Aw, good.  Cool then…  yeah, the wikipedia pages for episodes are surprisingly good, just couldn't help but rehash the interesting parts that were brought up.  I just left out all the side-character stuff and Doctor being funny and emotional in turn (especially the climax between the characters mentioned).  And yeah, they seem to love returning to old figures/stories, or alternatively playing with the history of the show/Doctor a bit few times…     Speaking of which…

So yeah…  strange and somewhat 'wow' in mixed levels when they went and turned around the whole Gallifrey thing during the specials, tweaking their own history they had set up with it, and it being Time Locked.  And then to not mention it again?  I'm sure we'll get a whole thing from Missy about what happened there (they must all have REALLY mixed feelings about the Doctor by now, first sadly sending them back, then all of his selves saving them, but being stuck!) and how she got away to Earth, exactly, and why she's trying to evily take over again (dude, it didn't work with your "Toclafane" and it didn't work with your clones and link with your unfortunately evil President and entire world coming to Earth, why think it'll work with cybermen?)  So are you just not crazy about them tweaking with the history like that?  I get that.  Some things seem weird to tamper with, despite it being a show about jumping around tweaking time and events (to some extent, with his 'rules').

Really, Davina? I loved Part 1 of the Finale.  It seemed very dark and "adult" to me for a change.  Clara's terrible grief over Danny.  Danny so alone and frightened in that horrible place. Themes/questions about death and an after-life and the physical body.  I was quite moved by all that.  I could feel the emptiness. Then there was Missy - a bizarre, scary villain, very well-played.  I'm looking forward to next week.  And I have really grown to love Capaldi.  I think I was a bit like Clara at first.  I didn't know what to make of him.  I missed Matt Smith's youth, humor and exuberance and I think I had to go through a little bit of a grieving period before I could warm up to Capaldi. But now I have and I've come to enjoy the prickly crankiness of his Doctor. And, as woman of a 'certain age', I find him very, very attractive.

(preemptively hands out cookies and cocoa to anyone who needs it after tonight's usual emotional havoc wreaked by our favorite Moffat)      

I couldn't watch it last night - will hopefully see it later today.  Thanks for the warning! 

Meanwhile, I thought this  was lovely:
A lovely message from Peter Capaldi to my 9 year old autistic son. This arrived just before Thomas' nanny's funeral and helped him to deal with his grief in a profound way. Thankyou Peter so much.



 

I have now caught up.  Emotional havoc, indeed! 

KeepersPrice wrote:

Russell wrote:

(preemptively hands out cookies and cocoa to anyone who needs it after tonight's usual emotional havoc wreaked by our favorite Moffat)      

 
'Both endings' completely blew me away.  I sooo believed the finale was the end.  Moffat, you troll!

I know!!  My friend and I were just sitting there staring silently emotionally stunned ahead for a moment, about to start exclaiming when suddenly the credits stopped and that happened.  (then the massive exclaiming started  ;P  ;D)   And those teasers have a glimpse of Xmas up already??


(I think should post a 'Warning, Minor Finale Spoilers!' here!)



(And yes, saw the Capaldi video message!  So utterly sweet and sounds just like how I've heard he is IRL.)

Davina wrote:

I enjoyed that episode. Thought Missy was played brilliantly and her scenes with The Doctor were excellent. The Pink/Clara relationship was well done too. Really good all round (except I found that part with The Brigadier/Cyberman rescue thingy, much too cheesy for my taste). I loved the idea of choices being made, especially Pink's final choice. 'This is the Doctor' were super-delivered lines. I was impressed, yet again, by Capaldi (his face when he realised that Missy had been telling the truth and his reaction when he beat up the Tardis...marvellous!)

The St. Paul's roof trick was awesome (overused word, but it WAS) but I did feel that some of the other visual effects and sound effects were a little clunky. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a little more use of silence at times, rather than some of the incidental music (most was really good but sometimes silence or natural sounds can build a sense of tension more than music can).

I thought the flashback, realisation sections were super too.


So...what's next?

Santa Claus, apparently ;)

Russell wrote:

Davina wrote:

I enjoyed that episode. Thought Missy was played brilliantly and her scenes with The Doctor were excellent. The Pink/Clara relationship was well done too. Really good all round (except I found that part with The Brigadier/Cyberman rescue thingy, much too cheesy for my taste). I loved the idea of choices being made, especially Pink's final choice. 'This is the Doctor' were super-delivered lines. I was impressed, yet again, by Capaldi (his face when he realised that Missy had been telling the truth and his reaction when he beat up the Tardis...marvellous!)

 
It was! Loved it. How good were Missy's mannerisms now that we knew who she was? And the Doctor's reactions, like you said? And the weight of their choices they made.

But now that the emotional roller coaster is over, can't help but wonder about a few things that either were left vague, or to interpretation, or simply missed explanation in the midst of being utterly caught up in everything else. First, how in the world did Missy do that appearing/disappearing trick? (on the plane, and at end, showing up like an evil Mary Poppins) And was she really telling the Doctor the truth, trying to appease him with one last 'gift' to be friends again? I thought he was so upset because he realized she lied/played with him again, and now was really back to square one, on top of the rest of the losses. Speaking of 'lies'… gah, don't even start on those.

She has a teleportation device- the bracelet on her wrist.  It was how Danny sent the little boy back.

She may or may not have been telling the truth (very likely she was telling the truth, but in a way that the Doctor misinterpreted), but he thinks she lied about it.

Liberty wrote:

Oh, so confusing!  I thought

that she lied to him about Gallifrey, and he was looking out into space when he got there?  Or do you mean he misunderstood and was looking in the wrong place?

  I got a bit caught up in the emotion and missed some things too, I think.

I did like the Brigadier bit.  My head was telling me it was ridiculous for any number of reasons.  My heart felt differently, especially with the salute. 

I know what you mean about the music, Davina.  It was quite intrusive at times, but I think I liked it.    There was a silly bit where the main theme went a bit disco.  I can't remember when that was, but it had me sofa-dancing at the time!

Loved the hug/lies/face-hiding at the end.  Do you think either of them sort of guessed, but followed each other's wishes?  I wasn't sure. 

Well, the Master most definitely could have lied to the Doctor...but that's not really her way of doing things.  She likes to play games with the Doctor, and always has.  It's very possible that she actually did give the Doctor the information he needed to find Gallifrey, but he didn't put it together correctly and thought she tricked him.  That's my thinking on it, anyway.

I liked the Doctor Who extra. It's nice to see behind the scenes and get a few comments from Moffat and the other writer. This was the first season of dr. who I've ever seen, liked it a lot. The Listen episode really blew me away and I loved Missy.