And then an episode than is better than what I remembered.

I really like everything it does. Sure it has some flaws, we could have done without that much fart jokes, Mickey isn't a really good character and is written pretty poorly here and there is a lot of things introduced that are barely exploited but overall it still is an excellent political thriller.

I really like the first scenes of the episode. They are all strongly emotional and develop a lot more the relationship between The Doctor, Rose and her family and how the Doctor's world feels alien to them. Jackie also is written in a way that put an emphasis on his protective mother side, a side we didn't see of her before and while she still has a lot of comedic bits, it's nice to see her being developed in a way where she isn't reduced to that role.

The episode is surprisingly "normal" and "human" in it's writing. There is a lot of small trivial scenes that just follows the daily life of all the characters. Such as Harriet Jones that keeps talking about her hospital project during a national crisis, all of Rose's family that are gathered to celebrate her coming back only to end up watching the TV for instance are all moments I enjoyed a lot and helped a lot developing these characters and their traits. The fact that everyone is watching the invasion on the TV helps giving this episode a more grounded approach, it's something that would likely happens in case of an alien invasion.

This episode is also the come back of UNIT and while I don't care much about them (haven't watched the classics yet, sorry), they still have some good and funny scenes (like when the Doctor is held at gunpoint and when they all follow him without even knowing who is him simply because he knows what a delta formation is). The pig scene show that they still are pretty trigger happy but I like that it helps putting a stronger emphasis on the Doctor's empathic side and illustrate how him and UNIT still are different despite all this time.

The political satire is also on point. The whole episode is a satire on how the government handled the Iraq's war and it adds a lot to the comedy of the episode. Despite the fact that they are alien, the politicians are pretty realist and their handling of the crisis is pretty fun. I really enjoyed how the episode shamelessly mocks the government (like how there is a major political crisis and nobody is reacting) and even though it's not a central point of the episode, it was really fun and on the nose yet never corny.

I really liked the cliffhanger too, every character now facing a Slitheen each and then, the sequence alternating between the Doctor slowly figuring out their plan and realizing it's too late, Harriet and Rose being in danger in the meeting room and Jackie being corned in her own kitchen, it was a pretty effective scene and very well realized.

Aesthetically, the episode is great too with a strong focus on flashy colors and blue lights and other than 2 or 3 weird FXs, I really liked how it looked.

I just find it disappointing that Mickey's character is so poorly written and only relayed to the role of an unfunny comic relief, even though his scenes helps develop a new aspect of Rose personality, her egoistical side, Mickey ends up still being poorly written and straight up annoying at times.

Overall, it's an episode I liked a lot and that ended up being better than what I remembered. The episode helps a lot developing the main cast's personality while also adding a whole political comedy side to the script. It ends up being a pretty unique episode I loved rewatching.