I agree with you all, though I actually liked it. It was funny (nude twister and the truth field) and touching (poor Handles, and Clara living through the demise of her beloved Doctor in just one day), but there were more than a few problems, not the least that they made Matt old for most of the episode (and what was with the baldness?), though maybe it was a setup to introduce Doctors being able to return to the show when they age, which is fine by me. And there really were some plot irregularities, such as if Clara could talk to the Time Lords through the crack, why couldn’t the Doctor speak to them and try to work something out with them? He had over 300 years after all.
And enough of his ‘real name’ – hopefully Clara put that to bed by saying that it was ‘the Doctor’.
Moffat (who is responsible for some of the absolute best storylines, so I still love him) creates these complicated story arcs that need to be resolved by the last episode of the series, which can become complex and rushed. That was one of the reasons that classic DW ended: they hired an uber fan to help them to stick to the letter of DW history, but it ended up becoming cumbersome, restricting and complicated.
But that’s not all bad, I like it when things linked up in the xmas special. For example …
- how the Doc forgets the Day of the Doctor events and other things, but then leaves with that ‘I will remember every single day of me’ speech
- the Silence being priests with a splinter group out to kill the Doctor made that entire storyline fall into place
- the crack in the wall now makes sense (more or less), though I’ll have to reconsider some of the crack’s episodes to be sure (was it behind the Doctor’s door in The God Complex, when he said “Of course, who else”?)
- the return of the song from Rings of Akhaten – which I love
And lots more – I’d really like a marathon of Matt’s entire run to remember other stuff I’ve forgotten. DW has always had plenty of things that don’t immediately make sense, but because the program is so vast a concept, there is lots of room to theorise and use your imagination to try to apply meanings that fit. Like why have we seen the War Doctor and Matt age when no one else has (depending on who Tom Baker really is in DotD). That's making my mind boggle at the moment, though I read a nice theory about being cut off from the Time Vortex or being in a Time Lock makes a TL age.
There were other things I liked, from little things like going to church naked and exposed, rather than our churches where people dress up and put on airs and graces; to big things like Amy - her simplicity was so sweet. And obviously, another cycle of regenerations, yay!!!
But my favourite moment of the whole thing was “Love from Gallifrey, boys”. Great, great line.