No, it was just one of the stupidest things in one of the stupidest episodes. At the risk of self-promoting...
if the UK wanted to launch a nuclear strike on some enemy nation, the PM would tell the Defence minister, the Defence minister would tell the Chief of Staff, he'd tell the head of the Navy and they'd draw up the strike package to do it. it would be a sub-launched Trident nuclear-tipped missile that did it. not a FUCKING AGM-85 Harpoon! the AGM-85 Harpoon (what the computer screen says Mickey launched) is an anti-ship missile!
1st of all to say RTD is not a writer is the stupidest thing to come out your gob ever, his shows have a good track record no matter what you may think. 2nd despite that I do not like the resolution to that episode the whole missile thing but I know where to draw the line between a mistake and saying hes total crap as a writer.
To be fair, the notion that anyone could fire a missile over the internet was pretty stupid. And with a password as weak as "buffalo"? Seriously?
^ Yeh like I said I don't like that ending nor the two part episode to be honest but I put it down as teething problems for the show since it was midway through the debut season of its revival under RTD.
I've always hated the whole scenario of "computer geek hacks into {WHATEVER}" thing they do on shows and movies, where it shows them using just a PC to do this incredible thing. First of all, many, many computer systems in the world are closed-systems. That means there is no actual network connection. At all. Which makes the point where Mickey hacks into a military submarine missile command codes.....the most guarded codes on any ship in any military......a completely magical moment. Cause, that's what it's going to take for him to get a DELL laptop into a closed system. Which of course, let's say for the sake of fantasy it's not even a closed-system....what software is he using to link in? If it's a DOS-based entry system, why all the GUI screens and whatnot that pop-up? No matter how you slice it, it makes absolutely no sense. However, he was never launching a nuclear missile. He was launching an anti-ship missile to destroy the Slitheen before they launched the nukes. And yeah, the UN-approval thing was really........weird. As for RTD and his writing skill? Meh. I liked End of the World, Utopia, the Long Game, Parting of the Ways, Stolen Earth, Journey's End, and Love and Monsters. So, to say he's not a writer? Yeah, that's hyperbole. He is absolutely known for writing some serious crap during his era. But, he's also known for giving us the gem we have today...the modern series.
Two things: The nukes the Slitheen want to use and the missile Mickey fires at Downing Street are different systems. If Mickey had launched a nuke, then hiding in the reinforced cupboard wouldn't have done the Doctor, Rose and Harriet any good - or anyone else in central London. The idea of the UK needing UN permission to fire its nukes isn't 'real-world' realistic, but it does build on what was established in the original series, where global politics is very different (an equal three way cold war between the US, USSR and China, with Britain more neutral, the UN more powerful, and nuclear weapons more widespread). In Robot (1974), we're told that all the nuclear powers have given over their nuclear launch codes to the UN for safe-keeping by a neutral party (ie, Britain. The Doctor does comment on how unlikely this is), presumably as a result of the peace conference that follows Day of the Daleks.
"Well naturally enough the only country that could be trusted with such a role was Great Britain." "Well, naturally. I mean, the rest were all foreigners."