As I think I've mentioned before, I'm in the process of watching the new series of DOCTOR WHO again, in chronological order--in preparation for the 50th anniversary.
I'm just about done with sesaon 5--the first season of Eleven. The episodes that are the most difficult for me to get through--both for the old series and the new series--are any episodes about mining, drilling, and underground settings. I find these so so so boring.
I know that modern British people have some strange cultural relationship with mining and resource extraction--but I just don't find this at all interesting. It's only interesting in an abstract way as commentary on the political economic issues in Britain--but not great action stories.
I find any of the claustrophobic stories rather annoying. I don't like very many of the space station adventures for this reason, also.
The first time around, the one thing that got me though the Hungry Earth/Cold Blood (episodes 8 and 9 of season 5) is the teaser near the beginning, where Amy and Rory see themselves in the distance--but ten years on. And I kept thinking that would be an important element in the story. But it was never resolved.
Then I thought, as I continued the first time through these episodes, that this scene would somehow figure into the story of Amy and Rory at some point: there would be an episode where we would see the older Rory and Amy come back to this place and see their younger selves in the distance and wave to them. That never happened.
It's like a shoe that never drops. It feels like they planted that bit in there for some reason and then never made use of it.
It's also a question how it works with Rory and Amy's timeline. We know that they aged but in real time they only went from 2010 to 2012 (before the encounter with the Weeping Angels). So who were the Rory and Amy in 2020 that waved to the Rory and Amy from 2010?