This fact really bothered me, as in previous episodes they had made such a point of the tardis doing this automatically. Sometimes I believe they need a continuity fact-checking assistant ... or an encyclopedist (or a whole department of them) like Star Wars has for their continuity.

Otherwise I dig your theories on Clara, my own is not fully formed either and not ready for prime time but involves something similar to what happened to Rose but w/ melding into the time-vortex rather than absorbing it - she gets lost into the vortex and like dye in a washer she keeps coming out as a tie-dye shirt all across time and space. The only thing I will mention is that it's weird that Moffat keeps using the dying/oh yeah not dead thing again (and part of me wonders whether or not we will see resolution to the Clara issue before Tranzalore where the question will be asked) ... and lastly - River - do we see the Dr. send her off to meet the tenth or do they leave that tid-bit for our imaginations?

-Roon