Yes, I wonder whether if you left any of the old guard in a haunted castle with a handy spade, you might end up with a rather battered and bewildered Veil.

The first Doctor literally did whack a bloke over the head with a shovel.

thought it was intersting but dragged on a bit-could have been shorter

i wouldnt watch it again

Thanks, I'd forgotten he said that, which makes it very clear that he was obviously assuming that someone was indeed listening!

Easily the best episode of the series.

I enjoyed the pace of this episode and thought Capaldi gave a great performance. It was nice to have an episode that didn't feel the need to crow bar in humour, though I love humour in well anything but it doesn't have to be in everything, this episode had a dark tone/story so the lack of humour suited that. I applaud Moffat and Co for doing an episode like this and would love to have more episodes that go for a similar theme, a quiet thoughtful episodes.

The only things that knock on the episode is one I don't buy into the Doctor caring so much about Clara, its told through the writing but its never felt, so scenes emphasising their connection fall flat.

Secondly and the biggest problem is that they have wasted a good idea for an episode by having it in the arc story (which has been a problem before) the episode before it and the episode following it and indeed the entire arc for the series is a write off for me I don't but into it I doesn't work for me and is poorly done, which spoils this episode because its so connected with that arc. The confessional dial was flimsily explained I still don't fully understand what its about how it works and why were the Time Lords doing what they were doing. Again a big problem with Moffat's who is its convoluted stories that are poorly explained or gloss over explaining stuff because in plain doesn't add up.

Its impossible to watch this episode as its own thing as its so tied in with the rest of the series and has things in it that carry over and not explained satisfactory which sullies this episode to repeat watching.

I hope they look at the tone/style of this episode going forward but lose all the baggage the Moffat brings to the episode to drag it down.

Interesting notes from Rachel Talalay on the first scenes of Heaven Sent

Ta. That was interesting and just shows the attention, the care of each detail that went into it. (Indeed, all Who stories probably, whether people love, like, are indifferent to or hate an episode.) Because I just watched it for the third time, I've been banging on about this story a bit on DS, but this is probably a more apt thread to reiterate that I genuinely think this is a Who masterpiece. As for Talalay, I think the direction of the episode is, in the true sense of the word, *remarkable*.

Directors don't tend to be 'picked out' as much in C21 Who as C20 (Eg Harper, Camfield, Maloney, Grimwade...) but on an intense rewatch, every shot, every set-up, every nuance...she did a brilliant job with a different and probably very difficult shoot. Absolute kudos to the woman.

I'll shut up up about the episode for now.

Hi

Sorry I'm so late to join this conversation. I came the long way round.

What happened is that I'm not really a TV watcher any more and didn't watch this series at all (even though I'd heard it was a good one). But then I noticed that River had been in the Christmas special, so I wanted to catch that one. And I figured I had better watch the series finale first just to get the gist of what's been going on. And then when I saw the teaser to Heaven Sent, I quickly realised I needed to also watch Face the Raven! So I have ended up watching the last four episodes back to back over the last two days!

Well I'm glad I bothered to watch them. Heaven Sent was especially good, and the others were entertaining. I thought The Husbands Of River Song was a really good Christmas episode and Mr Moffat has still got the 'old magic' as far as I'm concerned. I will always be a fan of that man, even though I don't really watch TV any more.

So anyway, I just wanted to say something here about this episode, something which has no doubt been said a lot already (I haven't read the thread) but I still feel compelled to say it…

While the Doctor was technically in the prison for 4.5 billion years, he was not consciously aware of those 4.5 billion years. As far as he is aware, he was teleported from London 4.5 million years into the future, stepping out of the teleporter for the very last cycle. From his point of view, he spent only maybe a few days in there, and he didn't even have to go through being killed and crawling up the stairs. There may have been billions of cycles, but none of them were aware of the memories of the others.

So, in one sense, the Doctor could rightly tell Clara that he spent 4.5 billion years saving her. But technically he didn't have to go through all that time himself, so he was being a bit dishonest there. He spent days in that prison, not millennia.

I know this point may seem trivial, but 4.5 billion years is such a ridiculous amount of time that this really is quite a big deal with huge implications. If, for one second, we were to believe that the Doctor was somehow conscious throughout the entire 4.5 billion years, then I would have to say that this would be just too ridiculous a premise. Just too unthinkable. Rory guarding the Pandorica for 2,000 years was pushing beleivability to its limits, but we (just about somehow) managed to swallow that. But 4.5 billion years is unthinkable.

I also don't understand about why some elements of the rooms were not reset (like the painting, and the clothes hung up, and 'BIRD' scrawled on the floor). But I can't really be bothered reading through the discussions to see speculation on this!

^ It's certainly brilliant that you decided to watch the last few episodes of Series 9, and great you enjoyed them.

To cover your main point, I don't think the deception of the Doctor spending that much time in the prison was that big a deal. I was never under the impression he was aware of the fact he had spent 4.5 billion years there until he was told that he had. Every time he realised what he had to do to get out, he was aware he'd been doing the same thing for a very long time but had no recollection of it directly. He couldn't remember going through it countless times before, even if he had. But equally, his one and only recollection of it was torturous... he had to relive the departure from Trap Street countless times, endure the grief and turmoil in his mind at Clara's departure over and over, put himself through physical and psychological agony across those few days before having to burn himself to death. Even once, that's horrific. And though he doesn't exactly remember it, the very fact he forced himself through the same pain over and over to get out means that whilst there's no memory of it, there was a perseverence to the Doctor in spite of his struggle that he endured. Every time he suffered, he knew it was only so he could suffer again. And from Clara's perspective, that might not necessarily mean a recall of 4.5 billion years, but it is the most flattering and emotional aspect of their friendship. It was one aspect of the story I liked a lot.

As for the resetting rooms, I believe that the only things that reset were things that were specifically a part of the prison device itself - nothing that happened to be inside it changed with it (it wasn't time resetting, as opposed to the device itself resetting). The Doctor himelf was not part of the device and so didn't reset each time - a new copy of him was made each time. The clothes came in with him, and thus also never reset - this means the very first Doctor to arrive there removed his clothes and either wandered the castle in his birthday suit or found something in the castle to dress himself in for the duration. The painting was also added as a part of the Doctor's torment but wasn't part of the prison device itself, the BIRD clue was written in the dust of previous versions of himself and again the Doctor himself never reset so the message carried over from copy to copy, and then the diamond wall itself never reset.

The only remaining question is why did whoever imprisoned him (namely Rassilon) design a prison with a way out at all, when he was adamant he wanted The Doctor's confession about the hybrid? I'd say the likely explanation is that whoever prepped the device ahead of the Doctor's arrival needed a way in and and a way out. This was what Room 12 essentially is, and Rassilon simply had it blocked off to the best of his ability with a wall made of the toughest material he could...never imagining the Doctor would actually spend all that time breaking out of it. Thus the wall itself was also added to the prison, and so not being a part of it meant it didn't reset with the rest of the castle.

Abomination, Thanks for the good answers and good points.

Moffat answers some Heaven Sent questions such as just what did the Doctor remember and WHO painted the Clara Picture (and why).

Answers from DWM posted on IMDB