Hmm, I liked it. I liked the trees-as-shield.

Plus, I'm worried that, rather than the Last Age of the Great and Bountiful Who, we are seeing it's sad decline.

See now, I've actually enjoyed most of this season. I do think it's had its flaws, but some of the major problems I've had with Steve Moffatt as showrunner I think he's addressed this time around. (Most importantly, this season's Clara is to my mind the best-written companion he's produced.)

I would like them, not exactly to pull back on this incarnation's ruthlessness, but to give more sign that he acknowledges the cost. (Which is a reason Orient Express and Flatline are my favourites so far.)

Hmm, I liked it. I liked the trees-as-shield.

Doctor Who has often been scientifically dubious, and it doesn't always bother me. (I mean, Kill the Moon was screamingly absurd from a sci-fi perspective, and apparently I'm willing to forgive that for Clara tearing strips off the Doctor.) But on this occasion it did. The character work didn't really benefit enough from the fantasy set-up, and something about having the trees cover the oceans really got to me. (Plus, solar flares don't work that way, and Tunguska wasn't the same thing, and where was all that biomass supposed to come from, and trees can't stop fires by withholding oxygen because it doesn't get rid of the oxygen already in the atmosphere, and who's going to fix Nelson's Column and everything else including possible every road ever and what will they think they're doing if they don't remember the trees (or to quote the Doctor, "TREES!"), and telling kids that hear voices in their head that they should stop taking their medication and listen to them feels kind of irresponsible.)

But mostly it was having trees cover the oceans.

I actually dislike Clara. I don't like the way that she lies to Danny AND the Doctor. They also don't feel like a team to me, they are separate entities working toward the same goal, maybe?

trees can't stop fires by withholding oxygen because it doesn't get rid of the oxygen already in the atmosphere

I'm still not watching, but this sentence makes me think BACKDRAFT.

I actually dislike Clara. I don't like the way that she lies to Danny AND the Doctor. They also don't feel like a team to me, they are separate entities working toward the same goal, maybe?

I kind of love that. From the end of Mummy on the Orient Express on, she's been making some bad decisions, and for bad reasons. Danny was one of the elements of last ep that I liked, and I'm glad they wrote him as sharp enough to recognise Clara's been lying to him; I would have preferred if he'd also been harder on her about it, but he did still make it clear that she was going to have to make some choices. (The Doctor, of course, realised long ago, probably as soon as she started; but he doesn't seem to care.)

The upshot is that I quite like having this kind of tension in the relationship between the Doctor and his companion, especially tied into deeper themes of Clara's own self-image and moral centre, and how the Doctor's value proposition can really screw people up.

Which leads to the promos for the finale, and I'm less than enthused that they seem to be returning to that Impossible Girl rubbish. (I could be wrong, I hope so anyway.)

I would not like a return to Impossible Girl, but I would don't think I would like "Clara has been secretly evil the whole time" either (One possible interpretation of that promo.) And "Clara has been wiped out of time and now never existed" has been done with another character before. So I can't think of any place the promo hinted at going that appeals to me.

So I can't think of any place the promo hinted at going that appeals to me.

I can think of one, i.e. That she's bluffing for some reason. I would also be willing to give some benefit of the doubt to a doppelgänger scenario. Alas, I don't think they're so likely; but I do find Moffat's finales are more likely to be cracked out overstuffed hot messes than tired repeats, so fingers crossed?

Actually pretty excited for Flash tonight and seeing Captain Cold introduced.

msbelle, Supernatural has its own thread.