Nevada
The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) travels in a car and stops at the diner, getting out with his trusty guitar. Inside the diner the waitress turns around and it's Clara (Jenna Coleman). A bit of a twist cos they don't know each other, which means either she doesn't remember him and also it appears he doesn't know her either. He plays some notes on the guitar and she asks him what it is. He calls it 'Clara' and then begins to tell her a story. All stories are real and end up becoming memories.
Heading to Gallifrey he enters a deserted barn where a woman tells him they'll kill him. The President of Gallifrey, Rassilon (Donald Sumpter) and General (Ken Bones) send a ship to bring him back. He sits and tries to eat his soup in peace but to no avail. He gets up and draws a line in the sand with his boot and the people all cheer. The others watch him from the screen and wonder why he doesn't accompany the ship as ordered. The High Priestess of the Sisterhood of Karn, Ohlia (Clare Higgins) says he's trying to eat his soup.
Rassilon, the self proclaimed President of Gallifrey turns up with a firing squad as the Doctors tell him to "get off my planet." He's angry at him more than anyone else. Rassilon orders the soldiers to fire, but they fire behind him and miss him. They were in the war with him and they give up their arms and stand alongside him, as Rassilon thinks reinforcements have been ordered. However they are they for Rassilon and for him to leave the planet. The Doctor heads back to the High Council and the General tells him Rassilon doesn't have anywhere to go. The Doctor saying if he wanted to ask him about the Hybrid he only had to ask, not put him through all that suffering in his confession box.
The General talks of the matrix prophecy saying the hybrid is half Time Lord and half Dalek, as it's a mix of two warrior races. The Doctor saying prophecies don't really tell you anything. He manages to convince the General to take him back to the Street and to the final moments before Clara's death as she prepares to die, time freezes and he appears before her telling her to come with him. They're inside the white TARDIS and he overtakes it, killing the General as he begins another regeneration. Before he dies, he told the Doctor that they must tell her. He takes Clara and heads to the matrix database where the place is guarded by the Time Wraiths. They don't let anyone leave.
The Doctor and Clara see a Dalek telling it to "exterminate me." As well as a Cyberman, he explains the matrix is database and everything gets filed here. There's nothing they can do. I liked seeing the weeping angels again. He looks for a way out as there's a secret way out. He was told this by someone who got out and wasn't so right in the head. Clara knows he's talking about himself. She wants to know why he did this cos she was dead and was ready for it. He explains what he went through but doesn't tell her how long he endured life without her. The General (T'Nia Miller) regenerates into a woman, showing it's possible to do so (for those wanting the Doctor to become a woman in the future.) As she and the Priestess head there, Clara asks how long the doctor was in that place? She's told about 4.5 billion years and she can't believe instead of telling them about the hybrid, he went through that just for her. Buying time so he could find her and save her.
Clara is angry and in tears as she tells the Gallifreyans they're hated and that's why. Also that the Doctor knew they'd be watching her as he slipped away and stole another TARDIS. This one's white inside and he asks Clara if she can feel her pulse. Which she can't. He says he's at the end of the universe, so there's nowhere else to go and her pulse is frozen a moment before her death. He travels further away and she still doesn't have a pulse and she also has the clock tattoo on her neck. Clara earlier asking about his velvet coat before cos he was so like the Doctor in that.
With interspersed scenes back to the diner as Clara tentatively listens to the story. Once again this is one ep to watch instead of reading about, I don't think reviews actually do it justice. Back in the TARDIS there are four knocks on the door and he says, "this one's Me for." As he walks out he sees Ashildr (Maisie Williams). The Doctor thinks she's the hybrid, as he really doesn't know who that is and she tells him it could be half human and half Time Lord. Thus Clara could be the hybrid, someone so much like him. That was said a few eps ago, that Clara and the Doctor are so alike, how they just both take off on adventures together. If that's the case then everyone's in danger. He blames Ashildr for Clara's death but she says it wasn't her fault. Clara's too much like him and wanted to save the people she loved.
Also how Clara listens to their conversation using the Shades. He said he plans to tell Clara he's wiping her memories of him now and when he gets to the TARDIS Clara admits she already knows his intentions and she used the Shades to disrupt the polarity on the mind blocker. So they won't know who will have their memories wiped, as the Doctor says they'll both do it. He then starts to forget and tells her to smile so he'll recall her smiling for the last time. But she can only cry.
Back at the diner he plays some more guitar and Clara cries some more as she steps into the stolen TARDIS and takes the long way round to Gallifrey. Now we have it, two 'Doctors' (well kind of) flying around the galaxy and thus Clara having her own adventures before she returns and gets her pulse back and ends up back at the Street. Let's hope she keeps Ashildr with her!! No seriously.
He returns to the TARDIS which materializes in the desert with Clara's picture, painted on the front. Inside he finds his velvet coat and a message from Clara: "Run you clever boy and be the Doctor." Hey I said that last ep review!! Surprise, surprise, he also reaches for the new Sonic, yes the return of the Sonic Screwdriver. I had a sneaky suspicion that the Doctor didn't really forget Clara and that everything was for her benefit, even if she claimed not to know who Clara is. As she said in the diner that his TARDIS is somewhere out there and maybe someone will find it for him, was that someone her? Then she also tells him about the stories being real and the memories becoming stories which is what he said. Though that was a clue which he didn't get, or he did and didn't let on. But also he calls the guitar piece 'Clara' it's not like a random name he just pulls out of his hat, or rather his velvet coat! He must retain something in his subconscious, but no one mentioned any of that. You never really know what Steven Moffat is thinking.
The Doctor mentions Amy and Rory in the diner, as well as Donna and Clara cries cos he can't seem to recall her. Well guessing it's cos of that. Anyway I said Clara can't lose her memories cos they already did that with Donna and I was right, ha. Another enjoyable final ep for Clara as there was more emphasis on saving her, rather than finding Gallifrey and dealing with that. He's not too enamoured with Gallifrey, his friend, Clara coming first. I think that was a more fitting finale than a showdown with the Time Lords. He didn't have time for them (groan!) preferring to get Clara back, he did spend 4.5 billion years in that hell just for it and it was all worth it for him.
A lot of fans referred to the Doctor actually killing the General here and he doesn't kill, but talks himself and others out of the situation and saving the day. Even Clara is shocked at that, but he says he'll regenerate. Thus it isn't really like killing someone who'll remain dead. It was all for Clara and even if it meant the risk of fracturing time, Clara asking Ashildr what that means.
Ashildr told him he doesn't like endings and with him not remembering Clara, he won't have to, as she didn't even exist for him and they never met. Which I think is more poignant than him having to say goodbye to her. She's off on her own adventures and not really knowing how long that could take; knowing when she finally gets to Gallifrey she will be back on the Street and her end will come. Ashildr getting to time travel with her now. So Clara got herself a companion too!
SO why can't Clara be half Dalek and half human. Instead of her and the Doctor forming the hybrid, especially since Davros was the first one who brought it up this series. Going back to when we first met her inside the Dalek. I liked that cos we were never really told much about it when it boils down to it. Not to mention how she was in different time periods when Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith) used to meet her. That means if and when the Doctor meets her, he won't know she's Clara.
Anyway I liked this ending where it had Clara flying around in the Diner shaped TARDIS and both of them whizzing around in time and space. Maybe one day they'll meet up. Was also glad that although Clara is meant to be dead, she did get a pass on that and is still around until she can get a pulse. Even if it is said her death is set and can't be altered, a fixed point in time. It doesn't make it as sad and also that she did retain her memory. The diner being the same one in The Impossible Astronaut. But funny though, Clara's TARDIS can only appear as a diner!
Been wondering why Timothy Dalton didn't return as Rassilon after appearing in the Christmas Special with Doctor Ten (David Tennant).
Next up the Christmas Special with River Song and her many husbands!!
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