The Bells of Saint John (TV story)

The Bells of Saint John
Doctor:	Eleventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Main enemy:	Miss Kizlet, Great Intelligence, Spoonheads
Main setting:	London, 2013
Key crew
Writer:	Steven Moffat
Director:	Colm McCarthy
Producer:	Denise Paul
Release details
Story number:	231
Premiere broadcast:	30 March 2013
Format:	1x45
Production code:	3.6
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	The Snowmen

The Bells of Saint John was the sixth episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It introduced a new companion to the show, although she had, in different forms, previously appeared in both TV: Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen. It also reintroduced the Great Intelligence, who had last appeared in TV: The Snowmen.

Synopsis

London, 2013. "Danger. This is a warning. A warning to the whole world. You're looking for Wi-Fi. Sometimes you see something, a bit like this. Don't click it. Do not click it. Once you've clicked it, they're in your computer. They can see you. If they can see you, they might choose you. And if they do... you die."

When Clara Oswald has problems with her Internet, she's given a telephone number: the number of "the best." When the Eleventh Doctor answers at the other end, Clara is pulled into a life of adventure and mystery. But danger is lurking in the signals, picking off minds and imprisoning them. "It's like immortality, only fatal." But can the Doctor save Clara before... "I don't know where I am."

Plot

In the present day, a man named Nabile tells of a dangerous Wi-Fi connection that he claims is stealing human minds, killing them physically but preserving their consciousness. At the end of the monologue, he reveals that he, too, has had his mind stolen and preserved. In Cumbria, in the year 1207, a group of monks inform another monk, revealed to be the Doctor, that "The Bells of Saint John" are ringing. The Doctor is shown to have portraits of Clara with him. The bells are revealed to be the TARDIS's external phone, which is next to a St John Ambulance logo. Answering the phone, the Doctor realises that the caller is Clara, in modern-day London, who is having trouble connecting to a Wi-Fi network. She connects instead to the network mentioned in the opening monologue. Realising that he has found Clara once again, the Doctor travels to her house, where he asks about her and whether she remembers him. Clara closes the door on him, and he departs to change out of his monk's robes. While he is gone, a little girl appears in front of Clara. The girl's head rotates, revealing a dish-like indentation in the back of her head. Clara recognises the girl as being from the cover of a book written by 'Amelia Williams' - the Doctor's previous companion. The Doctor returns, finding Clara unconscious as her mind was being uploaded into a data cloud and manages to reverse it. The "Spoonhead" is revealed to be a mechanical creature, using camouflage based on its victim's thoughts, sent by a mysterious organisation headed by a woman named Miss Kizlet. Leaving a warning to Kizlet that the girl is under his protection, the Doctor leaves Clara to sleep before setting base up outside her house in the TARDIS. Clara awakens and talks to the Doctor, where she reveals that she is a friend of the family who live in the house, and she looks after the children - a "governess", as the previous version of Clara that the Doctor met had been. They realise that Clara has gained greater knowledge of computers as a result of being partially uploaded. The duo spot another Spoonhead, sent to re-upload Clara, before all the lights in the neighbourhood switch on, the residents being compelled to do so via the Wi-Fi. The lights in the rest of London go off, and the Doctor and Clara sight a plane that is plummeting towards them. They travel aboard the plane in the TARDIS, and the Doctor manages to pull the plane out of its dive and revive the crew and passengers, who had been rendered unconscious via the Wi-Fi. The Doctor and Clara travel forward to the next morning, and travel on a motorbike to a local café, where Clara uses her laptop to hack into the unknown organisation's webcams, then searching for the staff on social network sites, where they have detailed their work location — The Shard. In the café, the Doctor talks to several people who are being controlled remotely by Kizlet while Clara is re-uploaded by a Spoonhead replica of the Doctor. Upon realising what occured, the Doctor sets off for The Shard on his motorbike and uses its anti-gravity setting to scale the building and crashes into Kizlet's office. He encourages her to download Clara from the cloud - Kizlet states this is only possible if everyone else in the cloud is downloaded too. It is then revealed that the real Doctor is still at the café and has reprogrammed the Spoonhead Doctor to be control via Clara's laptop, having it upload Kizlet to let her experience the fear experienced after being uploaded and then use it to hack into one of her subordinates to download everybody from the cloud. After doing so, the Doctor leaves, and Kizlet reports a failure to the organisation's leader, revealed to be the Great Intelligence. He orders her to restore the other members of the organisation to their "factory settings" as UNIT arrives and take control. As a result, all the organisation members' memories after being inducted are wiped with Miss Kizlet revealed to have been aiding the Great Intelligence for most of her life and is now has the mentality of a scared child. Clara and the Doctor then talk inside the TARDIS, where the Doctor invites her to travel with him. She declines, but tells him to come back the next day to ask her again.

Cast

• The Doctor - Matt Smith
• Clara Oswald - Jenna-Louise Coleman
• Miss Kizlet – Celia Imrie
• Mahler – Robert Whitlock
• Alexei - Dan Li
• Nabile – Manpreet Bachu
• Paul – Sean Knopp
• The Abbot – James Greene
• George – Geff Francis
• Angie – Eve de Leon Allen
• Artie – Kassius Carey Johnson
• Little Girl – Danielle Eames
• Barista – Fred Pearson
• Waitress – Jade Anouka
• Newsreader – Olivia Hill
• Child Reading with Comic – Isabella Blake-Thomas
• Man with Chips – Matthew Earley
• Pilot – Antony Edridge
• Great Intelligence - Richard E. Grant

Crew

Executive Producers   Caroline Skinner and Steven Moffat

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Script Producer - Denise Paul Line Producer - Des Hughes Production Manager - Phillipa Cole Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Assistant - Iestyn Hampson-Jones Unit Manager - Monty Till Production Co-ordinator - Claire Hildred Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Gabriella Ricci Production Assistants - Rachel Vipond, Samantha Price Production Secretary - Sandra Cosfeld Production Accountant - Jeff Dunnn A/Production Accountant - Rhys Evans Script department Assistant Script Editor - John Phillips Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Nick Brown 2nd Assistant Director - Heddi-Joy Taylor-Welch 3rd Assistant Director - Delmi Thomas Assistant Directors - Danielle Richards, Garth Jones Script Supervisor - Steve Walker Camera Operator - Joe Russell Focus Pullers - James Scott, Julius Ogden Grip - Gary Norman Assistant Grip - Owen Charnley Camera Assistants - Meg De Koning, Sam Smithard, Evelina Norgren Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Stephen Slocombe Electricians - Bob Milton, Nick Powell, Gafin Riley, Gareth Sheldon	Art department Supervising Art Director - Paul Spriggs Art Director - Amy Pickwoad Assistant Art Director - Richard Hardy Art Department Co-ordinator - Donna Shakesheff Production Buyers - Adrian Greenwood, Holly Thurman Petty Cash Buyer - Florence Tasker Set Decorator - Joelle Rumbelow Set Dressers - Austin J Curtis, Jayne Davies Storyboard Artist - Andrew Wildman Graphic Artist - Christina Tom Graphic Designer - Chris Lees Standby Props - Helen Atherton, Rob Brandon Standby Carpenter - Will Pope Prop Hand - Jamie Southcott Standby Art Director - Nandie Narishkin Standby Rigger - Bryan Griffiths Props Master - Paul Smith Props Chargehand - Ian Griffin Dressing Props - Paul Barnett, Mike Elkins, Jamie Farrell Props Driver - Gareth Fox Props Makers - Penny Howarth, Alan Hardy Construction Manager - Terry Horle Construction Chargehand - Dean Tucker Practical Electrician - Christian Davies Scenic Artist - John Pinkerton Graphics - Peter Anderson Studio Costume department Costume Supervisor - Carly Griffith Assistant Costume Designer - Fraser Purfit Costume Assistants - Katarina Cappellazzi, Florence Chow, Gemma Evans	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Artists - Katie Lee, Elin Rhiannon, Vivienne Simpson Prosthetics - Millennium FX Movement Stunt Co-ordinators - Crispin Layfield, Gordon Seed, Jo McLaren Stunt Performer - Annabel Canaven Casting Casting Associate - Alice Purser General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Nerys Davies Assistant Editor - Becky Trotman On-line Editor - Geraint Pari Huws Special and visual effects Additional VFX - BBC Wales Visual Effects VFX Editor - Joel Skinner Colourist - Mick Vincent Sound Sound Recordist - Deian Llŷr Humphreys Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Sound Maintenance Engineers - Ross Adams, Chris Goding Dialogue Editor - Darran Clement ADR Editor - Matthew Cox Supervising Sound Editor - Paul McFadden Sound Effects Editor - Paul Jefferies Sound Editor - Doug Sinclair Foley Editor - Jamie Talbutt

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

Buildings

• The Shard is Miss Kizlet's base.

Communication technology

• Clara jokes about Twitter.
• Everyone at the base was on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr, and they all posted their locations.
• Peoples' voices could be heard on the radio, on televisions, and on the internet.

TARDIS

• Clara calls the TARDIS a "snog box."
• There's a garage in the TARDIS.

Time Lords

• The Doctor claims that Time Lords have 27 brains. He then admits that he was exaggerating.

Vehicles

• The Doctor owns an anti-gravity motorbike, which he states he rode in a motor race during the Anti-Grav Olympics in 2074, when he came last in the competition.
• The Doctor claims to have just invented the quadracycle.

Story notes

• This story takes a lot of the directing tropes of the BBC television series Sherlock, a show written and created by Doctor Who show runner Steven Moffat and writer Mark Gatiss, with two episodes at the time of broadcast written by Steve Thompson. A prime example of this is formulas and words appearing on-screen.
• The title of this episode is a reference to the phone incorporated into the TARDIS police box disguise, and to the "St. John Ambulance" logo on the door of this version of the TARDIS. The "Bells" part is referring to the police box phone ringing.
• As is routine for post-2005 Doctor Who, a "NEXT TIME" trailer for the next episode is shown at the end of the episode.
• George, Artie, and Angie's household Wi-Fi network is named "Maitland_Family."

Ratings

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• During the motorcycle scene, a crew member and camera can be seen reflected in the Doctor's helmet.
• In the same motocycle scene, the TARDIS's doors are open when the Doctor comes forward but then, when he starts riding, they are shown closed and apparently he did not remotely control them.
• When Clara is entering the the Doctor's TARDIS, her mug shakes several times, which would cause it to spill, yet it doesn't. Later, on the Aeroplane, she starts to take a sip but is pulled away by the Doctor, and it still doesn't spill. However, when she returns to the TARDIS, she takes a sip, proving once and for all that it wasn't empty and that it should have spilled several times.
• When the Doctor and Clara are talking after she wakes up, he sets the laptop on the ground and the monitor is upright, however, after the camera switches back to him from Clara, the screen is bent back.
• While in the airplane, you can't see the city below through the open windows.
• When the TARDIS has travelled to the airplane, just before the Doctor gets out, a scene change is visible and the wall position changes.

Continuity

• This isn't the first time that the Doctor has encountered an alien whose plan was to upload humans to a popular technology. Previously, the Tenth Doctor encountered the Wire, who extracted the faces of humans. Both times, the victims were trapped in screens. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern)
• Another striking similarity to TV: The Idiot's Lantern is the use of the motorbike: in both stories the Doctor rides it with his current companion through the streets of London and subsequently he rides it on his own after he loses the companion girl. In TV: The Idiot's Lantern the companion was Rose Tyler, who begins to enquire on her own before being captured by the Wire, while Clara is captured after a few moments and then the Doctor rides alone.
• The Doctor rides a motorbike out of the TARDIS. Previously, a motorbike drove into the TARDIS, turned around, and drove back out. (TV: Doctor Who)
• The Doctor tells Clara that they are riding a motorbike because he does not bring the TARDIS into battle, fearing that it may fall into the wrong hands. The same concern had been expressed by the Ninth Doctor to Rose Tyler (TV: The Parting of the Ways).
• The Doctor mentions that the TARDIS's telephone should not work. (TV: The Empty Child)
• The Doctor can't fly an airplane. He'd previously claimed that he was due for a lesson in flying a bi-plane in 1911. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
• The Doctor mentions that Angie, one of the children Clara babysits, went to stay over at Nina's. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
• After saving Clara from being downloaded, the Doctor sends a message to her attempted captors stating that she's "under my protection." (TV: The Christmas Invasion, The Eleventh Hour)
• Summer Falls, a book that Clara owns, was written by Amelia Williams. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
• The Doctor once again wears Amy's reading glasses. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan, The Snowmen)
• Miss Kizlet's client is revealed to be the Great Intelligence, which still has Walter Simeon's image, despite it being over a century since it first took his form. (TV: The Snowmen)
• The Doctor mentions having two hearts. (TV: Spearhead from Space, et al.)
• The Doctor briefly dons a fez, but gives it to a young boy standing outside the TARDIS. (TV: The Big Bang, A Christmas Carol)
• The Doctor notes that travelling short hops in the TARDIS can be difficult. (TV: State of Decay, Army of Ghosts, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
• The Doctor already disguised himself as a monk in Saxon England, along with another Time Lord. (TV: The Time Meddler)
• Monks, unlike bow ties, fezzes, and 1960s NASA technology, are not cool. (TV: The Time Meddler, The Eleventh Hour, The Big Bang, The Impossible Astronaut)

Home video releases

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External links

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