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I was under the impression that was said by RTD, but not 'official' canon as it wasn't in the episode... I might be wrong, though. And yeah, I wouldn't put it past Moffat to completely disregard previous episodes, he's done it many times before.

Glorious episode, adored it.

As for the Doctor's final line:

Oh, good one! Hadn't thought of that! He did point out that she was



However



Although it really could be either. This is Moffat, after all, who has a tendency to bluff his double bluffs into triple bluffs and all too regularly get into overly convoluted nonsense, but that seems so far to have been avoided here.

True, I think past series' have just made me look immediately for the double bluff.

I thought she gave that to the thief that was being hanged?

Possibly...I fell asleep during last weeks episode.

Ah, no, I meant in her second episode, when she was a highwayman and the lion people invaded... which in hindsight, sounds terrible, which it really wasn't!

D'oh, totally forgot that. You are right.

I think it's going to end up being a metaphysical thing, not literal. He's not going to become a hybrid or turn into a hybrid, or transform, or whatever. It's all going to come down to one or two quippy lines, with triumphant music behind him.

Something like:

"This is it, don't you understand what the hybrid is? It's not being a full timelord, because I'm not. I'm better than that, I'm more than some aloof, self righteous timelord. My friends, my *human* friends, my time with Clara, Amy, Rory, <list of people>, make me more than that. Those dumb, stupid little apes, they're a part of me, I'm a part of them. I'm The Hybrid. Half timelord, half human and that's why you'll never win."

Might be the first time that I swore out loud at an episode, this week.

I guessed how the skulls had come to be, the first time we saw them. Thought that the rules must not extend outside the building. But I didn't see the ending, bigger plan, etc, coming.

Did anyone see the reveal from early on, and work out what was going on? I'm not too experienced with sci fi, so I didn't.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Might be the first time that I swore out loud at an episode, this week.

I guessed how the skulls had come to be, the first time we saw them. Thought that the rules must not extend outside the building. But I didn't see the ending, bigger plan, etc, coming.

Did anyone see the reveal from early on, and work out what was going on? I'm not too experienced with sci fi, so I didn't.

I figured out a few bits:

But I always think the mark of a good episode is that even when you've figured it out, you're still every bit as interested, and this week certainly lived up to that.

The question is who put Doctor Who into the castle?

 Paradigm wrote:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Might be the first time that I swore out loud at an episode, this week.

I guessed how the skulls had come to be, the first time we saw them. Thought that the rules must not extend outside the building. But I didn't see the ending, bigger plan, etc, coming.

Did anyone see the reveal from early on, and work out what was going on? I'm not too experienced with sci fi, so I didn't.

I figured out a few bits:

Spoiler:

- That the castle was his confession dial. That seemed obvious to me as soon as it became apparent that The Veil stopped when he made a confession.

- I figured it would be Gallifrey on the other side of the wall, but that's in part due to the fact the BBC oh-so-subtly put words to the effect of 'If the Doctor can survive, Gallifrey is waiting' in the episode description... Even without that, I probably would have got it.

- I was thinking the skulls must all be his, and that by extension, it was The Doctor that called himself back via the teleport every time,

But I always think the mark of a good episode is that even when you've figured it out, you're still every bit as interested, and this week certainly lived up to that.

Truth there. I hadn't seen the description, since the bbc spoiled the previous episode on Facebook, I've been cagey.
Good spot on the first one, I didn't catch that as I didn't grasp how it physically worked.
I thought that
I'm frustratingly not going to be home next Saturday until Sunday night. If anyone spoils it for me during the weekend, I'll be so very cross.

 Compel wrote:
I think it's going to end up being a metaphysical thing, not literal. He's not going to become a hybrid or turn into a hybrid, or transform, or whatever. It's all going to come down to one or two quippy lines, with triumphant music behind him.

Something like:

"This is it, don't you understand what the hybrid is? It's not being a full timelord, because I'm not. I'm better than that, I'm more than some aloof, self righteous timelord. My friends, my *human* friends, my time with Clara, Amy, Rory, <list of people>, make me more than that. Those dumb, stupid little apes, they're a part of me, I'm a part of them. I'm The Hybrid. Half timelord, half human and that's why you'll never win."

he's already a hybrid though, literally, it's been stated he's a 1/2 human 1/2 timelord thus a hybrid.

and Ishildur could end up being is mother, she's immortal after all, and with all the time the master has spent on earth ... now that's a moffat twist, or the doctor becomes his own father just so he can play his guitar and talk about another classic time paradox.

While the skulls were a cool and spooky clue as to what was going on since the exterior of the castle didn't reset by the time the bazillion years were up the pile of skulls in the sea outside should have been up to the top of the battlements where they always fell from

That's true but perhaps the skull pile reset itself like all the other rooms except Room 12.

I never knew Doctor Who was a Time Lord-Human hybrid!?!?! When did that happen and how?

As I understand it, it's from a random line in that terrible film that noone watched, with Paul McGann the 8th Doctor.

Generally people disregard it as "The Doctor lies."

Apparently he's human "on his mothers side." - I'm sure, if they were ever to address that directly, it would just be a case of, "my mother taught me stuff."

I think it was also contradicted in one of the David Tennant specials, anyhow.

The McGann film wasn't that bad. It suffered from being an American take on a quintessentially British show, hence the unnecessary motorbike chase and gunfights, but there have been episode of both the new and old Who that have been much, much worse. McGann himself got the short end of the stick, I think in the right hands he could have been an excellent Doctor (which is why I still hope in vain for a Time War spin-off, with Mcgann for the first series or so and then John Hurt...).

Is anyone else thinking the whole 'the hybrid will stand in the ruins of Gallifrey and destroy a million hearts to fix his own' thing, is actually a reference to the time war, and the way the doctor trapped Gallifrey, which whilst it saved the time lords, must have broke their hearts, in that they were stuck there and unable to do anything? He used/didn't use the moment whilst Gallifrey was largely in ruins, and you could claim he saved Gallifrey so that he wouldn't be the last time lord, and have the guilt of destroying his own people, which would have fixed his heart

 Paradigm wrote:
McGann himself got the short end of the stick, I think in the right hands he could have been an excellent Doctor (which is why I still hope in vain for a Time War spin-off, with Mcgann for the first series or so and then John Hurt...).

He has done a fair bit of work on Dr Who audio dramas, which are supposedly quite good... I've been meaning to check them out for a while now. Might have to track some down for Christmas.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
While the skulls were a cool and spooky clue as to what was going on since the exterior of the castle didn't reset by the time the bazillion years were up the pile of skulls in the sea outside should have been up to the top of the battlements where they always fell from

Currents maybe?

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
While the skulls were a cool and spooky clue as to what was going on since the exterior of the castle didn't reset by the time the bazillion years were up the pile of skulls in the sea outside should have been up to the top of the battlements where they always fell from

Currents maybe?

It may be that the skulls just reset like everything else. The skulls are just there to frighten the doctor by showing him that countless people before him have failed to escape.

If they did not reset, the ocean around the castle would have filled up long before the 1,000,000,000+ years had passed, making the doctor's heroic dive out the window a very short and painful action.

But how did they get there?

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
But how did they get there?

Except, if the skulls reset every time, they they should have never been there.
Infact, how, when this first happened, did the doctor see the bird symbol if he wasn't there to write it?
How did he know the first time to.........argh this is so confusing

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Except, if the skulls reset every time, they they should have never been there.
Infact, how, when this first happened, did the doctor see the bird symbol if he wasn't there to write it?
How did he know the first time to.........argh this is so confusing

The rooms mostly reset, but obviously not every time or at least not every room. Skulls are outside a room so they wouldn't reset, the clothes were ready for him and didn't reset, bird note was in the teleporter room didn't reset.

Also, I imagine the first time he spent a bit more time figuring things out. Also, a bit more time naked or wet (since there were no dry clothes). The first time was, in fact, probably the hardest since he had very few hints.

So, I saw a trailer for it in the rifftrax showing I was at. Is it me, or where the river song clips old episodes?

Almost certainly. River isn't in next week's as far as we know, but she is in the Christmas episode. There are a fair few fan-made trailers around as opposed to the official ones, are you sure it wasn't one of those you saw?

It was a trailer for the fathom even to watch it in the theater

Well that was... an unexpected direction for them to go in. But other than



it was rather good. I think I need to watch it again to really 'get' it though.