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I think it would have been better if they died jumping off the roof. The part in the graveyard felt a bit tacked on. Then again I can understand they probably wouldn't be allowed have two characters kill themselves off in a suicide pact.

Also the statue of liberty as a weeping angel, could be an interesting idea but I'm pretty sure somebody would be looking at it. I didn't like it and at the end of the day it was pretty pointless. Also no weeping angels moving on screen. I hated when they moved on screen.

Overall the episode wasn't bad. Now can River please go to the library already?

So Clara is one massive walking time paradox. Twas the best finale of the Smith series and for once, the Doctor doesn't die or cheat death and didn't see that Doctor reveal coming. I suspect John Hurt's doctor is actually the Doctor's original form before he regenerated. I think the 50th anniverasy episode is about all 11 doctors trying to stop their original form as that is what it's hinted at but would cause a massive time paradox but knowing the Doctor, he reboots time and space again.

I liked the explanation of the whole Impossible Girl thing and I think that for once Moffat didn't go over the top trying to make it more clever than is good for anyone. There have been several plot twists in the last few seasons that were so convoluted that it bordered on ridiculous. Not this one though, I'm happy with it. And Smith got a chance to do some really decent acting this time.

I don't think Hurt's Doctor is the original form, the original was the 1st Doctor, William Hartnell. I don't know if you've watched Classic Who, but it's said a few times that the regeneration from One to Two is the Doctors first ever regeneration. But I do think it's one of the older ones - Eight (as long as we assume that only the film is canon, not the books or audio stories). Think about it. We haven't seen him regenerate into Nine. He could have travelled around for centuries after the events of the film, and we have no concrete evidence that the Time Lords don't age physically. The Doctor goes through his regenerations rather recklessly (as he himself admits), so there's no reason to think that Eight wouldn't look like John Hurt after a millenium or two.

But more importantly - it explains Hurt's words about having no choice and doing something "for peace and sanity", and Doctor's "he's the one who broke the promise". He's the one who ended the Time War. He's the "blood soaked" one, who destroyed a large chunk of universe, including his own people, to save the rest of it. Also, Eleven refers to him in past tense (which admitedly may not mean that much, given how wibbly-wobbly his timeline is) and clearly knows what he did. Unless the whole "spoilers!" thing was one big fat lie, he shouldn't know details of his personal future history.

And on top of that, it explains how Smith is going to stay on as the Doctor for season 8. Because according to every single article I've seen, he is coming back in 2014. If Hurt is Eight, he's going to appear in the 50th Anniversary Special, and then we're back with Smith.



I think I need to get a life.

Somehow I highly doubt John Hurt is the true Ninth regeneration as it leaves one wondering why Clara wouldn't have seen him alongside the others, why wouldn't she be thrown into this regeneration's timeline like the others.
Short of some really crappy temporal prison explanation, I can only think of one, better, option:

This John Hurt Doctor is one that changed his own timeline within the Time War to simultaneously end the war and prevent himself (as a regeneration) from ever existing within the current timestream.
Likely his altered self knew the paradox was a problem and trapped the paradox regeneration in the one place he would never go, his own grave

you've got one thing wrong there - the "new" Doctor isn't trapped in the Doctor's tomb, he isn't exactly anywhere. That whole scene is taking place inside his timeline, in his mind, not in any physical location. And Hurt may very well be older Eight - if he is, then Clara did see him, just the younger him. I'd like for him to be an actual incarnation of the Doctor, not some retconned, rebooted universe version that was erased from space and time. We've had enough of that, thank you very much.

Anyway, whoever he is, I'm almost certain this will have something to do with the Time War. I think that Eleventh Doctor's episodes clearly show that Moffat wants to deal with that subject and the Doctor's Oncoming Storm side.

And we have to wait until November now!

The "Timeline" is just scars leftover from the TARDIS' travel through time and connection to events the Doctor triggers (Which is why the first point in time is when the Doctor steals the TARDIS and not earlier)
Side effects of the TARDIS dying, imprinting itself on the time vortex; but I concede that it isn't a physical prison, though semantics at best in a setting such as this.

But more to the point, what would be the point of genuinely separating two points in time for the same regeneration if there isn't a real reason? Why would Clara see only one portion of a life after seeing all other regenerations in a singular capacity if there isn't any time tomfoolery? As much as you'd like for it to not be, it is pretty much what the current seasons run on, paradoxes. Even if he is an older version of a known regeneration, it still has little change on my theory; if anything, it could be that an aged Paul Mcgann played by John Hurt went back in time to kill himself (or the timelords in general) during a pivotal point during the war or forced his past self to kill himself to prevent the future from happening (or some other convoluted option that involves John Hurt's timeline a paradox and likely the death of the ninth regeration at the helm)

As a complete left field option: John Hurt steals the Reality bomb from season 4 and uses it to kill everything trapped in the Time War

what if he's really Nine? I mean, proper Nine, and the Nine we know is actually Ten, Ten is Eleven, and Eleven is Twelve? Rule number one is "the Doctor lies" after all. What if we just have one extra Doctor that hasn't been shown or mentioned, because in the Doctor's opinion he's not really "the Doctor" at all, he's done something that made him undeserving of the name - he's the one who fought in and ended the Time War.

Actually, do you remember that scene from The Beast Below, when the Doctor is sciencing some wires and stuff to zap the starwhale's brain? And he says that if he does it, he'll have to find himself a new name, because he won't be the Doctor anymore? What if that was foreshadowing, because Moffat had always planned to show the past version of the Doctor who's done exactly that? I wouldn't put it past him, after all the man claims he had River's entire story planned when he stated shooting Silence In The Library...

Granted, that idea looks much too straightforward for Moffat, but he's already going to have to twist the timeline into knots to bring multiple Doctors together for the 50th, so maybe he can swallow a bit of simpler plot for once.

Given the cast line-up listed so far, with David and Billie Piper returning for the 50th, I wouldn't put it past them

Part of me was really hoping to be done with the whole Rose Tyler arc, here's to her role being only for flashbacks...