History Headscratchers / DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent

** Well first, it's likely that if the Doctor's TARDIS has a consciousness that allows it to function the way it does, it's reasonable to assume it's a built-in function, especially since there is no indication that it is unique in that respect. Secondly, the paradox machine seemed like a rather haphazard and fragile device. Jack was able to destroy it with a handful of bullets. If the Doctor builds one to save Clara, the minute it so much as loses full power it could potentially unravel the whole plan. An extraction chamber however, is a fully developed and time tested[[note]]No pun intended[[/note]] device and so is more likely to support the Doctor's plan long-term. A long-term plan to keep her alive is an intrinsically bad idea (as stated several times in the episode), but the extraction chamber is probably just the more reliable option in the Doctor's eyes. It's also possible it was a power move on the part of the Doctor. He uses the Time Lords' own device to save his friend who's death they were responsible for in the first place, putting them and the space-time continuum in peril, just to remind them what can happen when he's really pissed off.

** While Moffat has since confirmed it was in fact this interpretation that was correct, it's awkward since, as noted above, their partnership did a lot of ''good'' for the universe despite being initiated and initially maintained by Missy to cause the Doctor grief. In the end, the relationship was not bad in and of itself; it just went on too long and became co-dependent as their personalities slowly synced up in the wake of such traumas as her scattering herself in his timeline, his regeneration and altered personality, the death of Danny leaving her with no real reason not to keep travelling with him, etc. Once Clara was unjustly executed and the Doctor tortured, there was no hope of it being healthy again, at least on the Doctor's end.

* Presumably because he knew he'd have recognized that Clara had been replaced before the Trap Street. The Teselecta trick worked because no one knew that the Doctor wasn't actually the Doctor; in Impossible Astronaut from the moment he reunited with Amy and Rory, to the moment the Astronaut killed him it was always the Teselecta. And it'd have to have been before then, because the quantum shade was tracking the mark, which was on Clara the moment that she took it from Rigsy, akin to a guided missile tracking a GPS chip implanted in her,

** TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised: The 2017 BBC Audio story ''The Lost Flame'' has the Doctor suspecting he isn't ''as'' welcome on Karn as he once was due to the turbulence the TARDIS goes through when it lands there, implying that he hadn't been there since "Hell Bent". But the events of this episode are otherwise never brought up by either character. Ohila notes that she's never claimed to be the Doctor's ''friend'', and she does secretly use him and his TARDIS to track down [[spoiler: the wayward Sisterhood member]] behind the events of the StoryArc this audio (the last of four) concludes, seeing it as collecting on all the times the Sisterhood saved him. Otherwise the relationship is the same as it ever was, with both people apparently choosing to put the past in the past.

This technically applies to both this episode and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren "The Timeless Children"]], but that entry doesn't have a headscratchers page. In both stories The Doctor and their companions hijack a random TARDIS on Galifrey (Clara and Me's Diner TARDIS, the Fam's house TARDIS and the Tree TARDIS 13 uses to get back to her TARDIS) and all 3 of them use the same console room design as the 1st Doctor's. Now the Doctor's TARDIS is explicitly noted on many occasions to be a museum piece when the Doctor and Susan steal it, a long, long time before either episode from Galifrey's perspective, so these other TARDISes have to be way more advanced than a Type 40, so why do they have the same console room design?

* An interesting sub-point to that is: where did they get the wood? From what we see of the Dry Lands, they are nearly as barren as the surface of Mars. No obvious trees from which wood could be harvested. Wooden structures also do not have a very long lifespan in harsh environmental conditions. A couple of centuries and they are usually gone. Unlike Gallifreyans, including the Doctor, who live for thousands of years. That would imply that the barn is not what it seems. For all we know, it is the equivalent of a child's play house, and was built out of materials intended to resemble wood but which were actually artificial and able to last for millennia. After all, the TARDIS isn't ''really'' a 20th Century British Police Box either -- it just ''looks'' like one.

* While a show of force seemed a possibility on first viewing, FridgeLogic kicks in when one considers that Rassilon showing up with a firing squad at his back actually makes him look ''weak'', rather than strong. Now, perhaps his aged new body is an outward sign of VillainDecay. But again he is a firm believer in ClothesMakeTheSuperman and is generally tricked out with bling-of-mass-destruction (more on that below). Forcibly bringing the Doctor to ''him'' would seem like a more intimidating gesture to make for the Plebs, as it would emphasize his godlike power and reach. On the vehicle front, we know that there were TARDIS's in the repair bays of the Capital, because the Doctor stole one. While the hypothesis that the attack ships were Battle TARDIS's is interesting, there is no visual evidence or dialogue to support this. As with the situation in ''The Day of the Doctor'', the Time Lords seem to habitually underarm their troops. Considering how much powerful technology the Time Lords can squeeze into very small devices, that bulky armour should by all rights contain force fields, anti-gravity systems, Vortex Manipulators and at least something equivalent to a sonic screwdriver. The FrickinLaserBeams remain inexplicable.

[[folder: Why does the General, when she returns to being to female due to her regeneration, espouse misandrist ideals?]]
Seriously, when she gets back to being a woman, the first words out of her mouth are, "Back to normal. How do you deal with all that ego?" The fact that this doesn't make any sense is the least of this episode's problems, but it has multiple reasons why it doesn't make any sense.

1. The Timelords are supposed to be gender fluid, right? Why would any of them be sexist towards the opposite gender (I know the First Doctor had his moments & was flanderized in "Twice Upon a Time," but it's been hundreds to thousands of years since he left Gallifrey & it's never shown that they espouse those ideals on Gallifrey)?

2. As a man, she would experience for however long she did what it was like to be a man. On top of this, when she was a man, I don't believe she exhibited egomania like she claims she apparently had. She acted as a general as we saw her, so we have no point of reference as to why she'd say that.

So, yeah, it's obviously part of the BBC's SJW Feminist politics influencing the show, which started before the series entered into production & got the better of some things in Series 9 from what I can tell, like the castings of some of the U.N.I.T. officers, Clara talking about testosterone, & River Song saying it's weird for the Doctor to be thinking because he's a man (which ''also'' doesn't make any sense). These things make no sense, especially the thing I pointed out already.
** Concerning 2., my best explanation is that this particular incarnation of the General had a lot of ego as its personality's core (though kept in check by [[TheStoic excellent self-control]]), and, having been a misandrist ''earlier'' and returning to it now that she's again female, the General retroactively attributes this to this incarnation having been male. I don't know what to say about 1., though. Maybe, precisely ''because'' Time Lords change gender at random, this sort of prejudice is sort of "okay" in their society, in the sense that it's never something about the persons themselves, but more of a silly stereotype/superstition (that becoming male makes you egomaniac or something)?
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*** After [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren "The Timeless Children"]]'s revelations, maybe the universe -- or at least the Time Lords -- ''does'' owe the Doctor one after all...a possible plot for the 60th anniversary perhaps? #JusticeFor12