As I've noted above, it's a huge Chekhov's Gun that the Doctor said they might meet again — and there never was an explanation of where that spaceship came from, either. Perhaps it was a Cyber-vessel? For that matter…was Heather actually human?

I really do think Heather is a Chekhov's Gun here. She could merge herself with Bill and free her soul, and I don't think they would have teased that they might meet again in "The Pilot" if they weren't going to follow through. Bill would die in a sense, but like Clara have lots and lots of wiggle room and travel…

Well, he can get her healthy new organs, take her to some more reputable sawbones. He did pretty well with Nardole, didn't he? Or the power of his and her love together grows back all the flesh and bone. He could give her a little regeneration juice, triggering his own transformation. Or they can just travel…

Yeah, but she'll probably get a nice bittersweet ending next week. Maybe she and the Doctor travel together for a while as is, before that regeneration? He could heal her pain with love and beauty, and reintegrate her with family and friends. Just call it life support after a terrible accident?

It's "Falls", not "Fails", but that's probably close enough.

What makes you think Bill's going to get a downer ending? The Doctor's here — he can find a way to heal her next week.

Ah yes, a special case that one. Point taken.

Well, becoming a pawn wasn't the Doctor's fault. At this point it's possible that the Master set things up all along, for the TARDIS to come here — playing on the Doctor's tenderness towards distress calls in general. It is a tragic situation, but she did make her choice, and everybody else made theirs.

Well if it was an accident, it can't be helped. And he can still make things up to her next week.

The Doctor DID come for her; he didn't let her down. It was just he couldn't come fast enough; he didn't realize exactly who was up there and what danger she was in. And whenever he did get up there, it would probably have been too late because the Master could have shoved her away into that room anytime. That's…

It wouldn't be fair to kill her off straight-up, especially as the only openly LGBT companion and second black one. She deserves her "wiggle room" too, doesn't she? And Twelve needs a happy season finale for once.

Yes, that's important. Still, I hope the Doctor either reverses Bill's state — perhaps with the power of love, as she can still feel, whereupon she can shed her transformed body — or frees her soul. Methinks we'll see Heather again…

Boy, the promotions for this episode spoiled most of the major elements didn't they? I did look up further spoilers on my own to brace myself, but a lot of them would have been easy to guess just from the promotional materials — especially Mr. Razor being Saxon.

I found this one rather lovely, and the strongest episode this season since "Extremis". Nice to see the course correction after the Monks Trilogy went awry (though I didn't hate it; I think "Lie of the Land" is kinda underrated even given its bizarre moments and the villains suddenly dumbing-out.)

I agree that this work is really underrated in the larger scheme of Bowie's career. Also, heck yeah "Beat of Your Drum" is a great song. That was one of the biggest happy surprises I found going through his canon.

Also, it has one of the greatest final shots in movie history.

That would be "The Illusionist", which is more of a romantic fantasy. Not as memorable, though the ending is really well handled.

I've been busy with "Doctor Who"-related stuff this weekend. Caught "The Empress of Mars" as it aired (not as outre as I was hoping, but good), and started catching up with "Class" on demand with "Co-owner of a Lonely Heart" (very good). I even watched most of the Second Doctor serial "The Mind Robber" on DVD while…

Upvoted if only for acknowledging how underrated Capaldi is by the masses.

Given that there's just one more episode before the big finale two-parter, it'll be interesting to see how next week's episode serves as a transition from this one to that. Also, there were promo pics for this episode that come from a scene that didn't actually appear in it — the Doctor at the door of the Vault,…