The episode threw out a bunch of different possibilities, including that one, but both the Doctor and Me were basically bullshitting - if Moffat or any other writer feels like coming back to it and having it be anything they like, they're totally free to do so.

Why is there any reason to believe that the Hybrid has been resolved?

That said, I'm not sure there's anyone better than him at it. Davies "big" episodes were just as problematic in different ways, and classic Who never really did that kind of story.

There's generally an issue with "Big" Moffat episodes where they just jet around to all these different locations and plot points and never take any time to settle down on any of them. I think he's generally better when a little more contained.

They are not going to go for Nick Briggs. I think it's going to be someone who has written for Who before and also run a show before. Davies was a special case, because basically nobody active in TV had written Doctor Who for TV before (Davies actually had written a Seventh Doctor novel, though; Gatiss and Cornell had…

Who should do it, though? The hands with the most Who writing experience who have also run their own shows - Gatiss, Whithouse, Chibnall - feel pretty uninspiring. Of newer writers, Harness has a showrunning experience under his belt, but is apparently cordially hated by most of the people who want Moffat to go,…

I mean, I suppose Donald Sumpter in 2015 is 9 years older than Timothy Dalton in 2009, but aging from 63 to 72 doesn't generally involve looking like a complete different person.

Yeah, I'd kind of go with that interpretation - she's locked in one moment, so she can't actually die. But I imagine this is something that the inevitable Big Finish series will explore in a deeply unsatisfying way.

???

I will say that I think the weird scheduling of series 6 and 7, the disappointing finish to series 6, and the generally uninspired nature of series 7, probably together lost some viewers. I am doubtful that much of anything about the last two series has been about reduced quality.

The 25% drop is not just any one thing. It's certainly partly switching time slots, competition from other networks, etc. It's partly people watching in other ways that aren't counted. It's partly just natural attrition for an older show. Once we account for these, is there room for dislike of Moffat as a reason? I…

I mean, if we look at the basic story arc situation -

But the connection you are drawing between your own feelings about the showrunner and the ratings is not at all reflected by any evidence. Note that you are still watching! So you obviously aren't an example of someone who has stopped watching because of Moffat. And, indeed, most of the online critics of Moffat as…

I don't think it makes sense to think of it in terms of "consequences". Clara's going to die eventually, just like everyone is. That was the whole point of the storyline, surely?

How significant the ratings changes are is somewhat hard to figure out, because most of the people commenting on it seem to very very clearly have an axe to grind, to the point that I have no idea if I can really trust anything they say. It looks like once you include those who time shift to watch within a week,…

Well, it's the long way, so likely not soon. But it pretty clearly has to happen eventually.

As I understand it, the "steady ratings slide" mostly seems to involve an increasing number of people watching on the iPlayer and other non-Saturday-evening-on-BBC ways, in the same way that pretty much everything gets at least somewhat lower ratings in 2015 than they did in 2008 when you don't count ratings from time…

Wait, why is she a missing persons case? She died in that alley, and Rigsy presumably contacted the authorities/her family/all that. There's a body. If she shows up at the school, it would be a shit show.

No, he will not, because he is already right because Coleman came back this series, or something.

Donald Sumpter is only three years older than Timothy Dalton, so a badly aged Dalton seems implausible.