Now imagine Nick Frost as Santa joining Peter Capaldi as his regular companion. Every week it's an irascible force meeting an affable, metatextual object.

I do have a heart condition. This is not helping but better to go out laughing than crying I guess.

Because I am a giant nerd: favourite moments from the Doctor Who finale.

• Kate Stewart tossing a wrecked Invasion-era Cyberman head in front of the new Cybermen.

• The Doctor trying to find out what his salary is.

• "There’s going to be mass panic. Everyone in London can see that." "Everyone in London just clapped and went 'whee!'"

• The look on the Doctor's face on learning that he's President Idiot.

• The look on Missy's face when she asks Osgood to keep her imminent demise as their little secret.

• The Doctor's quiet "He should've asked" in front of the portrait of the Brigadier.

• Danny removing his face-plate. The Cybermen are most effective (read: only effective) when they're about the body horror.

• Missy giving the Doctor the Cyber-army. (That was an excellent twist.)

• The Doctor's console-pounding fit of rage when he finds the Master was lying about Gallifrey.

• "Never trust a hug, it's just a way to hide your face." Very Moffat, but they sold it.

• Yeah, ok, St Nick Frost. (His name is Nick Frost! Why is his entire career not playing Santa Claus?)

Nerrrrrrrrrd.

Missy's teleport destination being just high enough in the air that she could float down the last few feet buoyed by a black umbrella.

Also the very end of the Doctor/Mistress conversation. "You win." "I know."

I mean of course we know that this show is not going to kill as grand a villain as Missy Master off. But this time they told us literally in flashing lights how she survived. The flash when The Doctor 'disintegrated' Miss was *identical* to the flash when she teleported earlier. And the various entendres made it clear that the Doctor was not going to allow Missy to be killed. All that stuff about "All this just to save Clara's soul." Missy knew damn well the Doctor was her life, rather than just Clara's soul. And all that about "If you ever let that creature live, everyone she killed is on your head" is not only a good point about the past, a foreshadowing of the next time Missy returns.

And all that about "If you ever let that creature live, everyone she killed is on your head" is not only a good point about the past, a foreshadowing of the next time Missy returns.

It's true, and pushes the Master even further into Joker territory. (She was full-on Agent of Chaos here.)

Contrast with Roger Delgado's Master. When he escaped, the Third Doctor seemed to relish the prospect of their next battle (no angst about how many lives might be lost due to his failure this time). It seemed to be more of a game to both of them.

That said, Delgado and Gomez aren't worlds apart. No way would Delgado's Master give up a Cyberman army to the Doctor; but right from Terror of the Autons, he gives the impression that his relationship with the Doctor matters more than his scheme du jour. Plus, the rapidity with which he switches sides in Terror of the Autons suggests that even this debonair mastermind incarnation is ultimately in it, at least to some extent, for shits and giggles.

(I should also note that if the Doctor were to be swayed by Clara's reasoning there, his failure to blow up the lab in Genesis of the Daleks is a far more serious moral problem.)

What makes it more of a moral problem is that the Doctor will kill on occasion.

BTW did Missy actually lie about Gallifrey, rather than merely deceive? It looked to me like the planet was there, just in the form of a burned out husk.

BTW did Missy actually lie about Gallifrey, rather than merely deceive? It looked to me like the planet was there, just in the form of a burned out husk.

I think it was supposed to be simply not there. (That would seem most appropriate to the Doctor's reaction. If Gallifrey were actually dead, I'd expect devastation rather than rage.)

Something I missed - elsewhere on the internet, it is apparently the popular opinion that it wasn't the Doctor who shot Missy, but the Cyber-Brig. (I did notice that her disintegration effect was blue while her weapon had previously produced an orange effect.)

it is apparently the popular opinion that it wasn't the Doctor who shot Missy, but the Cyber-Brig. (I did notice that her disintegration effect was blue while her weapon had previously produced an orange effect.)

...I believe that is a fact. Like...that was the entire point of Cyber-Brig. He shot her. That scene makes no sense otherwise. The Doctor presses the button and then randomly looks back to see Cyber-Brig? The beam came from Cyber-Brig. Clara didn't have to kill her, the Doctor didn't have to kill her; Cyber-Brig killed her, absolving them both of the responsibility.

(Okay, Cyber-Brig did have another point, which was to have saved Kate.)

(Okay, Cyber-Brig did have another point, which was to have saved Kate.)

That's all I really noticed him doing. I'd have preferred it, I think, if the Doctor had been the one to pull the trigger; but if not, the Brig at least also has an extensive history with the Master.

They...put Jenna Coleman's name first.

I missed that, but I did notice that they used Coleman's eyebrows instead of Capaldi's (the eyebrows is our favorite part of the opening credits).