They’ll likely run the whole of Season Nine starting early Christmas morning.
Just watched “Heaven Sent” (episode 11). Thank you all so much for the discussions and interpretations. I love these plot puzzles, but I’m rubbish at seeing them. I was able to watch and catch many of the points as they played and that helped me enjoy it more.
Since the rooms all reset after each confession, I at first didn’t see how The Doctor could leave himself a message. Until I saw that he wrote “BIRD” After the room was reset.
I also saw, in the repeats, how he started to be able to tell more of the story of the Bird before the Veil killed him. Because the Azbantium was etched over the millennia, that would let him know moments sooner what was going on. That and the stars.
That led me to think that The Doctor could prepare himself just slightly more for death and have slightly more time at the end. So in the day and a half crawling to the transport, he could think through all the lives he had to have lived and all the thoughts he had to have thought that would get the Azbantium in ‘just’ that eroded state. That would allow him time to perhaps write more than “BIRD”. Or just add a flourish on the ‘I’ that would remind him of a whole chain of thoughts he must have had. That’s why he could say “That’s when I remember! Always then. Always… then.”
Then he could think that too much explanation to his ‘next’ self would be a mistake. It would take away his own passion for solving the puzzle and would take away some of each incarnation’s suffering and revelations. So he would write a bit more for some millennia, and write a bit less, and over time settle on just the right information to convey to keep himself going.
When he emerged through the wall and found he had been in his own Confession Dial, that explained why the stars changed. The Dial was open to the sky above, that changed over time.
But since he knew the star configurations, and he emerged on a planet that seems to be Gallifrey (what with the domed city) - questions arise.
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If this was Gallifrey for 2 billion years, then somehow he must have been placed in the Dial and the Dial was pushed 2 billion or more years into the past. Because besides Gallifrey being thrown into the pocket universe, the Time War time-locked Gallifrey and others. So only Gallifrey in the past was available for the Dial to be ‘on’ Gallifrey.
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The Doctor knew the star configurations and perhaps the Dial was placed on many worlds, asteroids, floating-in-space, for millennia at a time, and only after 2 billion years happened to end up on Gallifrey.
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It’s not really Gallifrey but a copy somewhere else.
It’s been asked how the Gallifreans, locked in the pocket universe, could have conspired to get The Doctor transported into his own Confession Dial. I could imagine that the ‘subtle’ influence they managed - to transmit a signal over time to make the Master [del]more[/del] insane - could allow them to plant some suggestion or idea that over time could grow into a plan to trap The Doctor into a transport into his Dial. Still, the Gallifrean’s are pretty active for not actually being around.
The Doctor’s last line was “The Hybrid destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins … is me.” Disregarding the Closed Captioning that spelled the last word as “me”, what I thought was - Here The Doctor spends 2 billion years not confessing the secret of the Hybrid. And the first thing he does when he gets out is say it out loud, after having acknowledged that the Gallifreans might still be listening. Uh, isn’t that kind of screwing himself for the last 2 billion years?
Just about all your questions are answered in Hell Bent. Of course, they may not be the answers you were expecting.
I imagined that it actually was the diner that Amy and Rory were in, and they were hinting that Clara and Me were involved in that event somehow.
Been out of town and offline for a while, so just catching up.
Can anyone explain the part right after Clara was extracted, where she said she had trouble hearing the other guy, but could hear the Doctor just fine? I didn’t catch anything that properly explained that.
Just for discussion, I’d like to mention that there’s at least one more known hybrid hanging around. River. She’s born of humans, but has the life span and regenerations of a Time Lord.
That’s my take. Clara’s various incarnations were involved with the Doctor all over the place, in the background.
There was a ringing in her ear. The Doctor said she would get use to that. It was her heart. Since she was taken out of a single moment in time it wasn’t beating. Instead of Bu-dum it was stuck at buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…
But how would that translate to hearing The Doctor, but not the other guy?
I believe she said something was wrong with her hearing, that something was “missing.” The thing that was wrong, that was missing, was her heartbeat.
The other guy was the general. I don’t remember her saying she couldn’t hear him, but if so then probably because the Doctor was closer so she could hear him better.
Ok. I looked up the transcript, and it looks like I misunderstood that part:
I (incorrectly) assumed when she said “I can hear you fine” that is was a comparison to not being able to hear the General. Upon reading the text, I think raventhief’s description is right.
I’d made that same inference (i.e. she could hear the Doctor but not the general), but agree that it is not in the text. I thought she’d delivered the line like “I can hear you fine”, but I’d have to go back to the DVR to check that that wasn’t also my interpolation.
I re-watched the scene on my DVR, and hear it now as “I can hear you. I can hear you fine”. Also she exchanges a few lines with the Doctor, and only notices that her heartbeat is missing when the general starts to talk. So I think from the way the scene plays that inferring that her hearing of the Doctor is unaffected, while that of the general’s is.
Clearly, they didn’t intend the scene to be interpreted that way, but it does seem reasonable.
Thanks. At least I’m not crazy. Or, at least, this isn’t the reason…
And now I know why I got this sudden case of tinnitus a month ago! I should check my pulse…
Well, that was a nice tidy little bundle with a bow on it. I’m not sure I like that ending. It kind of implies we’ll never see River again, except in reruns and marathons.
I liked it a great deal, but then I mostly can’t stand River.
River has always been annoying when she’s been allowed to out-Doctor the Doctor. (“Spoilers, sweetie.” Ugh.) But for most of the latest Christmas episode she’s enjoyable clueless, and she also makes some interesting observations about the lopsided-sided nature of their relationship that deflates the overblown implications of her prior appearances. So “the Doctor’s Wife” has really always been just another companion (to him, at least). He thought she was fun and interesting, but was never in love with her (not like he was with Rose).
It’s about the only River episode I’ve enjoyed since she first showed up in the library, and it made me much more sympathetic to her as a character.
I don’t see that at all - he was crushed when River was saying that she didn’t love him. Now that could have been ego (“how could someone not love me? I’m the Doctor!”), but I certainly didn’t read it that way.
I agree. The ‘a-thon’ on BBC America ran seasons six and seven today - Based on how he interacted with River through those seasons, and how he healed River’s broken wrist, yes he’s definitely in love with her. And from his viewpoint, he’s thrilled to see her alive again, since the last time he saw her, she was a hologram/ghost/psychic link that only he could see.
Well, I just happened to finish watching season 2 finale of the librarians and a plot point was needing a time machine, which the library had several. All under wraps and sheets, so I got a nice screen shot of casandra unwrapping the Tardis of all things.
Just thought I would toss that in for no reason
Declan
^there was a DeLorean in there as well.
Can we not post Librarian spoilers in the Doctor Who thread please? Thank you 