Yeah, the time rotor is weird, the scraping sounds usually lined up with the up-down movement, now there's a thing that spins at a regular rate. I like the colors though, my favorite interior so far of the new Whos.

I missed the Christmas special, but read a summary. So The Doctor thinks Clara is special because no one dies twice? Didn't each of the Ponds die like 3 times? Could someone clarify that for me?

I do like that he wants her to come along because he's curious about her, not the other way around. After reading that she died in the special too, I was kind of hoping/afraid that she would die in this one too. It'd be neat to have someone he couldn't keep alive but kept finding, but on the other hand we'd have to go through the whole "Doctor who?" "It's bigger on the inside!" bit every episode.