In the Doctor’s Wife, it suggested the Tardis is aware on some level of the Companions, with Idris’ comment of:

“I exist across all space and time, and you talk and run around and bring home strays”

So it’s at least possible that the Tardis doesn’t like her, but not in a personal way, rather there’s something about Clara that the Tardis doesn’t like, for whatever reason.

Terrible. Absolutely terrible. I’ve only ever been a fan of the new Dr. Who, and as far as I’m concerned, this is the worst episode ever from the new era.

1) I don’t think they had the budget to do what they wanted to do. Everything looked super cheap and fake (which is strange to me, since they did an episode with Dinosaurs on a spaceship, and it was real enough.)

2) The bad guy looked like a giant jack-o-lantern. Lame.

3) The writing is awful. Even The Doctor’s speech to the little girl about being unique in the universe was a train wreck. I’ve seen that same speech delivered with far more passion and poetry by real scientists like Neil Degrasse Tyson and Lawrence Krauss.

@Calli Arcale
Glad you noticed the Tardis not liking Clara too! Of course it’s locked, but I think the Tardis always opened its doors to the other companions when in need ! Of course, the Doctor hans’t given her a key yet, maybe we’ll have to wait for another episode for that… Anyway, I think I paid attention to that because I have wished sooo many times that my car would trust me enough to open the doors when I accidentally locked the keys inside… ! lol

@Calli Arcale

Whose Claire lol? :P

I really liked this episode.
I don’t get why anyone’s complaining – it was a classic Doctor Who episode.
My one problem with it was… Well… The ending… Those aliens don’t have a sun anymore so basically the Doctor and Clara just killed an entire civilisation for no reason?
Other than that, it was great.

I understand everyone’s complaints because a lot of them are mine too. I wouldn’t say this was the “worst” episode ever and shame on whoever said The Moff was a bad choice as showrunner, haha. The reference to Classic Who and former companions always puts a smile on my face. Its those little jokes & hints that make me love going back to watch old episodes. But seriously, the reference to The Beast and A Christmas Carol was kinda corny, especially since most of the interview and articles coming out are all about bringing new ideas and monsters.
Any-Who! I LOVED the conglomeration of different alien races (since we really haven’t seen so many species interacting all together since S1E2 “End Of The World.” I really wished that the god alarm clock had a bit more than just being an alarm clock. It seemed like a waste of monster makeup for whole 10 minutes.
I was surprised that The Doctor didnt mention that anything was taken away since the god feasted on his memories (but that could be better used for later in the season).

All in all – Im looking at the bigger picture and how all these little parts are going to come together for the 50th anniversary special!!! I cant wait!

I’ll give it a three because I just can’t hate Doctor Who. JLC is smart, funny and appealing (loved her interaction with Merry while hiding behind the TARDIS) and Matt’s speech at the end was beautifully delivered.

Ultimately, though, I had the same question as @Katie: What exactly did the Doctor sacrifice? It looked like he *intended* to sacrifice his memories, to the point of losing them entirely. The Doctor’s memories are what has persisted through each of his regenerations–they *are* what makes him a thousand years old (or however old he is–seems to keep changing). Without his memories, who is he? To give these up would be HUGE. (The most heartbreaking departure from a companion, I think, was when Ten wiped Donna’s memories of him.)

So the scene in which the light is crackling around the Doctor and he’s shouting “take my memories” truly gave me chills. It promised to be one of the big Doctor-sacrifices-himself moments I love in Doctor Who. To have Clara show up at that point could have worked beautifully, but there just hadn’t been time for the leaf to have been built up as a true object of power. It was meaningful to Clara in the same way her mother’s ring might have been, but the idea that it had any kind of cosmic or universal power, the way a thousand-year-old time lord’s memories might, just wasn’t sold well enough.

What we ended up with was a scene that was very pretty, but lacking an emotional core. And I think this was probably the writing.

That being said, Cross was only given one 45-minute episode to pull this off. This could have been more effective as part of a two-parter, or the end of a longer arc. It may just have been too early in the series for it.

“Doctor Sacrifice” episodes have worked well in the past. “42″ worked because Ten’s relationship with Martha was well-established; that episode marked an important turning point in their relationship. Likewise “The Satan Pit” worked both because it was a two-parter and because we were well-established in The Doctor’s relationship with Rose. “Father’s Day” worked, even though it was a one-part episode, because it was part of a longer arc.

Overall, I’ve felt Series Seven (including Part 1) isn’t allowing enough time for stories to develop. Series Six worked much better because there were fewer side trips to stories unrelated to the main arc. The writers are missing out on opportunities to have all the various threads work together. But this is probably a different discussion.

And who knows? Maybe this episode will be an important piece of the larger puzzle and we’ll all feel differently about it in a few weeks. It’s certainly not enough to make me give up on Doctor Who. The show has still captured my heart.

@Patrick
I mean Clara, of course. It’s confusing, because I work with someone named Clara who goes by Claire. :-P

I hate to admit it, but this episode was really Dodgy. The story line was dodgy, the CGI was dodgy and the scenes where they all sang was really Dodgy.

However it had some good moments. The design of the aliens was good, the “TARDIS doesnt like Clara” scene was very interestng, and it really showed more of Clara’s personality. But the best thing about this whole episode is Matt Smith’s performance, that was brilliant acting!

I think that episode wasn’t that good . Just not good quality . The writing was riddled with cliches . Clara was great , but the doctor was trying to put himself in the limelight too much .

@Heather I know this runs against Steven Moffats view of Doctor Who but the show is about the Doctor whose name is in the title!- if you ask Terrance Dicks, the Doctor should always have the limelight and I agree. If you want Clara more in the Limelight, I would suggest contacting Steven Moffat and telling him to change the name to “The Clara Show” – I am sure he would f he could, he seems to want to continue the soap opera side of the show rather than it’s original template “An Adventure in Time and Space”

I’m really disappointed with this series. I watch it if there’s nothing else on iplayer. It’s not very good, is it? A waste of resources – and I’m a fan. Is it my imagination, or did earlier series seem to last longer? They weren’t, but there was more content. Someone grab hold of the reins nd give this old nag a jolly good talking to please. I don’t give a money’s who Clara is. She’s a very pretty girl, but she’s just a symptom of the whole nowt happening too many effects and not enough dialogue even though it is rubbish.