138 Heaven Sent – Deja Vu

Live from Master Closet Studios, you’re listening to the only podcast on the internet doing it’s own reruns: It’s the Noobs and the Whovian! 

My name is Austin and I’m the Whovian, and these are my sons Corbin and Tripp and we’re the noobs!

This is the podcast that introduces a whole new generation to Doctor Who by watching an episode each week and discussing it from the perspective of a dad who’s seen it before, and two sons who haven’t.

Welcome to Episode 138, covering series 9 episode 11: Heaven Sent.

Production notes

• Story #261
• Originally aired November 28, 2015 to 6.19 million viewers
• Written by: Steven Moffat
• Directed by: Rachel Talalay

Misc Trivia

• This is the first time in New Who that only one name appeared in the opening credits.
• At 4.5 billion years, this is the single longest adventure the Doctor has ever been on.
• The first time the Doctor sees a skull he says it must’ve belonged to one of his predecessors, meaning another prisoner. He was more right than he knew.
  • In addition, he was even more right. This skull was based on his actual head!

Cast 

• The Veil – Jami Reid-Quarrell
  • He was Colony Sarff!
  • He’ll be back next week as another baddie

Deja vu

• Let’s talk a bit here about episode 59.5/138.
• Back in the summer of 2019, we heard about the upcoming 10th anniversary showing of The End of Time in theaters in early August. The problem was, we were scheduled to cover that two-parter a few weeks prior to that date. 
• So, we decided to pad out the schedule a little bit and stall.
• We did an extra Timey Wimey and released an interview with Jared.
• We then dusted off an idea that we’d had that was originally intended for our 50th episode as a gag. We would do a flash-forward episode.
• We actually watched Heaven Sent in 2017, a few months before Noobs and the Whovian got started, before I even had the idea. It’s one of my favorite episodes, and because you don’t really need much backstory on Doctor Who to understand it, I told Corbin to watch it with me. Tripp came in for the last couple of minutes and so he got the ending somewhat spoiled for our 2019 viewing.

Checklist

• Name of the episode spoken in dialogue?
  • Nope!
  • I honestly don’t think I get the title… 
• Creature of the week
  • The Veil – literally the Doctor’s worst nightmare
    • Can we talk about those hands?!
• Jiggery Pokery 
  • Sonic
    • Why didn’t he use his sonic on the door?
    • Didn’t he use them at one point in the episode?
• Needless sacrificial death
  • Did he have to keep up the loop? I mean, couldn’t he have run to the other side of the tower and lured the Veil away, then run back down and punched the azbantium for a while, then escaped before the Veil got back in there?

Other stuff we noticed 

• I am in 12
  • His room number was his incarnation number, just like Eleven’s room number in The God Complex
• 
  • This is how I felt about the idea of him literally punching through something 400 times stronger than diamond

Who’s Who?

• Who is Clara?
  • A figment of his imagination, this week!
  • The hardest day isn’t the day you lose someone. At least you have something to do (Grieve?). It’s all the days they stay dead.
  • The way we see her throughout this episode is the way the Doctor last saw her – same outfit, facing away.
    • I hate the idea of the Doctor’s last image of Clara being her turned away.
• Who is the Doctor?
  • If you think because she’s gone I’m weak, then you know very little. If you were any part of killing her and you’re not afraid, then you know nothing at all. I am the Doctor, I’m coming to find you, and I will never ever stop.
  • He hates gardening?
  • The Doctor will see you now!
  • Finally run out of corridor – there’s a life summed up.
  • He just realized he’s actually scared of dying.
  • Rule one of dying – don’t. Rule two – slow down.
    • He assumes he survived and imagines himself gloating to his companion about the amazing way he escaped.
    • Clara mentioned this in The Witch’s Familiar, the idea that he always assumes he’ll survive.
  • Can’t I just sleep? Do I have to know everything?
  • I’m not scared of hell. It’s just heaven for bad people.
  • When he finally realized what was happening, he remembered each time through?
    • I never noticed this before.
    • Why did he suddenly remember?!
  • The story about the bird was the Grimm Brothers?
    • They were on his dart team!

Can we talk about the stages of grief?

• The stages of grief
  • Denial
  • Anger
  • Bargaining
  • Depression
  • Acceptance 

Classic Who Connections 

• We have a retcon from clear back in 1969. In the Second Doctor serial The War Games the Doctor says that he left Gallifrey because he was bored. Now he said the real reason was that he was scared.
• In the serial The Five Doctors, the Master called a skeleton in the Death Zone his “predecessor” much like the Doctor said about the skull he found.

Overall impressions

• Overall rating out of 10
  • Jared – 9 skull-filled lakes
  • Austin – 10 cracked Clara paintings
  • Corbin – 9 gravity defying flies
  • Tripp – 10 diamond mountains 
• Creep Level – out of 500
  • Jared – 200
  • Austin – 300
  • Corbin – 200
  • Tripp – 250

The Game Plan

• Next week we’re continuing with episode 12, Hell Bent 
• After that it’s The Husbands of River Song featuring… River Song.
• Then it’s Doctor Who: The Movie. We’re having trouble getting this one nailed down. It appears to be on BritBox, but I’m not 100% sure yet.
• Next up is our next Timey Wimey episode covering Philip K. Dick’s 1952 short story The Skull. It is in the public domain, so you can find the free e-book at Project Gutenberg.
• Show Schedule 

Closing

Noobs and the Whovian is a production of Master Closet Studios, where it’s always smaller on the inside. Your Senior Producer is Austin Reason. Our Audio Engineer is Tripp Reason. Corbin Reason is our Production Editor. Special thanks to tardis.wikia.com for the trivia, and to Jared for the Classic Who Connections. Shout outs to Victor, Jared, and James for their Patreon support.

You can find us at facebook.com/noobsandthewhovian or twitter.com/noobswhovian and email us at [email protected]. Consider supporting us at https://www.patreon.com/noobsandthewhovian. Please subscribe and leave a rating wherever you found us, and share us with a friend not because we’re a great show but because we watch one.

Until next time, be safe if you can. But always. Be. Amazing.