Doctor Who: How Heaven Sent Explores Grief (The Best 12th Doctor Episode)

usually big dramatic things happen in doctor who then the next week everyone's absolutely fine the problem is doctor who is always about the new adventure not the aftermath of the last one structurally that's incredibly important to how the show works so you have to make grief the center of the story grief has to be the new adventure what is grief how do i make grief the monster of the week in doctor who but i'm scared and i'm alone alone heaven's scent is probably one of the best case studies into the doctor's psyche that has ever been told on the show then showrunner stephen moffatt's mission statement how do i make grief the monster of the week in doctor who proved to be a concept that would lead him to deliver one of his very best scripts the best showcase of the ever brilliant peter capaldi and possibly the most emotionally charged doctor episode ever well probably third but who's counting [Music] nearly a billion years the episode begins with a stirring monologue about something that follows you from birth you begin your life and it begins a journey we're simultaneously treated to eerie shots of an empty castle acclimatizing the viewer with a setting that they will gain an encyclopedic knowledge of by the episode's end even from the first few frames we're treated to breadcrumbs to get our brains working whose blood is that where are we what are the screens for whatever path you take it will follow quite literally the doctor is outlining the abilities of the monster we will soon meet this monologue delivering exposition you will run it will walk you will rest it will not whilst also setting the tone you will notice a second shadow next to yours your life will then be over the viewer is reminded of that ever familiar existential horror death even though this episode works as a self-contained story this opening monologue makes it crystal clear that it truly is the second installment a true sequel episode to face the raven and it is the climax of that episode the death of his beloved companion and best friend clara if you were any part of killing her you're not afraid then you understand nothing at all that stirs our good doctor into one of his trademarks evoking fear with nothing but words i am the doctor i'm coming to find you and i will never ever stop and it's awesome the equipment in that room augmented ultra long-range teleport so i'm not more than a single light year from where i was i could watch capaldi make deductions by himself all day long then you'll have a choice come out show yourself or keep on hiding the introduction of the monster is also so effective first by seeing what it sees before a long shot where you can see it just off in the distance the framing of it just standing there watching the pair are soon acquainted in the flesh the putrid ridden flesh and our wise old magician resorts to doing what he normally does the impossible namely talking to a door clearly you can't make an actual psychic link with the door for one very obvious reason but notoriously the way capel delivers that like the doctor forgot for a very brief moment that clara wasn't beside him before crashing back down to face the sobering reality that she is dead is so well done all the enjoyment of his hijinks are rendered meaningless now that he doesn't have his best friend to share them with i really like the way the episode makes the internal mental processes of grief physical signifiers the doctor smells the flowers like having a good uninterrupted thought in the wake of losing someone a thought that stops your grief and puts you at peace before the thought of that person comes crashing back into your mind they're right in front of you clear as day except they're not they're just a memory and the memory just isn't as good it's full of cracks you want the real thing it's like a painting of a person instead [Music] loving the little retro frills on the score it also really adds to the ominous empty feeling the castle gives off we then get an answer as to exactly what the monster is rather quickly when i was a very little boy there was an old lady who died they covered in veils but it was a hot sunny day and the flies came i messed for years this time there's no door to have a chinwag with the doctor is trapped with nowhere to go also it seems to see this coming [Music] we very rarely get episodes about the doctor the doctor is the heart of the show of course but what makes the show is that it is the companion story and we see the doctor through their eyes in heaven sent we see the world how the doctor does in what feels like a call back to moffat's very first episode of showrunner in which we would see how intricately the doctor can read the room in what is a fraction of a second for a human mind capaldi's doctor calculates all manner of variables whilst plunging to his uncertain doom slow down concentrate it's a testament to the quality of the story that we get top tier doctor adventuring a proper set piece nestled within something as simple as the doctor breaking a window and jumping out of it and of course the doctor's mind palace is the tardis just further emphasizing the almost symbiotic relationship between the time lord and his time machine this whole sequence is almost like a quicksilver time in a bottle scene except the doctor's superpower isn't super speed it's just raw intelligence we're watching him break it down and deduce step by step a solution in a fraction of time as he falls i can't wait to hear what i say i'm nothing without an audience there's something that really works about the doctor breaking the fourth wall just a teensy tiny little bit as if the doctor is of course smart enough to know that he is fiction but there's something about him knowing that that makes him feel realer than ever it just adds to the magic of the character with such a tiny detail i love that the very first time he came through the labyrinth he took his wet clothes off and then ran around in the nip until he got back to the teleporter maybe there's an r-rated cut of the episode out there somewhere complete with a dangling pizza penis penis capaldi i'll stop now working hypotheses they're in a fully automated haunted house a mechanical maze it's a killer puzzle box designed to scare me to death [Music] must be christmas i love that the doctor revels in the mystery to solve still fully aware that he is in a waking nightmare but then i suppose this is the stage of grief where you fixate on a task to complete you do revel in those tasks however big or small they are or at least i know i do it's the perfect distraction isn't it all the while he's enjoying it he simultaneously digs his own grave the jump scares in the episode are effective because they properly surprise you by coming in during moments of reflection they remind us that it can come from anywhere and at any time once the doctor has faced the veil several times he realizes the truth it doesn't want truth well not per se it's confession i have to tell truths i've never told before there's a great irony in the man whose number one rule is the fact that he lies being faced with the agony of eternity or simply telling the truth rule one the doctor lies again it feels like moffatt is subconsciously tying together every single detail from his time as showrunner and turning against our ageless hero to fantastic effect there are truths that i can never tell not for anything i know the hybrid is real i know where it is and what it is i confess i'm actually the galifrey and neo chosen one jesus christ messiah who brought regeneration to them as i'm actually this mysterious being from another dimension now just kidding that would be super silly rachel talalay's direction is unmatched in the who world here the shadows and rich earth and gold tones in the episode are perfectly matching the burgundy visage of capaldi it's one of the best looking episodes in all of who the use of shadow and light really brings the entire set alive in a way that doctor who rarely does avoiding the more common flat british tv look as i was editing this i was trying to pick out my favorite shots from the episode but honestly there's just too many to count but how long well i have to be here forever the idea of being there forever as well as the groundhog day-esque scenario the doctor later finds himself in conjures not only thoughts of grief but responsibility too the endless repeating trap could be read as a parable for how we make the same mistakes in the case of the doctor is it the mistake of allowing himself friends is the grim fate of clara oswald really so unique even if his companions cheat death so many of them have had to endure torment and pain as a direct consequence of travelling with the doctor i find myself reminded of someone like donna cursed with the bitterly sad reality that she will never know of her cosmic adventures nor will she benefit from the way she grew from them donna i was just going yeah see ya the doctor can always ignore these thoughts he can travel from place to place never having to stop running at 100 miles per hour except now he's trapped in a maze he cannot escape from trapped quite literally with his own thoughts the fact that he thinks he will have to spend an eternity in this place thinking about the death of his companion makes me think about this he doesn't just own a time machine he lives in one he lives in one the whole universe is alive and well that for him everyone's still alive or when he's having a lonely morbid midnight with his electric guitar he's thinking everybody's dead for it really doesn't matter if clara is indeed dead or alive she will always be both the doctor is reminded that his mastery of time dictates he will always in some sense be alone the limbo he is in doesn't end when he breaks free he will always be meeting people making connections sharing his feelings with people that have already had their time it's funny the day you lose someone isn't the worst at least you've got something to do it's all the days they stay dead at the time this aired this really stayed with me i was at university at the time and i was having to make regular trips back home to visit my grandma who was sick it was at the point where as a family we knew she didn't have much longer left to live i'm sure some of you know that feeling where you know you you really know this is it for that person you love she was very old at that point had been in and out of hospital throughout that year and things were only getting worse but i do remember being fine with it which sounds maybe strange to say at one point that made me feel almost a little bit guilty why didn't i feel more about it shouldn't i be sad in the now but this line it's all the days after was just that perfect piece of writing that explains things to you you didn't know you needed explained because i knew in that moment when i heard that that this wouldn't be the hard part and that's why i didn't feel so much this was the time when my brain just went into battle stations it was about getting through it doing everything right putting in the visits savouring the time you had left the hard part would be of course all the days after when there would be nothing more to do no task to complete nothing to ease it but as doctor who has done many many times before for so many people other than just myself it made something distressing that little bit easier the doctor manages to get over his grief he manages to get to the end only to realize is only what he thought would be the end just when you think you've overcome the pain of loss that pain comes back often tenfold and just like an unbreakable diamond wall it seems insurmountable before you rush the comments to tell me it's as bantium i know it's as bantium but i'm not saying asbantium again and again in this video okay asbantium the doctor finds himself at his lowest point he comes so close to breaking points so close to finally confessing in this stunning intimate moment doctor who reminds us that the people we have lost can and will always be able to pick us up you are not the only person who ever lost someone it's the story of everybody this is one of the best scenes between 12 and clara and she isn't even really here but that's the point heaven sent in spite of being a one-hander shows the strength of their relationship their need for each other's friendship each other's love and kindness so naturally the doctor picks himself back up and wins the day [Music] or fails miserably and ends up meeting his fate at the hands of the veil since this whole episode is about death anyway it only feels complete to see the time lord himself perish as well but this is doctor who he doesn't just die once oh no the doctor hits control cmp on life and tries again [Music] [Applause] [Music] all the breadcrumbs laid out so masterfully in the episode come crashing down on the viewer we realized the whole time what we've been watching isn't a unique experience for the doctor but one of many the skulls belong to him he was the one laying the hints he knows what he must do and in the ultimate war of attrition the doctor takes on time itself and does this scene not just perfectly encapsulate everything you love about doctor who editor will oswald cuts together a sequence that combines so many clips an ever-increasing pace and our knowledge of what we have seen for the past 40 minutes in what is potentially the best edited sequence the show has ever delivered it's really just so impressive that a sequence so fast paced can make you feel the weight of what is literally billions of years having passed 20 million years into the future bolstered by murray gold's awesome score i mean really when was gold's work ever anything less than stella this scene is doctor who firing on all cylinders the doctor is even giving a speech in the midst of all this [Music] this monologue on eternity is just the cherry on top the doctor is truly the lord of time his mastery over it his ability to perceive it again like a superpower is proven nowhere better than in this sequence he bends the laws of time to his will doing the impossible copying himself over and over again until time works the way he wants it to time is his weapon the doctor exhausts every last morsel of his strength and even though this might be the most spectacular most effective time the doctor's ever punched well anything in the show is also a display of doctor who's key mantra brains over brawn [Music] you can punch a diamond wall until you break your hand but if you use your head first and foremost if you fight smarter not harder you can do anything suddenly that diamond wall isn't so tough [Music] personally i think that's one hell of a scene it turns out the doctor was actually in his confession dial all along which is a neat payoff that doesn't overstate itself nor does it set up at the start of the season lead to an overblown disappointment the stage is all set for the final chapter of this epic three-parter it's me yeah i'm not gonna talk about hellbent now if you guys want it i'll i'll definitely cover it at some point heaven sense still holds up as a case study into the effects of losing those we love the stages of grief the highs and the lows is both poignant and at times beautiful in its messages there's not an ounce of fat on it and it works on just about every conceivable level peter capaldi proves his phenomenal talents carrying an entire episode on his back and giving us one of his best turns as the doctor ever something i said is the single biggest case against stephen moffat's writing being too complicated sure sometimes it didn't hit the mark but the man is responsible for writing more doctor who than anyone else when he hit he hit big we got an empty child an 11th hour a heaven sent and there's really nothing any other episode could do to detract from its sheer contained brilliance it's both introspective and meditative while simultaneously being a thrilling chilling adventure wrapped up in a topsy-turvy mystery that only steve moffatt could have done in quite such a way as this following the airing of the episode moffatt was quoted as saying i think we did something worthwhile there there were probably enough people watching heaven's sense saying what is this show is doctor who back on next week most people would have preferred the cut to several months later option so they could get on with the next adventure but as an attempt to do aftermath and grief in doctor who i felt it was pretty good that episode was a brave thing to do well steven i think i'm going to have to agree thank you for watching another full fat video don't forget to click that subscribe button and hit the bell if you'd like to see more breakdowns of movies tv and more a big thank you to our full fatty patrons dr chi k jax merrick and mike nandu you do boys until next time keep it 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Channel: Full Fat Videos

Views: 278,043

Keywords: heaven sent video essay, doctor who heaven sent best, Heaven Sent Best Episode, Doctor Who Heaven Sent, Full Fat Doctor Who, Heaven Sent Monologue, Heaven Sent, Full Fat Videos, Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, Moffat, Peter capaldi, capaldi, twelfth doctor, Breakdown, Doctor Who Video Essay, 12th doctor, 12 doctor best moments, review, analysis, debate, revolution of the daleks, captain jack, Day of the doctor

Id: dy-Tw2HDzGQ

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020