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[Apdiddy]

What the hell did I just watch?

It seemed like an hour of Dr. Who being wrapped up in its own ass and not in a good way. Great on visuals, terrible on story, and the episode pretty much could be called "I Am The Doctor And I Must Scream."

Peter Capaldi salvaged the episode (since the sole focus was on him) and it brought back the chalkboards from Listen.

It also

Spoiler

made me wonder if Clara's death and the whole chronolock was in his head too or if the whole season has been in his head the entire time due to being trapped. I doubt it though and I suspect that Clara's death is real.

Awful episode. Captivating to watch but still bloody awful.

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

The planet is trapped but they are able to leave. The Master left, they contacted Ashildr for the dial and

Spoiler

from the preview they brought Ohila from Karn to Galifrey

Plus the information is not simple because the doctor is not going to give it up and the hybrid

Spoiler

is prophesied to destroy Galifrey

It seems they're able to go as they please. Also, The Master wasn't trapped, he was hiding as a human at the end of the universe.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

Awful episode. Captivating to watch but still bloody awful.

You misspelled Amazing as Awful. You should see why your autocorrect is doing that.

 

[Apdiddy]

You misspelled Amazing as Awful. You should see why your autocorrect is doing that.

I guess. Sorry I don't share your sentiments.

I wasn't expecting anything, but I wasn't expecting the episode to not make any sense.

Spoiler

Instead of using monologues or the TARDIS, this Doctor just spends billions of years punching a wall.

 

[Effect]

That was an amazing episode. Wow!!

 

[Magwik]

I guess. Sorry I don't share your sentiments.

I wasn't expecting anything, but I wasn't expecting the episode to not make any sense.

Spoiler

Instead of using monologues or the TARDIS, this Doctor just spends billions of years punching a wall.

That's part of the beauty of it though. It isn't some big ass pull or deus ex machina, it's just the Doctor at his wits end and punching a wall.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

Spoiler

Instead of using monologues or the TARDIS, this Doctor just spends billions of years punching a wall.

He most certainly used both in the episode? Just in a very different way than usual.

 

[DangerMouse]

That whole loop sequence just made me want to shout out "Capaldi is brilliant, Moffat is brilliant, the director of this ep is brilliant, Murray Gold is brilliant, this whole show is amazing".

That's how much I enjoyed this ep.

That moment was pure gold.

 

[somedevil]

It seems they're able to go as they please. Also, The Master wasn't trapped, he was hiding as a human at the end of the universe.

I meant after the end of time when he went back with Dalton to Gallifrey before it was sent to the pocket dimension.

He regenerated and eventually escaped. The whole question was when they were able to go as they please. They still seemed trapped when Matt Smith regenerated. Maybe they wanted to remain hidden until the whole hybrid problem came up.

 

[Magwik]

I meant after the end of time when he went back with Dalton to Gallifrey before it was sent to the pocket dimension.

He regenerated and eventually escaped. The whole question was when they were able to go as they please. They still seemed trapped when Matt Smith regenerated. Maybe they wanted to remain hidden until the whole hybrid problem came up.

I always assumed Gallifrey was opened up after 11 regenerated. That leads directly into Missy's existence the following season. It was just a matter of where it was.

 

[Randomly Nameless]

That was a really fantastic episode. I guessed the time loop from the hand at the beginning and the clothes cemented it, but the whole punching the wall thing was just so well done. That montage, with that music, was just really great. The episode was put together quite well.

I'm fine with delays if this quality can be kept.

 

[Jest Chillin]

I liked the episode and the reveal at the end was cool. It's one of those, "don't think about it too long" ones though.

 

[Kinsei]

So everything reset, even the skulls, yet for some reason the wall didn't? Are we really supposed to buy that.

A boring episode with a terrible ending. I really hope the finale is better.

 

[Mariolee]

Also I really hope we get some answers about how Ashildr plays a role in all this. She has climbed up to the top of the worst characters in Doctor Who list.

 

[Johndoey]

I love the Doctor reduced to a simple man no ingenuity on display just desperation.

 

[iMax]

So everything reset, even the skulls, yet for some reason the wall didn't? Are we really supposed to buy that.

 

[Sonik]

This is probably the first time Moffat put some real effort into Doctor Who is a long time. More smart episodes and less gimmicky shit Moffat please. It's not that he's a bad writer, the opposite, he's fucking brilliant, it's that he's lazy.

 

[Sonik]

So everything reset, even the skulls, yet for some reason the wall didn't? Are we really supposed to buy that.

A boring episode with a terrible ending. I really hope the finale is better.

The skulls in the ocean also didn't. Maybe the wall and the ocean were considered outside the castle so they weren't getting reset. Honestly, the story and direction were so good I didn't bother and didn't want to bother with a couple of plot holes.

 

[DrForester]

I figure the wall didn't reset because it was the exit, and connected to the outside.

 

[Kinsei]

The skulls in the ocean also didn't. Maybe the wall and the ocean were considered outside the castle so they weren't getting reset. Honestly, the story and direction were so good I didn't bother and didn't want to bother with a couple of plot holes.

If the skulls in the ocean didn't reset the water would be far too shallow for him to jump into. There were already that many after 7 thousand years, imagine how many there would be after a billion?

 

[hamchan]

The stars in the sky also didn't reset, so anything outside the actual castle doesn't rest. I think it's fairly easy to write off the wall not resetting because it's a connecting pathway to Gallifrey and possibly not counted as inside the castle.

 

[somedevil]

So everything reset, even the skulls, yet for some reason the wall didn't? Are we really supposed to buy that.

A boring episode with a terrible ending. I really hope the finale is better.

The wall didn't because it wasn't part of the castle. It was just a tease of freedom for him saying this is a way out but to do it would take a very long time.

The whole thing was giving 3 options to him. Tell them who the hybrid was, die by not attaching himself to the machine or the long way of punching through the wall.

Plus when did the skulls reset? I thought it was just him doing the same pattern of finding it and dropping it into the water. Plus nobody knows how deep this water was and the equation needed to determine how many skulls it takes to fill it up.

Plus man the opinions in here. Moffat is not lazy. Its just if you like the episode or not he wrote.

 

[Sonik]

If the skulls in the ocean didn't reset the water would be far too shallow for him to jump into. There were already that many after 7 thousand years, imagine how many there would be after a billion?

Hehe, now you're just looking for plot holes. I don't know, the waves took them? Personally, when a story is good I purposely ignore the plot holes that could be explained with a little imagination. On the other hand when there are Deux Ex Machinas or the Doctor being saved by his future self (which Moffat has done more than once iirc) I can't even bother with that crap.

 

[hamchan]

The funniest thing to think about is that the first time the Doctor did the loop he needed to be naked to leave behind his wet clothes for the next loop.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Insane episode, loved it.

Regarding the finale, this looks spooky as hell:

If the skulls in the ocean didn't reset the water would be far too shallow for him to jump into. There were already that many after 7 thousand years, imagine how many there would be after a billion?

This is the only bit that bugged me. Like, wouldn't the skulls be half-way up the castle (as least) after, what, two billion years?

 

[Jest Chillin]

The funniest thing to think about is that the first time the Doctor did the loop he needed to be naked to leave behind his wet clothes for the next loop.

But that still shouldn't work because the room should reset... same thing with leaving the message for himself in the hole in the ground.

The moment you start thinking it through, it doesn't work. Best to just "la la la la good episode!" it away.

 

[Blader]

I guess. Sorry I don't share your sentiments.

I wasn't expecting anything, but I wasn't expecting the episode to not make any sense.

Spoiler

Instead of using monologues or the TARDIS, this Doctor just spends billions of years punching a wall.

He's one hell of a bird!

 

[thefro]

But that still shouldn't work because the room should reset... same thing with leaving the message for himself in the hole in the ground.

The moment you start thinking it through, it doesn't work. Best to just "la la la la good episode!" it away.

Remember, the whole thing's Gallifrey tech so things can not either reset/not reset based on the whims of whoever set up the scenario.

My guess is either whoever set that up or an AI decided it was a particularly nasty, torturous loop for the Doctor and enabled it, thinking he'd crack before he broke through.

 

[Beaniedude]

Brilliant episodes. I loved the whole feel to it.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Remember, the whole thing's Gallifrey tech so things can not either reset/not reset based on the whims of whoever set up the scenario.

My guess is either whoever set that up or an AI decided it was a particularly nasty, torturous loop for the Doctor and enabled it, thinking he'd crack before he broke through.

That would depend on the loop being manipulated in real time. Even if say, you program it not to reset The Doctors clothes.. it should still reset the objects that he had set the clothes on. And the flower petal returned to the flower.. so the ground he digs up should return to being covered with grass rather than the hole just filling up.

 

[somedevil]

But that still shouldn't work because the room should reset... same thing with leaving the message for himself in the hole in the ground.

The moment you start thinking it through, it doesn't work. Best to just "la la la la good episode!" it away.

It looks to me the castle resets and not anything he does to it resets. We start at 7,000 when he starts punching the wall.

We never see the point where removes the part of the floor or when he makes the graves with the message to where the final part of the puzzle is.

 

[Jest Chillin]

It looks to me the castle resets and not anything he does to it resets. We start at 7,000 when he starts punching the wall.

We never see the point where removes the part of the floor or when he makes the graves with the message to where the final part of the puzzle is.

The flower isn't part of the castle, it resets and the petal is back on it again. The dirt he digs out of the hole fills the hole back up.. but the grass doesn't return. The sand where he writes "BIRD" resets but randomly it seems (because it's there after he spends all that time avoiding and delaying.. but he has to write it again each time he dies).

The rules lack consistency and work very specifically on some things and not others just for the plot and the twist. It is what it is.

I still like the episode. It's just one that the gimmick falls apart when you start thinking about it.

 

[Johndoey]

This is probably the second most conceptually horrifying episode of Doctor Who i've seen.
I hate that type of regeneration/teleportation so creepy.

 

[joezombie]

Actually I just remembered something, the Doctor said that the machine keeps hold of the original, and that all it needs is some energy in order to "finish" the teleport.

And considering that the energy it uses to spawn the next Doctor is given by the Doctor himself.. you could suggest that it is the same original body and energy just being recycled over and over.

So technically he IS still the original, right?(!?)

I took this to be energy as in a e=mc^2 kind of way, not in a mystical bullshit sort of way that would somehow make it the same person. However, that's some incredible technology, converting energy from one from to another at 100% efficiency for over a billion years. Probably more impressive then being able to teleport or clone something at all

 

[Magwik]

I took this to be energy as in a e=mc^2 kind of way, not in a mystical bullshit sort of way that would somehow make it the same person. However, that's some incredible technology, converting energy from one from to another at 100% efficiency for over a billion years. Probably more impressive then being able to teleport or clone something at all

I mean it is tech from the same people who run around in space and time in boxes and shit

 

[Bluth54]

The funniest thing to think about is that the first time the Doctor did the loop he needed to be naked to leave behind his wet clothes for the next loop.

Well he probably was able to find some alternate clothes in one of the bedrooms but yeah he had to be naked for at least a little while.

I guess they decided not to show that loop. It's okay though, I already got to check "See a Time Lord's penis" off my bucket list a few weeks ago thanks to Christopher Eccleston's scene of full frontal nudity on The Leftovers.

 

[bengraven]

That last promo pic reminded me of:

Fantastic episode - I kept looking to see what was changing between each "new life" and it took me a moment to realize he was chipping through the material.

 

[tonysidaway]

Anyway I think it goes without saying whoever wrote the official synopses for these episodes and let them go out unedited needs to be fucking shot.

I'm imagining how amazing the ending of this episode would have been without knowing Galifey was coming back.

Most viewers didn't know Gallifrey was coming back, and they're still getting over the death of that pretty young one. Matt whatever his name was.

 

[Empyrean Heaven]

Spoiler

So the Doctor's not half Dalek, but he is the hybrid? Are they bringing back the whole half human thing?

 

[GSR]

Fantastic episode, in an odd way. It reminded me a lot of Blink, in that it's a superb little self-contained sci-fi story, but not very "Doctor Who" in the traditional sense. Of course, "it reminded me of Blink" is not a bad thing.

I saw a lot of the twists coming, but the whole thing was still executed well enough (and with such a stellar performance from Capaldi) that I didn't mind.

I do have to wonder what families with younger kids made of it, though! Not the time-travel bits, but the solution of "the Doctor dies over and over for two billion years" can't sit well for some.

 

[Tansut]

Before this episode I was fairly certain that this was going to be one of the better seasons of NuWho, but after this episode I'm absolutely convinced of that. Heaven Sent is of my favorites of the whole show.

Capaldi is fantastic and I sorta kinda want a whole companion-less season now.

 

[GodParticle]

Hmm...I didn't care for it up until the ending part, which was pretty interesting. The looping part went on far too long. I was like, I get it, he's doing the same shit over and over

 

[jerry113]

This is the first time I've been genuinely mindfucked by a Moffat episode since Blink.

I love it.

Also I don't see this episode working with any other Doctor other than Capaldi.

Spoiler

also did this remind anyone of Duncan Jone's movie Moon?

 

[gblues]

I enjoyed it. I got a very "Dark Souls" vibe from it. I thought the "all the skulls are his" bit was a nice touch, but I'd expect 12 billion years' worth of skulls to fill up that area. Maybe the machinery automatically redistributes them to "outside the castle"? Or maybe it's just Time Lord tech and the ocean's bigger on the underside.

 

[GodParticle]

I enjoyed it. I got a very "Dark Souls" vibe from it. I thought the "all the skulls are his" bit was a nice touch, but I'd expect 12 billion years' worth of skulls to fill up that area. Maybe the machinery automatically redistributes them to "outside the castle"? Or maybe it's just Time Lord tech and the ocean's bigger on the underside.

Didn't he take the previous one to the top and it got knocked off into the lake each time? I'm probably remembering it wrong

 

[tonysidaway]

the thing that lost me a bit in this episode was how the doctor immediately knew that they wanted information about the hybrid

in previous episodes, the time lords wanted his name, i kind of assumed that was the secret they wanted.

His mother is still alive in the time locked Gallifrey of The End of Time (Claire Bloom, though her identity didn't make it into the final script.) So they already know his name.

They then use his name as part of a challenge-response protocol at Trenzalore (the question which must never be answered.) When they get the correct answer they'll know they've found the right universe to return to.

The 1,000-year stalemate emerges because nearly everybody who remembers how batshit insane the Time Lords were at the end doesn't want them back. So the Papal Mainframe intervenes to prevent a renewed Time War. Clara finally convinces the Time Lords to intervene by talking about Doctor Who through the crack, and this is why they grant him a new cycle of regenerations.

 

[Belfast]

the thing that lost me a bit in this episode was how the doctor immediately knew that they wanted information about the hybrid

in previous episodes, the time lords wanted his name, i kind of assumed that was the secret they wanted.

Spoiler

Perhaps they know the name of the hybrid (told in the prophecy) and suspected it being him at some point. Since nobody has been able to get his actual name out of him, they decided to simply procure the information a different way (directly forcing him to admit he was the hybrid, rather than simply confirming the same name).

It would also explain why he's attempted to protect his name all these years.

 

[jerry113]

That was the best episode Moffat's written since he became show-runner and right up there with Blink/The Girl in the Fireplace for me.

Really well-directed, great Murray Gold score, and Capaldi was brilliant.

Amazing stuff.

I often complain about the way the show technicians implement Murray Gold's soundtrack but this week's episode was ON POINT in that respect.

The set design, the music, the melancholy mood and foreboding atmosphere.... And of course Capaldi holding it all together. This was the season's best and there hasn't been an episode like this before.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Spoiler

Perhaps they know the name of the hybrid (told in the prophecy) and suspected it being him at some point. Since nobody has been able to get his actual name out of him, they decided to simply procure the information a different way (directly forcing him to admit he was the hybrid, rather than simply confirming the same name).

It would also explain why he's attempted to protect his name all these years.

This isn't bad at all. I kinda like it.

It's probably not it, but I do like this twist on it.

 

[jwk94]

The episode was scary at first and then it got boring once it starting being predictable. The most shocking bit was the very end. I figured he'd end up on Skarro, not Gallifrey. Still, I feel like this was a wasted first half of the finale but whatever. Next episode should be interesting.