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Doctor Who "S9E11 Heaven Sent" - Review: One man, one great episode!


Doctor Who "S9E11 Heaven Sent" - Review: One man, one great episode!
9 out of 10

Tom Hardy delivered one last year’s most surprising film successes with his side project, Locke. The entire film was just him driving in a car making a series of phone calls to various people on a few different story arcs over 2 hours of roughly real time. It shouldn’t have worked. The idea should have become tedious and repetitive causing the film to drag, but it didn’t. We should have got tired of Hardy’s character but instead remained continual engaging as he openly confessed and confronted his problems. It worked as a film because despite using only a single actor in a single location it was masterfully written, and its singular performance was outstanding. It might not be in a car but this week’s Doctor Who goes down that same road with an entire episode of Peter Capaldi by himself in a fixed location. It shouldn’t work but for those same reasons as Locke, it truly does and the results are positively gripping.

Heaven Sent – Following Ashilda’s teleportation, The Doctor finds himself alone in a strange castle labyrinth of moving structures being stalked by a shambling slow moving presence. Can The Doctor solve the mystery and escape or will he be stuck there for the length of eternity?

In a bold and ambitious move for the show, this episode is a true test of character for Who’s leading man, and like so many of his moments this season, he passes with flying colors. He feels completely naturally while talking to himself out loud or to his mystery opposing force, and at all times delivers the energy and magnetism we expect from him. The real difference is Capaldi is bouncing off the events and circumstance rather than his co-stars but Steven Moffat’s script makes this switch up feel seamless. The danger of having to focus your narrative entirely around a single character is maintaining story momentum, to keep things flowing rather than getting bogged down with time killing diversions. Instead, Heaven Sent keeps on the central mystery of just where The Doctor has been teleported to and what’s after him. It lacks the usual episode levels of exposition but turns that into a positive as the different rooms and chambers of this oddly self aware structure become increasingly my curious. It places us more directly into The Doctor’s mindset the majority of episodes in which the companion embodies the audience perspective. This gives the episode a much more personal feel to great results. The overly stillness frequently creates some terrific tension as the unknown slow-moving adversary catches up with him. It actually feels a good take on one of the year’s best horror films, It Follows, with at times even an intentionally similar soundtrack. Just like the film, we see The Doctor out running his foe for just long enough to catch his breath and work on a solution before it catches up him to him again.

Director Rachel Talalay finds an absolutely awesome way to break up the action and change the scenery through the Tardis based scenes dramatizing The Doctor’s thought process in sudden moments of crisis. It’s almost like a Doctor Who spin on the mind mapping sequences of Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes films. That his superior intellect is effectively allowing him to stop time and think the problem through by bouncing the questions off his imaginary form of Clara. As well as being great entertainment, these scenes also perfectly reflect The Doctor’s mental state having just literally watched Clara die (“I’ve just watched my best friend die in agony my day can’t get any worse”) he hasn’t yet adjusted to operating without her and needs some level of her input to be his best. It links back nicely to her parting sentiments of him not being very good on his own as well giving the last episode’s dramatic climax the after effects it deserves. Yet keeping imaginary Clara’s back turned or projecting her thoughts unseen onto the chalk board crucially allow the attention to stay on The Doctor.

The visuals of Heaven Sent are a frequent treat. The featured internal chambers pack plenty of intrigue in their connection to The Doctor, and even occasionally makes us wonder if they are directly connect to our favourite Time Lord. In one brilliant scene, just after taking a swim he finds a clean set of matching clothes and fireplace like such a need was responded to or even pre-planned in some way. Then, there’s the castle structure itself which evolves into some form of Maze Runner does Hogwarts with its shifting rooms around the central dial but still keeping the heritage feel of an old castle structure.

The key to any mystery is making the payoff worthwhile: that when Scooby and Shaggy rip the mask off, we’re shocked about just which random one scene character is underneath. Heaven Sent does this superbly with its final minutes creating a dramatic home straight. There are some good mid-episode teasing clues that slowly draw us into the conclusion: anyone that’s been following the season will spot the hints to certain plot device. With Capaldi at the helm, it still finds ways to make us smile amongst the more serious mystery. The climax pulls together a couple of lingering season long plot threads well to set up a season finale that many have been waiting for since The Day of The Doctor. Heaven Sent may be a one show but who needs quantity when you’ve got this kind of quality.

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