 The most significant thing about this story is it sees the rare death of a companion. In this case it is Clara Oswald, as played by Jenna Coleman, who is seen being killed during the climax of this story. The situation that led to her demise dealt with the consequences of what happens when a companion starts thinking too much like The Doctor, jeopardising herself by imitating his self-sacrificial actions. Clara had been shown to act more recklessly throughout this season, since the death of her boyfriend, Danny Pink in "Dark Water/Death in Heaven".
This story is written by Sarah Dollard - a newcomer to the show. Her earlier work includes episodes of Neighbours, Being Human and The Game.
Sarah Dollard has commented ‘Getting to play in The Doctor Who toy box is a dream come true. It’s a total honour to contribute to a show that has brought me such joy as a fan. However, writing for Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman has presented a serious problem: some days I've been too excited to actually sit down and type!’.
This story has been directed by Justin Molotnikov whose previous credits include episodes of Merlin, Atlantis and Da Vino's Demons.
The story sees the return of Joivan Wade as Rigsy - the young graffiti artist who helped save the world in the 2014 story "Flatline". After finishing filming for the story he tweeted ‘And that’s a Wrap! On @bbcdoctorwho episode 10! I've had an amazing time! Can't wait for the series!’. In that story The Doctor called him ‘Local Knowledge’ a name he resurrects in Face the Raven.
Maisie Williams returned for her third story in this season, reprising her role as Ashildr/Me. She was last seen in "The Woman Who Lived" and we glimpse a flashback of that story when we see her on Clara’s mobile phone.
Robin Soans, who plays the Chronolock Guy, appeared as Luvic in the 1981 Fourth Doctor story "The Keeper of Traken". Simon Paisley Day, who plays Rump, made an appearance in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "The End of the World".
The read through for this story took place on the 28th May 2015 and recording began on the 8th June, finishing on the 25th June 2015.
Filming locations include the intersection of Park and Westgate streets in Cardiff for the scenes where the pub Clara passes, the office building outside which The Doctor, Clara and Rigsy rendezvous, and the gap leading to the Trap Street.
A Trap Street is a misrepresented street on a map that is intended to catch potential copyright violators who would copy their maps without giving a proper credit. If caught they would be unable to explain the inclusion of the Trap Street on their map. Trap streets are often nonexistent streets but sometimes, rather than actually depicting a street where none exists, a map will misrepresent the nature of a street but is less likely to interfere with navigation. For instance, a map might add nonexistent bends to a street, or depict a major street as a narrow lane, without changing its location or its connections to other streets. On maps that are not of streets other copyright traps may be included (such as nonexistent towns or mountains with the wrong elevations).
This is the first story to feature the Twelfth Doctor in a burgundy version of his signature navy blue Crombie coat, similar to the one he was first seen wearing during "The Day of The Doctor". The colour red often symbolises fury or death, two elements which play a crucial role at the close of this story.
Once again The Doctor is cut off before he is able to express his feelings to a beloved companion (see the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "Army of Ghosts/Doomsday"). This time due to Clara telling him she already knows what he is going to say.
Clara is heard telling The Doctor to ‘heal himself’. This is reminiscent of the Eighth Doctor's final words ‘Physician, heal thyself’ in "The Night of The Doctor".
Clara tells The Doctor that ‘Your reign of terror will end with the sight of the first crying child, and you know it!’. Clara’s comment echoes Amy’s question to the Eleventh Doctor in "The Beast Below". ‘You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there’s children crying?’ In that instance The Doctor replied with a simple, ‘Yes’, emphasising his inability to stand by as children suffer. Similarly, Clara’s plea ‘You don’t be a warrior! Promise me! Be a doctor!’ This is the same plea she made to the Eleventh Doctor when he planned to detonate the Moment, and so destroy Gallifrey to end the Time War in "The Day of The Doctor", ‘We've got enough warriors... Be a doctor!’.
Clara mentions having a romantic relationship with writer Jane Austen. Clara previously taught classes about her and, in "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar", she even calls her ‘a great kisser’. Earlier, in "The Caretaker", The Doctor disputes with Clara about when Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice.
Clara mentions her deceased lover Danny Pink saying that if he could face death, as he did in "Dark Water/Death in Heaven", then so can she.
As revealed, in the second episode of "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent", the moment Clara perishes is later delayed through the use of an extraction chamber, but ultimately not prevented.
We get to see many familiar faces in Ashildr’s haven and amongst them we see a passing return of the Judoon, the Ice Warriors, the Silurians, the Sontarans and an Ood caring for a Cyberman.
The Janus is an aptly named species. In ancient Roman mythology, Janus was the god of beginnings and changes/transitions, usually depicted as having two faces as he was peering into both the future and the past.
The Doctor and Clara find that Rigsy's memory of the last 24 hours have been wiped or ‘retconned’. It is revealed that Rigsy has been injected with Retcon, a drug that was introduced in the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood and frequently used by Torchwood Three to cause those that take it to lose their memory of meeting Torchwood and having alien encounters.
Where Ashildr obtained this drug from is not revealed but The Doctor previously suggested to her that being a fellow immortal she would cross paths with Captain Jack Harkness one day (see "The Woman Who Lived").
Rigsy tells The Doctor in anger and fear to call him anything except his actual name, suggesting ‘pudding brain’. The Doctor had a habit of using this term about humans.
The raven has long been associated with death and in fiction it is often used a portent of disaster. The Black Guardian’s headwear included what appeared to be a representation of a raven but on a lighter note, in "The Day of The Doctor" it was suggested that the ravens ‘guarding’ the Tower of London were actually robots!
Ashildr reminds The Doctor of her way of letting him know she was doing well (see "The Woman Who Lived").
Sometime between the filming of "The Woman Who Lived" and "Face the Raven", Maisie Williams got a nose piercing, which means that between the 17th century and the late 2010s Ashildr had her nose pierced.
At the beginning of this story the TARDIS' internal telephone is heard to ring. It seems The Doctor no longer needs to access the phone located on the exterior of the TARDIS and that he has finally got around to wiring it back into the console (see "The Time of The Doctor").
At the very end of this story, after the end credits, Rigsy is seen painting a mural on the outside of the TARDIS. This is not the first time the TARDIS has been panted with graffiti (see "Aliens of London/World War Three") nor the first time someone has painted the TARDIS in his absence (see the 1988 Seventh Doctor story "The Happiness Patrol").
The Doctor and Clara visited the ‘second most beautiful garden in all of time and space’, where Clara saved The Doctor from marrying a ‘giant sentient plant thing’, Clara was nearly eaten, and now they are not allowed to return due to something Clara did.
In one scene, there is a poster with a diagram of a flux capacitor - a direct reference to the film trilogy Back to the Future. It is accompanied by writings in Aurebesh, the main alphabet used in the Star Wars franchise. This writing spells out ‘Delorean’ - the car used in the Back to the Future films.
The Doctor has previously had to deal with dangerous countdowns (see the 2007 Eleventh Doctor story "42" and the 2010 Tenth Doctor story "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone").
Once again The Doctor consults his response cards in ‘an effort to be nice’ before breaking the news to Rigsy of his impending death. One of them is seen to say ‘I could be wrong, let's try it your way’. These cards were first seen in "Under the Lake/Before the Flood".
When trying to find the mysterious cause of Rigsy's tattoo Clara is seen hanging outside of the TARDIS. The Eleventh Doctor once hung completely on the outside of the TARDIS after falling out while the TARDIS is picked up by a helicopter and transported by UNIT to the Tower of London in "The Day of The Doctor". Like The Doctor, Clara seems to thoroughly enjoy the experience.
The Doctor, Clara and Rigsy are seen visiting the Great British Library and its Map Room.
When The Doctor searches for the Trap Street, he tells a young boy to ‘remember 82’. This is possibly a reference to the Fifth Doctor story "Earthshock" – that featured the death of companion Adric and which aired in 1982.
The Trap Street uses a misdirection circuit. Ashildr is heard to say that this is actually the light from lurkworms. Ashildr also states that she had been in the Trap Street ‘since Waterloo’.
Ashildr considers the Trap Street to be a more favourable way of housing aliens on Earth as opposed to the settling of the Zygons that occurred in "The Day of The Doctor" and "The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion".
As they prepare to investigate the truth of what happened to Rigsy, Clara suggests that she and The Doctor employ the good cop/bad cop interrogation method, with her as the 'good cop’. When The Doctor asks why he can't play the 'good cop', Clara replies that his face won't allow him.
Ashildr asks for, and receives, The Doctor's confession dial that is first seen in "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar". When Ashildr asks what the confession dial is The Doctor replies with ‘in your terms my Last Will and Testament’. Clara and Missy had the same conversation also in "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar".
The Doctor threatens Ashildr to save Clara, saying that he will bring UNIT, the Zygons, the Daleks, and the Cybermen down on her Trap Street.
Ashildr uses a teleport bracelet to transport The Doctor away from the Trap Street.
This marks the first Doctor Who story to have a post-credits scene. Previously, "Dark Water/Death in Heaven" had a mid-credits scene, but this is the story to have a short seen that follows the end credits.
In the closing credits, the word ‘Oods’ is used to denote more than one Ood, rather than the established ‘Ood’, as used in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit".
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: The arrangement of Clara's hair changes noticeably between shots while she gives her farewell to The Doctor (in one shot her ears are visible and the next her hair covers them then, when she enters the street, her hair is noticeably fuller than it was a moment earlier); When Rigsy is on the phone to Clara, he uses a mirror to look at the Chronolock tattoo on the back of his neck. The clock is reading the correct way round in the reflection, instead of it being a reverse image as a result of the mirror. Rigsy is standing in front of a mirror. What we see is his reflection in this mirror, so the reflection of the mirror he's holding is reversed, making it look in the correct way.
This story received highly positive reviews from critics. Jim Shelly, writing for the Daily Mail said that ‘Jenna Coleman was no Billie Piper. But her farewell episode was one of her best’.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Sarah Dollard.
The first Doctor Who story to have a post-credits scene.
The first Doctor Who story to feature the Twelfth Doctor in a burgundy version of his signature navy blue Crombie coat.
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(Position = 4 out of 9)
