Everyone had differing opinions. Capaldi in my opinion is the second best Doctor we've had since the reboot. David Tenant takes the cake.

I honestly did not enjoy Matt Smith as the Doctor. He only started growing on me a little towards the end of his role.

I'm glad River Song seems to be gone now and I wish they'd do away with Cara. Capaldi needs his own companion. Perhaps shake things up and do a non-female, maybe even non-human one.

Jenna Coleman just had to cancel her appearance at Chicago TARDIS next week. Slightly bummed, because my date and I had bought tickets to the Saturday evening reception with her... we were all going to watch the Season 9 Finale (Part I) together. How cool would that have been? And Eve Myles just got pulled. She's working on a production in Europe right now, and though she's got plenty of time to come to the States for the con, her producers are worried that all the ISIS-stuff going on might make travel too risky... told her to stay put.

But we've still got Paul McGann, Alex Kingston, Burn Gorman, and a whole host of others. And there's supposed to be an announcement tomorrow about a new "big name" to replace Jenna. Can't even begin to speculate who would be available on short notice that would be a enough of a "big name" to step in... though I wonder what Barrowman or Tennant might be up to right now?

This is exactly how I feel. I love him, though thought season 8 wasn't very strong. I've liked this season much more.

Spoilers for the Christmas special:

So, it's been almost a week, and nobody's commented on the first single-episode story of the series.

I felt "Sleep No More" was a bit uneven and ultimately unsatisfying. The "found footage" conceit was somewhat interesting, but I don't think was used to its full potential. And the ending seemed abrupt, leaving the situation unresolved.

Writer Mark Gatiss talks about the episode here and his goals for it:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-...-sleep-no-more


I thought this week's episode was also going to be a standalone, but it does have the return of Ashildr, so it could tie into the series arc, and Wikipedia is listing it as the first episode of a 3-part finale.

I figured something like this would happen, but it still kind of sucks.

I was confused a bit by the set up of telling the story of Sleep No More. It didn't click that it was found footage. I thought the video break up was from the camera the soldier was wearing (which apparently they really weren't) and someone else was spying on them, not us actually watching despite the character talking to the screen. It wasn't until his final speech at the end that it all clicked in for me. I like the idea but don't think it worked as is. And i also thought one of the sandmans were getting into the tardis because of the fade to a new scene. I realize now that's not the case.

I expected Clara's exit but not like that.

Shiiiiit, if you think that's the end of Clara....

That was too clean of an ending, I'm sure we'll see her pop up again once more in the next two episodes. She died too early in a season ending 3 parter to have it stick or for it to be her last appearance. Especially in a show about time and space travel.

I hate to cheapen the scene though. She went out with dignity (even had her arms out like she half expected to regenerate).

I could see maybe some of her other time-images from the past making an appearance, and 12 having to make a decision to leave her in the past for the greater good.

We still haven't seen this scene: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...iff-diner.html so I'm assuming a different version of Clara shows up in the last couple episodes.

One hypothesis going around is that we're seeing the episodes out of order.

She's the Impossible Girl so that might not be Clara - Prime if you will.

Yeah, I've read that one, too.

There's been a running theme where the Doctor sort of seems to know that Clara is going to die, so it is possible that he's going to cross back on Clara's timeline, and stories like Magician/Witch, Lake/Flood, Zygon Invasion/Inversion, and Sleep No More take place after Face the Raven and we're watching the season from Clara's timeline and not the Doctor's.

Somebody recently watched Cube. Wow that was boring.

As someone who has HATED this season, I liked this one, and think it's the only one this season worth talking about. But I really think they missed a huge opportunity. The concept was really pretty cool, but it would have had a much bigger impact if they had weaved it throughout the entire season, that is, imagine the entire season the Doctor was in the 'puzzle box', but we didn't know it.

It actually reminded me of a different movie, Triangle.

I actually felt the episode was well made and clever, although I figured out the Doctor was stuck in some sort of a loop where he keeps [dying] within like 3 minutes.

I must be in the minority, because I thought that was probably the best episode in almost 2 full seasons. It wasn't entirely obvious what was going on, at least to me. I picked up on the fact the fears were linked to his confession dial before the reset was explained.

I'm sure Clara will be back as well, but if not her end was somewhat fitting. If nothing else it reproves how dangerous the Docotor is to his companions. That said, her character is so far from where she was with the Impossible Girl - but not in a good way.

Actually excited for the episode tonight to see where things go. Haven't felt that way in a long time.

This episode was painful and pointless. It's trying too hard to be profound and is anything but.

Doctor Who under Moffatt is a convoluted mess, especially the Capaldi era. This season started strong, but of course the hybrid ended as half-baked as it was in the first episode. I like that Ashildr and Clara are off doing their own Doctor/companion thing, though, even if it just a delay until she decides to let the Time Lords break her time lock. But I hope it's the last I see of both of them.
Now comes the part where I wait to see if the next companion is tolerable, and pray for regime change.
Oh, and fuck Charter for ending my recording on the word "Rory." I had to find an illegal streaming site to get the last 5 minutes. Which was probably the only 5 minutes that mattered.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. The "plot" with the Time Lords was ridiculous and makes almost no sense upon examination, it all just seemed geared around getting us to cry big salty tears over Clara. I still love Capaldi, but I hate how Moffatt has to grind every single emotional beat into the ground, especially around companions leaving/regenerations. The way they carry on each time a companion leaves has usually been the worst part of a series. They need to stop acting like every companion is Jesus Mary and Joseph and the loss shatters the Doctor into a million pieces. The man's been around hundreds of years (or billions now, whatever), he would learn to go with the flow a bit.

Maybe I didn't pay enough attention to the Davros episodes, because I totally forgot this hybrid thing was a prophecy. If anything, Ashielder/Me was more of a recurring thing for the series. Wish they had of played up her creepy/stalking thing more.

I'm mixed on Clara's exit. Whereas Rose worked great with multiple Doctor's, Clara never did, and it's evident they didn't know what to do with her for some time now. Last season was just bizarre, so the less said the better. However, as we knew she was leaving it felt like the other foot was waiting to drop for the whole year. Plus, after the Raven it seemed obvious she probably wasn't really gone. I think had it been she would have given more of a speech to Rigsy about living life to its fullest and taking care of his daughter.

Then of course, just like Rose, they brought her back and diminished the emotional weight of the first exit.

All the Clara stuff aside, I thought the visit back to Gallifrey and the barn was pretty cool. I guess despite being a crazy advanced race that controls time and space, they still have poverty and class issues??

Were some events mentioned cannon, or more made up events, like the Cloister Wars?

Interested to see where things go from here. Gallifrey is at least confirmed to be back, so there isn't a search any longer. Wonder what the next large arc will be.

To be fair, The Doctor did just spend the last 4.5 billion years re-experiencing recently losing Clara. Every time he stepped out of that transportation chamber, it was like he had just watched Clara die. The episode only briefly touches on it, but that experience might have driving him a bit mad/obsessed.


That's been a problem with all the companions though. Billie Piper announced she was leaving while Series 2 was in the middle of airing. It's also been a problem with the Doctors since Eccleston.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/06/...o-season-three

I don't think it's as bad as Rose, as Clara was really only "dead" for a single episode, and really only for the mid-part of a known three-parter. Hell, they "killed" her at the end of the season premiere too.

With Rose, there was a whole season and another companion had came and went before they hinted at her return.

Everything that appears on the show is canon. I'm assuming you're wondering if the Cloister Wars was previously mentioned. It was mentioned in The Magician's Apprentice by The Master, but other than that it's a new addition to the canon.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Cloister_Wars

Keep in mind that at one point the Time War was basically just a "made up event" for the new series.

I kind of wish they didn't do these last two episodes. Yeah, that was pretty blah.

Hated it.

Someone explain the point of the last 2 episodes.