History Fridge / DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent

* Everyone realizes that Clara becomes more Doctor-like over the course of her tenure as a companion, but every once in a while, an episode shows us that it works both ways. What did Clara do in "Name of the Doctor"? Create untold millions of Claras born to save the Doctor. What did the Doctor do in "Heaven Sent"? Create untold ''trillions'' of Doctors born to save and/or avenge Clara.

* We have a MobileMaze in this episode. We also get an insight on how the Doctor solves all his problems. Oh, the castle is also circular, and keeps moving. What would it remind you of? ''Gears'', the episode is showing us how the Doctor works, with his mind constantly thinking and his body constantly moving, gears a symbol of one's inner-workings. They also happen to be [[RuleOfSymbolism in the opening sequence]], possibly referring to how the show takes a more in-depth look at Capaldi's Doctor.

* We have a MobileMaze in this episode. We also get an insight on how the Doctor solves all his problems. Oh, the castle is also circular, and keeps moving. What would it remind you of? ''Gears'', the episode is showing us how the Doctor works, with his mind constantly thinking and his body constantly moving, gears a symbol of one's inner-workings.

** Moffat also reports that the first few incarnations to arrive at the castle lasted for ''years'' before learning enough to set up the clues, so they would be even more desperate for company, and probably couldn't think of any message more certain to lead themself to where they needed to go.

** Maybe the first few thousand iterations reasoned that if the ones later down the line saw no sign of progress in the wall, despite the stars having moved enough that there should be, this would break them out of that pointless loop, they'd leave a clue saying it won't work, and the rest would try something else.

** Maybe the first few thousand iterations reasoned that if the ones later down the line saw no sign of progress in the wall, despite the stars having moved enough that there should be, this would break them out of that pointless loop, they'd leave a clue saying it won't work, and the rest would try something else. In fact, maybe the iteration the episode focuses on was the first to start punching the wall, after realizing that the stars and skulls would allow each version to estimate how much progress was made, regardless of whether the plan was working.

** Moffat also reports that the first few incarnations to arrive at the castle lasted for ''years'' before learning enough to set up the clues, so they would be even more desperate for company, and probably couldn't think of any message more certain to lead themself to where they needed to go.
* The number of times the Doctor went through the cycle can be calculated. ((((365 x 3)+ 366) / 4) / 1.5) x 4,500,000 = 1,095,750,000. In other words the Doctor went through the well over ''a trillion times''
** Admittedly the number isn't fully accurate the math assumes that the loop was exactly one and a half days and that overall it was exactly 4 and a half billion years, there is a margin of error but the statement stands.

** Moffat also reports that the first few incarnations to arrive at the castle lasted for ''years'' before learning enough to set up the clues, so they would be even more desperate for company, and probably couldn't think of any message more certain to lead themself to where they needed to go.

* Everyone realizes that Clara becomes more Doctor-like over the course of her tenure as a companion, but every once in a while, an episode shows us that it works both ways. What did Clara do in "Name of the Doctor"? Create untold millions of Claras born to save the Doctor. What did the Doctor do in "Heaven Sent"? Create untold ''trillions'' of Doctors born to save and/or avenge Clara.

* Everyone realizes that Clara becomes more Doctor-like over the course of her tenure as a companion, but every once in a while, an episode shows us that it works both ways. What did Clara do in "Name of the Doctor"? Create untold millions of Claras born to save the Doctor. What did the Doctor do in "Heaven Sent"? Create untold ''trillions'' of Doctors determined to save and/or avenge Clara.

* The Doctor's hands when he picks up the Confession Dial don't seem to be bruised at all. Out-of-character, this was presumably so Capaldi wouldn't have to spend all of "Hell Bent" with bruise-makeup on his hands; ''in'' character, however, it implies that the last of his iterations to sacrifice himself was ''only one punch'' short of busting through the barrier. And the Veil didn't allow him even the half-second or so it would have taken to bust through.

* Try looking at all shots in the episode showing the Doctor's scrawl of the word "BIRD" in the sand. They're never written the same way... in the same fashion that despite the StableTimeLoop, details of how the present version of the Doctor never really recreates each moment as he lived it the last time. After all, we can be quite sure he never really figured out the loop and the idea of punching through the Azbantium wall accurately the first few times.

* Why does Clara keep facing away from the Doctor in his Mental World? It's not just a symbolic reminder that she's gone -- it's because she was also facing away from him [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven when she died]]. The Doctor is literally imagining the last time he saw Clara alive.

* The Doctor, standing in front of the final wall, suddenly remembers what has been happening. He states that he always remembers at that point, all the previous times he's done this. He's so horrified and shattered that he hides under the console of his mental [=TARDIS=] and begs to please just get to ''lose'' for once, he can't keep doing this, he's as close to broken as he's ever been -- and this is only after seven thousand years of repetition. He winds up continuing for over two ''billion'' [[note]]thousand million counting on the long scale - the jump from hundreds of millions, to millions of millions, seems a little unlikely, and the universe itself wouldn't last ''that'' long, so there wouldn't be any stars left for him to estimate the number from[[/note]] years. How heavy did the weight of all those repetitions grow, and how much pain and exhaustion did he feel, every single time? Especially when you remember that once he finally escapes - he does ''not'' have the luxury of a bit of respite before remembering again. So he is still carrying all the fresh grief over Clara, and the knowledge that he'd been doing this over and over for billions of years.

* If only the Doctor had remembered what was going on ''slightly'' earlier, he could have made things so much easier for himself. Like, bring the spade so he could hit the wall with that instead of his fists, which would have been faster and much less painful. But because he never gets out of Room 12 between remembering and being killed, he is condemned to do things in roughly the least efficient way possible, spending billions of extra iterations on the task. All for the want of a bit of mental agility. Think how much he must blame himself for being so slow off the mark.
** WordOfGod [[http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-07/steven-moffat-has-filled-in-the-plot-holes-from-doctor-who-heaven-sent said]] that the earlier Doctors didn't even have a reason to look for Room 12 and lasted many years each before being killed by the Veil. Once he realized this, he started leaving himself clues, one of which (the buried paving slab) eventually survived through resetting process. After that however, the loop went into new direction, trapping him in Room 12 with the Veil and without the spade. Which was likely still faster than waiting years before landing a few hits on the wall as oppossed to weeks at most.