The Doctor tells the world’s longest story.
Last week, as Clara prepared to die, she asked the Doctor why she couldnt be like him.
But Clara was already like the Doctor; she just happened to be more breakable.
Credit: BBC WORLDWIDE LIMITED
Its the Doctors turn now; the only difference is that he has more time.
Scene: a turret in a castle.
The Doctor appears in the teleport chamber, fresh off Claras death and mad as anything.
Clara did tell him not to take revenge, but hes not so great at the listening thing sometimes.
The Veil closes in.
Im scared, the Doctor admits.
I just realized that.
Im actually scared of dying.
The painting is the Doctors newest painful memory; the Veil is one of his oldest fears.
Whos been stealing the Doctors nightmares?
Im nothing without an audience, he jokes.
He isnt really joking.
He wakes up to the sight of an endless field of skulls spread across the bottom of the moat.
Thats Christmas to the Doctor, especially when he needs a distraction from his grief.
But hes wrong about this puzzles ultimate design: It doesnt want to kill him.
It wants him to confess.
Hiding beneath that sign is the Veil, who lunges for the Doctor.
I didnt leave Gallifrey because I was bored, he tells the Veil.
That was a lie, and its always been a lie.
I ran because I was scared.
Its not the most specific confession, but its enough to freeze his interrogator and buy him some time.
The castle rotates again.
He cant move the wall without another confession.
He knows what it is and where it is, and hes afraid.
That does the trick; the door to room 12 opens now onto a long hallway.
The word HOME flashes in the wall and disappears and the Doctor remembers.
Hes been here before.
How could there be other prisoners in [the Doctors] hell?
Every skull in the water is his.
The Doctor goes back to his Mind TARDIS to ask Clara whether its even worth it.
He could just confess this time.
No matter what he does, he cant save her.
But Clara (hello, Jenna Coleman!)
wont let him give up that easily.
You are not the only person who ever lost someone, she tells her friend.
Its the story of everybody.
He falls to the ground.
Even when his body is too damaged to regenerate, it keeps trying.
And the shepherds boy says, Theres this mountain of pure diamond.
And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.
You may think thats a hell of a long time.
Personally, I think thats a hell of a bird.
He could have left a different message.
Weve been in the dial this entire time and now were on Gallifrey.
The Doctor asks a little kid to go to the city and tell someone important that hes back.
He came the long way round.
(Nothing is half Dalek.
The Daleks would never allow that.)
The hybrid destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins is the Doctor.
Is he already imagining that hes won this one?
