@pedant       I love that scene. I think after Christmas I’m going to time travel and watch a whole whack of Pertwee episodes. The look on the Master’s face…

@BESD1    I loved your comments. You made a lot of good points. I particularly liked what you had to say about Danny, although personally I thought he acted the pants off it. But I think that what I really missed was a sense of closure between him and the Doctor. The Doctor seemed to have come to some kind of understanding and appreciation of “P…[Read more]

I finally had a chance to watch this again (and actually, unlike some of the others, I really needed some breathing space between viewings). Nothing really new to add, other than random thoughts.

I don’t think it was as dark as my initial perception of it. Yes, the treatment of the subject of death and afterlife was challenging, Osgood’s dea…[Read more]

Yes! My son (whom we sometimes call Astrophysics Boy) had the live stream on at breakfast this morning. You could see them all watching their computers, getting more and more serious just before the landing info was due to reach them. Then suddenly, cheers and hugs all around. It was actually pretty moving. All those years of work and a pretty…[Read more]

@BadWulf    Wow. Well done! I think it’s very cool that you know the different models of phone boxes.

@Apopheniac    Yes. Well, I suppose I am old school enough that it didn’t occur to me to worry about the companion needing to sustain a story arc. And in fact, even in AG Who, it hasn’t always been that way. Actually, I think it’s quite possibl…[Read more]

@ScaryB     Thank you! Such a powerful song. I have a June Tabor version, and I have literally never been able to sing it to completion. I choke up every time. And guess what? I’ve just done it again.

“Do not stand…” I knew the poem but not the song. Lovely, and what a beautiful voice the singer has.

Here’s another by Bogle (maybe you had this…[Read more]

@pedant   @DrBen

I agree that this series has been, at its heart, about something beyond the bonkers, the monsters, the “all-of-time-and-space”, and even the science/pseudo-science that we are used to from DW. And maybe that was the motivation for the continued riffing on legends and myths, and what seemed at times like a deliberate toss-…[Read more]

Sorry, but I had to!

And here is my more sober contribution (applies to both parts of the finale really):

@DrBen      Not least of which because I thought the voice sounded like Russell T. Davies, and had a moment’s (bonkers) thought that they were going full meta, and RTD would burst through the doors of the TARDIS, bitching about what a sad mess Moffat has made of his show.

That would have been brilliant! Not because I don’t like Moffat’s work, bu…[Read more]

@geoffers   I didn’t get the feeling that the Doctor had decided to kill Missy until the moment he said “if it prevents you from doing it, yes”, or words to that effect. And even then, I wasn’t sure he was going to be able to go through with it!

And yes, I too loved the Bondian view of the Doctor falling through the air and saving himself a…[Read more]

@AnthonyAppleyard    Well, it had occurred to me that shooting at Cybermen might need a different type of firepower than shooting at a person, so you could be right there!

@Lscot6    I heard Brisbane… Did you notice anything around your place, @purofilion?  🙂

@janetteB    I suspect that if Osgood is coming back, it is already in the works and was intended that way from the start. Because surely the response to that death is about what he would have expected- some people gutted, some on board because of the threat it creates, some both. I would guess that if she’s dead, she’s dead; and if she isn’t,…[Read more]

@SandShoes  I have had a fast forward through the episode to look at the colours of the different weapon blasts. Missy’s is definitely a reddish yellow blast, with a pile of ash left behind (and glasses, oddly). But when Cyber Danny blows up the Cybermen to save Clara, there is a very brief blue flash, followed by a blast of yellow and lots of fl…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip     Good point about the Master and his disguises, I’d forgotten that. Also, nice call on St. Nicholas and the pickled boys.   🙂

I just wanted to articulate a little more about my problem with the death of Osgood, and the death of Danny, and the issue of the killing off of characters generally.

Danny died for a purpose. He could have saved himself, the Doctor gave him the power to do that. He could have come back to Clara and lived his life with her. But he had already…[Read more]

@macphisto96   I’ve seen several people here and elsewhere speak of the missing joy.  I understand that, but that is purposeful.   This is interesting, because I myself have actually felt huge joy in this series. I have laughed out loud, I have smiled, I have sat wide-eyed, and after so many episodes have gone “YES.” Yes, the show has been thoug…[Read more]

@PhileasF   Does Kate really need an explanation for how you could fit 91 Cybermen inside St Paul’s?   I think that the question was “How do you hide 91 Cybermen inside St. Paul’s?”   I noticed that too about the news report. But clearly, whatever has been rebooted, UNIT at least is still aware of the Cybermen. So maybe the media asked a UNIT…[Read more]

@Belshazzar       Wonderful first post, welcome! I agree with lots of what you say, and the more time I have for things to percolate (I only saw the episode a few hours ago), the more I suspect that some aspects at least of the ending will be revisited in a few weeks’ time. If done well, it could result in a very uplifting Christmas episode…[Read more]

@pedant     Thanks for clarifying that. I will have to watch again to see how that affects my teleport theory. To which I am pretty attached, because I really, really want to think of a way that Osgood could have survived!

@Bluesqueakpip    Interestingly, at the end, it seemed that the Doctor was more willing to accept Danny than Danny was to acc…[Read more]

Oh, and I loved Clara’s line “I wasn’t very good at it, but I did love you.”

@ScaryB      I had the impression that Clara was about to tell that Doctor that she couldn’t travel anymore because she had adopted the boy. And that’s what she meant by “Danny and I will be just fine,” or whatever the exact words were.

And yes, there is still the m…[Read more]