There may not have been a throne, but after 4.5 billion years of wall punching the Doctor’s confession dial castle had a hell of a big pile of skulls to sit on…
The Doctor easily used up a billion hearts - two at a time - in the previous episode, sort of.
Thanks for the ending, anyrose!
"All Matrix prophecies concur that this creature will one day stand in the ruins of Gallifrey. It will unravel the Web of Time and destroy a billion billion hearts to heal its own. "
Yes, whether the Hybrid was Me or the Doctor or Clara plus one or both of em they stood in the ruins (at the end of time) and the Doctor fer sure (his own) and probably Me too (over billions of years) sacrificed a billion (?billion billion? dang, maybe not either … but that’s what the transcript says, did the General stutter?) hearts.
The point of who the Hybrid was, though, was deliberately left unresolved. The Time Lords assumed the prophecy of the Hybrid sacrificing a billion hearts and sitting in the ruins of Gallifrey meant it would be some sort of Anti-Christ {whom they told themselves would be half-Time Lord, half-Dalek} who would bring about their Armageddon unless it was identified and stopped. All the prophecy really amounted to, though, was an observation that a couple of people with complex backgrounds would be sitting there chatting in the rubble at the end of time. In the end the Time Lords brought about the prophecy themselves through their scheme to trap and question the Doctor through Ashildr, which accidentally caused Clara’s death and sparked the Doctor’s fury and subsequent attempt to resurrect her. As he pointed out, they should have just asked him.
Nevertheless, the Doctor himself seems to be quite reluctant to undergo regeneration (as is understandable; you don’t just get a new look, but also new personality traits, and so on—‘I don’t want to go!’). Plus, it easily cuts the normal lifespan of a Time Lord a few hundred years short if they’re forced to undergo early regeneration. So it doesn’t seem quite so inocuous to me. But maybe I just have a hard time getting over the previously ‘no guns, not ever’-Doctor to him just picking up one and shooting somebody without batting an eye. I realize it’s supposed to feel grating, signalling the Doctor going too far, but even so, it just doesn’t fit the character to me. Not that anybody needs to let my own hangups influence their perception, mind.
The whole “death is man flu” thing was not intended to say that regeneration is, actually “man flu” but rather the Doctor minimizing what he had just did. It’s like a mugger saying his victim didn’t need the money he had anyway. It baffles me that people don’t get that.
I read it as a bit of a swipe against the Tennant era I DON’T WANT TO GO wangst, too. I think a lot of viewers rolled their eyes a bit at that. Dude, you’re coming back five minutes later; you’re just getting a different accent and a new suit is all.
Skulls For The Skull [Time] Lord!
I loved this little bit of throwaway dialogue from the beginning:
**CLARA: I believe you. You been travelling?
DOCTOR: Yeah, from time to time. **
Heh. That’s clever, that is.
I also liked it when they told him to put down any weapons he might be carrying, and he very deliberately set down his spoon.
So basically, the Doctor spent one third of the entire existence of the universe punching through a wall out of spite.
I can’t say I’m all that happy. I’m just a simple man, with simple tastes. I prefer my Doctor a flawed galactic hero than a grumpy old arsehole.
Why can’t he be both? He goes too far sometimes, but at least he figures it out and owns up to it.
Rewatched “Heaven Sent” yesterday - he’s eating soup in that one too, and drops his spoon dramatically.
Also - I noticed when he was falling from the window toward the sea, they put in that “crashing airplane” sound. I don’t think there was any dramatic significance; it was probably entirely to add excitement and/or comedy to the moment.
Remember, this development came from the same showrunner who had Sherlock Holmes commit a “preemptive” murder. (In the 2014 “His Last Vow” episode of “Sherlock.”
Some of us found that, too, to be a violation of an iconic character.
Was it just me, or were Me and Clara flirting like crazy in that last scene?
Well, when you have been wanting to shag a Doctor over all time and space and nothing happens…well any old pretty young “nurse” will do in a pinch…
I believe it’s become mandatory to link to this video, NSFW due to profanity in music whenever anyone talks about how the Doctor “never uses guns.” 
I just realized, usually a Time Lord is all wonky for a while after a regeneration, but the General just got up and resumed where he/she had left off.