The Valeyard

I really enjoyed this episode. Best Christmas episode since A Christmas Carol (for me). The whole meeting Santa thing felt like an old Doctor Who comic strip from the 60s. Just more complex (and without John & Gillian). I loved it!

Happy to see Clara will still be around next series.

leeta

A wonderful heartfelt episode for the holidays. Perfect storyline to include Santa.

I've never cared much for Clara, but she was perfect in this ep and I'm actually looking forward to the next season. Hopefully, they're past the "breaking in" of the new Doctor and they can have some fun (and horrifying!) adventures next year.

Shazam

Best Christmas special yet, by far.

Loved that line about Santa's bag. I always wanted that scene to play out in DW but could never figure out a way.

dhmac

Agreed. Although I wish they had written a ending better than the "Santa Ex Machina" one in the episode.

riley_dude

They had to change the ending since Jenna decided to stay.

Josh-da-man

From what I've heard, the original ending had old Clara dying in The Doctor's arms. There's quite a bit of foreshadowing throughout the episode, from the title "The Last Christmas" to the Doctor's comment that they weren't all necessarily from the same 'time' during the sleigh ride, that this was the case. Also seemed like they were setting Shona up to be the next companion.

But then Jenna decided not to leave and they re-worked the ending so that the Doctor visiting old Clara was just another dream.

Also wonder if they weren't going a little meta by casting Dan Starkey as Ian the Elf. Since he was part of the dream, the Doctor (or Clara) worked Strax in there.

leeta

I really wasn't paying attention to the names of the arctic dream team... was Shona the one dancing through the sleepers?

wmansir

I enjoyed it and I'm glad Clara is sticking around.

In my mind the face huggers didn't physically exist in the real world at all, but were physical representations in the dream world of what were actually purely psychic parasites. It doesn't match what was shown on screen, but it makes more sense to me.

Ropes Pierre

yes.

there was speculation that she called the doctor "the magician" and the first episode of 2015 is called Magician's Apprentice = she is the new companion.

Jeraden

I'm way behind on finishing this past season, but just watched this last night. Wow, in my opinion this was the worst episode of Doctor Who since it's return. It was completely unengaging, didn't make sense, everyone doing things out of character, and was a total throwaway episode.

tonyc3742

So I'm way behind on this season

We finished S8 Episode 6 "The Caretaker" the other night.

Question, not intending to be contrary - does Capaldi's Doctor get better? From what I read online he's rated rather highly, but so far, neither my wife nor I really like his interpretation of the Doctor. In fact we are approaching actively disliking him. Each regeneration takes a couple eps to get used to, of course, and I'm very open to different interpretations of characters, but we are actually liking him less and less. He's cranky, mean, rude, and doesn't really seem to care for humanity. He rudely says "Shut up!" an awful lot. He seems like a guy who's a week before retirement and just wants to be DONE. He's had a couple really funny lines, and a couple really introspective lines, and the only time so far he's seemed more than one dimensional was when Danny tells Clara that Danny knows why the Doctor is giving him a hard time. I've seen some armchair analysis that says his Doctor shows symptoms of being on the spectrum or shares characteristics with it, which I can see, but I don't think that's our issue with him. I don't know, maybe those characteristics are what makes his representation less likable to us. He also seems much more 'black and white' than previous iterations, and that makes his Doctor seem more simplistic, I guess. His vociferous and total dislike of soldiers and the military, for example (I guess he hasn't met Strax).

We've enjoyed the episodes so far, for the most part, but it's in spite of Capaldi, not because of him. And 'enjoyed' is a low bar - I haven't read this whole thread, but it seems like some folks here were somewhat disappointed by this season. I would agree with that - there hasn't been any standout 'wow!' eps (so far) for us either.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, he's an abrasive dick.

The good news is that he does soften up.

The bad news it isn't until his final season that he really gels into being the Doctor. I think that, in some ways, Clara tends to bring out the worst in him. (See the Danny Pink stuff.)

I think the first time Capaldi really feels comfortable in the role is in the Christmas special "The Last Christmas," where he's still kind of an asshole, but he's funny and sort of charming, which goes a long way in tempering his unpleasantness.

dex14

I never cared much for Capaldi's version.

Jay G.

I actually liked Capaldi's take, but do agree that the show softens his edges over time. Also, series 8 was not his best one, but he does have some excellent episodes in his run.

philo

Capaldi took a bit to grow on me too but I'm so glad I stuck with it for "Heaven Sent"

milo bloom

I loved Capaldi and feel similar about Whitaker - both of them clearly loving the role but bogged down by subpar writing.

But it’s still worth watching Capaldi for Heaven Sent.

ViewAskewbian

The interplay between Capaldi's Doctor and Michelle Gomez's "Missy" were some of my favorite show moments and those last moments in the episode The Many Husbands of River Song is one of Capaldi's best Doctor moments overall.
He grew on me too. I think he started warming to him sooner. Perhaps the ep where he breaks out the Sonic shades and guitar aspect of his character.

His final speech is a pretty amazing send off:

milo bloom

It doesn't get the attention of

Jay G.

Maybe we should save the more detailed discussion of series 9 for the series 9 thread?