And I, for one, am really happy about it.
I mean, my feelings and thoughts about the episode currently are what they are. Thanks to people like you sharing their much more positive take, I will be able to look at it differently in a re-watch.
Maybe my opinion will stay the same. Maybe it will change. But regardless, reading yours and others’ positive thoughts about the finale will definitely help to change my experience of watching it in a positive way. 
Thanx.
I have to share this one.
Katy Manning 
Spoon Agenda 
There is a tag on the site keeping track of all the spoons 
You are welcome. I think that’s one of the most wonderful things with a constructive and positive fan community like this. We are never going to have complete consensus and there will always be some episodes (or elements) that each of us finds frustrating or challenging in our own way. That said, everytime I read an opinion that frames a more positive viewpoint of a story that frustrates me, it does two things:
It makes me genuinely happy to know that others can take positives from something that didn’t work as well for me, and
It gives me a chance to get a little more enjoyment out of an episode of a show that has always been dear to my heart and so important to me. It doesn’t always work but, where it does, it increases my pile of good things (to paraphrase the Eleventh Doctor).
I do love exchanging opinions on this forum because, unlike in some quarters, nobody is waiting in the shadows ready to belittle you or your opinion. Merely to consider and respond in kind. I think we, on this forum, have something lacking on a lot of other fan sites…
“…a teaspoon and an open mind.”
(Seemed fitting given DWs ongoing spoon agenda)
I watched this last night but have struggled to get through all of this thread, as so many posters got in on it all after the initial drop, so I’m playing catch up.
I really loved this season, but the finale fell a bit flat for me. This is what I found with most of RTD’s finales. The threat becomes so huge that there has to be a way to reset it all, the reset often feels like a bit of a cheat, and then there’s a protracted emotional bit at the end that doesn’t really land for me. The pacing felt a bit uneven and there were a few moments where I was close to looking at my watch and hoping that they’d get on with it.
That said, I loved Mel and I was very pleased that she got some good action. It was nice to see the callbacks to Pyramids of Mars and I liked that the memory TARDIS played a role.
On the whole, I’d say it was the weakest story of a very good season, which probably makes it a decent enough story. It did feel a bit like an RTD finale by numbers though.
And they are fabulous choices for outfits.
/swoon
well that was naff
also, welcome back romana’s amazing fluffy white coat
Am I missing something about Kate Stewart here.
“There will be birds.”?
Is there a deeper meaning from another story I’m not seeing, or is it just a really clunky attempt of making significantly sounding “poetic” last words?
Perhaps they just needed new batteries? That’s why we don’t see the Osgoods 
Though seeing Kate “dustified” hit me like a ton of bricks regardless, even if the “great reset” became apparent almost immediately thereafter.
Nope just some random comment. Maybe there was a deleted scene where Sutekh’s arrival was signified by all the birds of the world dying? But yeah it stuck out as odd. At least she didn’t mention her father again! Can she stop doing that everytime she’s in the show please RTD.
And decide whether she is called Kate Stewart or Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
But what if we forget who she is? 
This isn’t an 8th Doctor story we live in
She released her hip hop album under the name KLS & UNIT.
5 rounds rapid
That’s what my dad said
But I only need 1
Cos I’m aiming at your head
You’re telling me Doctor Who’s not real!!! 
This has been my theory all along, mainly because of ‘Rain’ being an anagram of ‘Rani’, and rain is what can cause floods.
The finale has confirmed that this era of Who is just not for me, which of course happens to us all now & again. This ended up being a lot longer than I expected so if you don’t want to read a lot of negativity, & I don’t blame you! I’ve hidden it.
EoD had very few positives, the FX were of course good, it was well directed. I enjoyed the Remembered TARDIS, although with reservations as it highlights the way Nu Who is far more nostalgic & referential to the past than the show used to be. We even have the Doctor & his companion watching Classic Who on a telly. The inclusion of Mel is a similar symptom but Bonnie Langford was superb; her performance when influenced by Sutekh was really creepy. But when we have the villain going through with his plan & turning everyone to dust, where do you go from there?
For me the threat of a villain’s plan is more effective than it happening. Killing off everyone in the universe means we’re going to get a big reset button moment so I didn’t really care, I was just waiting for it to happen. Mel becoming a slave to Sutekh was far more compelling than billions of people dying. Would she survive? But what did we get to resolve it all? Dragging Sutekh back through the time vortex he’d been happily travelling in for centuries somehow killed him? Death + Death = Life? Err ok then?!?
Sutekh’s appearance at the end of TLoRS was glorious, but here he was basically the same as in PoM. Immobile & getting his minions to do everything. Did he ever leave UNIT HQ? & seeing Rose working at UNIT just reminded me that we have the Nobles & 14 somewhere, with another TARDIS. Doing what exactly? & wasn’t Donna offered a job at UNIT also? Where was she? Then again UNIT seems to be pretty casual with their recruitment policy, anyone who has met the Doctor gets offered a job. & that shot of the UNIT Team as they walked out onto the helipad, they may as well have freeze framed & slapped some text over the shot - Coming Soon To Disney+ UNIT the miniseries!
I can see what RTD was going for with the resolution to Ruby’s mum, it’s not the first time we’ve had the trope of the ordinary person being important & it’s a valid one. But not only was it boring, it was unfair to viewers. The mystery was not weird fan theories, it was baked into the narrative of this season. RTD set her up as a mysterious important character; it wasn’t something viewers came to independently. He had it front & centre, other characters referenced it, even Sutekh was interested for some bizarre reason. We had the strange snowfalls which of course never got explained, we had a future medical computer unable to find a record of her next of kin (wait their DNA was taken in 2046? Shhh don’t mention that!), we had a mysterious hooded figure dropping off a baby on Christmas Eve. Apparently that was a 15 year old girl. Was she going to a fancy dress party as the ghost of Christmas future? & she silently pointed at a street sign to indicate what she wanted to name her baby. Not sure who she was trying to inform but again, let’s not think about that. Misdirection & subverting expectations is fine but there has to be a point to it that is more satisfying than where we’re being led (like the S. TRIAD/TARDIS/Sutekh twist). RTD is just trolling the audience at this point.
& now he wants us to invest in the mystery of Mrs Flood? Why? This progressed not one jot during this season. She’ll probably end up being the Rani if RTD is still playing the anagram game. & in the podcast he says that “the story of Ruby’s family…is not quite at an end there’s more revelations to come”. He wants to have his cake & eat it. She’s just ordinary with an ordinary family, oh wait maybe not. He’s taking the p** tbh.
But the most troublesome aspect was Ruby’s overall attitude towards her birth mother & the representation here of adopted people.No one else seems to have picked up on this so maybe it’s just me. RTD has always been great at bringing realism to characters & drama amongst the sci-fi but here he failed. I can’t recall Ruby or her adopted mum ever expressing any strong animosity towards her birth mother. That is simply unrealistic, I am not adopted but have known people who are, being p***d off & bitter even momentarily is normal. But here it was all, oh my poor birth mum what she had to do etc etc. Also, if you’ve never met your birth mum & you see her sitting in a coffee shop you don’t just walk in & say hi. That is extremely irresponsible, you’re not emotionally ready for it, your birth mum certainly isn’t. It takes time & any meeting needs to be carefully moderated. I know a show like Doctor Who isn’t real life & can’t go into all that but it has a young fanbase, some may be adopted & were probably happy to see an adopted person in the show. RTD has a duty of care to audiences that was lacking here. For a moment I thought the Doctor was going to intervene which would have been great, but no Ruby just ignored him. & to top it all off RTD doubled down with her final scene where she said her biological dad was around as well! He obviously wants his happy ever after fairy tale ending for Ruby (even though she’s coming back) but even a brief line about how they are working through things together as this new family, that she is hopeful for the future would have been nice. & the Doctor could have said something about the importance of hope.
Reading back through this before posting I think it comes across as if I am very angry, whereas really I’m disappointed. I know RTDs tropes, the great things he can do - his past writing has always had the balance between niche sci-fi/fantasy & broad audience friendly drama - but also his flaws with an air of smugness & undercooked conclusions. I wasn’t that interested in him returning, I’ve seen his version of Who if I want to see it again I can go back to the past. Also I really wanted another woman as the Doctor. What I didn’t expect was how badly written it would all be. A lot of this season has felt like someone telling you what happened in an episode they watched, just a recollection of events without any nuance or depth, this happened & then this happened etc etc. At best it all feels like first draft scripts or fanfic. Maybe bringing in new writers will help. Maybe a new companion will help. But I’ll just wait until a new era as I’ve done before.
Yes, completely agree. The way Ruby called Louise her ‘real mum’ really didn’t sit well with me at all, it felt vastly too fairytale when in reality, the Doctor was right - Louise had had 19 years or however old Ruby was to reach out, and she didn’t. I can’t believe she’d be happy to have that bombshell dropped on her in a coffee shop. And I wasn’t convinced by Carla being just fine that Ruby brought Louise home.
Although I did enjoy the episode, I do agree with you about it feeling smug and baity. I think that’s the bit that’s stopping me from absolutely loving it, the way it feels like RTD is just toying with us on purpose at the cost of the story.
Do not listen. We know the truth! Everything else is just a tapestry of lies and sophistry! The Doctor lives.
