puts Capaldi in a room, ok talk to the camera for 45 minutes. BEST DECISION EVER. This shows his passion for doctor who , and i love him.

"I will never, ever, stop." Guys, I don't think he was just posturing.

And here's Twelve's ACTUAL theme: The Shepherd's Boy. Maybe Murray Gold's best work

This story has no business being episode 11 of series 9 of a campy British sci-fi series. Capaldi, Moffat, Talalay, and Gold did a wonderful job.

“im nothing without an audience” and he looks at the camera 😂

I've seen every episode of Doctor Who, classic and new, and this is my favorite of all of them.

Heaven Sent is a real gem of an episode, the whole production is firing on all cylinders to create Steven Moffat’s masterpiece.

This is one we've all waited for for a long, long time.
We got here, the long way round x

The skulls were modeled on Peter's own head using the prosthetic heads the studio had created earlier for makeup, etc. There is a great shot of one of the skulls Peter placed on the parapet and the scene showing Peter and it seems like his head morphs into the skull for a moment. It's a great foreshadowing that the the skulls are  really the Doctor's and only his.

This episode of Dr Who changed my life. Having been haunted by grief at the loss of my Nan Dad and Grandad I was struggling. Dropped out of uni, 35 dead end job and stuck. This inspired me to punch down my own walls got a degree in law and then a masters whilst working full time. Turned my life around and everytime i got stuck would listen to Muurray Golds incredible track Shephards boy from this ep.

Capaldi monologuing will always give me chills.

The shepherd boy

A fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm

There was once on a time a shepherd boy whose fame spread far and wide because of the wise answers which he gave to every question. The King of the country heard of it likewise, but did not believe it, and sent for the boy. Then he said to him: "If thou canst give me an answer to three questions which I will ask thee, I will look on thee as my own child, and thou shall dwell with me in my royal palace." The boy said: "What are the three questions?" The King said: "The first is, how many drops of water are there in the ocean?" The shepherd boy answered: "Lord King, if you will have all the rivers on earth dammed up so that not a single drop runs from them into the sea until I have counted it, I will tell you how many drops there are in the sea." The King said: "The next question is, how many stars are there in the sky?" The shepherd boy said: "Give me a great sheet of white paper," and then he made so many fine points on it with a pen that they could scarcely be seen, and it was all but impossible to count them; any one who looked at them would have lost his sight. Then he said: "There are as many stars in the sky as there are points on the paper; just count them." But no one was able to do it. The King said: "The third question is, how many seconds of time are there in eternity." Then said the shepherd boy: "In Lower Pomerania is the Diamond Mountain, which is two miles and a half high, two miles and a half wide, and two miles and a half in depth; every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on it, and when the whole mountain is worn away by this, then the first second of eternity will be over."
The King said: "Thou hast answered the three questions like a wise man, and shalt henceforth dwell with me in my royal palace, and I will regard thee as my own child."

The shift in the montage and the music around 20 million years is amazing. That's when it tips from feeling hopeless to feeling triumphant. Just stunning acting, directing, music, writing and editing.

I've said it in several videos about this episode, and I won't get tired of saying it, Moffat has the ability to weaponize time like no other Doctor Who writer.

This entire episode is a masterclass in acting and writing. Apart from the Clara moment, where he doesn't even talk and the child at the end. Peter is literally acting on his own with no other character and he is glorious at it. This is an intense exploration of grief and loss and no other actor could carry this episode as Capaldi, the man is the finest actor to ever be in the role.

Peter Capaldi was outstanding in this episode. And that moment when you realise what's happening, just how long the Doctor has been in that confession dial, absolutely hit me hard. Brilliant episode.

7:00 OH HOLY HECK! I just NOW realized the Doctor likely painted that portrait of Clara one of his first times here. One of the times he "lingered in one place too long."

I call that a hell of an episode. 🤘🏼

Without a doubt my personal favourite episode of 12’s run and a very close contender for my favourite episode of NuWho overall. Between Capaldi’s truly phenomenal performance as the Doctor (one which Moffat is on record as saying is THE best performance of any Doctor in any episode and I’m inclined to agree) and Murray Gold’s seminal music especially with “The Shepard’s Boy” which I listen to regularly, it’s hard to pick a more expertly constructed episode from the modern era.


This episode actually managed to gain an extra 5 minutes on top of its original 50 minute scheduled runtime, but Moffat has since said that they still had to cut a lot of moments that he had originally intended. Moffat has later said that the full episode would have revealed that the time loop originally took much longer, with an earlier version of the Doctor being the one to paint Clara’s picture, the Doctor not knowing to look for room 12, and other differences that eventually lead to him leaving himself clues that lead to the repetitive “breaking the wall” sequence that we end up seeing in the episode.


One of my favourite fan influences on this episode is how it has become seen as a metaphor for depression and/or grief. Fans have seen the Doctor’s journey in this episode (from anger at Clara’s death at the opening to acceptance as he begins “the Shepard’s boy” monologue at the end) as that metaphor. Moffat has said in interviews that it wasn’t his original intention, but that he loves that interpretation of it.

I love the quote of “How long can I keep doing this, Clara? Burning the old me, to make a new one?” Because it a double meaning like he’s using his own matter to make a new copy of his own body while burning the old one and the other one is every time he is regenerated; he’s literally burning himself to create his new body