The Name of the Doctor- my thoughts (spoilers!)

Two people have already PM'd me wanting to talk about this, so I figured I'd just get it out of the way here for everyone.  Seriously, mega-spolierish, so I'll do a countdown...

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Short version- it's rife with the same stuff that makes me tune out of Moff episodes, but for some reason it worked this time around.  

The use of the past Doctors (while sometimes shakey, effects-wise) was brilliant- and I throw it in the face of anyone who ever said you can't do an Eleven Doctors story.  You got one tonight (and somehow, without even using Paul McGann!!!).  For a couple seconds, William Hartnell was back- in color!  And we finally saw the TARDIS's pre-Police Box mode!  Who else thought of "Zagreus" during the limbo-y final scene?  This is the kind of thing I want see in an anniversary year, so good on Moff.  Minor missed opportunity- given the recent expense of rebuilding the original console room for "An Adventure in Space And Time", couldn't they have gotten a quick shot of Hartnell's double walking into it for the first time?

Speaking of past (and future) Doctors, the Valeyard got reaffirmed as still being very much in the Doctor's future.  So big evil yay for that.

As Moffat Season Finales go, this one had a more neat and simple explanation than most (I mean that in a good way).  Even the leaf (normally a moment that'd induce vomiting) worked here.

"The Stars Are Going Out" without a doubt belongs on the Nu Who Bingo Card, Drinking Game, etc.  3 of the last 4 season finales have used that one.

Jenny's murder was legitimately shocking, emotional, and daring.  And beliveable since she was a minor (albeit well-liked) character.  It made the danger real and made you wonder how other characters would develop because of it.  And then she got resurrected ten minutes later.  Then for an encore she died again along with Strax (no stranger to dying himself) and came back.  This is also in a story where Clara and the Doctor die multiple times, River is a ghost, and the Great Intelligence wears a dead man's face.  In fact, in this entire ep the only significant character who was a Death Virgin was Vastra.  Just sayin'.  Pretty soon Strax and Jenny will be up for the Five Timer's Club.

Speaking of, how great are Strax and Jenny?  Brilliant creations.  But Vastra's been underwritten lately- I liked it better when she was a little more violent and ate people.

For an enemy called The Great Intelligence... his plan seems kinda emotional and a bit dopey.  "You thwarted my plans four times over the course of 100+ years- I'll show you by killing both of us."  Moff creates some great monsters, but his actual villains never seem very well-imagined.  Fortunately, it's Richard E. Grant, who can be interesting reading a KFC menu.  How funny would it have been if the Great Intelligence's scattering of himself through the Doctor's timeline created the Shalka Doctor?  Who knows, maybe it still will...

Speaking of great Moff monsters... the Whispermen aren't.  Cool name, cool look, nothing else.  Ya don't send a Whisperman to do a Yeti's job.

So now that Trenzalore's sorted, does that mean the Silence owe the Doctor an apology?

And then there's that final reveal...  I remember when the (correct) speculation bagan on John Hurt's identity, I thought "Oh-oh."  But ya know what?  Totally worked for me in execution- even the cheesey John Landis-style titles on screen at the end.  Brilliant.  And a great payoff to the years of holding off from showing us much about the Time War.  I'm seriously excited to see what comes next.  And good on Moffat for having the balls to do something really "dangerous" with canon (it actually isn't when ya think about it objectively- but it's certainly a bigger revelation than you'd expect with this show).

Now here's my little theory- if Hurt's the real Nine, and Tennant regenerated twice... that's twelve regenerations.  Could Smith be the "final" Doctor?  We've been told the 50th Special will set the show up for the next 50 years... see where I'm going with this?

And for those wondering if a certain piece of fan art by me will be getting updated (again)... yeah probably.  Watch this space.  

Best of all, the Doctor has all his annoying prophecies and assassination cults behind him, the "Doctor Who" stuff is out of the way, Clara is more of a person and less of a plot device than we thought, and it's off into a bright future.  The show feels unfettered and limitless again.  Cool!