction as I watched it was to blurt out loud "That wouldn't happen - a hospital in a busy time doesn't want volunteers, they wan't people to stay away and not clog up the corridors!"

That said, I actually didn't really worry too much. The show was not really about the alien invasion - I mean, it was handy to have, as it made for an interesting B-Plot. But the real story was Doctor, Rory and Amy and their interaction/relationship. The alien invasion was a bit pants but that didn't actually detract from the rather wonderful character piece.

[Aneurin]

This is just something else that doesn't make sense (and neither does VA's point about Brian being at the hospital). More sloppy, silly writing. Things were thrown in for the sake of throwing them in and then not dealt with properly.