A couple of random thoughts:

Is this the Cyberman design from Nightmare in Silver? (Not sure how that works, I think that one was set in the far future.) I find these ones more bland in appearance than the Cybus cybermen. On that note, did any Cyberman even get any dialogue? I'm thinking not. They're pretty firmly the support act here.

I've come across the opinion that fundamental to the Cybermen is their 'survival at all costs' attitude. Animating them with the consciousnesses of the dead gives an interesting twist to their "We must survive!" catchphrase.

I've loved Clara this season, she's improved mightily from her time with Eleven. Clara's "I don't want a lava" scene might be my favourite with her so far. (And of course she and Twelve have to include a control freak slapfight in the middle of it.)

Also taken with the Doctor's line, "Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make any difference?". It's a neat corollary to his alien ruthlessness all season. This is in its way just as alien (and ruthless), and certainly just as authoritarian (though I think it avoids the condescension of Kill the Moon). It also answers, for me, his question from the first ep: "Am I a good man?"

People remember that The Doctor's Wife established that Time Lords can change genders when regenerating, right? (When the Doctor talked about the Corsair.)

People remember that The Doctor's Wife established that Time Lords can change genders when regenerating, right? (When the Doctor talked about the Corsair.)

Yes, though that was told and not shown, so I suppose naysayers could've argued it still wasn't canonical. (At this point I'd mention River Song's admonishment that The Doctor Lies, but for the most part that was told and not shown too.)

Didn't the Doctor feeling his hair and shouting "I'm a girl!" immediately after his regeneration in "The End of Time" pretty strongly imply that it was possible, as well?

Didn't the Doctor feeling his hair and shouting "I'm a girl!" immediately after his regeneration in "The End of Time" pretty strongly imply that it was possible, as well?

That probably depends on one's opinion of how astonished Matt Smith seemed at the prospect. (I personally read his reaction as indicating that it's a rare but entirely plausible outcome. Oh, and that Eleven was actually Calvin. "I'm a girl" indeed.)

I'm still loving K9 the cat. "Hey, you! Yes, the one with the scarf. Have we met before? Ok, never mind about that. I'm bored. Go fetch that robot parrot thing I killed once. I want to bat it around some more. No, the parrot thing. Belonged to Captain Shouty. Pushed you off a cliff. God, that was funny. ...Well I don't see why you're complaining. You pushed Romana off a cliff next adventure, you don't really have much high ground there. Probably fall off it if you did. There's an epitaph for you. Name: Doctor Scarf. Nemesis: heights. None of which is fetching my dead parrot."

When reading this I heard it entirely in Benedict Cumberbacth's Sherlock Holmes voice. I'm not exactly sure why but maybe the bored thing and fetch me the parrot.

Helen Mirren would be amazing as the Doctor but another dream actress for the role - Gina Torres. Sure she's not British (or Scottish) but she can do action, she can do humor and she can do voice of steel scary thing. Just imagine this

The Doctor: But you're not the first lot to have come here. Oh, there have been so many. And what you've got to ask is... what happened to them?

The Doctor: Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically...run.

Gina Torres

As long as she can do an English (or Scottish, or Welsh or Irish) accent. not with a Dick Van Dyke cockney either. (Though I'd would very much enjoy a comic episode where some evil alien changes the Doctor's accent to Dick Van Dyke cockney for one episode.)

OK, does Abby not know CPR?

And when did Ichabod learn it, because he didn't know what to do when Abbie almost drowned a few episodes back.

Maybe he Internetted.