Heaven Sent

I’ve finally run out of corridor. There’s a life summed up.

The Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis

A grieving Doctor is trapped an ever-changing castle, pursued by the Veil and posed by a solid wall in one of the rooms. The Doctor vows to find whoever is behind this, and he will never, ever stop…

Review

Heaven Sent is an example of all participants in a production being on their A-game. From Steven Moffat’s writing to Peter Capaldi’s acting masterclass to Rachel Talalay’s direction. This is quite a different type of Doctor Who story, and it is not one that will appeal to all fans – my wife, for instance, does not like it – but it’s a real insight into the character of the Doctor and how he functions, and how determined and resilient he truly is.

If you think because she is dead that I am weak, then you understand very little. If you were any part of killing her, and you are not afraid, you understand nothing at all. So for your own sake, understand this. I am the Doctor, I’m coming to find you, and I will never, ever stop.

The Twelfth Doctor

Heaven Sent is an uncompromising and brutal piece of television, but it is perhaps more straight-forward than one would expect from the pen of Steven Moffat. Whilst it involves time loops as the Doctor tries to find the solution to the mystery he is trapped in, there is little playing around with linear storytelling. That is not to say that this story is not inventive and an unusual episode of Doctor Who. It’s the kind of story that can be enjoyed because it goes against the usual tropes of Doctor Who rather than being formulaic and repetitive. Moffat’s detractors often state that he over-complicates his stories, but Heaven Sent is actually surprisingly linear and the answers are there on a first viewing if you are looking for them. The story has a tone of despair and desperation but Moffat makes it genuinely funny in places, such as labelling gardening as dictatorship for inadequates, or rather just plain dictatorship. Meanwhile, I love the idea of the ever-changing and renewing castle the Doctor finds himself trapped in, pursued by the sinister Veil, who embodies death coming for the Doctor.

Director Rachel Talalay brings her experience of directing horror to this story and it works really well. Heaven Sent feels really uncomfortable and grungy in places, and it is due to Talalay’s work behind the camera. She brings jump scares into here, which are really effective. One of which is the Veil suddenly appearing after the Doctor digs his own grave, which no matter how many times I have seen this story never ceases to make me flinch. The Veil, the shuffling embodiment of death, is made even more effective and creepy by the use of flies, which serve as an early warning system as the Doctor tries to keep one step ahead of this foe. The Veil is one of the most effective Doctor Who foes, killing countless versions of the Doctor over the time scale of the story. Of course, with the slow-moving nature of the Veil, the logical leap would be to compare this foe to a zombie, who will stop at nothing to stop the Doctor. Talalay uses a mixture of quick cuts and long lingering shots to make Heaven Sent a visually fascinating and memorable episode of Doctor Who.

I very often do not comment about Murray Gold’s music, but that is again not to say that his music is not important. In Heaven Sent, this music is vitally important in setting the tone. The story benefits from the use of the Twelfth Doctor’s theme, Am I A Good Man? in the early stages, which is one of my favourites, even if the best one is I Am The Doctor. The masterpiece, though, is The Shepherd’s Boy, which underpins the whole breaking down the azbantium wall sequence. The culmination of this track makes the moment of the Doctor breaking through the wall a real punch the air moment.

Peter Capaldi is superb in a story that puts the majority of its eggs into relying on the leading man to carry a story. This is not a story that you could parachute just any other Doctor into and expect to have the same results or the story not to suffer as a result. That’s not a slight against the majority of the actors to play the Doctor, but rather an enormous compliment for Peter Capaldi as the wounded and grieving Twelfth Doctor. As the only other characters in this story are a vision of Clara conjured up by the Doctor and the non-speaking and ever stalking Veil, Moffat’s script calls for the Doctor to be calling to himself for the majority of the story, but Capaldi makes this feel utterly organic. To an extent, the one other Doctor you could see put into this story is Tom Baker, who had moments of talking to himself and carrying stories, like The Deadly Assassin without a companion. But Capaldi brings gravitas and a sense of relish to proceedings, devouring Moffat’s dialogue, whether ominous or humorous and makes it really shine. The Doctor is wearied by the loss of his companion and implores the vision of Clara in his head to just let him lose, but the Doctor’s resilience shines through, across over 2 billion years. Capaldi makes the Doctor’s pain really show through and makes you feel every ounce of what the character is feeling.

Verdict: Heaven Sent is a masterpiece in the Twelfth Doctor’s era. Capaldi, Talalay, Moffat and Murray Gold are all on top form. 10/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) & Jami Reid-Quarrell (The Veil).

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Rachel Talalay

Producer: Peter Bennett

Composer: Murray Gold

Original Broadcast Date: 28th November 2015

Behind the Scenes

• This is the first episode of the revived series to feature only one actor in the opening credits, namely Peter Capaldi.
• One of Steven Moffat’s original ideas was for the Doctor to be stuck in a haunted house with Weeping Angels.

Cast Notes

• Jami Reid-Quarrell had previously played Colony Sarff in The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar. He would go on to play a Cloister Wraith in Hell Bent.

Best Moment

It has to be the sequence of the Doctor going through and noting the passage of time by the stars, going through the same actions and being mortally wounded by the Veil before triggering the loop again.

Best Quote

The Brothers Grimm, lovely fellas. They’re on my darts team. According to them, there’s this emperor and he asks this shepherd’s boy, “How many seconds in eternity?”

And the shepherd’s boy says, “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 chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed!”

You must think that’s a hell of a long time.

Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird

The Twelfth Doctor

Previous Twelfth Doctor review: Face the Raven

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