Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aww, I could understand this, when the curator was all speaking I teared up (well maybe more).
Finally an episode where its incredible sad and they didn't just pull a RTD and kill lovable characters...

I do hope that's sarcasm.
At least we're getting alien planets. Most of the Third Doctor's era was notable for not getting off of Earth due to production budgets.

And I'd love some kind of source or interview or something where Richard Curtis says all that about Moffat changing everything around.

While it's true that the lead writer for the episode gets the most say in everything, it's up to the showrunner to make sure it fits in with the overall arch/storyline of the season - and I bet this includes the budgeting too. Perhaps they reworked a more expensive storyline and cut budget on this (and if they did, I didn't notice) to give a little more to what looks like a two-part finale? The finales ALWAYS get more money because of their very nature. Big, huge effects and crazy things going on.

No it wasn't sarcasm. Doctor Who has always been about flagshipping for the BBC along with Eastenders. A lot of money goes into it and at the time the special effects were the best of the best in the early 60's. FX = shitty back in those days but they was the best for that time. The series did suffer when the work union had a strike causing budget cuts but the effects were still good for that time and I know it's easy to look back on the show and laugh and not understand this but in 50 years from now a lot of people are going to be looking back on everything we have and laugh.

And like you said about the Third Doctor. Budget Cuts. SM said in Dr Who Confidential that they was lucky to start with the same budget as series 4 had because they needed a new production team. They don't need budget cuts for series 5.