Gallifrey stands! (Spoilers, Sweetie)

Seriously, guys, I'm not kidding about the spoilers. I know the 50th anniversary was a few weeks ago, which in Internet time is ancient history (I just didn't have time to edit the photos earlier, I need to stop doing that...), so you've probably already seen the spoilers in a million gifs and screenshots on tumblr and pinterest, but in case you've been purposely avoiding them, fair warning: This post contains ALL THE SPOILERS and plenty of speculation. For The Day of the Doctor, for characters, and for episodes past and future (I always get those mixed up). If you don't want spoilers (or fangirling, for that matter), you'd better just click on the photos or move on to the previous, mostly spoiler-free, post.

Right, now that I've got that out of the way, what about that episode? Did you like it, all those things coming together at last? We learned why exactly Queen Elizabeth wanted the Doctor's head off in The Shakespeare Code. (Well, we did know he was intimately enough involved with her that the nickname "The Virgin Queen" wasn't appropriate anymore and there was that whole eloping in a glade thing - that sexy bastard, always with the royalty... like partying with Marie Antoinette wasn't enough.) Unsurprisingly, though, it was his usual bad timing. He does leave an awful lot of girls waiting, doesn't he?

I liked how sassy Queen Bess was, taking over Zygon command like that. Not to mention the "how many Doctors do you need to open a door" episode. And the Doctor threatening a bunny was hilarious - though I'd be hard put to pick the funniest scene in that episode. Or the saddest. I cried several times, and it was always because of Ten. "Did you say Bad Wolf?" was just as heart-wrenching as "I don't want to go".

Not bringing Rose back as herself was a good call. It would have gotten very complicated and messed things up real bad for Metacrisis Doctor. Bad Wolf, however... oh yes. "I take the words. I scatter them ... in time, and space." Very Clara, now that I think of it.

Digital Nails Bad Wolf: I love this. It looks just like her eyes after looking into the heart of the TARDIS.

I love that the War Doctor explains the 16-year (in Earth years) gap in Doctor Who history, sliding in neatly between Eight and Nine. It explains the darkness of Nine and the sadness of Ten.

Nomenclature, though. That's a bit of a problem, innit? While this makes Peter Capaldi the thirteenth Doctor, he'll still be Twelve to me. Because Matt Smith will stay Eleven and I can't just go and call Ten Eleven just because it's chronologically correct. It's not like the Doctor is too impressed by chronology, after all. I guess that makes John Hurt the Doctor 8.5 (or 8.1 if you want to leave some room for new episodes in that gap - I don't think they actually showed Eccleston's face when Hurt regenerated). Neil Gaiman, once again, says it best.

Now, I don't want you to think I'm complaining about the episode, because it was fantastic and I loved it. But because everything is so well thought out in the Whoniverse and Moffat does such a brilliant job tying all the loose ends together, my mind, which tends to overthink these things at the best of times, goes into overdrive and starts thinking too much about ifs and whens.

Because, you see, I have a small issue with the story. Well, not so much with the storyline itself, but with Eleven's desire to find Gallifrey. I re-watched The End of Time on Sunday, and the return of the Time Lords as explained there should also work with this new setup. Time locked or time frozen, I'm not sure that makes much of a difference (except that they wouldn't come with an army of Daleks). But when they return in that episode, he's all Gah, bad idea, no party! "That's how I choose to remember them. The Time Lords of old. But then they went to war, an endless war, and it changed them. Right to the core. You've seen my enemies, Wilf; the Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them." And he's right, and the Time Lords decide to bring about the ultimate sanction, the end of time.

So where does he get off thinking they'll be better this time? That they'll have changed in any way? They are, after all, time-frozen. So maybe they won't bring with them the Nightmare Child and the Horde of Travesties, and therefore won't feel the urge to destroy all of space and time, but why would their characters have suddenly returned to their pre-war status? And more importantly, why would the Doctor believe they had? Did he forget, or choose to forget, like he forgot the number of children? Is he just so blinded by the joy of not having destroyed Gallifrey after all that he doesn't think about the implications? (Right, and that's me done obsessing over this problem. I'm confident Moffat will come up with a beautiful solution. The answer is probably wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, which is what I love about the non-linear concept of time in Doctor Who.)

Contrast nail in LynBDesigns Snog Box & writing in ILNP Bottle Service

Back to my usual speculations. You know that woman in The End of Time? Missed it the first time round, but that glance between her and the Doctor definitely means something. His mother, his wife, his daughter (Susan's mother)? Background info seems to point toward her being his mother, but I got more of a wife vibe."I was lost long ago," she tells Wilfred.

Next up: Sherlock lives! It's been months since I last ranted about Watson's moustache, you know I can't let all new the announcements and trailers go uncommented.

Captain Fangirl