Tick & Tock

There's a few interesting questions raised by Heaven Sent. The most obvious one being exactly how much of the budget for this series is being saved for the finale? That's one we can't really get into until next week of course, but I'm actually looking forward to finding out. But we're supposed to be talking about THIS weeks Doctor Who, not speculating about next weeks. So, next question was it actually any good?

Yes actually. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Which, given my response to the series thus far may come as something of a shock to many. But then it's hardly my fault that the vast majority of stories thus far have been bad is it? Just let me enjoy this brief respite from plot holes and mediocrity whilst I can.

So, WHY does this one work where the vast majority of other stories don't? Well, it's actually fairly well written for a start. There's some really good ideas being played with in a fun way. There's a big twist that actually resolves most of the oddities, or at least distracts from them. It's well directed, has a lot of good atmosphere and a pretty creepy monster. But let's face it, the main reason it works is because it's basically 45 minutes of Peter Capaldi, on his own, being the Doctor.

I'm sure I'm not the only churlish, whingy miserable bastard on the internet who's noted that the show has been a little Clara-centric of late. The problem being that, as I have mentioned many times, Clara has never really established herself as character with any personality, and we're instead just continually told how amazingly special she was without ever seeing any evidence. I don't know if maybe this was meant to be some sort of meta-commentary on the cult of Rose or something, but stretching it out over a whole 2 and half seasons seems a bit much for that joke.

Now that we're finally free of her there's a lot more room in the script for the Doctor to actually establish himself. Especially when the only other character in the script is a silent monster whose only stage directions are "lurch slowly towards the Doctor". And the Doctor is then forced to deal with this whole spooky mystery situation without the usual recourse of yelling "BECAUSE CLARA" at something and waiting for the Deus Ex Machina to show up. So that's nice.

Now, as you may notice from watching the episode this isn't to say that she's not casting a long shadow over proceedings. But I can't quite find it too offensive. Visualizing the Doctors mental processes in the form of a TARDIS scene lecture is actually a pretty neat idea. And it makes sense that whoever it is he's pretending to explain things to would be the most recent companion. Personally, if you're going to go down the look alike stand in with their back to the camera route then you could through in a few other companions, and then maybe culminate with Clara at the big climax, but whatever. And since it's quite obviously all the Doctors own thoughts rather than Claras ghost sending him clues from beyond the grave then we don't need to start going on about the no-it-all nonentity rendering the Doctor into effectively a total idiot. Again.

So... Trapped in a mysterious castle with a monster that can only be stopped by confessing a secret truth. At which point the structure of the castle itself rearranges in a clockwork fashion and the exit will thus only become accessible once the final truth is revealed? If this really is a trap set by the High Council of Time Lords then they've obviously been spending the last couple of series playing WAY too much D&D. Maybe that explains what happens in The Time Of The Doctor. I guess the Castellans cleric had just managed to level up enough to cast Resurrection.

Behold, the D20 of Rasillon!

Seriously though, it's a pretty cool idea. As is the idea of the Doctor essentially trapping himself in a time loop in order to escape. But then I've always been rather fascinated by the nature of conciousness as it relates to teleporters.

It's just one of those Sci-Fi concepts that is always just sort of accepted, but never really given as much thought as it could be. After all, if a teleporter breaks down your molecular structure in order to somehow transmit it, then you're dead. Just because somebody walks out the other end with all your memories and personality doesn't mean that there's any continuity for you. And if you can just transmit the data and build perfect copies of people then what's stopping you just making copies of yourself?

Obviously this isn't QUITE the route that they go down here, but it's nice to see the concept being played with. The resulting montage which then suddenly makes sense of why the Doctor started punching a wall made of diamond was also a fun revelatory moment. It was very... Doctor Who. Finding an unexpected solution, playing with notions of timescale and an individuals determination... All good stuff. Looking at a problem for a very different perspective is what the Doctor should be all about.

There aren't many Doctor Who stories where the solution to the problem is "Just keep punching things". Fewer still where that actually WORKS in the shows pacifistic context.

Now, one could ask the question of how come the wall doesn't reset with the rest of the castle. Or why the whole thing isn't buried in skulls and ash. Or why there's a cryptic hint buried in the garden. Or where that painting of Clara came from. There are unresolved questions about the set up, but that's only to be expected really. It's part of the atmosphere of mystery, and doesn't really distract from the story in any way.

Kind of interesting that the whole thing was contained in a confession dial though. I wonder if that's supposed to have some further significance, or if someone just thinks that somehow resolves the question of what's going on with the Doctors one. Time will tell.

Specifically, next week will tell. We're finally hitting Gallifrey. And thus we will finally have time to sink our teeth into the problems of prophecy, inevitable comparisons to The Deadly Assassin, and maybe even a discussion of why attempting to specifically address why the Doctor first left Gallifrey is probably a bad idea. Should be fun times.