Further Thoughts on Heaven Sent

[kerravonsen]

I watched it again, noticing things I didn't notice the first time around.

I still don't know why it's called "Heaven Sent", except as a companion to "Hell Bent".

The prologue is very clever.

You will sit too still or sleep too deep, and when, too late, you rise to go, you will notice a second shadow next to yours. Your life will then be over.

It is clever because there are three things it could refer to -- and possibly all three at the same time.
1. Death in general.
2. The Veil coming after the Doctor.
3. The Doctor coming after whoever is responsible for this. Coming the long way around, but never stopping.

Somebody on my flist remarked that this almost-endless cycle of repeats would be even more horrifying if he could remember it all. Guess what? He does.
I didn't notice it the first time around, because I didn't realize the significance of the precise words the Doctor was using, because I didn't know, at that point, that there was this endless cycle. I just thought the Doctor was complaining in general, not in specific.

But here are his words (thanks to the transcript at http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/35-11.html):

DOCTOR: Azbantium. Four hundred times harder than diamond. Twenty feet thick. The way out.
(He remembers the word in the dust in the teleport chamber room.)
DOCTOR: Bird?
[inside TARDIS]
DOCTOR: (angry) That's when I remember! Always then. Always then. Always exactly then! I can't keep doing this, Clara! I can't! Why is it always me? Why is it never anybody else's turn?
BLACKBOARD: How are you going to win?? (seven underlines.)
DOCTOR: Can't I just lose? Just this once?
(He hides under the time rotor assembly.)
DOCTOR; Easy. It would be easy. It would be so easy. Just tell them. Just tell them, whoever wants to know, all about the Hybrid.
(The Doctor is sitting on the ground in a channel cut part way through the Azbantium, as the Veil arrives in room 12. In the Tardis, in his head, he comes out and runs around the console room.)
DOCTOR: I can't keep doing this. I can't! I can't always do this! It's not fair! Clara, it's just not fair! Why can't I just lose?
BLACKBOARD: No!
DOCTOR: But I can remember, Clara. You don't understand, I can remember it all. Every time. And you'll still be gone. Whatever I do, you still won't be there.

He remembers. He remembers it all. Every time.

(shudder)

This means that he has been mourning Clara for two billion years...

There are a number of things that are niggly.

1. If the rooms reset, then how could he leave himself clues?
2. If the rooms reset, and this is a closed system locked inside what appears to be the Doctor's confession disk, why was the Doctor able to see the stars in the first place?
3. Is the inside of the castle open to the sea or not?
4. If it is, then where is the garden located?
5. Convenient boy to run with messages is convenient.

But I don't actually feel like nitpicking about these things.

I wonder why the Doctor concluded that they wanted to know about The Hybrid? Or perhaps he didn't, it was just that he was running out of confessions to make. Presumably, his name is no longer a vital secret any more.

As to why the Doctor "reveals" who the Hybrid is when he has escaped - some people have complained that why the heck is he telling them when he spent two billion years not telling them? I can think of a few reasons:
1. He's no longer a prisoner, and he's coming to get them, and he wants them to be scared.
2. Now that he's no longer in the castle, they won't know if he's lying. And he's lying.
3. He's telling the truth in a way they are sure to misunderstand. That is, it isn't that "The hybrid is me", but "The hybrid is Me." (Ashildir)

I put 50/50 on it being Ashildir.


Still please do not discuss "Hell Bent"; I haven't watched it yet (though I intend to, shortly).

I need a Capaldi icon.

Comments

[waterfall8484]

Thanks for that, I hadn't twigged that he remembered!

It makes a lot of sense really, that he does, and it also makes it a lot more horrible. I mean, basically he never gets to get over Clara, because the window in which he remembers is so short that he never has a chance to move on when he's in it. So he spends two billion years mourning and not being able to get over the immediate pain and move on to the next stage that one usually gets to as time passes. Ouch! No wonder he's mad when he gets out.

As to 1), I suppose he could because the clues were already there when he arrived? The room resets to when he arrived, which is also when he died and left the bird clue at least. So that's sort of the default state. Not sure about the other clues though.

[travels_in_time]

He arrives on Gallifrey, and comes to the conclusion that it's the Time Lords who set him up and had put him in the confession disk in the first place. They have a long history in manipulating the Doctor, so perhaps the rooms were set up with the clues in the first place? Then he figures out just enough to repeat the cycle. It's basically an eternal torture chamber, which is why I can't figure out why this ep is the "Heaven" one and not the "Hell" one.

As far as the stars, if the Time Lords created the entire setting, it would be very easy for them to create a fake view of the stars that would update and reflect the passage of time. The Doctor realizing how much time had passed would be an important aspect of the "torture" part.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

He remembers. He remembers it all. Every time.

The dialogue - or rather monologue - that you quote does seem to be saying that. But it's strange since, as I understand it, each time that he dies he's restored from a copy that was taken at the point when he was teleported to the castle.

[kerravonsen]

Both things are true.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

My brain hurts. :)