Sssshhh - listen!

Why do we talk to ourselves when alone? Perhaps it's because somewhere, in the bottom of our minds, we know there's someone listening. Spoilers ahead.

Listen

Awkward date with Danny Pink, hooray! (Honestly, if you didn't know Moffat wrote this episode, the awkward date would give it away.)

Clara and Danny are both adorably unsure of themselves, complete comedy of errors, but then Clara puts her foot in her mouth and Danny goes cold, and that's that. Date over. But that's okay, because the Doctor needs Clara to help him answer a question that's been nagging him: are there perfect hiders in the universe, who are always there? Right away, I can tell this is going to be awesome.

Now we've got a new thing - tactile TARDIS telepathic circuitry. Me, I think it looks like a brain, with all the gooey folds and such. (Xognya of course saw something entirely different and no I'm not sharing it with you, this way you won't be stuck with an uncomfortable visual. You're welcome.) The Doctor wants to see the first time Clara had the 'something under the bed' dream, but she gets distracted, so they end up at Rupert's first 'something under the bed' dream. Rupert, who grows up to be Danny.

Clara, of course, sees it right away but refuses to tell the Doctor, and at first I was really irritated with her, why wouldn't she just tell him, 'hey, I got distracted thinking about the guy I was on a date with so we ended up here'? Then I thought it was lazy writing. THEN I thought back to the end of Into The Dalek from last week, how he turned down Journey Blue's request to join them for the simple reason that she was a soldier. Danny was a soldier, and Clara knows he would be unwelcome, so she's not even going to tell him about Danny. Makes for tension!

By the end of the episode, we've seen a future Pink (Orson, which I first heard as 'Awesome') at the end of time (what about Utopia?), several attempts to save their date and maybe even the Doctor as a child. And we don't have a real answer, because Moffat is a liar so you can't trust him - just because we can assume that was the Doctor, with all the hints and what appears to be outright signposts, it's always possible it's a different Gallifreyan.

(And hey, wait, was that Gallifrey? Because it's supposed to be missing. And was it really the same barn the War Doctor took the Moment to? On a planet other than Gallifrey? That might make sense.)

And just because Orson had the Dan The Soldier Man toy and says time travel is a family tradition, doesn't mean he's the descendent of Clara and Danny, although it certainly seems to be shouting it. And if that's the Doctor on that bed, and Clara has given him the Dan The Soldier Man, has the Doctor been carrying it around all this time, in order to drop it into the toy box at the home? MOFFAT!!! *shakes fist*

Best episode of the season. Best episode in a few seasons, actually, definitely the best thing Moffat's written in a LONG time.

Some thoughts:

• Love the 'scared is a superpower' speech. LOVE.
  
• The return of the cloister bells (we did hear a single bell in Deep Breath).
  
• Love that Clara essentially fed the Doctor (we assume) the 'scared is a superpower' speech a bit, which over his 2000+ years he has had time to build on and perfect to what he told Rupert.
  
• So Clara is still mucking about with the Doctor's timeline, just without having to split herself across eternity to do it.
  
• Space ran Blink earlier in the day before this episode aired, I love that story so much, and they complement each other so well.

So what did you think? Did you absolutely love it? Of course you did :)