Doctor Who: Best And Worst Story Of Each New Who Doctor

The Twelfth Doctor era is an underrated one generally speaking. There are a lot of truly stunning episodes to emerge from an era that’s loss in popularity allowed for more experimentations. “World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls”, “The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion” and “Last Christmas” are all stellar episodes. Really though, when discussing this era there is only one episode you can point to and it’s “Heaven Sent.”

Potentially Moffat’s overall masterpiece, “Heaven Sent” is 54 minutes of tightly paced suspense and mystery that keeps viewers engaged in this study on the grieving process following the death of Clara in the previous episode.

It is often said that Peter Capaldi is the most skilled actor to have portrayed The Doctor and this is the episode that proves it. Capaldi is practically the only actor to appear in the entire episode (aside from the actor playing the silent creature) and yet remains captivating. We are fully engaged in his journey as he tries to navigate around the eternally shifting castle, ever aware of the never-stopping approach of The Veil.

Credit must be given as well to Rachel Talalay, whose skilled hand would provide the direction for every finale of the Capaldi era. Coming from a background in horror cinema (she worked on pretty much every film in the “A Nightmare On Elm Street” franchise, even directing the sixth one) she is the perfect choice to capture the slow and creeping dread present throughout “Heaven Sent.”

Lastly, this episode truly confirms for us the Twelfth Doctor’s heart and determination. Having begun as an incarnation questioning himself and ruminating on his life choices, here he proves himself to be one of the greatest versions of The Doctor as he puts himself through this trial repeatedly for billions of years.