The official 2015 Doctor Who (with spoilers for aired episodes only) thread

[delericho]

How does the monster know he's making a true confession? I think the reason for that would be that it's psychic in some way, and can register how he feels about a confession - is it a true one, is it a new revelation?

Sure, but there's no hint of that in the episode. Might as well wonder why the creators don't just build a mind-reading machine.

And the machine might also need to have the ability to "teach" its victim that confessions are needed, otherwise they might die not knowing how it works, never revealing anything useful.

Well, quite. It was only through dumb luck that he happened to blurt out his first 'confession'. And it's not much of one: that's a profound 'truth' that's true of just about everyone ever.

If the limitation didn't exist, of course, the second iteration would already spell the Doctor's doom, since he might not come up with a new confession in time.

Indeed. Of course, that, again, is also true if he hadn't dragged his near-death body through the castle for a day and a half just to use the teleporter, or indeed if just one of the iterations had seen him get just slightly more damaged than average and so left unable to do that.

And that's one of the other problems with the episode - that sort of closed loop doesn't really work, as explained in Jurassic Park. Because the number of skulls in the water increases with each iteration, the conditions for him hitting the water after jumping out the window are slightly different each time. One of those times, he should have broken his neck.

 

[Umbran]

How does the monster know he's making a true confession? I think the reason for that would be that it's psychic in some way, and can register how he feels about a confession - is it a true one, is it a new revelation? And since for each iteration, it is a new and truthful confession for the Doctor, the monster registers it as such, too.

Yep. Another reason to think that it was a metaphorical space. It isn't that someone who really knows the doctor set up a real place, or a simulation, that happens to be a perfect hell for the Doctor. It is that *the Doctor* was induced to create his own prison. The veiled monster knows when it is true because it is generated from his own mind.

You can consider the entire thing to really be a metaphor - what's actually happening is that he's trapped in the dial, that is essentially trying to be the mind-reading machine delericho mentioned, breaking down his defenses. The images in the episode are just the mindscape version of those events.

 

[delericho]

You can consider the entire thing to really be a metaphor - what's actually happening is that he's trapped in the dial, that is essentially trying to be the mind-reading machine delericho mentioned, breaking down his defenses. The images in the episode are just the mindscape version of those events.

In which case, it will be interesting to see if he remembers going through those many iterations, or if he only remembers the few days covered by the last time through - in a real space he should only remember the last time through, while if it's a metaphorical space he might well remember more.

 

[Umbran]

In which case, it will be interesting to see if he remembers going through those many iterations, or if he only remembers the few days covered by the last time through - in a real space he should only remember the last time through, while if it's a metaphorical space he might well remember more.

If he didn't remember them while he was inside the dial, I don't expect they'll have him remember outside it, at least not in detail. While we can work out that the thing is actually most cogent and self-consistent as a metaphorical or mindscape experience, I don't think they'll spend any effort clarifying that's what it was.

Plus, I think it'd stretch credulity for him to remember *billions* of years of history. Sure, he's a timelord, but even they have mental limitations.

 

[delericho]

Plus, I think it'd stretch credulity for him to remember *billions* of years of history. Sure, he's a timelord, but even they have mental limitations.

No, but I figured be might remember being stuck in a loop, even without all the details. But you're right that they probably won't bother clarifying.

 

[Umbran]

No, but I figured be might remember being stuck in a loop, even without all the details.

He certainly knows he was in a loop - working that out in each and every loop is key to his escape. If he doesn't know he's in a loop, he doesn't punch the wall. He can figure out from the stars and the wall something like how many times he's been through the loop.

 

[delericho]

He certainly knows he was in a loop - working that out in each and every loop is key to his escape. If he doesn't know he's in a loop, he doesn't punch the wall. He can figure out from the stars and the wall something like how many times he's been through the loop.

Ah, of course! Good point.

 

[Cergorach]

Peter Capaldi is a great actor, but honestly 'his' Doctor I have trouble liking. It's gone from watching Doctor Who as soon as I got my mitts on the episode to, I'll watch it when I have nothing better to watch, I often even watch World Trigger before the Doctor...

 

[Morrus]

Peter Capaldi is a great actor, but honestly 'his' Doctor I have trouble liking. It's gone from watching Doctor Who as soon as I got my mitts on the episode to, I'll watch it when I have nothing better to watch, I often even watch World Trigger before the Doctor...

I love him.

His long conversation with Davros this year. I couldn't turn away.

That speech at the end of the Zygon episodes. A step above Matt Smith shouting.

Carrying that entire episode this week solo, the only actor on stage for almost an hour. Very few people can do that. You barely notice you're watching one person talk to himself.

The guy is astonishing. He's the strongest actor ever to play The Doctor, and occasionally they let him loose. And when they do, oh man....

It's interesting. At the DWE at the Excel this year they said how the demographic was shifting. This year it's drifting upwards in age - a few kids checking out, but more adults signing in. It's a daring experiment, to be sure, but they lost a big adult contingent during the Smith era and gained a lot of kids.

 

[HobbitFan]

Capaldi was superb this past week. A Master class in acting. And it was a great episode.
Unfortunately, I haven't liked alot of the other shows this season as much. Sleep No More for example, was horrible.
And the hybrid arc hasn't been terribly well handled in terms of being an interesting mystery. Mentioning a hybrid every other episode or so during a season isn't an arc.
I'm assuming the hybrid stuff is going someplace interesting in "Hell Bent" this week.
"heaven Sent" was so good last week and the Gallifrey has me intrgued. I haven't been this excited since the 50th.
I wish I had been this interested the whole season.
I feel kinda bad for Capaldi because I think seasons 8-9 have let him down in terms of consistant writing quality.
I'm hopeful that this next one is going to be awesome!