Doctor Who 9x10 - Heaven Sent (spoilers!)

[Parallax]

AKA Moping About Clara
AKA The Doctor's Mind Palace
AKA What ^&*%(* is wrong with the Time Lords?!

So, as many of us assumed, this was all to do with the Time Lords. Exactly how? Not yet made clear, as there as a few things which don't make a whole lot of sense right now.
The purpose of the tower? It certainly wasn't to kill the Doctor, even the Time Lords don't design things that badly. To imprison him? That certainly would never work. To make him confess certain things? Possible but to what end?

Regardless of the purpose, the Doctor was in the tower for BILLIONS OF YEARS, dying painfully over and over and over and over. We can assume that the Time Lords knew of this and were probably even watching it all unfold ... which makes them pure, undiluted sadists. You have to be pretty screwed up to even allow such a thing to happen, let alone monitor it.
Then again, perhaps they weren't monitoring it - it has to be the slowest escape in existence, yet the Time Lords didn't do a thing to stop it or have Chancellery Guards (who have the worst record in sci-fi for actually guarding things, btw) waiting when he popped out of the prison.

The nature of the tower is weird. Obviously it was somehow connected to the Confession Dial yet it was some form of tesseract/pocket universe affair. The stars the Doctor was seeing while there couldn't have been from Gallifrey POV else he'd have realised where he was instantly. So that pocket world was so complete, it had realistic moving constellations ... for billions of years. That and the disc with the tower clearly visible was just lying out in the sand in a seemingly random location. Last we saw the disc was the Doctor handing it to Ashildur, now it's next to a Gallifrey sand path.

The monster ... good concept but not once in the billions of encounters did the Doctor think of a physical attack against it? It turned out to be a bunch of cogs in a cloak and fell apart pretty easily at the end. How was that painting of Clara so old if the tower reset itself? How come the damage to the wall wasn't reset?

The Doctor talks to doors. And said "back when I was telepathic" ... so he's lost any trace of that ability now?

I am curious, however, in the physics of the Doctor's escape. The wall to home was said to be considerably harder than diamond and twenty feet thick and the Doctor spent billions of years punching his way through it, wearing it down micron by micron. Is that even possible? If one punch does excactly zero damage, then what would three billion punches do?

So, in the end, the Doctor finds Gallifrey and it ends with a nice CGI shot of the Capital. And a random Gallifreyan kid.
Weird how the shot of the kid from last episode painting the TARDIS wasn't in this ep, since it was shown in the preview.

[Iroscato]

I think that was superb. I think. It will probably require another few watches to unpick fully, but I was gripped from start to finish. Also, dat ending.

[Tribble]

Maybe the Timelords just wanted to see hum suffer a bit (well, a lot)? After all, he almost used the Moment on them (or used it the first time around and chose to retcon it the 2nd, depending on your PoV). He stopped the Time Lord Council from ripping apart the Time Vortex and ascending in godhood, and I could see Rassilion wanting to punish him for it. Plus the Doctor shuffled them into a bottle-universe for who knows how long from their perspective, and refused to bring them back through the crack in the universe (both of which was for their own good, but they wouldn't really know that). They (or someone else) could even be punishing him for his various crimes over the years. Remember that by the end of the Time War the Doctor already had committed more crimes and had more blood on his hands than anyone else in history, and that was before using the Moment! Sure, the Time Lords gave him a new regeneration cycle because at the end of the day he's needed, but they have no reason to like him. The Time Lords were never known for being good guys, and by the end of the Time War they were considered as bad as the Daleks. At this point "sadists" is probably too kind a term to describe some of them.

I guess we'll find out next episode.

[The Romulan Republic]

Interesting start, but it got really strange and creepy as it went on. Not the way I would have brought the Time Lords back but... they're back. And whoever's calling the shots is pretty clearly in utter monster territory. I hope its not the General from Day of the Doctor, because I liked him (the teaser for next episode shows he returns).

And I am so, so tired of Moffat having vast periods of time pass by off-camera. Still, seeing the Doctor finally break through the wall was pretty cool.

But now we're going to forever have people arguing over weather the Doctor is the real Doctor or just a duplicate. Not to mention the whole hybrid thing.

Sigh...

Still, Gallifrey's back. It wasn't really a surprise to me. What's a surprise is that the Doctor didn't figure it out sooner.

[SpottedKitty]

That and the disc with the tower clearly visible was just lying out in the sand in a seemingly random location. Last we saw the disc was the Doctor handing it to Ashildur, now it's next to a Gallifrey sand path.

It wasn't just lying there in the sand by coincidence, it fell there when the portal collapsed.

The monster ... good concept but not once in the billions of encounters did the Doctor think of a physical attack against it?

That depends; what kind of Groundhog Day loop was this? Did the Doctor remember anything from one loop to the next, or did he work everything out from the beginning every time?

I am curious, however, in the physics of the Doctor's escape. The wall to home was said to be considerably harder than diamond and twenty feet thick and the Doctor spent billions of years punching his way through it, wearing it down micron by micron. Is that even possible? If one punch does excactly zero damage, then what would three billion punches do?

Have you not come across the bird story before? Here's the version I have in my quotes file (there are lots of other versions):

High up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock.
It is 100 miles high and 100 miles wide. Once every thousand years a
little bird comes to the rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has
thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by.
-- Hendrik Willem Van Loon, "The Story of Mankind"

[Eternal_Freedom]

The impression I got was that it hadn't taken billions of years, the Doctor was in the Confession Dial or whatever it was so none of those years really happened. Of course, from the Doctor's perspective, they haven't happened, since he'll only have experienced the last loop. It's not inconceivable that time was considerably sped up within, Time Lord virtual reality has worked that way before (when the Doctor entered the Matrix for the first time, hours or more passed for him while outside only a few minutes went past.

Anyways, that was rather excellent I think. An entire hour of Capaldi being generally awesome? I can live with that. As for him being angsty about Clara, I can forgive that since from his POV it has only been a few minutes since she died.

[Steve]

I am eagerly awaiting next week.

[Bedlam]

Assuming the Doctor really is the hybrid then I think it's linking back to the 8th Doctor TV movie. The teaser said that the hybrid was made from two warrior races, which were assumed to be the Time Lords and the Daleks and they point out that the Daleks wouldn't tolerate such a thing so it's presumably Time Lord and Human. In the 8th Doctor movie he said he was half human on his mothers side and the master seemed to agree. The series after that movie (which never got made) was supposed to have a quest for Galifrey / The Doctors Father / Mother arc, this may be the modern equivalent of that.

With the 'regeneration' teaser, well I really doubt it's the doctor, it might be Rassalon, allowing for a cheaper actor or possibly the birth of Missy setting things out of order.

[Parallax]

Regeneration of a Time Lord. We just lost a companion so undoubtedly will be getting another soon.
What if the new companion is a Time Lord? Perhaps Romana or Susan? Whatever happened to Drax? Oh, we know River appears in the Christmas special, you don't think it has something to do with her? Heck, she'd even count as a Hybrid - human ancestry with Time Lord extras.

I did have to laugh at that "Time Lords take a long time to die" line, though. The series is chock full of Time Lords dying really, really quickly.

[NecronLord]

That was what I was thinking as well. But, that said, the whole episode irritated me for being needlessly convoluted.

If it is meant to be Rassilon I'd be disappointed, I liked the Timothy Dalton version and would like to see him back.

[J Ryan]

I know the doctor said the hybrid was "me" but couldn't that refer to Ashildir/me? Moffat does like his word play.

[Eternal_Freedom]

While that is possible the Doctor has consistently referred to her as Ashildur and not Me (unless it's Lady/Mayor Me) so I doubt it.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ghetto edit: We know the regeneration next week isn't the Doctor, since we know Capaldi is in the Christmas special. So unless he's doing a Journey's End "regenerate but don't actually change face" it's someone else.

[jwl]

The impression I got was that it hadn't taken billions of years, the Doctor was in the Confession Dial or whatever it was so none of those years really happened. Of course, from the Doctor's perspective, they haven't happened, since he'll only have experienced the last loop. It's not inconceivable that time was considerably sped up within, Time Lord virtual reality has worked that way before (when the Doctor entered the Matrix for the first time, hours or more passed for him while outside only a few minutes went past.

Anyways, that was rather excellent I think. An entire hour of Capaldi being generally awesome? I can live with that. As for him being angsty about Clara, I can forgive that since from his POV it has only been a few minutes since she died.

The doctor's memories of the last billion times all come back when he's in front of the wall. It's only really noticeable on second viewing though.

[Pelranius]

Gallifrey looks like it's had time to clean up from the Time War (we don't see very much, if any, debris around the Capitol). How long have they been stuck in the pocket universe?

[Lost Soal]

The impression I got was that it hadn't taken billions of years, the Doctor was in the Confession Dial or whatever it was so none of those years really happened. Of course, from the Doctor's perspective, they haven't happened, since he'll only have experienced the last loop. It's not inconceivable that time was considerably sped up within, Time Lord virtual reality has worked that way before (when the Doctor entered the Matrix for the first time, hours or more passed for him while outside only a few minutes went past.

Anyways, that was rather excellent I think. An entire hour of Capaldi being generally awesome? I can live with that. As for him being angsty about Clara, I can forgive that since from his POV it has only been a few minutes since she died.

The doctor's memories of the last billion times all come back when he's in front of the wall. It's only really noticeable on second viewing though.

It wasn't a time loop. I was literally 2 billion years of the Doctor dying, being brought back at the moment of first transportation, then going through the castle fresh. It not until the very end of the day that he realises what's been happening, which is not getting his memories back.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, next week should be interesting. The Doctor vs. Gallifrey. Gallifrey doesn't stand a chance.

And a regeneration. I wonder who it is.

Also, it occurs to me that for people who only know the new series, this will likely be their first really in-depth look at Gallifrey. Heck, it is for me, since I've never watched any of the old series episodes that took place on Gallifrey.

[jwl]

The impression I got was that it hadn't taken billions of years, the Doctor was in the Confession Dial or whatever it was so none of those years really happened. Of course, from the Doctor's perspective, they haven't happened, since he'll only have experienced the last loop. It's not inconceivable that time was considerably sped up within, Time Lord virtual reality has worked that way before (when the Doctor entered the Matrix for the first time, hours or more passed for him while outside only a few minutes went past.

Anyways, that was rather excellent I think. An entire hour of Capaldi being generally awesome? I can live with that. As for him being angsty about Clara, I can forgive that since from his POV it has only been a few minutes since she died.

The doctor's memories of the last billion times all come back when he's in front of the wall. It's only really noticeable on second viewing though.

It wasn't a time loop. I was literally 2 billion years of the Doctor dying, being brought back at the moment of first transportation, then going through the castle fresh. It not until the very end of the day that he realises what's been happening, which is not getting his memories back.

Yes, it wasn't a time loop. I'm not sure how the doctor gets his memories back (maybe the "energy" of the doctor burning transfers some subconscious memories?) but he does remember. Look at the episode on iplayer and go to 36:30 and 37:45. As I said, it isn't immediately obvious the first time round, because you have no point of reference of what he is talking about in those scenes.

[Iroscato]

I'll say this much - the episode certainly knew how to convey some fucking nightmarish imagery. That shot of the skulls under the water was a special kind of haunting, especially when you then clock on to the fact that it took literally billions of Doctors to make them.

Now it's sunk in I appreciate it wasn't a perfect 54 minutes, but it was still very very VERY good. Looks like the producers have clocked on that Capaldi is infinitely watchable so it was awesome having an entire, extra - long episode featuring just him.

Edit: Also, looks like next week we get the answer to the mystery of where most of The Budget for this series went

[SpottedKitty]

I'll say this much - the episode certainly knew how to convey some fucking nightmarish imagery. That shot of the skulls under the water was a special kind of haunting, especially when you then clock on to the fact that it took literally billions of Doctors to make them.

<nod> I actually thought for a minute there was going to be some plot point to having enough skulls falling into the water to make a pile big enough to break the surface. I'll have to wait for the repeat, I'm not quite sure when the Doctor figured out what had been happening, over and over and over again.

BTW, this episode was IMHO not suitable for watching from behind the sofa. It's dark back there...!

[The Romulan Republic]

Another thing... it really says a lot about how much confidence they have in Peter Capaldi as an actor that they would write an episode where he's the only character on screen (unless you count the speechless, faceless monster) for almost the entire episode.

[Enigma]

He didn't need to gain the memories of the several billion versions of himself because it is all the same. The latest incarnation has all the relevant memories because they all experienced the same. He knows that the skulls were his past selves and that he's been essentially doing the same thing over and over again.

[The Romulan Republic]

So... any ideas one who's calling the shots behind all this? Which Time Lord is our Big Bad? Is it the General? Rassilon? Missy? A new character?

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'm guessing it's Rassilon. The older Time Lord in the trailer that isn't the General is carrying Rassilon's staff, so he's either a regenerated Rassilon or a new Lord President that's pissed off with the Doctor.

[The Romulan Republic]

Huh. I missed that.

If so, I wish they could have got Dalton back again.