Well clearly you guys saw a different episode to me, because the one I saw was bloody awful. Capaldi was great - obviously - but the episode was utter shite. I thought maybe with Clara's death the Doctor would learn to function as an adult again, and boy was I wrong. He opens the episode swearing vengeance against whoever was involved in killing her, and ends it by punching a wall until he dies. Repeatedly. For over a billion years - which does make me wonder if time was kept separate inside the confession dial. But, then, the stars wouldn't have shifted so much, so the Doctor really is a billion years into the future. He's really kept Gallifrey waiting, so at this rate he'll be invading and conquering a Gallifrey that has literally no idea who he is or what he's playing at.
There's also the implication that if the Doctor is dying he can simply climb back into his Confession Castle and activate the teleporter and come out fresh and new.
And, now, no offence to Jenna Coleman, but I hate Clara. I've hated her from the start. And I've only grown to hate her more. I find her character ridiculous, pointless and otherwise find that she detracts from every season she's in. Where are the companions who caused trouble with their ignorance or curiosity? Isn't that the point in a companion? The Doctor's been around for over a thousand years and spent most of it floating about learning intergalactic laws and customs and generally knowing what's what. It seems very odd, to me, that the whole point of Clara's character seems to be "I cover all the Doctor's mistakes" where previous Doctors have only pretended to be farcical madmen and have actually been playing a different game all along. I just don't understand why the Doctor suddenly became 90% reliant on Clara. It doesn't make sense to me. Where's the hinted-at callousness of his character? How is the dark side of the Doctor meant to be believable when he has to go ask Clara for permission to do things inside his own goddamn head?
Clara should have ended her role when she got trapped inside the dalek. That would have been the best way for her character to disappear. It would close the circle, in a way, and be damned dark. And no, this episode wasn't dark at all. This episode was shite. The villain was ridiculous. For one, the Doctor could have barred the doors to the super-diamond wall and punched it to his heart's content and there would be shit-all that the monster could've done about it. I'm also annoyed by the whole "It's trying to scare me, I can freeze it with a confession" when it just straight-up murders him anyway. Surely it stopped because it was trying to scare a confession out of you and not kill you? If it kills you, there's no more confession. Unless the chessmaster behind the whole scheme knew you were going to murder yourself, teleport yourself back into life and punch the diamond wall a lot. And repeat the same two confessions for a billion years. I have got literally no idea what the possible intention of that whole arrangement could've been. It's just silly. Especially "Time Lords are hard to kill."
Really mate. You were trapped in a Tardis of sorts. Clearly Time Lord technology. Whoever is trying to kill you is a Time Lord, and they've been around for a while. By now, they've most assuredly mastered the art of killing other Time Lords, so the fact the monster almost killed you and then teleported out is either deliberate or a massive fucking oversight. Why does the monster even teleport back in when the castle resets? Who designed that ridiculous feature? Moreover, who decided to have the castle keep resetting? In what world did that make sense?
The only answer is that the Doctor inexplicably sealed himself in that castle to teach himself a lesson about feelings.
