Seriously, was it really that bad?

Elsewhere I might have quite liked it really, but the rest of fandom has gone into meltdown. At Behind The Sofa:

"I could go on at length about the first forty minutes of this extended turd, but instead I have only this to say: It was soulless twaddle. Big pictures were painted (Within a comfortable Earth-based scenario, at any rate) without any of the detail filled in, characters (including the Toclafane themselves) often acted with little or no motive, the Doctor got turned into Dobby the House Elf using some very dodgy logic, and all things considered it was just rather stupid."

And from the comments at the SFX review:

"What a terrible way to end a Doctor Who season! David Tennants role reduced to a C.G.I Gollum type creature. John Barrowmans roll reduced and when he does get some action he picks up a machine gun and starts blowing the crap out of stuff little more than he did in his Dalek episode. Marthas nice and strong but dumped at the end and a cop out ending to boot. Stop writing episodes Russell T your killing the show!"

I think it was a case of the expectations being so high that anything would have been a disappointment. Although the Return of the Jedi moment was a bit silly...