We have Heaven Sent and if I’m being honest, if I were judging this on its own, not only would this be the best Twelfth Doctor story, but it’s frankly the best single episode in the entire show’s history. Do I even have to explain why this is considered one of Doctor Who’s ultimate highpoints. Moffat was once mine, and a lot of fans, favourite Doctor Who writer and I think we needed an episode like this to remind us why. It’s no debate that Moffat’s writing got steadily worse as his showrunner tenure went on and a lot of his weaknesses were starting to become more and more prominent. Heaven Sent however completely does away with Moffat’s tired tropes and manages to be a tight and focused story that’s clever, complex and a beautiful metaphor for conquering grief. What truly elevates this is Capaldi’s performance which to me is the single best performance Capaldi has delivered in his entire acting career. The man was clearly born to play the Doctor and sadly throughout most of his run he was handed a lot of shoddy material that made him appear like an older Matt Smith or an embarrassing dad going through a mid-life crisis. But Heaven Sent thankfully plays to Capaldi’s strengths and truly brings out the Twelfth Doctor we should’ve had more of in his three-year run. Capaldi may not be my favourite Doctor, but here for one hour he was undeniably the best Doctor of all time.

Yeah, really not a fan of this one. Like it was so boring? All he did was talk. #RIPDOCTORWHO Would be so much better if the he was being shot at by daleks the whole time.

Timelessly amazing episode. There was a big gap between me starting nuwho and me getting back around to watching 12, and this episode drove home for me how much I was missing. The whole thing is so well crafted, well written, well acted. It's the kind of story that stands so tall on its own, independent of any context of the series it's in.

pretty awesome episode that really reminded me of the house in fata morgana.... so therefore its peak

I went in with an open mind as I always do on a rewatch.

Still don’t see why it’s a 5/5 or best thing since sliced bread. Sorry. For me it’s a 3/5 at most and I’m wavering into dropping that to a 2.5.

I can recognise the good elements but for me it is definitely less than the sum of its parts.

The direction is excellent (if not particularly groundbreaking). The imagery is striking. Capaldi is good (but there are a couple of bits he mumbles through which frustrated me a bit). The Veil is properly scary (I did actually jump when it appeared behind the garden door).

But…

It’s just not very interesting. The Doctor walks round a castle talking to himself and then punching a wall whilst a monster kills him over and over again. I know I’ve joked about that previously but, it’s true.

It might be a good piece of ‘art’ in terms of performance, direction etc, but I really don’t think it’s a very good Doctor Who story. I definitely don’t think it bears rewatching once you know the truth.

I’d put this alongside Listen. Two episodes which are designed to examine the character of the Doctor and his response to fear in particular. Maybe that’s what fans like about it, but for me it just leaves me cold and not a little bored. I just suppose that isn’t what I’m here for. I think I definitely need my Doctor interacting with other characters; I need some gags; maybe I want a more ‘obvious’ adventure.

Heaven Sent is just a bit too serious for my tastes. Oh and I really didn’t like the mind palace TARDIS scenes. They didn’t work for me at all. The other thing I would say - and I think this is true of Listen as well - is I think this is an example of an episode that has forgotten this is a family show. I don’t believe there is enough here working on the different levels that a really good Doctor Who story works on. I just don’t see what in this story would appeal much to the children in the audience and I think that’s a shame because I think it misses the point of the show.

But I think I can see why people like it and that’s great because we all come to the show for different reasons and take away different things. I didn’t hate the episode and I can pick out individual elements I liked (the main one being the Veil, I think) but, nope, not really what I'm looking for in Doctor Who.