Easily my favorite Cybermen story of the modern series. Fantastic concept, equal parts terrifying and brilliant.

Missy was outstanding. Psychotic and terrifying and hilarious all at once. There's no way she got killed. None at all. Her little ray gun? I'm calling it. It's the same kind of teleport The Doctor used in Time Heist. Osgood and everyone else who got zapped are still alive, and will pop up by next season, if not by Christmas.

The final tribute / "appearance" of The Brig was touching. Respectful, endearing. Wonderful sendoff.

Danny's heroism at the end... fantastic. But I'm sure he'll be brought back by the end of Christmas. Orson Pink has to eventually exist, otherwise The Doctor would have never received Dan the Soldier Man in his youth, and would never have had the courage to be The Doctor in the first place.

But... if Santa is real, who gave Rose that red bike?! I demand an explanation!

the handling of the Brig practically brought Mrs. Heb and me to tears (and I hardly ever cry at anything, let alone a TV show -- it's not a macho thing; I guess I just have very dry eyes in general). The portrait on the plane would have been enough (and worth noting that, appropriately, it's McCoy-era Brig rather than Pertwee/Baker era, since that's the last time he was officially on-screen as the Brig), but the whole saving Kate and The Doctor's salute just killed me, in part because I've always been a fan of the Brig and have been rewatching a lot of Pertwee lately, including The Ambassadors of Death and Inferno, both of which are standout episodes for him.

Capaldi handles the scene brilliantly, and I have to give Rachel Talalay a lot of credit for excellent direction; it really felt for a second like Nicholas Courtney was inside that cyberman armor. I'm actually surprised at how much this affected me -- the phone call and Matt Smith's expression on finding out the Brig had died made me wistful, but this one just seemed like an even better sendoff, and I love the thought that he's still out there somewhere, fighting the good fight as much as he can, and obviously with Benton and Yates if they've died and been resurrected in the interim too.

Clara and the Doctor lying to each other at the end (she about Danny, he about Gallifrey) just felt right, particularly given the way they've both proven to be manipulative throughout the season (and of course Matt Smith's "Rule #1: The Doctor lies"). In this case, it was lying to each other to make the other one feel better about leaving, something they touched on in Mummy on the Orient Express, but really expanded on here. Never going to like Clara and Danny as much as Amy and Rory or (for example) Sarah Jane or Leela or Jamie, but she has shown growth throughout the season, even if it's been inconsistent and not quite enough to make up for her lack of depth last season.

It was mostly a mess but pulled it around with a stunningly emotional final act. As Hebrides said, the Brig salute was a really powerful and respectful. I feel this series has gone to great lengths to pay tribute and refrence the classsic era like it was all part of one continuity. I guess this is down to being post-50th and the new older Doctor. The previous 7 new series have often felt like they've ignored the past a bit. Afer all, them paying a tribute to the Brig is the creators assuming that the audience know who that character is and are going to have an emotional conection to him. Previously I think the philosophy has been to assume that the new show's new audience have never watched it before. It feels like the show being more confident .

The plot made very little sense, Moffat shouldn't be allowed to write on his own. Don't get me wrong he's a great Producer. In the classic era Producers writing for the show was all but forbidden (There were a few exceptions) which was probably a wise choice. The whole "Doctor is the President" thing was just thrown out there and nothing interesting done with it. Capaldi was wasted as he spent the most of the episode just starring in disbelief and not doing all that much.

Gomez was fantastic as The Mas..Miss..M..M erm that woman in black ;-). Nothing like the cerebral intelligence of Delgado, or Ainley but in keeping with the manic insanity of Simm.

Overall a B-. The seres started strong and got better and better (Except 'Kill The Moon') but this felt like a dip in quality just at the finale.

In Sci-Fi nobody ever really dies, so I hope it's not the last we've seen of Clara and Danny. I never thought I'd say that as I was extremely bored of Coleman's performance by the end of Series 7. The great writing and added character depth for her in this series has been fantastic.

Really looking forward to the Christmas special as it looks like straight-forward silly fun!