On the 28th November 2015, the BBC broadcast an episode of Doctor Who called Heaven Sent, starring Peter Capaldi. It was a very different kind of Doctor Who story in that it was almost completely carried by Capaldi, apart from a wraith-like creature that silently chased him the entire episode. Not only was it a mystery, a horror, a convoluted time conundrum tied up in a shifting puzzle box maze, it was well shot, well executed with amazing detail that kept you not only guessing while watching it, but rewatching it in your head long after the episode had finished.
So taken with this story, I not only watched it about twenty times, (on ABC iView, among other places), but I also wrote a short story as a homage to it about the underlying cycles across time that we sometimes end up in. I released this in issue two of Alien Dimensions in November 2016. I don’t know whether it was this story, or simply a coincidence of timing, but that issue shot to the bestseller list on Amazon for two weeks.
But I didn’t want to stop there.
Once the creative bug had been born, I wanted to do other things in relation to Heaven Sent, so I then downloaded and rewrote Stephen Moffat’s script and put together a short video starring myself, emulating as much as I could. I also hired Genelyn Javier, who did many of the illustrations for my Alien Characters series, to create an animated theme tune and a wraith-like image for my character to run away from. It’s called Tutor Who Heaven Cent, and you can watch it online here:
For the full effect, you should watch Doctor Who: Heaven Sent first before watching my embarrassing fan video.
When watching Tutor Who Heaven Cent, please use headphones and have your hand on the sound control. As it took me two years to make, each time I added a scene in Movie Maker I had trouble getting the previous sound levels to match, so apologies in advance.
In 2019, I reviewed the written Tutor Who Heaven Cent story and realized that an almost completely new story was needed. One based on the video. The new version is now available from Amazon, and closely follows my script, the final video being a cut down version.
If you’d like to read the original version, you can find it in the Alien Dimensions Boxed Set
And, if you’re a Doctor Who fan, then I challenge you to find over 37 Easter eggs that I wove into the video, and over 50 that I included in the new written version.
Many thanks for your interest.
Neil A. Hogan
23rd November 2019
Doctor Who’s 56th anniversary