I honestly don't know how to rate that episode.
On the one hand it was brilliant, with Michelle Gomez playing a quite excellent interpretation of The Master. The Cybermen (for most of the story) weren't treated as second rate enemies who are there just to get their asses whooped by The Daleks. More of a 'horror' treatment of the Cybermen, with some spooky scenes which point to more potential in future stories. Still not a straight Cyberman story though. They're still robots slaves of somebody else at the moment and don't as yet feel as though they're on the path of their own destiny.
But on the other hand half of it seemed to be mawkishly sentimental bullshit that felt like it was lazily chucked in to try to make viewers feel sad. For example the Brigadier Dalek saving his daughter Kate. What ridiculous nonsense that was. If felt like it was crowbarred into the story and there was no need for it to even be there. There were a couple of unnecessary scenes like that.
So to me it felt like both a brilliant episode and an embarrassingly poor one, both at the same time. But that doesn't mean that I could rate it as average just to balance both extremes, because what was good about it was just too good. I just don't know how to rate it. Brilliant, but very very flawed indeed.
I didn't want asthma lady to die. I don't think it was necessary to bring her back to kill her, as she seems like a good background character to develop at UNIT.
I don't want Clara to leave yet. I like her and it feels like her tenure on the show has been cut short. I certainly didn't want her leaving like that. It just felt wrong. Has it been reported that Jenna Coleman has really left?
There was also some great writing in many lines of dialogue. Example: "Why don't you like hugging Doctor?" ..."Never trust a hug. It's just a way to hide your face".
What a great line that is. Writing like that is always going to lift the quality.