Right there with both of you. Moffat needs to pay attention to the old writer's adice of "show, don't tell." Too many hasty "wink wink" data dumps vs an actual story. Easily the worst finale episode of the series 50 year history.
Watched it a second time, and I have to agree the story is a lot easier to follow and works a lot better once you see how all the different pieces fit together. It still falls apart slightly at the end once the Daleks start attacking, and Trenzalore and it's inhabitants still don't seem all that terribly interesting, but I at least find myself liking the episode a lot more than I did.
Where they real? Cheese for the Timelords Doctor trap. Of course they could have still been real, and still been cheese.
Clara's conversation with Grandma carries a lot more weight now that I've watched it again and paid more attention. Makes the ending much more poignant.
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this as of yet but given how The Daleks are basically bred for war. Why are they so eager to keep The Time Lords out of their universe? Wouldn't a race hell bent on conflict want their greatest enemy back so they can fight them again? It makes me wonder if The Daleks are truly afraid of getting into another Time War that could lose yet again. Having your entire species wiped out in one fell swoop can have that effect on you.
I am still fervently hoping that Clara, the Impossible Girl, turns out to be a projection of the Doctor's mind.
That'd be the Sontarans who have that mindset. The Daleks are bred to survive by being the last lifeforms standing. In essence their hatred is bred from fear - they're afraid of others being a threat to them, *especially* the Time Lords.
Presumably she's just regular Clara now if the Doctor's tomb is no longer part of the timeline. (The Daleks' amnesia should similarly be absent.)
As for his tomb. That could still happen, it's mostly a matter of when. As for the Dalek's amnesia. They learned of The Doctor from Tasha.
I watched it with my friend who didn't watch the classic series, when they made that mention I paused it and told her that the Time Lords offered the Master an additional set of regenerations in this episode so that's something they could give the Doctor
If they had a plan they believed would make them win, then yea probably, but, they're not really into an even match up. The return of the Time Lords could result in their defeat, they're scared, and would rather not go back down that road, that battle has already been won (Well, it was a stalemate, they were about to win, but, since The Daleks are back, and The Time Lords aren't, they'd like to keep the Status Quo)
Here's hoping we never see River Song EVER again. She wore out her welcome a long time ago for me. I hope the character is just done. She's already dead anyway.
I made a similar point a bit earlier. The question is if The Time Lords are to make a return to their universe then how are they going to do it with out threating to burn it down again?
Day Of The Doctor showed that Rassilon didn't have support of everyone. He was running with his own agenda while teh rest of the planet burned. The War Council, for example, basically was of the mind he and his cronies could go fuck themselves. Gallifrey comes back and the war isn't waiting on them, the Doctor's probably was right, they'd come in peace.