Wonderful episode and very stimulating comments, as usual. Coming late to the party and absorbing 167 comments in one sitting is tricky, so apologies if I’m repeating points already made….

To follow up @wolfweed on Shada echoes, the Doctor tells the students in his lecture “time is an illusion,” which is the first part of the Douglas Adams…[Read more]

A few drops of water in a dry and thirsty land…

The first look at the Christmas Special, `The Return of Doctor Mysterio,’ is at the BBC site here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0

@ichabod

The inscription says “St. Luke’s University, Bristol.” So a return to Bristol & I think the first since `Flatline.’

Matt Smith back as the Doctor?? Dr. Moffat is surely pulling our leg with this one!

In the `BBC Dr. Who Newsletter ‘ from July 5 (I get sent this I think because I ordered a stand-up cardboard weeping angel a few years from the BBC Shop), there were some photos of the new companion’s first day of shooting. For this (blurry) image, the caption…[Read more]

@missy  @kharis   See below for the link to the full story: “The source told The Mirror: ‘Bosses are already discussing a fresh start when Steven leaves. They’ve been happy with what Peter has brought to the role but some think it might make sense to give Chris his own choice of actor to play the Doctor…[Read more]

Disappointed by this news, especially as S9 was so stunningly good.

I suppose a related issue is, Will Peter Capaldi choose to stand down at the same time as SM?

Great fun & in effect a big teaser for the next series. Agree with @blenkinsopthebrave that Moffat and Gatiss are brilliant at the “meta” stuff.

In the bit when Holmes bones up on the obliquity of the ecliptic, we had another reference to the discovery of Neptune as the astronomer who had published a paper with the Royal Astronomical Society on…[Read more]

Enjoyed that a lot. A really spirited romp, but with a big sting in the tail. Terrific and I thought ultimately moving performances by Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston; loved the Doctor being shocked at the Tardis being bigger on the inside. I take it we had a call back/forward to the short extra scenes of `Last Night’ from Series 6 as River…[Read more]

son of @puroandson  Thanks! In catching up with my reading, I’d made it to Friday’s comments, then on the BBC site saw the script had been posted and got excited. So now I’m writing out my 100 lines “I won’t make any postings until I’ve caught up with the latest comments.”

I’m days behind with the comments so apologies if this has already been posted, but the script with Moffat’s directions for Hell Bent has been posted on the official BBC Doctor Who website:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/isite-static/doctorwho/scripts/DW9-EP-12-Hell-Bent.pdf

At the top of p. 56 we get:

And standing facing him – left behind by…[Read more]

@tardigrade  For me, it’s the emotional connection that was the more important thing that’s been weakened by the wipe, more than the actual memories of what happened, which do seem to be there, even if not in their original form, so even if he does fill in the gaps over time, it seems he’ll be able to live with those memories now.

@mudlark  [Read more]

Great spot by @puroandson on the song playing on the radio when the Doctor walked into the diner. I’d missed the importance, but isn’t this grist for the bonkerising mill?

As pointed out, it was Foxes’ version of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now that we heard in Mummy on the Orient Express (which was also supposed to be a Doctor/Clara parting).

“Don’t…[Read more]

@mudlark   By the time he had told his story and their conversation in the diner ended, he would, as I have said before, have to have been extraordinarily slow on the up-take not to have realised who it was he had been talking to, after the breadcrumb trail left by Clara, and all the hints and clues she had dropped.

Would it matter if he’d not…[Read more]

@geoffers    Thanks! Doctor’s trip to Ashildr/Me. he specifically says that it’s the last few hours of the universe, and that the time lords won’t be able to track him there. he also says to ashildr/me “go to hell, by my calculations you’ve got about five minutes…”  I’d wondered if there was a time stated in terms of how long in the future the…[Read more]

After two watches and reflecting on the series, which I think was been spectacular and brave, what’s most striking to me at this point is the directness. In S8 and S9,  Clara became increasingly like the Doctor, until at the end of Hell Bent she’s off exploring all of time and space with her companion/fellow traveller (?) with a Type 40 Tardis s…[Read more]

If any bonkers theorist had come up with a short version of that plot ahead of the episode and posted it, I’d have thought they were in serious need of a long lie down in a darkened room with a pot of coffee and twelve jammy dodgers. But I thought it worked beautifully. For me, Clara’s original death was a big surprise. It had been flagged up all…[Read more]

Like others, very much looking forward to the finale of what’s been a spectacular and brave series.

I’m puzzled why the Time Lords are so very concerned about the hybrid at this point, and hope to find out why tonight.

@puroandson  SM does not bother with over explaining. Much of his work is metaphorical with a layer also easily understood by children  Very good point. And it seems to me modern day children are much more sophisticated `consumers’ of images and TV than my generation was.

@pedant  That a few don’t get picked up on (most notable, I guess, Jenn…[Read more]

@ichabod     But I think SM saw that that’s a good way to run out of stories, after so long, so why not go more for the metaphorical, the personal drama, the deeper connections?  I left because of the first approach, have come back been riveted because of the second.  I think SM is doing a bang-up job with it.   Agree completely. Three of my ten a…[Read more]

@spacedmunkee   Question 2. What was written on the wall behind the Doctor when he first sees the veil?

The writing on the wall was also the Doctor’s opening monologue; it’s written out just a bit up in a posting by @nerys   #48553.