{"id":40685,"date":"2024-02-12T00:12:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T00:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/?p=40685"},"modified":"2024-02-11T17:41:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T17:41:35","slug":"peter-capaldi-reflects-on-the-popularity-of-fan-favourite-doctor-who-episode-heaven-sent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2024\/02\/12\/peter-capaldi-reflects-on-the-popularity-of-fan-favourite-doctor-who-episode-heaven-sent\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Capaldi Reflects on the Popularity of Fan Favourite Doctor Who Episode, Heaven Sent"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Peter Capaldi appeared on the Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake<\/a><\/em> podcast recently and reflected on the popularity of the Doctor Who<\/em> episode, Heaven Sent<\/em>, which as the Twelfth Doctor he played almost entirely as a one-hander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Steven Moffat-penned and Rachel Talalay-directed episode is considered one of the show’s masterpieces by many fans, and features the Doctor navigating a castle (and his grief) as he is very slowly pursued by the Veil, a near-silent creature hidden mostly from sight by its veil and played by Jami Reid-Quarrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To fill 54 minutes with a single actor delivering most of the script and occupying almost all of the screen time required a very special performance from Capaldi, creative directing from Talalay, and of course a script from Moffat where enough happened to maintain audience interest while also being structured in such a way where the focus was always on the emotion – particularly grief – rather than the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt was very unusual. It was beautifully directed by Rachel Talalay, who\u2019s a lovely American lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to talk about monsters and it\u2019s a sort of circus \u2013 kids love it and everybody\u2019s got to be entertained but actually underneath it all, there\u2019s a sense of melancholy and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat particular episode\u2019s just all about death and I think that\u2019s fascinating that that episode became the all-time favourite.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Heaven Sent<\/em> was even an immediate hit with audiences whose own lives meant they would have nothing to resonate with in a grief-led story, such as younger viewers. Capaldi went on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201c[Young Doctor Who<\/em> fans are] smart in the sense they understand instinctively that there\u2019s darkness and there are things around and the monsters are manifestations of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut also the fact that the central character in Doctor<\/em> Who<\/em> will die \u2013 even though they come back as somebody else, the one that you love has gone, and that\u2019s a very compelling and powerful thing to have at the centre of a show.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Capaldi, who is now 65 years old and was 57 when Heaven Sent<\/em> was broadcast, is still very busy as an actor and has reasserted that he won’t be returning to the role of the Doctor<\/a> on television. He very specifically cited that medium in response to Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant playing the Fourteenth Doctor in the 60th anniversary specials, so didn’t address the possibility of following Tennant into working with Big Finish for Doctor Who<\/em> audio productions.<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s a hell of a bird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":26668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"Peter Capaldi Reflects on the Popularity of Fan Favourite #DoctorWho Episode, Heaven Sent","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[205],"tags":[295,433,5313,47,435,101,52],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Heaven-Sent-12th-Twelfth-Veil.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26667,"url":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2020\/04\/12\/lockdown-who-learn-behind-the-scenes-secrets-of-heaven-sent-in-tweet-along-rewatch\/","url_meta":{"origin":40685,"position":0},"title":"Lockdown Who: Learn Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Heaven Sent in Tweet-Along Rewatch","author":"Philip Bates","date":"12 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Emily Cook reveals that Heaven Sent will be the next episode to featured in the Lockdown Who project.","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Heaven-Sent-12th-Twelfth-Veil.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Heaven-Sent-12th-Twelfth-Veil.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Heaven-Sent-12th-Twelfth-Veil.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Heaven-Sent-12th-Twelfth-Veil.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Heaven-Sent-12th-Twelfth-Veil.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13455,"url":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2017\/12\/07\/new-photos-unveiled-for-christmas-special-twice-upon-a-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":40685,"position":1},"title":"New Photos Unveiled for Christmas Special, Twice Upon A Time","author":"Philip Bates","date":"7 December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"With only a few weeks to go, the BBC has released a new batch of photos from the\u00a0Doctor Who 2017 Christmas special,\u00a0Twice Upon A Time. 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