Doctor Who Rewatch: “Heaven Sent” (S9:E11)

Recapping the Twelfth Doctor's Time in the TARDIS

Everyone was expecting a change for Doctor Who after Matt Smith’s run in the TARDIS. The show’s creators gave a change but not one that people wanted.

Many were expecting the Doctor to be a woman (which would happen in the next incarnation) or a person of color (which will happen next year). But during the live reveal special on the BBC for the Twelfth Doctor, they seemed to indicate the new Doctor would be just that “new.” He may be a thousand years old, but he’s about to get a whole new lease on life,” said the presenter. “Please welcome, the Twelfth Doctor, a hero for a whole new generation, it’s … Peter Capaldi.”

Instead of a young white man, they went with an older white man. This caused some initial reluctance with Capaldi’s Doctor among some. The reaction wasn’t helped by some uneven early seasons of trying to figure out just who this new Doctor would be. There were some ups and downs during Capaldi’s era.

If Matt Smith’s run began with magic and fairy tales, Peter Capaldi’s time started mechanical and grounded. The intro for the Eleventh Doctor was the TARDIS traveling through storms and flames, while Twelve’s episodes began with gears and clocks. Eventually, however, the machine imagery morphs into the blues and purples of space with flying planets and stars mirroring the eventual change in the Doctor.

Twelve began gruff and brusque, dismissive of others with little emotional intelligence. In “Under the Lake,” the third episode of his second season, Clara has made cards for the Doctor to read so he can respond to people appropriately . By the end of that season, however, the Doctor is driven by his love and care for Clara. He sacrifices everything for her. (We’ll talk about that in the specific episode below.)

In “The Girl Who Died,” the Doctor realizes the answer to a question that has haunted him since his regeneration: “Who frowned me this face?” Peter Capaldi appeared in Doctor Who before, as the father of a family saved from Pompeii by the Tenth Doctor at the behest of Donna. She begs him to save just one person. The Twelfth Doctor said he chose that face as a reminder that he’s the Doctor and he saves people.

That final season of Capaldi sees him become a professor and the fulfillment of who Clara knew him to be. The pity is that this could only happen once he lost her. The recipient of the changed Doctor is Bill Potts, a promising but overlooked university student.

Capaldi’s version of the Master was the brilliant “Missy,” a female incarnation of the Doctor’s Time Lord rival. Their antagonistic relationship stretched Capaldi’s entire run as she was there from his first episode (which featured a giant T-Rex in Victorian London) to his final stand.

The Doctor who previously needed cue cards to treat human loss with care sacrifices himself to save villagers on a giant colony ship from Cybermen invading from lower levels. In doing so, he helps Missy find redemption as well.

Obviously, sin is contagious. It spread from the garden into all of creation, from the first humans to all of humanity. But that’s not all that can spread. Positive characteristics can spread as well. Redemption that takes root in one life can move to others. That’s the lesson of the Twelfth Doctor, but before redemption can occur, loss often must happen. The Doctor responds to intense loss in what has been called one of the greatest episodes of Doctor Who, “Heaven Sent.”

Previous rewatch episodes

• “Father’s Day” (S1:E8)

• “The Satan Pit” (S2:E9)

• “Blink” (S3:E10)

• “Midnight” (S4:E10)

• “The Eleventh Hour” (S5:E1)

• “The Girl Who Waited” (S6:E10)

• “The Day of the Doctor” (S7:E1)

The Doctor Breaks Through the Wall in “Heaven Sent”