Dr Who season 9

The rest of you do know that Clara is gone for good, Jenna Coleman landed the part of Queen Victoria and isn't coming back, I can't seeing that change next week.

 

It was a good episode and a step back in the right direction after a few lackluster episodes in a row. Was nice having an episode that focused solely on Capaldi.

I didn't really find it frightening (not nearly on the same level as the brilliant "Blink") but it was effectively eerie.

 

Good, don't!

Yes, it's a common theme in Trekdom. In one of my favorite Voyager episodes (Counterpoint), they used the transporters to store/hide the patterns of telepathic aliens (including Tuvok) from a regime that was hunting them for their abilities.

No, I don't think so. Doctor's final line was likely a misdirection - by 'me' he meant Me or Ashildr.

 

Let me put it this way: If there is somebody out there in the universe torturing him into a confession, are they seriously going to wait more than 2 billion years in real time to get it? You remember those scenes where every time the Doctor was in immediate danger he would retreat mentally back to the TARDIS? That span of a millionth of a second was stretched out for a minute or two until he arrived at an escape plan. I'm sure that this is the way that the Doctor with his intellect thinks on a regular basis, but extrapolate that for the entire episode. Just as those millionths of seconds seemed like minutes, when left by himself whole days could pass in seconds. If there is an outside observer to this scenario then they're going to want to compress it to a manageable viewing experience. The confession dial is like a pocket universe where time is sped up. two billion years pass while only a 100 passes by, tops. Anyways, it's just my take on things, that it's mostly metaphoric and that he's willing himself to forget so that the interrogation program has to keep beginning from scratch while he slowly wears it down.

 

If there was an observer then you may be correct, but the whole process appeared entirely automated and there may not have been any observers, or the observers may themselves be Timelords therefore not tied to linear time either, we may get an answer next week, but I wouldn't count on it with Moffat.

 

Well, she'll be gone after this season ends.

 

I just remembered one thing that really bugged me, another two billion years and he should have been surrounded by a mountain of his own skulls, I wish they'd follow through with the ideas.

 

In two billion years most of the skulls would have chemically weathered away or be transported away by currents/animals (hermit crabs!)/plate tectonics - you name it. Since we're in nitpicking mode, I doubt that punching an impossibly hard material with your bare hand would make even a dent in 2 billion years.

 

The environment was a constant, so no crabs or plate tectonics, chemical weathering maybe, then perhaps he should have ended up with a beach made from his skulls, I agree about the nine? times harder than diamond substance, but I think they were going for the water/rock approach however implausible, the even bigger plot hole is perhaps how everything resets, except the skulls and the wall, Moffat doesn't seem to care about huge plot holes in the slightest, he probably enjoys how it winds some of us up.

 

While I agree about Moff's (and DrWho writers in general) penchant for plot holes, I kinda have to give the reset part of the plot a bit of a pass.

Look at just about any Trek story dealing with being stuck in a temporal loop - there is always a way where somehow the protagonists are able to either retain snippets of memory from previous cycles or to send a cryptic message into the next cycle so that they can do something different than all the previous times, in order to escape the time loop.

It's a necessary conceit, otherwise you have no story and you just keep repeating the same period over and over ad -infinitum. In fact, I could have sworn I wrote this exact post yesterday...hmmm.

 

I agree with that and perhaps he could have broken through the wall as that could have been somehow outside the temporal loop, but the skulls should have reset or accumulated, one or the other, we were left with something that was not consistent with anything.

 

He should have dug at it with the Tardis key, or the shovel. It would have made more sense, though it would have been less dramatic.

 

The only physical components in the place was the diamond wall to the outside world and The Doctor. Everything else was basically just super advanced software that could be reset. As long as we're referencing Star Trek, think of the entire place as the holodeck.

 

Didn't he lose the key in the trap that put the transporter bracelet on him? As for the shovel, good point.

 

The tardis key was taken away from him last episode when he used it in the machine.

 

Then the skulls shouldn't have been there at all, but obviously they made such a nice visual impact so they wanted them, fine, but in that case have billions of them at the end.

 

The wall was 100 times harder than diamonds. The shovel would have shattered like glass and seeing he had no memory of what happened seeing the millions of shattered shovels would have disillusioned him making his escape an extra billion years longer.

 

Since the previous Doctors turned to dust before the next Doctor arrived there's no way known they'd be any skulls there.

 

The shovel would reset so he wouldn't see any broken ones, also surely he'd rub the edge against the wall to wear it down, rather than hitting it, but who knows, perhaps Timelords have really rough and abrasive skin.

 

If it reset perhaps it's actions would have also reset. So using it would have been next to useless.

 

Like everything else in the castle, the skulls were there to creep out the Doctor. Although it is extremely easy to jump to that conclusion, if you go back and rewatch the episode there is absolutely no solid proof that that skull in the transporter room, or the ones under the water, are the Doctor's. As you said, why would his skull be the only part that doesn't turn to dust?

 

Yeah, I agree. The shovel was highlighted twice. What's with the bare hands crap? We know the Doctor's always been overly dramatic but........ And why only skulls? If they were his, what happened to all his kneecaps etc? I reckon the skulls were there to unnerve him, up the creep-factor.

 

Incidentally, what's the current thinking on Moffat? He's been on the Doctor for quite a while and has produced magnificent work. Should he go now, at the height of his reign or has he more left to offer the series? I'm leaning towards a sooner rather than later exit. He doesn't strike me as the type to dilute his efforts or overstay his welcome.

 

You know, I think that what we watched this week will become a Doctor Who classic for the ages. This story has so many layers that people will be referencing it, maybe even writing papers on it for years to come. Just last night when my son was having trouble with his homework I used Heaven Sent as an example to show that you have to fail a billion times before you succeed. You can simply enjoy it as straight forward storytelling, as well as for it's more metaphorical elements and symbolism and appreciate it for it's literary roots. Solid A++.

 

I think that he'll leave on his own when he feels like he has nothing left to offer. No matter what, he should never listen to the douchebags over on Facebook that have been screaming for his head on a pike from day 1.