Doctor Who season 9, episode 11 just aired and the Doctor was in the unusual position of practically being alone for the entire episode.
After last week, we discovered the Doctor was being sent to points unknown via a transporter cuff put on his wrist due to a trap set by Ashildhr. The only thing was, neither Ashildhr nor anyone else banked on Clara interfering, and thereafter losing her life. The fallout from all of this began in tonight’s episode, “Heaven Sent.”
In an episode that dragged on and on and on and on (though perhaps that was the point) several facts became evident. Actually, to be more precise, most facts about the Doctor were already known to us. In the end, relatively little information was revealed. Anything truly new happened in the last 10 minutes or so. We will debate the style over substance of this episode next week. No doubt, we will not be the only outlet to do this.
The setting
The Doctor was taken to a castle with shifting walls like Hogwarts. At times when under great duress, the Doctor retreated to another location, which we are going to call his TARDIS/Mind Palace. The episode basically kept wrapping elements of Harry Potter, Sherlock, and Doctor Who all together with a Sartresque bend.
The time
Whether you want to call it a spin on Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, or call it a warped Groundhog Day, the reality is that the Doctor was reliving the same day over and over again in a hell of his own making. This never-ending day lasted, if we are to believe the Doctor, for 7,000 years…or maybe it just felt that way as we were spun (with apologies to Dead or Alive) round, right round, in his confession dial.
The monster and its motives
The Doctor is being chased in slow motion by a fly-ridden, shrouded carcass that is only halted by the Doctor revealing truths he has never revealed before. The Doctor keeps seeking room 12 where the monster typically catches up with him. The Doctor succumbs to the monster, and he then resets himself by dragging his ravaged corpse back to the transporter where we wash, rinse, and repeat. Since the transporter is essentially a giant redo button with residual reset potential and energy, this resetting is practically never-ending.
The reality is that it’s just a hell of the Doctor’s making. Shades of a plot device older than St. Elsewhere tells us it’s all but a dream, a warped, grieving Time Lord dream. To be fair, it’s a bit of a Time Lord combo: The Doctor and the Time Lords of Gallifrey are both responsible.
The truth
The Doctor was trapped in his living hell for a number of reasons. For starters, he’s grieving Clara, and not acting entirely rationally because of it. He talks to Clara throughout, and “dead Clara” talks back via the chalkboard, or face-to-face with the essential message being for the Doctor to get up off his sorry ass, stop wallowing, and outsmart his captors.
The Doctor admits various things he never has before. For one, he is afraid of dying. For another, he left Gallifrey because he was scared, not because he was bored. The most dangerous truth is regarding the identity of the hybrid.
New info of the Hybrid legend
The Doctor continuously refuses to reveal information about who the hybrid is. Apparently, according to legend, the hybrid is a human/Time Lord who will be a savior/destroyer. This info is extremely dangerous, though dangerous for whom and why is unclear.
At the very end of the episode, the Doctor breaks out of his nightmare loop and is transported to Gallifrey where he meets a young boy. He tells the boy to find the first important person he sees and tell them the Doctor is back, and he’s not a happy camper by a long-shot.
Doctor Who will conclude season 9 next week at 9:00 p.m. on BBC America.