Your predictions may come true sooner than you think Michael - Claire Bloom isn't in the finale but a character called The Woman is...
Of course it could just be any old woman; after all the cast also lists someone as playing 'Plump Man' so it wouldn't be the first time that Who fans have got all hot and bothered about nothing significant at all.

She's not played by Lara Pulver, is she?

Linda Broughton, apparently. But if they, dare I say, whip up a Lara appearance I would not be too unhappy.

"Now Doctor, call me....Mummy" (crack!)

I'm 110% sure that cheeky git took the last of the Belgian buns from my local store. Moffat ruins everything.

"The Woman" is not Lara Pulver then? Damn!

He's responsible for global warming too...

Surely she's the Rani/Romana/Susan/Sally Sparrow/Jenny isn't she?!

My brother's hot water packed up at the weekend; it's got to be Moffat's fault as my brother told me that it broke around the same time that Doctor Who was on.
Conclusive proof I'd say.

Rumour has it that if you turn your back, even for a second, Moffat will appear and teabag your coffee.

The sneaky b*st*rd!

He's got to be stopped, I tell you! Why, I've a good mind to gather together everyone of good upbringing who's been affected by this man and go round to his house and....

Dammit... Where are the pitchforks and torches? Anyone got any matches?

And... Anybody know where he lives?

He sleeps in a hidden cave within the TARDIS set... where he hides tapes of all the lost episodes of Doctor Who. He's waiting until the world forgets about them so he can rewrite them as his own stories, living off of others' creativity. D:

I'm sure that somewhere in the dim and distant past it was mentioned, possibly by Pertwee's Doctor, that Timelords could instantly recognise another Timelord. as for who the woman in red was I have always taken it to have been his mother as indeed RTD hinted at.

Sorry, Lord Smexy, I should have made clear I was talking about him drawing a line under the first five years of New Who (the RTD years). Clearly, he's more than happy to use stuff from classic Who, which is pretty much everything you've listed.

But there was all that silly nonsense with Doctor Who Magazine when he took over the show, when he tried to get DWM to call Season 5 Season 1 instead, because he saw it as being a brand new show under his leadership, starting again. And unfortunately that's pretty much what he did. Not a complete reboot but certainly a very clear line was drawn.

He has occasionally had details from the RTD years in his Who, but certainly nothing I would consider a continuation. Which is why I doubt he's interested in revisiting Claire Bloom's character from The End of Time.

Women? I can only recall the one woman. Who was the other?

You really need to stop this habit of just coming out with wild speculation or outright falsehoods and presenting them as fact. There is no evidence anywhere on screen or off that Moffat ever considered his era anything other than a straight continuation of what went before. He did not see it as a 'brand new show' 'starting again'. Please direct us to one quote, just one single bit of evidence from anything Moffat has said that backs up what you have said. And no you can't just say 'its obvious because...'. Where and when has Moffat ever stated what you claim? The evidence that points to the opposite is numerous.

Be interesting if Moffbastard does go with a return of 'The Woman' and the revelation that she is, as Rustle T. intended, The Doctors mum. He's already on the naughty step for undoing the Time War, so he can't really bring her back as anything else, can he?

Unless she turns out to be an aged Clara...After all, he has put her everywhere else in Who history, ruining the whole carefully crafted canonical continuity, right kids?

If you didn't read Moffat's comments in Doctor Who Magazine back in 2009/10 on the issue of what to call Season 1/Season 5 then that's unfortunate.

But it wasn't a one-off comment. It became an ongoing theme with DWM referring to it as Season 1/slash/5.

But it certainly is no reason to attack me again, saladfingers81. I don't see why I should have to put up with yet more personal attacks from you simply because you disagree with my point of view.

Yet again, No personal attacks. I am questioning what you posted. You cant just come on a forum and post what I believe is misleading information and just say 'well thats my opinion'. And if I or anyone else disputes it then that is not a persona attack as you keep claiming.

Your opinion may well be that Moffat changed too much. Fine. Many would agree. Many would disagree.

It is also true that there was some confusion and fuss over what to call S5. I remember the comments and it became something of a running joke in DW magazine.

But you cannot state as fact things like 'Moffat saw it as being a brand new show' and that he felt he was 'starting again'. He has NEVER said this. Like I said if you can post any links or direct quotes from Moffat to back this up then please do. Otherwise you are just putting words in his mouth to suit your on-going agenda.

I emphasise again- this is not 'attacking' you. It is merely asking you to back up what you say. Which is completely and utterly fair to do on a public discussion forum.

I'm not sure it needs to be addressed. Some things are best left to the imagination. It was a mistake revealing what was behind Eleven's door in The God Complex IMO.

You need to think about tone, saladfingers81. And try to keep it to a discussion of opinions rather than comments of a personal nature or questions about the motives for posting an opinion. Sometimes an opinion is just an opinion.

As an example, calling another forum member a liar because you disagree with them is a no-no.

I read them. Moffat had to pitch the idea of Doctor Who to the BBC again as if it was a brand new show. They themselves had insisted on this. Of course, there was very little doubt that Moffat wouldn't get the gig, but he still had to sell his vision and present his business model, showing how he was going to spend public money.
He was left with no lead actor, no companion and a largely completed story arc. The big bads that where the most well known by casual and incidental viewers (Dalek's, Cybermen, Master and Davros) had all had their impact returns. His decision to leave another showrunners vision behind was made by necessity as much as a desire to forge his own place in history.

Here is a snippet from a Moffat article in 2010;

Moffat is reluctant to plunder Who's history without good reason – "The more you back-reference, the more it feels like a sequel and the sequel is never as good as the original" – but that isn't to say that the past is another galaxy. "Old favourites can return, provided you can do something new and exciting with them. There are no past characters coming back in this series, but I imagine that kids would love to see Captain Jack meet the new Doctor."

His vision was for a continuation in a new direction, not a total departure from the past.

The whole series 'ffnnarrg' thing was a joke about the politics of the BBC and the necessity to push the show forward, without tethering it to a past that is no more deserving of continuation than any other era of the show.

Surely "The Woman" is the Doctor's father?

They wouldn't need a different actress for an aged up Clara. Jenna used old age makeup in Last Christmas to play an imagined old version of her. There is a Time Lady splinter of her, as seen in Name of the Doctor, but there's no reason she wouldn't be young, especially if she regenerated.

She might be wearing a 'Trap' Street disguise filter thingy.