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Finally, after doing some gardening and making some chutney, I have come back with fresh eyes and the penny has dropped pretty much straight away. Like others I went down the 'rock' blind alley and a few others, overcomplicating things as usual. Good puzzle though I too am unable to parse on of the first group.

Hello, I’d be grateful if someone could send me a pdf of this week’s puzzle,

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lexawkward - on its way

After family distractions, I'm proceeding in fits and starts - SW corner done in 10 minutes, then most of NE corner, no progress at all in SE.

One query in particular: I have the solution to 8d - Choose a ....., but I'm not clear how to enter it. The letters I already have suggest only the first word of my solution should go in, but the rubric says that two words go in. Suggestions please.

I'd also like tips to 1ac and 31ac

Thanks

Andyp - and I think bobbycollins - in the third thematic in clue order the first word is not the usual meaning. It's a verb (that almost rhymes with it - see Chambers). From that remove a synonym for fall (reversed) and you have the definition (three letters). Then the thematic replacement is performed

Dylan, this is one of those puzzles where the clue lengths refer to entries but the word breakdowns refer to original answers.

For 1ac the def is the first word and everything else is reversed. The 'part of space explorer' is also a common word for another vehicle.

31, the definition is the first four words, which is probably enough of a nudge

thank you ukridge - that one also suggests that i thought the thematic treatment was more exact than it seems to be - must have been just coincidence that the first two i got followed the more specific treatment.

also, although i have the song etc and completed the puzzle, i dont quite see how its substituted into the puzzle's title...

I think you simply replace 'song' ('a song' also works) with the title and the last word is an anagrind

As per Ukridge, once you see the phrase 'Numbers in brackets are the lengths of grid entries' it is inevitable that the entered letters and clue solution will be different.

Depending on the theme, it may be possible to enter some letters [πSCES], or impossible until more information is gained [eg opposites - answer is ZEBRA, enter AARDVARK].

ah ok thanks ukridge again - i found the treatment
then the song title so considered the song title enough to describe the treatment. Hence was confused by the substituting reference (although i see now it was hardly much of a leap)!

i also guess that if you solve it in the order the preamble expects (although not sure how many people would), the extra word may be needed.