Doctor Who: Heaven Sent (9x11)

My eyes have rolled so far out of my head that they've fallen straight out of my skull and are rolling down the hallway and down the stairs and out the front door and... yeah, you get the point. Seriously. Screw this.

Cons:

I'm going to start by saying that I know that this episode got a lot of very positive reviews. Frankly, I'm astounded by that. I thought this was a whole lot of pretentious drivel and for the most part it barely held my attention. But, since I know I'm in the minority on that opinion, I am going to try and talk about the elements that worked well, and why I think this episode impressed so many people.

So, my main complaint is that this episode contains two "plot twists" that just did not work for me whatsoever. Basically, the Doctor is trapped in a place he can't quite figure out, and he seems to be stuck in a time loop. The only way to stop a terrible monster from killing him horribly is for him to reveal a secret truth. In order to protect the secret of the "hybrid," a mythic half-Dalek-half-Time Lord, the Doctor allows himself to be killed again and again as he struggles to break through a barrier to get out of the prison.

And what's on the other side of the prison? Gallifrey. There was sweeping music and a dramatic pan-up to the city and all I could think was... DUH. Was anybody honestly surprised by this? But okay, whatever. So the surprise twist wasn't that surprising. That's not the end of the world. What about the other plot twist?

The Doctor is the Hybrid. See, this is obvious. In fact, it's so obvious that I didn't realize it was actually going to happen, because I figured not even Moffat was lazy and pretentious enough to have the Doctor be the Hybrid who is destined to destroy Gallifrey. Is it just me, or have we not already done this whole story? Didn't we have a very messy and ultimately unsatisfying season leading up to the "War Doctor" and how he pushed the button to destroy the world - or did he? And now we have another story about the Doctor destroying his home planet. See, I was excited about Gallifrey returning, but if every story line surrounding it is all about how it's going to be destroyed, then what's the point? If we can't experience the world that's destined to fall, how are we meant to have any emotional investment in its destruction?

Then there's the way this episode dealt with Clara's death. I'll talk in the "Pros" section about Capaldi's performance, which was honestly the only thing that kept my focus at all in this whole episode. He has to carry the story all by himself, and he has virtually nobody else to act off of. That's fine, in theory, but to break up the long silences and occasional monologues, we have this device where the Doctor is talking to Clara to solve the mystery. Essentially, even in death Clara cannot escape the role of the Doctor's cheerleader, and nothing more. She encourages him to solve the puzzle for himself, and then appears in his head for a final goodbye speech and an emotional face touch. It's just too much! We already had an overload of cheesy emotional speechifying last week, and then this week they threw in one more just for good (read: bad) measure.

The thing about this episode that everybody keeps saying makes it so incredible is the time loop, where we watch the Doctor go through his ordeal again and again to keep the secret and break through to Gallifrey. I truly did enjoy the time loop at first, but then it went on way too long. I thought it was going to end like four different times and then it kept going. And going. And going. It stopped being interesting and started being comical. This moment was the height of pretentious high-handedness. You could tell they were going for artsy and shocking, but it got very tedious very fast.

Pros:

The main thing that's cool, in theory, about this episode of Doctor Who is the choice that the Doctor has to make in the end. On the one hand, he could tell his invisible adversaries the secret of the Hybrid. On the other, he could consign himself to practically an eternity of agonizing deaths as he works at a barrier over and over again, forcing his way through to Gallifrey, which is waiting for him on the other side. That is, hypothetically, a cool idea, I must admit. The problems with it are addressed above - namely, the twist that the Doctor was going to arrive on Gallifrey was laughably easy to dissect, and, more importantly, the twist that the Doctor is the Hybrid was so insultingly obvious that I literally didn't see it coming because I actually believed even Moffat wouldn't stoop that low.

But this is supposed to be the "Pros" section, and I've already fulfilled my ranting quota for the day.

As much as I hate this whole "The Doctor is the Hybrid" thing, I'll admit I was rather impressed that the Confession Dial, which has been popping up all season, actually had a concrete purpose and a clear reveal at the end of the season. That sort of subtle buildup and ultimate deliver reminds me of the earlier seasons of Doctor Who's revival, when occasional mentions of bees and disappearing planets led to brilliant finales with meaningful reveals. (The problem here, of course, is that the reveal is, AGAIN, all about how freakin' important and special the Doctor is. If I have to hear about what a special little snowflake he is one more time, I swear...)

But no. Positives. We're talking about the good stuff. I talked above about how the time loop at the end went on way too long, but I did appreciate what it was trying to do. Even if it failed in that attempt. For the first few loops, I was interested, and I felt the mounting sense of horror as I realized what the Doctor was doing. But as I said before, it lost me after a while.

In all honesty, the only thing that saved this episode from just total crap for me was Capaldi's acting. It's an enormously difficult task to hold an audience's attention alone for such a long stretch of time, and despite the many pitfalls in this episode's plots, ideas, and execution, Capaldi did an amazing job keeping the focus. If I can take anything good out of this episode as a whole, it's that Capaldi convinced me of the Doctor's resilience and passion. I really believed in his grief over Clara, particularly in one moment when he lamented that no matter how many times he kept repeating things again and again, he could never go back far enough to bring her back. I also enjoyed the vacillating between comedy and drama - Capaldi handled these many turns with great skill.

Ultimately, the most insulting thing about this episode is that Moffat, in talking about this two-part finale, said that there would be an intense "whopper" of a cliffhanger at the end of the penultimate episode. Let me tell you - whatever sort of shock you thought you were delivering, Moffat, it fell seriously flat, at least for this viewer. I'll wait to see what next week's finale brings, but suffice it to say I'm very disenchanted right now.

5/10