“Heaven Sent” Grade and Discussion Thread

[intrinsical]

Wow. The entire episode is a huge puzzle. Took me a bit to gather my thoughts but I think here's what's going on...

Spoiler: what all of series 9 is about

After the first two-parter this series, I speculated that The Doctor is implementing his Gallifrey Restoration Masterplan. In that two-parter, he weakened the Daleks by killing all the Daleks in Skaro including the Dalek Emperor. He also introduced the Confession Dial.

It seems the original intent and design of Confession Dial is to take a Timelord and preserve their dying body. There is also a secondary feature of making the Timelord confess his deepest darkest secret. Meanwhile in the real world, the Timelord's best friend (apparently Missy) will take the Dial back to Gallifrey. As The Doctor said, "So Timelords can die with their own kind."

The Confession Dial has a failsafe. If the Dial cannot be delivered back to the Timelords in two billion years, it will make a last ditch attempt to physically transport itself back to Gallifrey regardless of where Gallifrey is. The Doctor used this failsafe to return to Gallifrey, "The long way round", as he said.

So if my thoughts are correct, all this talk of the hybrid is probably moot. The Doctor was merely using the Confession Dial to return to Gallifrey. We'll get to see why next week. I can't wait!

The most important question of course is: Doesn't the Doctor wear underpants? I didn't see any on the thing by the fire.

He wear underpants with question marks.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

I liked it, even if I knew from the first second that the hand pulling the lever at the start of the episode was the Doctor's. And it was fairly compelling viewing until the sequence where he punches the diamond wall thing for a billion years or whatever. That's where I rolled my eyes and said "Moffat..."

I was happy that Clara was in his head the whole time and they addressed her death that way.

But it was a good set-up for next week, and despite the Moffaty gobbledygook, it's still the most ambitious episode they've done in years. So it would be cruel to give it anything less than top marks.

Should be a great finale.

 

[Count Zero]

Wow. The entire episode is a huge puzzle. Took me a bit to gather my thoughts but I think here's what's going on...

Spoiler: what all of series 9 is about

After the first two-parter this series, I speculated that The Doctor is implementing his Gallifrey Restoration Masterplan. In that two-parter, he weakened the Daleks by killing all the Daleks in Skaro including the Dalek Emperor. He also introduced the Confession Dial.

It seems the original intent and design of Confession Dial is to take a Timelord and preserve their dying body. There is also a secondary feature of making the Timelord confess his deepest darkest secret. Meanwhile in the real world, the Timelord's best friend (apparently Missy) will take the Dial back to Gallifrey. As The Doctor said, "So Timelords can die with their own kind."

The Confession Dial has a failsafe. If the Dial cannot be delivered back to the Timelords in two billion years, it will make a last ditch attempt to physically transport itself back to Gallifrey regardless of where Gallifrey is. The Doctor used this failsafe to return to Gallifrey, "The long way round", as he said.

So if my thoughts are correct, all this talk of the hybrid is probably moot. The Doctor was merely using the Confession Dial to return to Gallifrey. We'll get to see why next week. I can't wait!

That makes a lot of sense.

 

[DarthPipes]

Christ, that sucked. I can see why a single-hander hasn't been attempted before but it's boring as fuck. You want to see a good, minimum Who? Watch Episode 1 of The Mind Robber. This was just a boring pile of shit and proof to me that I'll never warm up to the 12th Doctor.

I like the idea of learning more about the Doctor but at the same time, I don't need an explanation as to why he left Gallifrey and I refuse to believe it was because he was afraid he'd become a monster who conquered it. I only hope the next showrunner (which will probably be chosen a few billion years from now) retcons this nonsense.

I saw speculation earlier wondering if the Doctor being a "hybrid" is supposed to reference the half-human bit from the Doctor Who TV movie. Last thing I want to see is the Doctor turn out to be half-human, a line of dialogue best forgotten.

I was hoping that the Doctor would hit his head against that not-diamond so hard that he was regenerate into someone who didn't care about Clara, who managed to annoy again in her twenty-five seconds of screentime.

The musical score was very good though but that's about it.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I felt it was a bit uneven and the whole talking out loud thing didn't quite work for me. Liked the scenes in the TARDIS, though. I kind of figured it was the Doctor dying in the beginning but nevertheless I felt the episode really picked up towards the end. The picture of all those skulls actually being the Doctor's was very powerful.

So, is this how the confession dials work for eveFry Timelord? And if they're unlucky they end up spending all eternity inside their nightmare trap?

It's a shame that the hybrid thing wasn't really built up during the season. Yes, there were mentions but not of the prophecy. So the reveal wasn't as meaningful. I did love the Doctor declaring he was the hybrid at then end of the episode. I'm not sure in what way he is a hybrid, though.

Maisie Williams's character is named Me...

Yes, but the Doctor never refers to her by that name.

 

[Mr Light]

first viewing: 3/4 what a thrilling mystery!
any subsequent viewings: 1/4 it's a guy running around a castle for an hour!

Thankfully I somehow managed to stay unspoiled about the finale, so this was an amazing mystery to ponder during the episode. WHO is doing this?! I was assuming Davros and/or Missy the whole time. Never thought about the Time Lords. But the moment he teleported to a desert planet I knew it was Gallifrey. Is it normal for little boys to be wandering the wilderness like that?

At first I objected to the castle even having an exit in the first place, but as my friend explained, there had to be a legitimate exit to lure the Doctor into confessing the truth about the Hybrid.

I really do take issue with the Doctor being trapped in there for TWO BILLION YEARS though. That's so ridiculously long a period of time. Even if this incarnation didn't experience all those years.

When he said he left Gallifrey because he was scared, I was immediately reminded of "The Sound of Drums". Tennant saying he looked into the Untempered Schism and was terrified, and never stopped running since. Is that where he learned about the prophecy?

So, was the creature supposed to be a reference to a past episode? the clockwork figures from "Girl By the Fireplace"? the mummy from "Orient Express"?

 

[The Wormhole]

This episode was promoted as the Peter Capaldi One Man Show. The concept intrigued me as I wondered how they were going to pull it off, and in the end they didn't. Sure, the episode is 94% Capaldi, but it's also 3% the Veil, 2% Clara, and 1% Gallifreyan boy. So right off the bat, we've ignored the premise.

As far as the episode itself, it was okay. Typical Moffat, a bit pretentious, timey-wimey, and some inside the Doctor's head stuff which certainly felt like they were channeling Sherlock. Of course, Sherlock didn't invent the idea, but given it's another Moffat show, it's an apt comparison.

The episode also took forever to get to the point. Okay, yes, you got to get an atmosphere going on and properly explore this setting the Doctor's in and although that got draggy, it was tolerable. But then, once it's revealed what's going on, we get the montage of the Doctor repeatedly arriving, learning everything, figuring it out, fighting the Veil, dying and the next Doctor arriving. Which got annoying the second time it cycled.

I assume "Room 12" was chosen because Capaldi is the Twelfth Doctor? If so, this is remarkably sloppy given the setting. This is supposed to be inside the confession dial, and the whole thing responds when the Doctor reveal a truth about himself. Yet it's allowing him to call himself the twelfth incarnation even though by the count given in Time of the Doctor he is in fact the fourteenth? Okay. Does Moffat even pay attention to his own scripts?

And I know there's been much talk about spoilers on this forum lately and I have placed myself firmly in the camp of "chill y'all spoilers are fine." And while I am generally okay with spoilers, I got to question what the BBC was thinking when the authorized the official plot synopsis for this episode.

It's right there in the last sentence of the official BBC plot synopsis the Doctor will find Gallifrey in this episode. Maybe it's just me, but it sounds irresponsible to reveal the final scene, cliffhanger and plot twist in the blurb that's just supposed be an outline of the episode's plot. I get Gallifrey and the Time Lords returning wouldn't be kept a secret once the synopsis for next week's episode was released, but that still doesn't justify actually revealing this episode's ending and ruining what could have been an awesome reveal.

I got to say, I am very confused by what this season has chosen to keep a secret and what has been publically revealed. Prior to The Magician's Apprentice the fact Davros would be in it was such a closely guarded secret all the online prequels and minisodes related to the episode just vaguely refer to someone the Doctor has an antagonistic relationship with and it was to keep that secret that we didn't get a theatrical screening of the episode. Yet we learn before the opening credits that Davros was in the episode. Was the little boy identifying himself as Davros at the start of the premiere really a bigger surprise than the final scene of the penultimate episode of the season being set on Gallifrey?

 

[DWF]

It felt more like the penultimate ep. of the Prisoner than Sherlock, with the Doctor going though a trial, but overall it was rather boring. The return of Galifrey or at least returing to it should have been epic, but this has been anything but epic.

 

[Caretaker]

He's half human

I thought that, too. Then I thought of many fans' heads exploding at that being brought back.
http://www.trekbbs.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Could "Room 12" be related in some way to Room 11 from The God Complex, which we found out later had a crack in it?

 

[Sparky]

Christ, that sucked. I can see why a single-hander hasn't been attempted before but it's boring as fuck. You want to see a good, minimum Who? Watch Episode 1 of The Mind Robber. This was just a boring pile of shit and proof to me that I'll never warm up to the 12th Doctor.

I like the idea of learning more about the Doctor but at the same time, I don't need an explanation as to why he left Gallifrey and I refuse to believe it was because he was afraid he'd become a monster who conquered it. I only hope the next showrunner (which will probably be chosen a few billion years from now) retcons this nonsense.

I saw speculation earlier wondering if the Doctor being a "hybrid" is supposed to reference the half-human bit from the Doctor Who TV movie. Last thing I want to see is the Doctor turn out to be half-human, a line of dialogue best forgotten.

I was hoping that the Doctor would hit his head against that not-diamond so hard that he was regenerate into someone who didn't care about Clara, who managed to annoy again in her twenty-five seconds of screentime.

The musical score was very good though but that's about it.

It's funny how different people who like the same show can have such widely different opinions about it. I thought that this was brilliant. It's in my top 5 of all time Doctor Who episodes. I was far from bored, I was literally on the edge of my seat the entire episode. I like that they explain why he left Gallifrey, did I need to know? Nope, but I enjoy it nonetheless. Is he really the hybrid, or is it Me? Who knows, I look forward to finding out. As for Clara this week, I thought that the 2 lines she had was just right. Don't get me wrong, I can't stand her, and I cheered when she croaked. But 2 small lines from her was fine with me. Yes, it may have been 7000, 12000, 12000, 20000000 or 2 billion years, but from his perspective he just saw her die minutes/hours ago.
To me, this episode was tense, heartbreaking, awe inspiring and shocking. All in a good way. You say that this is proof that you will never warm up to the 12th Doctor, this episode just secured his number one spot on the list for me.....move over Tom, you just got deposed.

 

[Mr Soak]

I assume Moffatt was using UK billion (1,000,000,000,000) rather than the US billion (1,000,000,000).

 

[Cyke101]

I loved it. I loved how the episode just took its time. I loved its patience. The Veil was very much like Pyramidhead from the Silent Hill games mixed with Castlevania along with a dash of psychological thriller, except more family friendly. I watched this without ads (Suck it, BBCAmerica), so the pacing was probably as intended, which helped maintain the fear, the timing, and the emotion. The thrills helped with the investment. The music was probably the most well composed of the entire revival.

The only thing that got to me, which is probably what Moffat intended from the start, is just how the Doctor spent 2 billion years at this. Even moreso when it turns out that the Doctor starts punching the wall because he suddenly realized that all his previous versions did it. That is willpower beyond comprehension. But it's very much in line with Moffat continuing his theme of painting the Doctor as a fairly tale figure, with the Brothers Grimm story to drive it home.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

I figured out where he was and what was going on from the bloody pre-credits

I knew from the first second that the hand pulling the lever at the start of the episode was the Doctor's.

 

[Cyke101]

On a side note, I've noticed many of my American colleagues disliking the episode. I watched it without American-styled commercial breaks; I'm wondering if that severely compromised the pacing of the episode.

I figured out where he was and what was going on from the bloody pre-credits

I knew from the first second that the hand pulling the lever at the start of the episode was the Doctor's.

I'm going to hazard a guess and say some people expected Wibbly Wobbly. But it turned out not to be the case. So it's right answer, wrong logic proof, which still makes it wrong in the world of deductive reasoning.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Too navel-gazing for me, which can work for some shows but I'd rather see the Doctor exploring mysteries instead of the Doctor being the mystery. I'll wait till next week but I'm afraid I don't give a shit why he left Gallifrey and doubt I'm going to be swayed.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

I figured out where he was and what was going on from the bloody pre-credits

I knew from the first second that the hand pulling the lever at the start of the episode was the Doctor's.

Because I've seen this show enough to expect these types of things.

 

[tomalak301]

Well, it took until the penultimate episode of the season, but I thought that was freaking brilliant. Last week I was hoping that episode would be great and it was until the melodramatic death scene. This week's episode made that scene worth it and I was firmly entrenched into this story. This also shows that yeah I do like Capaldi, when he has great stuff to work with. This episode felt like the Doctor Who I remember, having this mystery that needs to be solve while also being introspective all the same. It felt like the best qualities of the Eccleston year all rolled into this one and the music added to that in a big big way. Capaldi nailed this episode so much, and I gained much more respect for him. This episode also did something the found footage episode failed at, which was making it a little scary. This episode was horrific, with the creature and the skulls and the music.

I still say this season has been disappointing, but if next week's episode is as strong as this episode was, I will be glad to say it ended on a high note.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'd been assured that that gnome had ####ed off.

She needs to go.

 

[Takeru]

Capaldi's performance was great, the episode itself was okay but not something I'd watch again, it's pointless. I guess the Doctor being stuck there for 2 billion years is supposed to show his determination except it doesn't, from his perspective he only did it once, he arrived, explored, got scared, punched the wall and got out just a few hours after Clara died. Rory protecting Amy for 2000 years is way more impressive because he actually experienced that time.

I also think having him stuck there for 2 billion years was overkill, instead of diving into an ocean he should have crashed into a pile of skulls after a million years or two, look how many there were after only 7000 years!

Oh, and the Doctor is not the hybrid, you're not fooling me Moffat.

The Hybrid is me, me=Ashildr

It's really obvious, I watched last weeks episode after sitting out most of the season and the entire time I thought "Why would she be called 'me', that's weird ...", it wasn't very subtle but I shouldn't be surprised, Moffat was never subtle, I realized that the moment the camera started zooming in on the stupid cracks in series five.