word of advice : If you have n’t run into tonight ’s novel episode of Doctor Who , it ’s somewhat heartrending . And kind of grueling . recollect “ Midnight , ” the scary - weird David Tennant bottle installment ? This is sort of Peter Capaldi ’s interpretation of that . Goosebumps !
Spoilers ahead …
And the thing that comes across , after watch “ Heaven Sent ” a couple times , is how much the instalment is about the Doctor having to work fantastically severely to achieve a victory that probably look “ easy . ” This is , as the Doctor notes in the episode , what got Clara killed in “ Face the Raven”—the persistent dig into occult Steffi Graf in secluded garden , but also the gumption that the victories are easy and always achievable .
In fact , the Doctor ’s victory are n’t as easy as they look , and in this episode he sort of lays bare just how much work go into this “ effortless ” style .
In “ Heaven Sent , ” the Doctor arrives where that teleport bracelet he was forced to fatigue sent him . He ’s in a scary variety of castling , where the wall move around and his bad childhood incubus is stalking him . ( It ’s a move castling full of howl , in fact . ) And the childhood nightmare , which is based on an sometime charwoman who died , was covered with shroud and pull in flies , never stops come for the Doctor . In one of the good applications of Steven Moffat ’s “ do n’t wink / don’t depend away ” horror artistic , the castle is full of screens which show you the creature ’s point of view — so it ’s easy to narrate where the puppet is , and how cheeseparing to the Doctor it ’s gotten . This is meant to scare the Doctor , because he can always feel the creature ’s breath on his neck .
The Doctor has a duad of very minute leak from the creature , and here ’s where the instalment ’s cleverest conception comes in . When the Doctor is about to die , by jumping out the windowpane or being trapped by the tool in a grave he ’s dug , he freezes the minute in time , decelerate it down by thinking incredibly quickly . And he retreats to an notional edition of his TARDIS , the station he feels safe and most in control , where he “ explains how he survived ” to an imaginary translation of the idle Clara . He does n’t actually know how he ’s going to survive , but by grandstand clamorously enough to a nonexistent friend , he can figure it out in the stock split secondment he has leave .
Am I spoil the magic ? He asks . I forge really hard at this .
Back before Steven Moffat started as showrunner of Doctor Who , I interview him at Comic - Conand asked him about the “ godlike Doctor ” thing that the show sometimes teases , where the Doctor seems unstoppable and nigh - omnipotent . Moffat responded that it ’s always a trick — like , in “ The Girl in the Fireplace , ” the Doctor bursts through a window on a cavalry , and it take care heaven-sent to everyone watching . But we , the viewers , know there was a horse on the space post , and a portal for the Doctor to go through .
Anyway , that business concern with the Doctor hesitate the “ action ” a second off from decease , so he can retreat inside his imaginary sanctum sanctorum and fastidiously figure out a solution , is the flipside of what we catch in the opening two - parter . There , Missy told Clara about a scenario where the Doctor is being stalked by killer humanoid who are shooting at him and he ’s about to die . We see the action freeze - underframe , and the Doctor as if by magic rule a resolution , and Clara says it ’s because the Doctor always recognise he ’s rifle to win .
Here , the Doctor break that treat down a lot more , and show that it ’s not that simple . He does offer the advice , “ Assume you ’re going to win . ” But in the same breath , he also say that if you ’re being interrogated , you should “ die faster . ” Which is a moment fatalistic , really . And in fact , he ’s tired of winning , and the costs of the triumph have gotten too high . ( That ’s the mentality that made him plow Ashildr immortal . ) He only keeps hold up , in this sequence , because the notional Clara keeps demanding , via her blackboard , to know how he ’s going to win . And then she appears in somebody , just for a second , and tells him that he ’s not the only mortal who ’s lose someone , and he should get off his arse and win the solar day .
And the Doctor ’s mystique also loses a lot of its shininess because he ’s just so panicked . The transition from ranting , vindictive “ I ’m go to find you , and I will never stop ” Doctor to terrorize , running - for - his - life Doctor is really amazingly well play . Even in an episode full of Capaldi at his best , that bit is something to behold .
Oh , and the soliloquy the Doctor kick in at the start of the sequence , about how your expiry begin the moment you are comport , is also written on the wall of the castle :
So the Doctor is immobilise in a torture chamber with his worst nightmare and a painting of Clara ( to cue him of his release ) , and the only mode out is through a paries , 20 feet thick , made of a content harder than baseball diamond . It appears he can only his release by spilling all his secrets — because the only thing that makes the nightmare creature stop come is to “ confess ” something he ’s never tell anyone , and every confession rearranges the castle . ( He never hear detain the beast by confessing about the clip he raid Reginald Styles ’ vino and Malva sylvestris , which might have grease one’s palms him a few moments . )
The Doctor reveal some stuff — we’ll get to that in a mo — but then decide he wo n’t give up any more confession , because there are some secrets he needs to protect with his sprightliness . So instead , he set about out of the ineluctable castle , by work over down the 20 - foot bulwark of superhard fabric , with his stripped hands .
He accomplish this apparently impossible exploit , because he just reprise the same torturesome sequence of issue over and over again , for over two billion years . He gets toss off by the creature , then with his dying breathing time he crawls up to the teleport chamber where he get in , and employ his own body to provide energy for the teleporter to produce a trade name new version of himself , as if he had just arrive . He leaves himself a message , the word “ Bird , ” to remind him ofthe Grimm Brothers faerie tarradiddle about the shuttle that sharpen its beakon a batch of ball field , until the mountain is break .
So from one position , the Doctor ’s triumph looks ridiculously easy — he shows up , he evades the fauna , and then he drum down an unbreakable paries with his bare hands . But we know that it ’s actually been monumentally difficult , and ( whether or not the Doctor remember all the iterations ) has required unthinkable effort and nuisance . ( Plus , what if the transporter polisher eventually demean after a few million years ? Or the infield wall resets itself , like everything else here . )
Going along with the theme of “ demystifying the Dr. , ” this episode also sees him confessing that he did n’t leave his base major planet of Gallifrey because he was bored with the Time Lords ’ insurance of only observing the population , and never interfering .
This is just the first of the confessions that the Doctor gain to keep the nightmare creature from getting to him . And at the end of the episode , we discover that he ’s been inside his own Confession Dial , which Ashildr took from him at the oddment of “ look the Raven . ”
The Confession Dial is the Doctor ’s last will and testament , but it ’s also something where he concede his darkest secrets . The Doctor himself tells Ashildr that he does n’t really understand how it works . But he chose to call for the Sisterhood of Karn to send it to Missy back in the season opener , because he think he was going to his death . And now , it turns out that the Confession Dial does n’t actually have the Doctor ’s confessions in it , until he ’s pull into pretend them .
So someone — presumably the Time Lords — has play a trick on the Doctor into going inside his own Confession Dial , so he can reveal the secrets of the Hybrid . ( They ’ve had approximately 1,000 luck to ask the Doctor about this before , but seemingly it only just became urgent . ) As time of year - long arc go , the Hybrid / Confession Dial thing find passably flimsy — we receive out about the Hybrid because Davros randomly decides to bring it up in conversation , like you do . And the Confession Dial seems similarly random , include the part where the Doctor suddenly want to send it to people after all the other times when he was facing certain last and did n’t bother . But forget it , Jake , it ’s Doctor Who — this is the same show that once tried to turn “ the bees are disappear ” and random mention of “ Medusa Cascade ” into an spark .
Anyway , here ’s what the shaggy-coated - dog report of the Hybrid and the Confession Dial adds up to . Long before the Time War , the Time Lords had pinch that it was coming , and there was also a divination of a Hybrid , that was half - fourth dimension Lord and half - Dalek , which could destroy everything or redeem everything . The Doctor got breaking wind of this vaticination and was so scared he fled from Gallifrey .
But the prophecy beat it improper — the Hybrid is n’t one-half - Dalek , because nothing is ever half - Dalek . The Daleks would never set aside this . ( keep out up , Dalek Sec ! Nobody cares what you have to say . ) Rather , the Hybrid is the Doctor himself , and he ’s destined to subdue Gallifrey and stand in its ruination .
The Doctor says this after he ’s walked out of the trap and found himself back on his home planet for the first sentence since the Time War . He looks at the Citadel , off in the space , and recite a piffling boy who ’s handily notice him to run to the city and tell them that he ’s returned and he ’s number for them .
So why does the Doctor finally profess that he ’s the Hybrid — when the Confession Dial can still hear him — after he spent two billion years being chased around and outsmart on a tiptop - substantial paries with his bare manpower to avoid confessing it before ? I imagine now that he ’s back on Gallifrey , there ’s no point in prevent it hide any more . He did n’t know that the Time Lords were responsible for his predicament , and now he does .
Plus , it ’s kind of cool that the Doctor is Klaus . I ’m just going to keep making that joke .
All in all , this was a splendid episode of Doctor Who . Just awful . I was honestly feel a bit burned out by this season , with its non - give up two parters , because the pacing felt “ off ” and I did n’t really care that much about whether Davros had turned over a new leafage , or whether the Doctor could shaft end in the 1980s . But the top side of the slower tempo has been a lot more chance for Peter Capaldi to give layered , thrilling performances . And it turn out that ’s more than enough to make for great television .
countenance ’s go for the stuff and nonsense about the Hybrid pays off — I guess we ’ll find out next workweek .
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