The destruction of the Sycorax ship as they were retreating is based on the attack on the Belgrano during the Falklands war, so yeah, there's more than one parallel.

Her gender is unremarked-upon throughout the episode, IIRC, but I think that tactic only worked because she's female, and therefore, she's still judged more on her appearance than a man would be in the same position. And the Doctor knows that, and uses it against her.

I don't think it's specifically what The Doctor said to Adam Garcia that started the ball rolling... it's Harriet's sudden paranoia and how that affects her behavior subsequently. She ends up coming back from the alien ship all twitchy and traumatized-seeming rather than her usual calm self, and that would shake people's confidence in her.

As for "New Earth," I fell out laughing when Cassandra exclaimed "Oh my God, I'm a Chav!"

I don't think it's specifically what The Doctor said to Adam Garcia that started the ball rolling... it's Harriet's sudden paranoia and how that affects her behavior subsequently. She ends up coming back from the alien ship all twitchy and traumatized-seeming rather than her usual calm self, and that would shake people's confidence in her.

Maybe more a combination of both. I think her own confidence is shaken by the possibility that she made a horribly wrong decision when she orders the destruction of the ship, but the implication is also that the aide whispers to the press which draws their attention to it. Her confidence in the face of danger is what got her elected. Now she's having a crisis of conscience and it's shaken the public's faith in her.

As for "New Earth," I fell out laughing when Cassandra exclaimed "Oh my God, I'm a Chav!"

Um, translation for those of us who are British-challenged?

(Mind you, one of the charms of Who for me is the Britishness. Even so, there are times when I know stuff is whizzing by over my head -- as Brust is reputed to have said, I might as well be a dwarf at the airport.)

Um, translation for those of us who are British-challenged?

Urban dictionary definition of chav: [link]

As I understand it, chavs fill up the niche in British society taken up by white trash/trailer trash and wanna-be gangstas in U.S. society.

ETA: a complete sentence.

Chav more or less = bridge & tunnel, though I'm not sure how helpful that is to non NYC-ers.

I have all of S2 ahemed and on DVD, but there's SO FREAKING MUCH I still haven't caught up on! (Finally got around to the 'Gate midseason finales yesterday -- unfortunately meh on both counts. I mean, do they really think we're going to be genuinely worried about the safety of either team? I liked most of the individual beats within the eps, but the cliffhangers were...not. Oh well.)

Hopefully will get to the 2 Eureka eps today, and THEN I can start in on the Tenth Doctor. Whew!

Apparently Cassandra took one look at Rose's dark roots and sky blue windbreaker and realized that there weren't going to be any society cocktail parties in her immediate future.

I loved the scene for all the different layers. Even though it's based on the Belgrano attack, the awfulness of which is for the british left is a bit of a shibboleth, Harriet's given very valid points. We did just see the Sycorax leader go back on his given word in a single instant, and Harriet doesn't invoke fancy abstractions to justify herself, she remembers the two good people she saw brutally murdered that day.

But the Doctor's anger is valid too; he just managed to engineer an ending where only three people died instead of thousands and thousands, and he gave his word and Harriet broke it.

Yet again against that is set how disturbing a Time Lord can be, having the power to know what tiny pebble to drop to cause the avalanche he wants. Harriet has to work with her mortal limitations and inability to see the future. It's never really a fair matchup.

But the Doctor's anger is valid too; he just managed to engineer an ending where only three people died instead of thousands and thousands, and he gave his word and Harriet broke it.

It may say something about Gallifreyan society, that the Doctor expects the same level of chivalrous fair fight from a woman as he expects from himself - human women do not always get taught as from infants to fight fair, to fight cleanly. We often do not get taught to fight at all unless we seek it out (and I'm having a hard time picturing Harriet Jones in a jujitsu class), so when we do fight, we make things up as we go along, anticipating no shame for low blows or biting.

I tell you what, if invaders killed a handfull of people then threatened to kill a third of my clients in the group homes and sell the rest into slavery, and I had a choice between trusting their word that they would simply go away and not bother us again, or shooting 'em in the back? I would feel less shame about shooting them in the back than I would about letting them go. If my choices were letting the marauders go to prison after a fair trial and shooting 'em in the back, why then the story might have a bit different ending.

As I understand it, 'chav' was Gypsy slang for 'child', that became cockney slang for 'child', so before the emergence of chav culture, it was pejorative when applied to an adult. The word is loaded with a heck of a lot of racial and class connotations and when it's thrown around in a derogatory manner is quite queasy-making.