The Timeline of Gallifrey at, and since the end of the Time War

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

That reminds me of another dropped thread: what about the ashamed woman hiding her face, who we assumed was the Doctor's Mother?

Although it was never made explicit—which was probably meant in keeping with the fact that it was never made explicit who Claire Bloom's character was in The End Of Time—I think the suggestion in "Hell Bent" was that the woman in the barn was actually supposed to be the same character, believe it or not! They are both credited simply as "The Woman" and the same theme is played over the scenes where each exchanges long, meaningful looks with the Doctor for the first time.

I do not think she was the Doctor's actual mother (who was human damn it ) even though that's who RTD thought of her as and told Claire Bloom she was playing. He did also say that he left her identity deliberately ambiguous so as to allow the audience to speculate on it for themselves. At this point I'd say she was an adoptive mother figure to him as a child.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I always thought of that person as Susan. Its just more symmetrical with that story if it is, you know.

 

[DS9Continuing]

If he confessed his last secret he would have had no bargaining chip for extracting Clara.

But yet that secret was nothing to even worry about. It was so vague as to mean nothing.

But the Time Lords didn't know that. That was the point. The more he fought to keep the secret, the more the Time Lords would believe there was a secret to keep.

Thank you for clarifying this for me. One of my minor issues with the finale was that it seemed to change the Doctor's motivation for going through the billions of years in the Confession Dial - keeping the secret in 'Heaven Sent', saving Clara in 'Hell Bent'. If they were both actually the same motivation all along - he kept the secret so that he would have something to bargain for Clara's life with, even knowing the secret was no big deal, then that makes more sense.

The Timelords of the classic series were certainly sanctimonious assholes, but they were more inept than sinister. They certainly weren't out to destroy all life in the universe.

Yes, but they hadn't just been through the war to end all wars then. As the Doctor said (paraphrasing), "By the end, they were just as bad." They weren't always genocidal maniacs, but they became that because of the war.

Moffatt simply chose to leave the details of it all to us fans and not bog down the Doctor Clara story he wanted to tell - typical of his style of storytelling. I would have preferred more world building and backstory than what we got.

This is where the multi-part episode format could have helped out. Drop 'Sleep No More', move 'Face the Raven' and 'Heaven Sent' up one, and have the events of 'Hell Bent' take place over a two-parter instead. That would have allowed more time to build on Gallifreyan society a bit and give the viewers who wanted to see that what they wanted, but also still have the time to focus on the Doctor-Clara story. The two things don't have to be either/or as long as you give yourself enough time to work in.


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[JoeZhang]

This is where the multi-part episode format could have helped out. Drop 'Sleep No More', move 'Face the Raven' and 'Heaven Sent' up one, and have the events of 'Hell Bent' take place over a two-parter instead. That would have allowed more time to build on Gallifreyan society a bit and give the viewers who wanted to see that what they wanted, but also still have the time to focus on the Doctor-Clara story. The two things don't have to be either/or as long as you give yourself enough time to work in.


.

Haven't you answered your own question? Its not there because he's not interested - and I'm not sure who else is besides a small hardcore.

 

[RoJoHen]

But yet that secret was nothing to even worry about. It was so vague as to mean nothing.

But the Time Lords didn't know that. That was the point. The more he fought to keep the secret, the more the Time Lords would believe there was a secret to keep.

Thank you for clarifying this for me. One of my minor issues with the finale was that it seemed to change the Doctor's motivation for going through the billions of years in the Confession Dial - keeping the secret in 'Heaven Sent', saving Clara in 'Hell Bent'. If they were both actually the same motivation all along - he kept the secret so that he would have something to bargain for Clara's life with, even knowing the secret was no big deal, then that makes more sense.

The whole motivation between "Heaven Sent" was to survive to so that he could either a) take revenge on whoever got Clara killed or b) find a way to save her.

By the end of the episode, he realizes that the Time Lords were responsible, and now he has the opportunity to do both.