I actually thought it worked because my perception was that it wasn't hyped nearly as much as the previous mysteries.  My expectations were lower and the explanation, while not glorious or mind-blowing, fit the holes pretty well.

@avclub-3db41011acc2d229176bf6a92202728d:disqus "There are no stakes?"  They haven't escaped yet.  All he did was find Clara while causing the timestream to collapse in on itself.  The whole "enter your own timeline" provides a pretty good excuse for the meeting of the 10th, 11th and ?th Doctors in the 50th…

The Scooby-Nova relationship feels like bestiality to me…even though they're both dogs.

Surprising Scooby Doo reference #2: Twin Peaks

I think a fun exercise would be to mentally replace Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock with Cumberbatch's and imagine how the scene would play out.  For instance, for the scene in which JLM-Sherlock first meets Irene and they're flirting furiously about her stolen restorations, BCB-Sherlock would humorlessly have her…

Honestly, I expected to be disappointed by the reveal of the Doctor's true name, but Moffat deftly sidestepped a question that was too hyped to actually answer in any satisfying manner and piqued my excitement for the 50th Anniversary episode.

Neutral Milk Hotel (n.) - A teleporting hotel made of milk and neutrons.

Yeah, the fart 2-parter is atrociously bad.  I also nearly quit the series after that.

Also, brain death occurred like hours ago.  No amount of cardiac stimulation should fix that.  But whatever, it's Doctor Who.  In this same episode, they declared that time travel was always possible in dreams, which WHAT THE FUCK?

I didn't feel much emotional resonance when Clara was saved, but I did during River's final goodbye scene.  I thought Smith and Kingston's chemistry really soared there.  Also, the idea of a "lost" Doctor had me shitting all of my pants.

Is four not enough?  I would be pissed off if one dude ruined by universe-dominating/destroying plans ONE time, much less four (and also if I was a psychopathic, narcissistic alien).

I thought it was a pretty solid season too, but nothing really stood out…until this episode.

@avclub-2d0cca95ad6a2061d208d765e79af478:disqus Throwback?

I don´t understand AVC reviewers anymore (I never trusted them to begin
with, they´re reviewers, not movie/TV critics outside their interesting
pieces about the future of TV or the like

I don't know if that's something we have to speculate.  I imagine it's just something he shares with the people he's intimate with, namely his wives.

The "Silence" is vague enough that it could be anything, perhaps to cover Moffat's ass.  Personally, I took it to be the silencing of the stars and all the lives that The Doctor saved and The Great Intelligence was unsaving.  The consequences weren't that grave though, because Clara resaved them all.

True, I think his criticisms of the show this season and this episode are valid to a degree, but I don't think he gave enough credit to the show's strengths as well.

Actually, this is basically the set up for the 50th Anniversary Episode, so I'm willing to bet we won't see John Hurt beyond that.

It does seem like her final episode, but I really hope we get to see her last interaction with The Doctor before she heads off the biggest library in the universe - The one in which he turns up at her doorstep with a new haircut and a suit, takes her to Derilium to see the Singing Towers, and gives her his modified…

I don't think I buy the River complaint.  This is an issue that threatens the Doctor's life and she's the only one in the universe who knows his "real name", which accesses the Doctor's grave/timeline.  Why doesn't she fit?