Heaven Sent (TV story)
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Heaven Sent was the eleventh and penultimate episode of series 9 of Doctor Who.
The episode shows the Doctor dealing with and grieving over the death of Clara Oswald, whom he lost to the Quantum Shade in the previous episode. The vast majority of the episode includes just the Doctor by himself with no other characters present, save the veiled figure that menaces him throughout. Jenna Coleman appears only as a manifestation of Clara in the Doctor's imagination. The Doctor's TARDIS is also absent from this episode, except again in the Doctor's imagination.
The episode is notable for a number of truths conceded by the Doctor, with him being inside his own confession dial. It is also notable for showing the Doctor finally finding his way back to Gallifrey since he found out that it was not in fact destroyed in the Time War, but instead placed in a pocket universe.
This story takes place over an outstandingly long period of time, seeing the Doctor stuck in a recursive cycle during which he repeatedly perishes and comes back to life. In the following episode, Hell Bent, it is estimated that this cycle lasts for four and a half billion years, leaving it with one of the single-longest uninterrupted time spans of any given adventure in Doctor Who history.
Synopsis
As if the death of his best friend wasn't enough, the Doctor's situation has only gotten worse. What initially started as an attempt to help clear someone of a false murder charge has evolved into to something much worse.
Now trapped in an old rusty castle in the middle of an ocean, the Time Lord is being stalked by a mysterious creature that only pauses when he gives up his deepest secrets. What does this thing want? And can the Doctor escape and find his way back home?
Plot
The Doctor walks around a castle for 4.5 billion years.
Cast
Crew
| Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin |
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| 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
- The Doctor says he hates gardening.
- A portrait of Clara Oswald is hanging in the castle.
- The Doctor discusses the Brothers Grimm to the Veil and the tale of the Shepherd's Boy, who is asked by the Emperor "how many seconds in eternity?" To this, he replies: "There's this mountain of pure diamond. It takes an hour to climb it, and an hour to go around it. Every hundred years, a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain. And when the entire mountain is chiselled away, the first second of eternity will have passed." The Doctor thinks that's "a hell of a bird".
- The Doctor proves to be able to open a door by communicating with it, hinting he had more telepathic abilities when he was young.
- When the Doctor finds 'BIRD' in the ground, he rhetorically asks if there are birds here.
- The Doctor can feel time travel. Thanks to this, he can say he should be in the same time zone he left, but the position of the stars suggests otherwise.
- Azbantium is a material 400 times harder than diamond. The Doctor punches it for four and a half billion years to get through to a portal to Gallifrey.
- According to the Doctor, an "augmented ultra long-range teleport" brought him into the "castle".
- The Doctor compares the teleporter to a 3D printer.
- The castle contains screens designed to show what the Veil sees, giving the Doctor clues as to where the Veil is at all times.
- The Veil is a creature pulled from the Doctor's childhood nightmares of an old lady who died and was covered up in veils and attracted flies due to it being a hot summer day.
- The Doctor is searching for Room 12.
- The Twelfth Doctor finds and generates billions of copies of his own skull.
- The Doctor makes a "pop" sound with a finger in his mouth.
- The Doctor at first thinks the castle is inside a closed energy loop.
- Copies of the Doctor find themselves 7000, 12000, 600000, 1200000, 2000000, 20000000, 52000000, "nearly" and "well over" 1000000000, and 2000000000 years into the future.
Story notes
- Whilst the episode was promoted by various news outlets as a one-hander, the presence of an imagined Clara and the Veil, and the appearance of the young boy at the end of the episode, technically go against this; however, the bulk of the storyline was carried by the Doctor alone with him having all but one line of dialogue. The 2013 mini-episode Clara and the TARDIS remains the only true televised one-hander produced to date. The Companion Chronicle The Stealers from Saiph is the only other one-hander.
- The Doctor's story that he tells in the beginning, is written on a wall in the old castle. Only certain parts are missing.
- While imagining talking to Clara, the Doctor breaks the fourth wall, looks at the camera and says "I'm nothing without an audience".
- The Doctor imagines he's in the TARDIS with Clara, who writes responses on the blackboards, whenever he needs to think about a scenario. This is quite similar to the "mind palace" from Sherlock, a show created and written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss; Sherlock would review facts and even talk to mental constructs of people he knows when working out a case/problem.
- In the TV special The Ultimate Time Lord, Steven Moffat had described the Doctor as "an adrenaline junkie. He will toss himself out a window and figure out what to do on the way down." The Doctor does this very thing in the episode.
- Each and every one of the skulls in the episode were modelled from Peter Capaldi's own skull.[1]
- Jenna Coleman's name has been removed from the opening credits, making this the first regular episode of the revived series to only credit one actor during the title sequence. To make up for the extra time required, Capaldi's name is held on screen for a couple of seconds before moving away, also a first. In keeping with this, in the closing credits, the name of the actor playing the Doctor is seen on screen by itself for the first time, with the companion actress' credit moved to the second screen.
- Unusually for the title sequence used beginning in 2014, Peter Capaldi's credit zooms ahead rather than fading out.
- Prior to the broadcast of Series 8, Steven Moffat stated in interviews that he had already worked out the cliffhanger for the penultimate episode of Series 9, and was quoted as saying "you won't see it coming." The Doctor says almost those exact same words before jumping out the window in this episode, the penultimate episode of Series 9 which does, indeed, lead to a major cliffhanger.
- This marks the only penultimate episode in a series during Steven Moffat's era as showrunner to not feature the Cybermen, though as there are only twelve episodes in this series, the following episode continues the pattern of the twelfth episode featuring Cybermen.
- Writing in DWM 495, Moffat confirmed that the portrait of Clara was painted by the Doctor himself. He also confirmed that several other clues, specifically the "I am in 12" paving slab, were left by a previous copy of the Doctor who was impatient with the duration of each cycle.
- The only appearance of the TARDIS in this episode is an imaginary version of the console room in the Doctor's mind.
- In the original script, available to download from the BBC Writers Room website, the last word of the Doctor's final line is capitalised as a proper noun - "The Hybrid, destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins, is Me." This less ambiguously points to Ashildr and her eventual appearance in the following episode.
- This story can be read as an elaborate metaphor for battling one’s own depression. In an interview, Moffat confirmed that this was not intentional, but stated he was ‘honoured’ that it had helped out people in dark places.
Ratings
- BBC One Overnight: 4.51 million
- BBC America Overnight: to be added
- Final UK ratings: 6.19 million[2]
Filming location
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.
- In one of the shots of the Doctor punching the azbantium wall in the montage spanning over 4.5 billion years, the Veil is at least three metres behind him, yet the shot is then shown from the side, and the Veil is directly behind him.
- In the scene where the Doctor states how many years he thinks he's travelled, the green screen for the stars seems to go through the Veil's hand.
- When the Doctor drops his spoon during his eating a soup, another spoon can be seen at that same place Capaldi had his before it dropped, only it seems to be behind his own hand. The spoon that remains is still, not moving with the rest of the frame, suggesting that this was a composite of two shots - one of the spoon dripping, and another of the spoon being dropped, with the dripping spoon not having been removed.
- When the Doctor jumps from the window into the water, he passes through a section of the castle on the way down.
- When getting out of the water the Doctor's suit and skin is visibly dry and his hair only moisturised.
Continuity
- The Doctor declares to his captors, "the Doctor will see you now". (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
- The Doctor remembers Clara's death and how she told him not to take revenge, as well as telling the reason she got killed; he also refers to the fact she died in agony. (TV: Face the Raven)
- The Doctor refers to a skull which he finds as his "predecessor," not knowing how correct he is in that reference. The Tremas Master had previously referred to a skeleton in the Death Zone on Gallifrey in the same way. (TV: The Five Doctors)
- The Doctor retreats into an imaginary version of the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Pyramid of Sutekh)
- The Doctor says people should know better than to trap him. The Eleventh Doctor warned the Weeping Angels about the same. (TV: The Time of Angels)
- The Doctor retreats to the lower level of the mental recreation of the TARDIS console room when he becomes emotional, and sits in almost exactly the same place as the Eleventh Doctor did when faced with an enforced journey to Trenzalore. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
- The Doctor says to always assume survival. Clara previously said he always assumes that. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
- Except for the painting, all of the Doctor's visions of Clara have her wearing the same outfit and hairstyle as when she died. Also, except for one encounter, she is always seen from the back, which is how the Doctor last saw her alive. (TV: Face the Raven)
- The Ninth Doctor demonstrated the ability to slow down his perception of time when carrying out a risky action. (TV: The End of the World)
- The Hybrid is discussed. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
- The Doctor says the Daleks would never allow anything to be half-Dalek. He has previously witnessed them destroy human-Dalek hybrids (TV: Evolution of the Daleks) and has encountered a race of Daleks harvested from human genetic material who were driven insane by their own existence. (TV: The Parting of the Ways) A hybridisation of a faction of Daleks has also more than once been the cause of civil war. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks)
- The Doctor returns to Gallifrey, having got there "the long way round". (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
- The Doctor previously had a connection to a room with his incarnation's number. (TV: The God Complex)
- The Doctor jokes about being "good at traps". (TV: The Time of Angels)
- The Doctor says "it must be Christmas" when faced with a challenge. (TV: The Vampires of Venice) He has also referred to anachronisms and puzzles being on his Christmas list before. (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
- The Fourth Doctor encountered a recursive environment inhabited by numerous previous iterations of its occupants with his companion Adric. (PROSE: Mauritz)
- Clara challenges the Doctor to win. (TV: The Girl Who Died)
Home video releases
DVD releases
The Complete Series 9
Series 9 Part 2 DVD Cover
- Doctor Who Series 9: Part 2
- Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Series
Blu-ray releases
- Doctor Who Series 9: Part 2
- Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Series
External links
Transcript of Heaven Sent at Chrissie's Transcripts Site
