Doctor Who thread II: "I should have a hat like that." [SPOILERS]

[Weezer]

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The more I think about the episode the more my opinion of it decreases. The parts I enjoyed were the parts that had nothing or very little to do with the plot of the episode and everything I disliked were the important parts. There was so much throwaway cool going on in the episode, from Churchill on a mammoth to space viking chess to baloon cars , that I got dazzled by it. When I sat down and thought about it everything else got worse and worse. The tesselector resolution was a massive let down, eye patch lady's sudden yet inevitable betrayal had no weight behind it because we know she's evil and she was ''good'' for about 5 minutes before letting the Silents out. Also, fixing the worlds with a ''true love'' kiss, how utterly trite is that. It, like many of the overarching plot episodes of this season, really needed to be a two parter, everything important felt rushed and
crowded out by filler (it was certainly fun and exciting filler, but filler nonetheless).
And then the question, I don't think Moffat could have chosen a worse question, basing three whole seasons of story arch on a pun? Infuriating. It should have been something actually threatening that made sense for a major organization to fear, not someone's name, how could that ever lead to the crisis that the Silence tried to avert.

I don't know if I would rank this as the worst nuWho finale but it's pretty high up there.

[Goosefeather]

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The tesselector resolution was a massive let down, eye patch lady's sudden yet inevitable betrayal had no weight behind it because we know she's evil and she was ''good'' for about 5 minutes before letting the Silents out. Also, fixing the worlds with a ''true love'' kiss, how utterly trite is that.

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I was under the impression that she was clearly a prisoner as well, and at no point 'good'. I mean, she was tied down the whole time... And she didn't let the Silents out, they got out by themselves. Like she said, they were only pretending to be captive.

[Nai_Calus]

It was OK, if unimpressive, while I was watching it. And then it was over and I was like 'WTF?'.

It wasn't Tooth and Claw(I actually kind of like Love and Monsters, but that one actively annoyed me because Rose came off as completely obnoxious trying to get Queen Victoria to say 'We are not amused' and it actively annoyed me), but it sure as hell wasn't Silence in the Library or The Fires of Pompeii. Or even Pandorica Opens/Big Bang. Just... Bleh.

[Weezer]

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I was under the impression that she was clearly a prisoner as well, and at no point 'good'. I mean, she was tied down the whole time... And she didn't let the Silents out, they got out by themselves. Like she said, they were only pretending to be captive.

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Still, my point stands. She was shown to be helping them (eyepatches, Silent containment vessels, presumably infomation on the Silent itself), but then betrayed them. Such a surprise, I never expected that. /s

[Axolotl]

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Still, my point stands. She was shown to be helping them (eyepatches, Silent containment vessels, presumably infomation on the Silent itself), but then betrayed them. Such a surprise, I never expected that. /s

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When did she help them? She was their prisoner. To betray someone you have to at least pretend to be on their side first, she never did.

[Jibar]

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Still, my point stands. She was shown to be helping them (eyepatches, Silent containment vessels, presumably infomation on the Silent itself), but then betrayed them. Such a surprise, I never expected that. /s

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The eyepatch design were stolen from hers, the containment vessels were never said to come from her and there was never any suggestion that she gave them any information.

[Weezer]

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The eyepatch design were stolen from hers, the containment vessels were never said to come from her and there was never any suggestion that she gave them any information.

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I got the impression that they were working off of and trusted information she gave them. That's how she knew that they hadn't modified the eye patches to remove the zappy thing and how she was sure that the Silent would be able to escape so easily. If she didn't have a hand in giving them the eye patch and building/designing the cages, then her plan would've been nothing more than crossing her fingers and hoping. Which isn't in character for her at all, she was shown to be the scheming, super long term complicated plan type. And if she didn't help them with the patches and cages, it makes the Silents escaping and killing everyone that much more irritating and ass-pulley.

[Helanna]

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Well, I have to say I really liked this episode. Most of the 'annoying' things other people are complaining about didn't really bother me. In particular, the Tesseleract 'revelation', because really, what else was going to happen? It wasn't as fun or unpredictable as it could have been, but the ending was essentially running the line between being predictable or being an asspull. I prefer the predictable outcome.

Other than that I just had a lot of fun with the episode. Alternate Rory and Amy were pretty great. The Doctor telling Winston Churchill the story was nice (and I liked the part when the Doctor was realizing the Silents were there. That scene was well-done.)

Actually one thing that bothered me was the Silents escaping. Have they suddenly become bullet-proof? Were the guards just using guns that were completely inefficient? We know that guns can hurt and kill Silents. Did they not test that out? And then Rory stayed behind with a handgun to kill them. Badass as that was, Amy just took them all down effortlessly with a machine gun. Why didn't they all have guns like that in the first place?!

Also, I've never liked River. The only reason I don't absolutely loathe the sight of her is because she's not constantly there, so if she never shows up again now, I'll be happy. (Although I liked her and Amy having that little chat at the end, implying that she visits her parents every once in a while to catch up.)

But yeah, overall I liked it. Maybe a 7/10.

[Dienekes]

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I got the impression that they were working off of and trusted information she gave them. That's how she knew that they hadn't modified the eye patches to remove the zappy thing and how she was sure that the Silent would be able to escape so easily. If she didn't have a hand in giving them the eye patch and building/designing the cages, then her plan would've been nothing more than crossing her fingers and hoping. Which isn't in character for her at all, she was shown to be the scheming, super long term complicated plan type. And if she didn't help them with the patches and cages, it makes the Silents escaping and killing everyone that much more irritating and ass-pulley.

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Really? Or they captured her and reverse engineered her eye-patch and came up with a means of capturing the Silents themselves, who let themselves be captured to get close to the Doctor. That's what I got out of it. You understand that it doesn't have to be all her right? She is just a pawn of the Silents, an expendable one at that. A smart pawn admittedly.

Personally I got that she knew what the Silents were planning and once captured she understood that all she needed to do was wait. Amy's Time Soldiers couldn't take her patch off if they were trying to get information out of her, so she always knew and could carry out the plan. I really don't see much of an ass-pull there. More of a classic monster motif, the creature waits in capture until it's time to strike.

[Friv]

Going to chime in on the "overall good, but a lot of disappointing bits" crowd. Much better than the Season 4 and 4.5 finales, not as cool as the season 1 or 5 finales. I'd plug it at about equal to Season 3 - very cool, but with things that made my teeth grind.

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The Tesselecta was a pretty huge cop-out, and I dislike that the Silent's plans now make no sense. They tried to obliterate the universe last season, but this season they're trying to save the universe by obliterating the Doctor? Wha? Also, I have mixed feelings about River.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the altered timeline, I loved the stuff with Amy and Rory, and I thought that the Silent were appropriately creepy even if they were a bit sturdier than usual. I liked the Doctor's reluctant belief that he had to die, even if it turned out to be a lie.

[Eldan]

Perhaps this puts me in a minority, but I liked the finales to seasons 3, 4, and 4.5. They were enjoyable. They had big emotions. This one just felt flat from beginning to end to me. And, at the same time, rushed. The Doctor pops all over, but we never get time to actually look at anything, so it becomes boring setpieces.

And know what else is boring?

Doctor: "You know this game we are playing? Let me explain to you, my opponent, and the crowd, who have seen many such games, what this game is called while we are playing it, and then explain the rules, because certainly you, the people of the culture this game is from, wouldn't know this!"

[Kato]

So, finally got around to it. A day late but whatever.

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Well... I guess I'll join in with Thufir and whoever agreed with him. Though maybe a tad better.

Yes, it was not... amazing but it was okay. I guess if I cared I'd be annoyed about Moffat lying but I don't. Why would I? Was he supposed to say 'yeah, tha Doctor was at the beach as a miniature inside the Tesselecta and well, he kind of died, well, what you saw what looked like the Doctor died are you happy now that I spoiled the ending? Good.'
Okay, yes, I can see why people like to predict stuff but honestly... OF COURSE HE DIDN'T DIE. Come on, who bought that? What should they have done? Letting him die and giving him a CPR or magic pixie dust to get him back?


Okay, what did I like... I liked the idea of the parallel universe, though I guess history was mixed kind of random. I liked Rory and Amy (though I will agree it was a bit sad Rory didn't do anything useful but I guess he distracted them so Amy could act freely) abd generally River... I can see why one would complain about her being a Sue, and yes, I would like to remove that scene of her an the Dalek from Big Bang, really, but so far she is still entertaining to me and I can't see at all why one would hate Kingston for her portrayal of her
And yes, I am fine with the conclusion. It wasn't ideal, of course, but it was... okay. Not saying I was entirely surprised but I wasn't all 'meh' either merely because I half expected them NOT to explain it at that point in time and waiting for next season to answer. Yes, I can see Moffat doing that.

I... didn't like quite a few things. Yes, it shoud have been two episodes. I wanted more of the dimension. It was awesome. Amy's counter-Silence group was ridiculously inefficient... I don't know how those eye patches worked but why couldn't they be safe, why not just shoot the Silents but instead they got defeated so easily, at least Kovarian couldn't escape on her own. And I guess maybe it really needed a more intense moment than the wedding...

Uhm... okay, general complaints and my two cents on them:
Too many open questions: So what, we got another season to go? Who says, we won't get our answers than? Can't wait that long? Ooooh.
How did the Tesselecta mimic the regeneration? Well, we got a... whatever that can perfectly mimic any person it encounters and miniaturize them and probably hell of a lot more. So why would it not make a flashy light show?! What's hard to believe about that?
River wanting to save the Doctor. Okay, I'm not the big fan of love stories either but... duh.People can be selfish. And she got a point, the universe would be a worse place without him. And while we're at it, he didn't decide he had to live than. He decided much earlier, not like he switched right then and there. He knew he was going to live but he had to keep it a secret. Has. Whatever. Okay, not telling Amy and Rory but River telling them... that was meh. But it was to build up some tension, that's what you do in Drama. I guess they could have had some better reason, though.
Uhm... I'm sure there was more that was generally complained about... I'm not saying everything was great but some stuff is 'complaining for the sake of it' and others is not simply bad but up to personal preferences.


That said, again, I won't say it's the best finale ever but it's not the fall of Who or anything like that. I enjoyed it as an episode. Come on, please get a grip guys or next season we need to have two threads, one for the haters and one for the lovers... (because as we all know: No matter how much someone hates something, s/he won't stop watching if only so s/he can complain about how awful it is.)

[Dogmantra]

Oh, you know the magazine that The Doctor was reading, Knitting for Girls?

I'm wondering whether or not that was a reference to My Parents Are Aliens, where Brian has a large collection of the magazine Knitting for Boys. Wikipedia (and a brief bit of googling) doesn't think the former exists, so I'm crossing my fingers because if that's a reference, it is a very very classy one.

[Androgeus]

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How did the Tesselecta mimic the regeneration? Well, we got a... whatever that can perfectly mimic any person it encounters and miniaturize them and probably hell of a lot more. So why would it not make a flashy light show?! What's hard to believe about that?

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I heard the guys at the BBC are good at faking the regeneration effect.

I don't think I need to state my opinion of the episode, we all know how easily pleased I am.

[Sunken Valley]

Perhaps this puts me in a minority, but I liked the finales to seasons 3, 4, and 4.5. They were enjoyable. They had big emotions. This one just felt flat from beginning to end to me. And, at the same time, rushed. The Doctor pops all over, but we never get time to actually look at anything, so it becomes boring setpieces.

And know what else is boring?

Doctor: "You know this game we are playing? Let me explain to you, my opponent, and the crowd, who have seen many such games, what this game is called while we are playing it, and then explain the rules, because certainly you, the people of the culture this game is from, wouldn't know this!"

If it's a minority, it's one shared by me! And I was right! This finale was lacklustre. There should be a T-shirt saying "Sunken Valley, Eldan and Superpanda were right". Although, "Thufir was right" is also a good T-shirt. As is "Curly: Master Slashlady".

In fact, I would go as far as saying that I could probably write a better season 6. I don't mean to say that I can write the little bits better (Davis, Moffat and the other's greatest strength is that they can all do the comic one liners. Which I can't). But I can write the big bits. I'm going to let that remark sink in before I release more details on my latest project. To quote Rowan Atkinson's Doctor "I will explain later".

[Avaris]

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Thinking about it, the reason he couldn't tell Amy and Rory was because they had to think he was dead so that they would try to hide it from him and he eventually find out! Had they been able to tell him about it straight away it would have gone complelty differently (for example, the Silent would have known he was actively working to stop it). Sort of causality/timey whimy mess.

[Androgeus]

To quote Rowan Atkinson's Doctor "I will explain later".

Amusingly that was written by Moffat.

[Kato]

You know, somebody else raised an interesting question I fail to answer from the spot...

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At what point in Amy's time did River meet Amy at the end? She said she just saw the Doctor die, but that can't really be true since we know what happened afterwards. So it must have been after the Doctor dropped them off, musn't it?

[Kobold-Bard]

You know, somebody else raised an interesting question I fail to answer from the spot...

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At what point in Amy's time did River meet Amy at the end? She said she just saw the Doctor die, but that can't really be true since we know what happened afterwards. So it must have been after the Doctor dropped them off, musn't it?

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After the Dr. died in Utah they went back home & River went back to prison. They then met up at some point in the near future after his death. It happened after what?

[Sunken Valley]

Amusingly that was written by Moffat.

That was the idea. I was recalling the days when Moffat didn't suck.

In answer to the recent debate about Amy and River timelines, Amy is after being dropped off by Doctor, River is after the angels two-parter (she got a pardon in that one and she's wearing her camoflage uniform).

I will also be partially explaining. What I propose is that season 6 was a disappointment. I propose that amongst us, we the playground could write a better season 6. I think we should do this as episode summaries, no one really wants to write a full script plus it will be easier to read. I will propose the "rules" as we go on. propose ideas now!

[Androgeus]

You know, somebody else raised an interesting question I fail to answer from the spot...

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At what point in Amy's time did River meet Amy at the end? She said she just saw the Doctor die, but that can't really be true since we know what happened afterwards. So it must have been after the Doctor dropped them off, musn't it?

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It at least needs to take place after GMGtW as Amy knows River is her daughter. I tried to narrow it down to after God Complex by using Amy's drawings on the train but didn't see anything that hepled.

Also Amy doesn't know that it was Teselecta that took the shot at the Lake untill River tells her at that moment, so I have to guess it takes place after God Complex just because Amy wouldn't be able to not tell the Doctor how he survives.

edit: Just noticed something in the credits

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Emperor Winston Churchill

[Weezer]

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It at least needs to take place after GMGtW as Amy knows River is her daughter. I tried to narrow it down to after God Complex by using Amy's drawings on the train but didn't see anything that hepled.

Also Amy doesn't know that it was Teselecta that took the shot at the Lake untill River tells her at that moment, so I have to guess it takes place after God Complex just because Amy wouldn't be able to not tell the Doctor how he survives.

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I'm pretty sure it has to be after she was dropped off after the God Complex, if it were anytime before then she would've known the Doctor lived during when they were together and we all know that neither Amy nor Rory can keep a secret from the Doctor.

[Avaris]

I will also be partially explaining. What I propose is that season 6 was a disappointment. I propose that amongst us, we the playground could write a better season 6. I think we should do this as episode summaries, no one really wants to write a full script plus it will be easier to read. I will propose the "rules" as we go on. propose ideas now!

An interesting idea. For my part, Season 6 had a lot of my favourite episodes in, but also a fair few dissapointments. I assume that we will be keeping established arcs from the previous season intact (so the overarching plot needs to explain the silence etc).

I suppose the place to start would be to discuss which episodes need outright ditching, which need to be modified but have their central idea intact and which are alright as they are (though they could be moved around the season). My thoughts are in the spoiler box:

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1) The Impossible Astronaut: Ok, as we're probably rethinking the story arc this should probably be axed, along with Day of the Moon. I didn't mind them too much, but enough people did that we should probably see them go
2) Day of the Moon
3) The Curse of the Black Spot: Weakest of the season, and should probably go entirely. I think something with pirates would be good though
4) The Doctor's Wife: Should be left as is, and put anywhere in the season
5) The Rebel Flesh: I really liked the concept behind this and the Almost People, though I would modify it to place more emphasis on the humans being the monsters. General idea should be kept though
6) The Almost People
7) A Good Man Goes to War: Like Impossible Astronaut, I didn't mind this, but it is integral to the season arc so will probably end up scrapped
[SEASON BREAK]
8) Lets Kill Hitler: The concept of visiting nazi germany has to stay, simply to let Rory punch Hitler. Do you really want to get in the way of Roryawesome? Everything else though...
9) Night Terrors: Was an ok episode, but leans too close to God Complex (scary story) and Closing Time (father/son relationships) thematically, and seems weaker in retrospect as a result. One of the three should probably go and this is the one IMO
10) The Girl who Waited: Good doctor lite episode, though could do with improvements. I'd particularly like to explore the consequences/possibility of having Amy 2 escape.
11) The God Complex: I enjoyed this one, and think it works better as a scare episode than Night Terrors
12) Closing Time: again, a good episode, which I would keep mostly as is
13) The Wedding of River Song: Too important to the season arc to leave intact, though the concept of time colliding is a good one.

[Corvus]

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I'm not getting the large amounts of dislike being heaped on the ep. Was it Teh. Best. Eva! Hardly. Was it the worse season finale - not by a long shot.

Who would have thought that when we met him as a bumbling nurse Rory would have turned into such a badass. Only let down was not having him cap a couple of the Silents before being overwhelemed.

Not sure if the 'murder' of the Doctor is the crime that River Song goes to prison for. From memory, going back to the Time of Angels two-parter and Father Octavian (can we get him back, please - team him up with Rory for ultimate awesomeness), what he said doesn't mesh.

He said River Song went to prison for killing the best man he ever knew - except he didn't know the Doctor and the Doctor didn't know him. So he was either talking about someone else or that comment was forgotten.

[Thufir]

Edit: Thinking about it, I think I have identified a thing Moffat does that annoys me quite often.

A thirty second (or so it feels) scene that goes like this: well-known antagonist (or other canon figure) is here. Doctor or Companion comes in, disables said thing quickly for some reason that, however, stays utterly inconsequential for the episode and could be cut.

I.e. the Doctor and the Dalek today. Rory and the Cyberfleet in A Good Man.... Too quick. He doesn't take time to properly set up the scene. He hurries too much.

As you say, the scene is fairly inconsequential. It doesn't need time to be taken setting it up, in fact that would be a waste of time which could be better spent on more important things.
Note I say fairly inconsequential. Those scenes do actually serve a purpose in setting up the episode, how the Doctor is responding to the problem raised at the end of the previous episode.
There were things which were too rushed in the last episode, but the Dalek scene wasn't one of them.

Whoever said upthread that they're putting in a lot of work focused on misleading/messing with the fans is right, between the two Doctor reveals (As the soothslayer and the "monk"), the Doctor's response to the Tesselecta, and the Doctor whispering to River, it had a very...manufactured feel to it. It got a bit predictable.

Yeah, this is one of my biggest problems with the episode. Things like those, particularly the last one, clearly done for the effect on the audience, without a clear reason for the characters to do them within the context of the story. Moffat loves to mislead the audience to set up big reveals, but he generally went too far with these ones, including lying on Confidential.

Thufir bet good money (which, by the way, it is interesting that he used a Sunken catchphrase)

That's a fairly standard turn of phrase, I don't think you can really lay claim to it.

My integrity demands that I point out you have to squint a little to see my theory as accurate. After all this episode had nothing to do with the Key to Time. Which is quite frankly a shame, I would love to see the Guardians in New Who.

Also, your theory was that everything went wrong because the Doctor was dead, not because he wasn't, as I recall.

Going to chime in on the "overall good, but a lot of disappointing bits" crowd. Much better than the Season 4 and 4.5 finales, not as cool as the season 1 or 5 finales. I'd plug it at about equal to Season 3 - very cool, but with things that made my teeth grind.

Some remarkable similarities to series 3, actually. Generally good, but with just a few issues dragging it down, and making it a real disappointment after the excellent episodes preceding it.

And know what else is boring?

Doctor: "You know this game we are playing? Let me explain to you, my opponent, and the crowd, who have seen many such games, what this game is called while we are playing it, and then explain the rules, because certainly you, the people of the culture this game is from, wouldn't know this!"

Eh, it was all natural enough until he said "That's why they call it 'live chess'." Just your average taunting of the opponent. Goading him, as was relevant, since the Doctor needed him to reveal the relevant information.

I guess if I cared I'd be annoyed about Moffat lying but I don't. Why would I? Was he supposed to say 'yeah, tha Doctor was at the beach as a miniature inside the Tesselecta and well, he kind of died, well, what you saw what looked like the Doctor died are you happy now that I spoiled the ending? Good.'

No, but he could have said, "Yes that was really the Doctor, he was shot, he didn't regenerate and he was burned on a funeral pyre." Or something of the sort. Something that wasn't a flat-out lie. Or he could've just not made any such comment at all.

Okay, yes, I can see why people like to predict stuff but honestly... OF COURSE HE DIDN'T DIE. Come on, who bought that? What should they have done? Letting him die and giving him a CPR or magic pixie dust to get him back?

Rewritten time so that he didn't die?

Having thought about it more, the whole Teselecta solution doesn't bother me so much. Moffat lying about it does still bother me though. If I hadn't watched that Confidential, I might be OK with it. Though the misleads were still a bit overdone, as I mentioned earlier.

Too many open questions: So what, we got another season to go? Who says, we won't get our answers than? Can't wait that long? Ooooh.

I can wait. But this was set up as being when we'd get the explanations, and there's no acknowledgement of the fact things haven't been explained.

Although, "Thufir was right" is also a good T-shirt.

It does happen a lot:

Thufir's right again. (this seems to happen a lot).

As is "Curly: Master Slashlady".

Hmm. She might like that. And one can get T-shirts printed specially.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that I could probably write a better season 6. I don't mean to say that I can write the little bits better (Davis, Moffat and the other's greatest strength is that they can all do the comic one liners. Which I can't). But I can write the big bits. I'm going to let that remark sink in before I release more details on my latest project. To quote Rowan Atkinson's Doctor "I will explain later".

Yeah, I'm skeptical.

I will also be partially explaining. What I propose is that season 6 was a disappointment.

I disagree.

Not sure if the 'murder' of the Doctor is the crime that River Song goes to prison for. From memory, going back to the Time of Angels two-parter and Father Octavian (can we get him back, please - team him up with Rory for ultimate awesomeness), what he said doesn't mesh.

He said River Song went to prison for killing the best man he ever knew - except he didn't know the Doctor and the Doctor didn't know him. So he was either talking about someone else or that comment was forgotten.

No. Octavian said she was in prison for killing a good man. River said it was the best man she'd ever known.

[Raddish]

I really liked the episode, the only thing I myself don't like is the question at the end. It felt so silly, I was expecting something that has never ever ever been asked before... But yeah the rest of it was pretty awesome in my opinion. I want the next series right now, or now. Now? Pwetty pwweeeaassseee?

[comicshorse]

Okay I'm afraid anything insightful has already been said but what the hell I'm gonna offer my two pence worth anyway

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This was an episode of brilliant moments that didn't really add up to anything. Fundamanetally I'm getting used to being disapointed by Dr Who finale's. This wasn't as bad as Season 1: Rose saves the unvierse and everybody's happy and nothing bad really happened, or Season 2:Tinker bell/doctor (I retch just remembering that) or Season 4 (which I won't reveal because I believe a notable contributor to this thread hasn't seen it). And while it didn't reach those levels of disapointment it was really a 'oh yes, well sure I suppose that fits if that's all you've got' moment.

Fundamentally it didn't, and in my opinion COULDN'T, live up to the hype. Without actually killing the Doctor ( which was never going to happen) the ending was always going to disapoint. So while I'm not to annoyed by that, the hyping that it would was irritating and counter-productive. Particualrly the 'never rise higher or fall lower' bit. Quite frankly there was nothing there that was the Doctor rising higher than any number of previous epsiodes and absolutely nothing that was falling lower than the end of 'Waters of Mars' ( I'm not a huge Tennant fan but he got the Doctor just right there, a true feeling of exactly how dangerous he could be. Probably because he was subtle rather than his normal overdoing it in the role. An argument for another time perhaps).

So the end disapointed but the journey there was great. The mixed up world which had me declaring as the steam train chugged into the pyramid that was AREA 51 'screw our reality lets keep this one'. The Doctor and His Imperial Majesty slowly realizing they are actually in the middle of a fight for their lives, live chess and Rory demonstrating his truely English gift for taking everything without making a fuss ( " Apparently in another time-line we're married and she's our daughter.
"Right" )

Extra points also for the tribute to Nicholas Courtney and getting the Daleks in without making them the point of the whole show.
And, big and, if this does lead to a little smaller stories and less "OMIGOD you're THE Doctor" then I'm all in favour of it.


Overall: 7/10

[Yana]

Has anyone mentioned what seems to be the ultimate point to this finale?

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Namely, since the Silence will likely consider the Doctor dead and with the Doctor's plans to stay slightly under the radar, Moffat has essentially severed his version of the Whoverse from RTD's. Not that he hadn't come a long way from accomplishing that last series (what with the whole universal reboot and all), but I'd say that we won't have all that many outstanding issues from the previous two Doctors coming back to haunt 11 in the near future (sans the Daleks, obviously).

And looking back on this statement, its as clear as mud.

[Dark Tira]

Took me awhile but I just realized

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The reason why the Doctor manages to successfully convince the universe that he's dead is that River announces it to literally everyone by trying to get help for him with her weird machine.

[KillianHawkeye]

Took me awhile but I just realized

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The reason why the Doctor manages to successfully convince the universe that he's dead is that River announces it to literally everyone by trying to get help for him with her weird machine.

Hey, that is actually pretty clever!