I enjoyed the episode. It was a finale which didn't rely too much on trying to explain away every drip fed hint of a story arch from the series. It did feel though that Moffat listened to complaints about over complicated plotlines and gave us something that swung perhaps too far over to the simple side.

I loved the sadistic Mary Poppins entrance into the graveyard by Missy. I assumed that she floated down from her cloaked Tardis, and then teleported back to it - just in time, pretty much 'emergency temporal shift'.

As for the future Pink time traveller. If it isn't their love child - could it possibly be that Pink may have had sex with someone else ! Oh no, of course that doesn't happen at all anywhere does it ? He may have been married before. It was never explored but it doesn't mean that it may not have happened.

I still like how Moffat kept Pink as the nasty controlling half of his relationship with Clara. Throughout the series we had seen him trying to force his opinion on Clara, and in the final episode it showed. Forcing Clara to take away his emotions was a final act of control over her, (or am I just mis-reading the whole thing - guess I didn't like Pink at all).

Gallifrey is still lost and long may it continue. I don't think that we need all the politics that will come with that.

The Doctor is finally the Doctor again - a mad man in a box

I think the consensus on this is that Danny never pressed the 'erase' button on the little pad Seb gave to him. So he was downloaded into the Cyber-body with his emotions still intact.

It's an interpretation you're entitled to. Certainly, he was never portrayed as being perfect and neither was Clara, which was actually very nice. I actually think the subtleties of their dynamic has been a little too much for some people, judging by some of the fan responses, and it's great to be saying that at the end of the season. I got tired of Amy and Rory's perfect relationship and perfect love (from season 6 onward). It was nice to see a little nuance coming into the characterizations this year.

Clara isn't perfect. Danny isn't perfect. The Doctor isn't perfect. God, it's like watching a grown up show :P

First 44 minutes, for me.
Up until then, it was fantastic.
Then we had the 300 speech, The Matrix speech ... the speech that we've seen many times in Hollywood movies about the last stand, the shouty, screamy nonsense speech that's meant to rally the troops. The yanks might like that sort of thing but it just isn't right for us. Completely unnecessary, completely out of place.
No need for a ridiculous CyberSparta speech, "Tonight we dine in Hull".

I loved the darkness, the humour, even the James Bond skydive to the Tardis but the last 15 minutes or so were shocking.

Over the last 9 years there has been many a time where I've wanted an extra quarter of an hour to resolve a story without the feeling of it being rushed.
And this is what they do when they do get another 15 minutes?

Excellent story, excellent performances.. for three quarters of the episode.
Could have been one of my favourites but the end was cack.

I'd also like to see the Cybermen be a real threat. Not just a thud on the floor when they walk. They should be more than an audio effect.

That being said, Peter Capaldi is first class as the Doctor. The tone of this series has been top notch. Keep the dark edge, the excellent acting and the first three quarters of a story (ditch the Hollywood endings) and all will be well.

Many thanks.

That makes sense for all the dead minds already processed in the cloud drive (or whatever it was called), but Missy said every new death on earth would create another cyberman, until the whole human race was a cyber army. It looked like the cloud drive had been shut down, so would all the additional cyber men need to be manually tweeked to turn emotionless?.

Personally I thought it was poor, very anti climax.

The Master/Missy character was given a very poor finale, we are supposed to believe that this "Bananas" genius did everything so that they could hand over an Cyberman army to the Doctor. REALLY?

Just who was the Doctor going to fight?

And the reason we were given was because the Master/Missy missed the old days running with the Doctor!

We are also made to believe that the concept of heaven was created by the Master/Missy by traveling through time and putting the ideas into peoples minds, and yet at the end of the episode we actually see Danny Pink contact Clara from the other side! Did God not mind the Master/Missy stealing everyone from Heavens grasp over all those years?

Unit were very hot on the scene, making the Doctor President? And yet the President of the Earth appeared to have a poor plane escorted by nobody! President Obama must have been laughing his socks off from Air force one!

Where was Unit when the Earth had a forest all over it?

Why did Danny Pink not become a Cyberman, what amazing power did he have that everyone else on Earth didn't have?

What was the point of the Cybermen? They seemed to e Confused people stuck in suits only able to fly and blow up!


Just so much wrong with this episode/season, a real shame considering PC seems to be an excellent Doctor.

Why was Clara given her own title sequence? Would have made sense if somehow she actually was part of the Doctor, but No she was nothing more than Clara, and nobody really thinks she has left the show so why?

And Santa Claus for Christmas, WTF? Whats next, the Easter Bunny.

Time for a new writer I think.

JNT's Master was a model of decorum and restraint next to the raving drooling megalomaniac RTD inflicted on us!


I think you have it completely reversed. The whole point is/ was that Clara is a control freak and she wanted everything on her own terms, she had two men at her back and call and lied to both all the time. Danny was a fairly ordinary bloke with issues and didn't like being lied to, which is hardly unreasonable. She said she loved him but treated him like dirt, and at the end he was begging her to switch off his emotions to end his pain.

I somehow think that we are going to have an announcement before the end of the year that Moffatt is standing down from Doctor Who. I have liked his vision of the show, which was in many ways different from the farting aliens of RTD, who also had his stand out moments as well as bad ones.

I just felt like last night was his final series. He tied up things that he needed to, and left enough for a new producer to come along with a new companion. The number of episodes that he has produced now, must be fairly close to that of RTD.

Like I said earlier, I think my hatred of Pink has clouded me. I don't think that the two characters were suited, or at least there appeared to be little chemistry there which may have helped with a better actor. Even the worst of Doctor Who can be saved when the actors are top notch. I hope we get to see more of Michelle and Peter on screen together.

I disagree with most of your post, especially the parts about the RTD era being so wonderful (hated it). However, the quoted bit above sums up my feelings about the Brig scene perfectly.

I had a huge grin on my face, watching all that. That's what counts; it was great entertainment. I loved Missy's countdown to killing off Osgood. Always loved the actress since I first saw her quirky contributions to the awesome Green Wing.

I think they missed a trick in not having Victorian Clara come back as Cyber-Clara to help out

The biggest distraction for me was that Clara's eyebrows were uneven - the one on our left was neatly shaped but farther into the gap between them than the other one. Still utterly gorgeous though! I'm really going to miss her

I think , re the Brigadier, the rallying speeches and particularly Pink's behavour, the ending / episode / two-parter was intended to tie in with Rememberence Day, albeit massively badly done.

Just speculating, but it could have been that the initial idea was to have an army of soldiers rising from the graves, but that was ditched so we had the awful 3W stuff last week.

The story was ticking along nicely till the crass sickly ending.
When I start to think bits are shoe horned in that's when I stop giving a crap. That's what happened in the last bit of the finale.
Still think Michelle Gomez was great though.

So no explanation to the Doctor's Scottish accent nor his re-used face? Moffat, you tricky liar...

I don't over analyse Doctor Who like some people on here: I think it spoils the enjoyment of the show and I don't have to prove how clever (I think) I am by pulling apart a story piece by blooming piece.

I thoroughly enjoyed the episode: good people died, bad people died, and a good dead person came back - and got his wish of a salute from the Doctor.

The ending was great: Nick Frost as Santa Clause - fab

I will be voting excellent when to poll is up and running.

Moffat is already on record saying he has thought out the cliffhanger to Series 9's finale. So unless he was blatantly lying for no reason, then it looks like we can expect him to do at least one more series and there's no reason why he wouldn't do any more.

Oh I didn't know that.

That is good news then, but not for some on here

Disappointed but still sort of loved it.

How does that work then ?

That was explained in the dialogue. He contacted her from Missy's Nethersphere, using Missy's electronic bracelet. No real "other side" involved.


The Brigadier had it too. And the thing they had in common was that they were both former soldiers who became maths teachers. So clearly that's what makes people immune to cyber-conditioning. (Well, it makes more sense than all that "Lurve isn't an emotion, it's a promise," nonsense!)

I know exactly what you mean. I said earlier, it was "enjoyable but not satisfying (if that makes sense.)"

There were lots of really great moments, but they just didn't fit together well because there were too many annoying corny, gimmicky moments to distract from them.

I think one thing for me is Peter Capaldi.

I used to wax lyrical about Matt being better than his scripts but I think, even though the writing has improved, it's 10 times as true for Peter.

I just think his Doctor is great and that gets me through a lot of the problems with the writing.

Just pondering the fear factor 'loss' of the Cybermen, that some have talked about on here and I wonder if its not just to do with the disensitivity we are experiencing of seeing them often or that its an old sci fi cliche of man in machine but an aesthetic situation. For me they always look like they are made from very lovely brushed aluminium maybe it would be more severe if the metal looked worn and dirty at the joints..the true impact of flesh combined with machine ..i guess when we consider things like surgical instruments the horror of the thought of victorian medicine etc is that the equipment wasnt hyper clean. I know it sounds like it could be too gruesome for a family show and im not stating it should be absolutely horrific, just perhaps less well buffed and pleasing..more like heavy metal that is heavy and would feel heavy and weighty and would make horrible scraping sounds as it walked ..the feeling that if it touched you it could crush you..less like a new car without a paintjob and more like a scrapyard but efficient and strong.

Saying that I do understand the flight attendant point of that Missy scene (for one I liked her play..she is so naughty and mad and funny..I began to root for her a little bit) but also the power of the fear of the Cyberfolk is that unison movement. The only thing that bothered me last week was that when they walked down St.Pauls steps it wasnt in complete unison..which I know would be difficult as they were all at different levels but that hive mind process removes the humanity aspect of them completely..it makes them seems gigantic and unforgiving and us small and insignificant.

Dunno whats up with the poll, I've asked for one three times now.

See, that wouldn't have been hard

Pretty much this, for me too. Any story can be ripped apart if examined under a microscope but I tend not to get hung up about plot holes. Flipping loved Skyfall when I saw it at the cinema and didn't even notice many of the many glaring plot holes that I read about after!