Exactly!

I'd love to be able to ask TPTB at the BBC WTF they were thinking letting a script this bad be filmed.

Seriously, they didn't have a halfway decent story editor with at least a basic knowledge and understanding of the Whoniverse or Torchwood, or basic story structure for that matter, anywhere in the building?

Any story that can only progress if the characters either behave totally out of character or as if they've all just been hit in the head with the stupid stick is just plain bad writing.

And this, I think, is what makes me most angry about CoE. It keeps being hailed as "great writing" and it was utter drivel.

If a student in a screenwriting programme had submitted those scripts for a class, they would have been sent home with a flea in their ear and told not to be so lazy in their thinking and writing.