I may be an idiot, but I was assuming the two plot threads would tie together more directly, so when the war thread turned out to be a red herring I was genuinely surprised.

I agree about the weakness of the episode, particularly the Monk's definition of either 'love' or 'consent'. Tbh, I don't like Peter Harness' solo stuff much. He seems to understand all the ingredients of a great Doctor Who story, but he doesn't know how to put them together. Also I hate, hate, hate the idea of the Doctor being President of the World; aside from the unlikeliness of all world governments agreeing on creating and appointing such a position, he's supposed to be a rebel, not an authority figure! Here and previously it just seems to be another way of putting him near soldiers so he can make sarky comments about them.