Face the Raven (TV story)

The episode saw the return of Rigsy from series 8's Flatline, and saw Ashildr make her third appearance in the series, as well as her first time meeting with Clara since The Girl Who Died.

Significantly, the climax of this episode marked the death of companion Clara Oswald. The situation that led to her demise dealt with the consequences of what happens when a companion starts thinking and acting too much like the Doctor, jeopardising herself by imitating his self-sacrificial actions. Clara had been shown to act more recklessly since the death of her boyfriend, Danny Pink, in the previous series.

The Doctor having to face the loss of Clara would set the stage for the climax of the Series 9 arc. Upon discovering the root cause of the events that led up to her demise, the Doctor would shift into a quiet but insurmountable fury, seeking answers and justice for his companion.

Synopsis

The Doctor, Clara and Rigsy are trapped on an alien street in London, that is hidden from the rest of the world.

Ashildr, the immortal hybrid-girl, is taking care of some of the most dangerous creatures in the universe. Not everyone will get out alive; one of them must pay the price and face the raven.

Plot

The Doctor and Clara enter the TARDIS after an adventure when they get a call from Rigsy, who said that a mysterious tattoo has appeared on the back of his neck and is counting down to zero. They arrive at his flat finding out he has a fiancee and a newborn daughter. He tells them he has no idea on how the tattoo got there and that he doesn't remember any events from the previous twenty-four hours. His mobile phone's screen is cracked and Clara can't find any evidence of any activity. The Doctor scans him and discovers that Rigsy has been in contact with alien life and that he will die when the countdown gets to zero.

The Doctor and Clara attempt to help him by trying to piece together his movements over the last twenty-four hours. Looking at maps of London in the Great British Library to find where Rigsy may have been, Clara mentions something called a “trap street”; a street invented by map makers to catch people who would copy their maps without giving the proper credit. They search for the street, finding it when Rigsy drops his phone and begins to remember what happened.

Entering the alley that contains the street, they find that it is occupied by "refugees" of various aliens species who appear human to each other by use of a telepathic field. Soon, they encounter Ashildr, who is “Mayor Me” of the street. She explains that the street is a refugee camp and that Rigsy is being sentenced to death for killing Anah, a two-faced Janus female. He had been retconned and given time to say goodbye to family. She also reveals that the tattoo is a chronolock that leads a Quantum Shade, which appears normally as a raven, to find him at the predetermined time; killing the victim when the countdown gets to zero.

The Doctor and Clara believe that Rigsy did not kill Anah and has been framed for the murder. Me allows them to investigate the case and to convince everyone that he did not commit the crime so that the truce in the street is at peace and there will be no rivalry.

Later, a man had a chronolock on the neck for stealing medical rations and his wife tells him to pass it on to her. Ashildr announces that she can remove the chronolock but she will not as peace on the street must remain absolute. Everyone watches as the raven flies into the man and he dies in agony. Clara soon learns that a chronolock can be passed on to any willing recipient, and chooses to take Rigsy's as she has absolute protection over herself from being in danger. Rigsy is reluctant, but Clara talks him around and he agrees to pass it on. He does so, leaving Clara with 33 minutes.

When asking others questions, the Doctor discovers that Rigsy tried to call the Doctor when he had found out he was in the trap street and believes Me was trying to get him to come here. Clara also discovers that everyone except Anahson, the "son" of Anah, was looking at Rigsy in a different way to everyone else. The Doctor and Clara find out she is really a girl and is dressed up as a boy to stay safe and to hide her ability to find the past and future in someone. Using her ability, she tells them that Me had made up a mystery to bring them here.

They all go to where Anah's body is and find out she is alive and put inside a stasis chamber and can be only unlocked by the TARDIS key. It appears that this was all a trap to allow Me to gain possession of the TARDIS, but the Doctor refuses to deprive a girl of her mother and uses his key to open the chamber. When he unlocks it, his wrist is trapped and a teleport bracelet is wrapped around his arm. Me arrives and tells them that this was never about the TARDIS... Me was contacted and told if she wanted the street kept safe and secret she had to hand over the Doctor, who is to be teleported away. Me asks for his confession dial and what it is before she activates it. When she goes to remove the chronolock from Rigsy, they discover Clara has it, causing Me to be stunned and horrified at this, protesting that she never meant to harm anyone. Clara is confused at this, causing the Doctor to ask about how she knew how to remove it. She says that Rump told her that she can pass it on, but before she can say the rest, she suddenly pauses with dawning comprehension, so Me finishes with: "But you can't cheat it altogether."

Rigsy, shocked, says that Clara didn't tell him that and asks to have the chronolock back. But Me says that she had arranged to use the chronolock on Rigsy and that she would not kill him. Clara broke that contract by accepting the chronolock from Rigsy and Me cannot take it off her or give it back to Rigsy. Clara is doomed to die...

The Doctor, refusing the fact that Clara is going to die, admits to her that he cannot save her. However he turns on Me and insists she save Clara. When Me says she can't, he becomes furious and threatens to unleash hell on her for all of time and end the secret of Trap Street, even promising to bring the Daleks to destroy Trap Street, unless she saves Clara. Me tries to calm herself by pointing out the Doctor wouldn't do such a thing. However, the Doctor furiously yells "The Doctor is no longer here! You are stuck with me!", showing him ready to unleash his wrath on her and everyone's she attempting to protect.

Clara is shocked by the Doctor's anger and tries to calm him down. She makes him promise that he will not harm anyone who will come in his way of this and will not take revenge on what has happened, reminding him why he became the Doctor. As the Doctor starts to speak, Clara silences him with a hug, telling him that everything he is about to say she already knows. Clara touches the Doctor's face in sadness, who in turn tenderly kisses her hand.

When the chronolock counts down to zero, Clara goes outside to face the raven. The Doctor follows and watches her from afar in despair. She stands there waiting for the raven and asks herself to be brave. The raven strikes Clara, causing her to scream in pain. The black mist of the Quantum Shade comes out of her mouth, and she drops to the ground.

The Doctor returns inside and tells Me in quiet fury that what Clara had said was not to save him but to save her. He says that he will do what he can to follow Clara's wishes, but advises her to stay out of his way, saying that the universe can be a small place when he's angered. Numb at the Doctor's anger, Me then teleports him away.

Sometime later, Rigsy is seen putting the finishing touches on his latest bit of graffiti- a mural dedicated to Clara on the front entrance of the now empty TARDIS. He then walks away, leaving the abandoned TARDIS with no Clara and no Doctor.

Cast

Uncredited cast

Trap Street alien - Clem So

Crew

Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin


Written by Sarah Dollard	Produced by Nikki Wilson	Directed by Justin Molotnikov	Director of Photography Mike Spragg	Production Designer Michael Pickwoad	Visual Effects Milk

Make-up Designer Barbara Southcott	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Ray Holman	Edited by Mike Jones	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer • Titles by BBC Wales Graphics • With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales Music conducted & orchestrated by Ben Foster • Music mixed by Jake Jackson • Music recorded by Gerry O'Riordan Cybermen created by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis • Ood created by Russell T Davies

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Stunt Co-ordinator - Dani Biernat

Casting

Casting Associate - Alice Purser

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound


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 and Clara visited the "second most beautiful garden in all of time and space", where Clara saved the Doctor from marrying a "giant sentient plant thing".
The Doctor threatens Me to save Clara, saying that he will bring UNIT, the Zygons, the Daleks, and the Cybermen down on her trap street.
An 80's Classics Volume 3 poster is seen.
Me mentions she had been in the trap street "since Waterloo." The Doctor believes she is referring to the Battle of Waterloo. However, she corrects him, saying that she meant the Waterloo station.

Shopping

A shop on the trap street is called Roskilly's.
The shop BOSS and a Café Zest advert is seen, as well as Brew Dog and Queens Vaults.

Technology

Me uses a teleport bracelet to transport the Doctor away from the trap street.

Cartography

The Doctor, Clara and Rigsy visit the Great British Library and its Map Room.
Clara references a cartographer's way of making maps.
The signs of Park Street and West End are seen.

Species

Janus are seen.
The trap street uses a misdirection circuit. Me says that it is actually the light from the lurkworms.
A Quantum Shade is seen.
A creature tries to eat Clara.

Story notes

This is the first television story to feature the Twelfth Doctor in a burgundy velvet version of his navy blue Crombie coat, similar to the coat he was first seen wearing during COMIC: The Highgate Horror.
In the credits, the word "Oods" is used to denote more than one Ood, rather than the established "Ood", as used in TV: The Impossible Planet.
In one scene, there is a poster with a diagram of a flux capacitor, a direct reference to Back to the Future. It is accompanied by writings in Aurebesh, the main alphabet used in the Star Wars franchise. This writing spells out "Delorean", the car used in the Back to the Future franchise.
This marks the first Doctor Who episode to have a post-credits scene. Previously, Death in Heaven had a mid-credits scene.
Sometime between the filming of The Woman Who Lived and Face the Raven, Maisie Williams got a nose piercing, which resulted in Me also having a pierced nose despite her established healing factor.
Rigsy's portrait of Clara that adorns the TARDIS doors in the post-credit sequence is based upon a publicity photograph of Jenna Coleman used to promote her appearances at science fiction conventions.
Clara becomes the first ongoing, longterm companion to permanently die on-screen since Adric in TV: Earthshock. Circumstances in later episodes do not undo the fact her final death is depicted. Though her predecessors Amy Pond and Rory Williams were also killed in their final regular appearance, their actual deaths were off-screen and depicted as happening long after they left the TARDIS.

Ratings

BBC One Overnight: 4.42 million
BBC America Overnight: to be added
Final UK ratings: 6.06 million^[1]

Filming location

Intersection of Park and Westgate streets, Cardiff, where the pub Clara passes, the office building outside which the Doctor, Clara and Rigsy rendezvous (which is actually Cardiff University, revealed in an enhanced airing of the episode on BBC America entitled The Doctor's Notes on 27 February 2016), and even the gap leading to the trap street are all located.

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.

The arrangement of Clara's hair changes noticeably between shots while she gives her farewell to the Doctor (in one shot her ears are visible, the next not, for example). And when she enters the street her hair is noticeably fuller than it was a moment earlier.

Continuity

The Doctor and Clara reunite with Rigsy. (TV: Flatline)
The Doctor and Clara find that Rigsy's memory has been "retconned". The retcon drug was frequently used by Torchwood Three. (TV: Everything Changes)
Me considers the trap street to be a more favourable way of housing aliens on Earth as opposed to the settling of the Zygons. (TV: The Zygon Invasion, The Zygon Inversion)
Me asks for and receives the Doctor's confession dial. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice, The Witch's Familiar)
The Doctor takes out his Apology cue cards. (TV: Under the Lake)
Clara compares her coming sacrifice to that of Danny Pink. (TV: Death in Heaven)
Clara asks the Doctor to be "a Doctor" and not "a warrior". She said something similar to the Eleventh Doctor when convincing him not to detonate the Moment. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Clara hangs outside of the TARDIS in order to find the mysterious cause of Rigsy's tattoo. The Eleventh Doctor once hung completely on the side of the TARDIS after falling out while being transported by UNIT to the Tower of London with Clara leaning out the doors to watch. Like the Doctor, Clara seems to thoroughly enjoy the thrill of the experience. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Me reminds the Doctor of her photobombing Clara, telling him it was her way of letting him know she was doing well. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)
Clara tells the Doctor that his "reign of terror" will end at the sight of the "first crying child", noting his need to be kind when children are sad (TV: The Beast Below, The Day of the Doctor, The Girl Who Died)
Rigsy paints a mural on the TARDIS. This isn't the first time it has been graffitied (TV: Aliens of London) nor the first time someone has painted it in the Doctor's absence. (TV: The Happiness Patrol)
The Doctor has previously had to deal with dangerous countdowns. (TV: 42, Flesh and Stone)

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

External links

Transcript of Face the Raven at Chrissie's Transcripts Site

Footnotes

↑ Ratings DW

[1] Ratings DW

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