1841

Nope, there was a preview at the end of this week’s episode, at least on the BBC.

1842

Yes, but they also shipped some DVDs to the US early.

1843

nope, they shipped DVDs/Blurays early.

1844

Sorry I thought you were asking if I was one of the people who’d seen it early.

1845

Introduce Cybermen who can move literally faster than a speeding bullet.
Never use that ability again for the rest of the episode.

Doctor’s mind taken over by a technology that famously suppresses all emotion.
Taken-over mind is highly emotional.

Planet-destroying bomb also summons a starship to a whisk away any survivors in the immediate area before it blows.
Don’t tell the people charged with using it that it does that second thing.

“It doesn’t explode the planet, it implodes it.”
Planet explodes.

Mention the mystery of Clara in almost every episode of the season.
Refuse to actually advance the mystery in any way.

Sigh.

1846

Agreed. I loved the idea that the very companion herself is the big mystery, but the execution has been weak or almost nonexistent. I suppose they are saving it up for one big bomb episode (this week’s?), but IMHO it is much more effective if you engage the audience throughout by revealing a little more of the puzzle in almost every episode. See also Amy Pond’s quantum pregnancy where the Doctor kept looking at the oscillating results on the view sceen in several episodes with no further development until the bomb dropped.

1847

It’s been kind of weird. The first half-season, when she wasn’t a companion, had far more Clara-centric story arc than all the episodes when she was put together. This recent run has been seriously rough.

1848

The previous week’s London episode was an inexplicably wasted opportunity for cluing in Clara that there’s something unusual about herself. It’s like they got halfway through shooting the episode before anyone realized that oh yeah, Lady Vastra and the gang already met her. Instead they just blew it off, practically to the point of lampshading it. I’m still intrigued by the mystery, but it’s disappointing the way it’s been playing out so far.

1849

The Dalek episode and the Christmas special really setup the character of Clara well. All the other episodes have been a terrible disappointment.

1850

The victorian era episode was pretty good. Not crazy about the Mr. Sweet reveal (seemed contrived and looked fake as all hell), but loved seeing the gang back together again. Lots of little touches in there that made me smile as well. Prime example: Thomas Thomas (Tom Tom) and Strax. I lol’d, even my kids thought that was hilarious.

1851

Just watched the season finale. Without giving any spoilers, my jaw was dropped for a good portion of it, including the beginning and the end. Answered some questions, raised others, and a great lead-in to the next season. Highly recommended.

1852

That was some seriously wibbly-wobbly stuff. Nice season-ender.

1853

Really great season I thought!

1854

Holy crap that ending!

1855

I am a few episodes behind, just watched the submarine episode, wasn’t really that good. :(

1856

The next ep, Hide, is I feel the best of the season.

1857

It gets better. But the season ender contains as much “wow” as the rest of S7 part 2 combined.

1858

Really annoyed that Eccleston wouldn’t come back for the 50th anniversary show. Looking at his IMDB, it’s not like it’s going to cramp his post-DW acting career, which seems to have peaked at GI Joe.

1859

Quite. I really enjoyed it and enjoyed seeing some old faces too. I wasn’t sure if the Bill Hartnell who spoke to Clara was clever editing or a modern character made up to look like him.

1860

This episode is what happens when you replace coherent plotting with 45 minutes of “wouldn’t it be cool if”. Sure, a certain amount of hand-waving is par for the course in Who, but it’s been getting worse and worse over the last couple of seasons, practically to the point now that events unfold in such an arbitrary, disjointed, deus ex machina fashion that it’s becoming very difficult to care anymore. Thus, this episode banked almost entirely on nostalgia to achieve viewer engagement, as a perhaps deliberate tactic to balance out its nonsensical plot.

Two thumbs meh.