10 Doctor Who "Plot Holes" That Really Aren't

8. Why Didn't The Wall Reset In Heaven Sent?

Doctor Who Amy Pond Weeping Angel
BBC Studios

Heaven Sent is one of the most acclaimed episodes of Doctor Who ever made, and with good reason.

The conceit of the constantly resetting Confession Dial is, on the one hand, a work of genius. But is it also one big plot hole?

After all, there’s one room in the Confession Dial castle that doesn’t reset: Room 12, which contains the wall the Doctor must break through to escape. Does this cause the entire episode to fall flat on its face? The episode’s writer, Steven Moffat, would care to differ, going so far as to offer an explanation to Doctor Who Magazine in 2016:

“It’s not a room in the castle, it’s the outer wall of the [Confession] Dial. The clue is that it’s 20 feet of Harder Than Diamond. Why bother making it so hard, if a resetting stone wall would do?”

It's basically a metaphor for every other "plot hole" on this list – the people in charge needed something to be a certain way, so they contrived a way to make it work!

 
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