How many times does the Doctor die in Heaven Sent? THEORY 

Can we just appreciate the fact he punched his way through a diamond wall to just save Clara at the end of the universe?

Dormammu, I've come to bargain!

Also he found a copy of his clothes dry when he was sopping wet, and swapped them out. Which means the first version put his wet clothes by the fire, then spent the rest of his time there naked O.o

"I'm going to name a town after you, a real rubbish one" "Oh I'm counting on it".... A town called mercy.

I always kind of headcannoned that the "billion, billion" hearts the Hybrid destroyed was it's own

Interestingly enough if you assume the atomic structure is similar to most solids we know he would have about 7 punches to take away a single layer of atoms. This seems totally realistic.

the other way to determine the number is count the skulls in the water

That's assuming he didn't take several hundred million years to finally find the wall. Escaping the traps, the falls, mister bright side who kept killing him with a touch, dead ends, wrong ends, bad ends.

The eleventh doctor couldn't regenerate not because of his "old age", but because he was out of regenerations, the Time Lords can only regenerate twelve times (a limit probably in control via Rassilon) He had all of his "Doctor" regenerations (10, William to Matt) and his meta crisis regneration (Stolen Earth to Journey's End), and the War doctor. This means that after Hartnell there was twelve more bodies (2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th,7th,8th,War,9th,10th,10th's second body,11th) Just had to mention that cause a lot of people don't know that but it was still an enjoyable video none the less.

"YOU MIGHT THINK THATS A HELL OF A LONG TIME"

Why didint he use the shovel...

Not completely right for the 8 punches, consider if he's 25% the way through he's probably gotten time for a 9th punch, and 50% like 10 punches or so.

Your punches calculation doesn't take into account that the deeper he went the more time to punch he would have. Also perhaps at some later year in the millions he would start to see the progress and not debate with himself but just get to it. Finally, the first version had to screw with the mechanics of the world, if only because otherwise the 12th room would reset all his progress otherwise. I also find it suspicious that the Timelords left the machine with the electrodes to burn himself with. That means the first version added that. This then opens the possibility that the first version wasn't hunted at all, but set it all up to force his future selves to breakout.

Obviously, the more he punched through the wall the more punches he could get out of every so many cycles. So every meter let's say, he could add a few more punches before the veiled thing got him. But he wouldn't have spent a month in each cycle, too long, maybe a week. So, could be anything around 243 000 000 000 times.

If he lived all these billions of times, you have to figure at least once he tripped or something and regenerated into the 13th doctor

The later doctors got more punches as they/he managed to say more of the story

I actually think every version of the Doctor was there for the same amount of time, that the first time he arrived, he experienced all of the same things, after all the purpose of the Confession dial was to imprison the Doctor in a maze that his only escape would be to confess. When he reached the wall at the end, he mentioned that he was one confession away, this was intentional as the timelords felt that he would be more compelled to divulge his secrets to them if they gave him a way out. The Doctor stubbornly refuses to take it and opts to escape as he would later say, "the long way round". He scanned the wall with his sonic sunglasses and had to have detected that there was already 7,000 years worth of wear on the wall from his predecessors and figured out what was happening, hence why he started telling the story of the Shepard boy. The first time the Doctor arrived there he had most of the same clues left there by the time lords to force him into the situation where he must confess, the only two things that weren't present was the skull and the "BIRD" written on the floor. The skull was merely a reminder of the equation as the first Doctor to arrive left it when he died, probably the only one of the billions of versions of him that was uncertain of his plan and so he wrote "BIRD" so that the next one to arrive would see it and know the plan to reset himself works, removing the uncertainty he would have every time after the first. So the Doctor naturally through instinct managed to outwit what the time lords thought was an unsolvable puzzle that would only end with one outcome, they expected the Doctor to be rational and confess to gain his freedom, but they underestimated his resolve.

the deeper he goes in the more he gets to tell the story, so that also means some iterations had more punches

all so the master tells us in The Sound of Drums that timelords live on average 900 years without regenerating

3:25 He couldn't regenerate because it was his last life. The time lords sent him more through the crack.

Zero times. The Doctor's "transporter clones" were the ones dying. The Doctor who made it to the end simply walked through the portal without suffering.

For me emotionally this is one of my favorite episodes, the sheer determination of the Doctor to get out of this situation knowing the length of time it would take.

He didn’t punch in a single fist shaped line.. he had to fit his whole body through so it’s gunna be a shit tonne more

Excellent rocking episode ! I absolutely loved it! Thank God Steven Mother returned as showrunner!

11ths age had nothing to do with the regeneration. He had already used all of his regenerations. 10 regenerated twice + John hurts doctor = 12 Regenerations meaning 11th was actually the 13th. Why do you think it was such a big deal that the crack in the sky opened and granted him a new regeneration cycle. Also in Hell bent Rassilon says to 12, how many regenerations did we grant you? Little details you need to think of

The setup would also change eventually over time. You see the skull of the previous go fall from the ledge and join the other skulls in the water. The time it took for the skull to sink to the level of the others is not that high, suggesting either the sea is relatively shallow or the top of the pile is near the surface. Even if these skulls were crushed under the weight of those above them, you would still have skulls above the water long before you got through billions of versions (and hence had billions of skulls). The skull pile would then be visible to the current version and alter the nature of the puzzle and how long he had to punch the wall or understand what is going here.

Hello but now I just the equation of punches per foot or meter now considering that the width and height also has to be taken into account not just straight 20 foot or meter situation considering it look like that was a fairly large opening that he had punched

An idea that came out of nowhere you say? Sounds like the work of a Silence!

The thing is who actually brought him there first time, along with anything that happens specifically due to past doctors

"in case you don't know, or need a refresher." No worries there. We know. XD

That mean the “13/14th” Doctor is the 54,000,000,001st Doctor.

I always had my thinking's by the episode, it seems like, that the last room never resets, since the wall stays broken, when the doctor re-enters it all the time. So why didn't he take the shovels in the room, so he could use one for blocking the door and the over ones for smashing the wall? With that process, he would way less there, I think.

I don't think that 11 couldn't regenerate because he was old, I think it was because it was his last regeneration in that cycle.

My favorite episode ever

Why would you take the age of the 11th doctor in months when he regenerated away from the number of versions of the doctor? What's that got to do with anything?

12th Doctor is the man!

The punches each version of the doctor gradually increases as each doctor gets further through it. For example the first version we see find it only gets about 3 punches which would mean that you are very far off the original number

What is the volume of skulls in the pool? How deep must the pool be to contain all those skulls? Bonus** how fast to ordinary skulls decay under ordinary water?

Couldn't you figure out what the materials' physical properties were like in comparison to diamond? That would be really cool to know

It took billions of years, so I would say billions of lives.

It occured to me the the deeper he punched into the wall at some point he would buy the time to do 9 punches and so on. Even so the numbers are mind boggling and thank you for this experience.

You could've used the first Doctor's lifespan to determine how long an incarnation lasts.

the wall is 20 feet thick when he has been punching it for 7000 years (this is the version we follow in the episode) it's very possible that he was scanning the thickness of the middle, the bit he was punching away, meaning it could have started thicker

if there is one unanswered question it is this how in the bloody way Moffat killed so much characters?

This video AWESOME numbers-tastic

I'm pretty sure that each one of the doctors regeneration will last for 1200 years, as Peter Capaldi said the that he was OVER 2000 years old. Also it would make a lot of Sense as the doctor can regenerate only 12 Times.

553,797,849 punches would take off roughly 0.5mm if anyone was interested

If you divide the punches per meter by 1000 to calculate how many punches you would need for one milimeter, and then again by 400 because the wall is 400 times harder than diamond, you get about 177 165 punches to break through one milimeter of diamond. Does anyone know if this can be accurate?

He can do more punches every time de wall gets a little smaller because it takes more time to get closer to him to kill him

considering the fact you didn't count the age he said to the other Doctors on the Day of the Doctor, the fact that the last punch went through an uncountable lenght that would make a difference, the fact that you can't be sure that it was just one doctor that left the clues, and the fact that to make that picture of Clara there would have to be one version that lasted years between leaving the teleporter and years between versions that may have different years or even centuries added to them and finally we aren't even sure how old the Doctor was then, it could have been more years or maybe a couple of centuries.

i think it probably took more than one doctor to set up the clues. like each doctor uncovered a new part of the mystery set up the clue and then died.

Not to mention that the hole the doctlr punched was the size of him so wouldnt he have had to punch the sides aswell, point in case it was a lot more than 54 bilion punches that he punched

This ep gives me so much anxty

As brilliant and resourceful as the Doctor is, he couldn't think up any other solution than to use his bare fists against that wall for billions of years?

This calculation suddenly made me remember that one time kirito and eugeo had to cut down the devil cedar. From how i remember, the devil cedar have roughly 1bil durability and using the draginbone axr, the one axe with high enough authority level to deal 1 damage to the cedar, the initial calculation is that 5 generations of woodcutter have dealt around 150k damage already to the cedar. When kirit was asked to debug thr underworld he was using the axe and dealing 1 damage till that fateful day alice was imprisoned. When he returned to it when he got injected with the poison decades have passed so ill assume eugeo alone dealt aroun 1k damage to it. Im just using this as an analogy because we can assume the wall has similar property, having high durability but low authority level that a punch could damage it.

So is the Doctor we're watching now just a clone? Or was the fact that the whole thing took place inside his confession dial mean that the entire thing was a sort of simulation similar to what one experiences in the (Gallifreyan) Matrix?

He got more punches in at the end because of how slow the thing was. This means the most reliable way to find out would be a measurement of how long the chamber was and the length of time to punch through diamond *400

During the latter versions wouldn't the skulls have built up so high that they would be pouring in through the windows?

You don’t understand regeneration? Or how he would have gotten way more punches in as he got further through the wall?

whats the mass of 50 billion broken down skulls? shouldnt the sediment layer be slightly higher each time he dives into the middle?

Something like a mathematical comparison to diamond would be cool. Like determine the force exerted by the doctor per copy and try to figure out how much denser the material is than diamond. Even though it is explicitly stated that it's 400 times, maybe it's different?

The first time we see the doctor he says the stars are off by 7000 years and the clues are already there, so the max you could take off right off the bat is 7000 years if you assume we see the second teleport/clone doctor

good thing the wall doesnt reset like the rest of the castle lol

The trials and tribulations the Doctor has had to endure throughout his long long life is beyond our comprehension.. this is a prime example of that.

Also to the point. I think Doctor mentioned in this episode that bird scratches the wall every hundred years which lowers the amount of deaths. Not sure how did he figured out that.

If the lake was that full of skulls when he jumped in after 7000 years, surely by 4 billion it wouldn't even be a lake anymore?

3:49 The Siege of Trenzalore was 900 years.

Yeah but how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

he would also get more hits as he works his way deeper in to the wall as it would take longer for the thing to get to him and kill him

So I've had an issue with this episode since I watched it. Everyone he died and reset he was recreated(?) As theacme body he started with right? So he technically didn't age at all right? Because every time he reset he had no memory. Or am I just over thinking it?

Easily the best 12th Doctor episode.

Maybe each time the Doctor punched the wall his punches would maybe equal to the power equivalent to 10 average human punches, and that maybe one punch was more effective than say his 6th punch which might be equal to 5 average human punches and then his 10 punch which is maybe equal to 8 average human punches was better than his 6th punch so each punch is probabilistic in its damage to the wall.

So would the number of the doctor skills fit in to the castle he was trapped in?

Alright nice, got some data to work out some stuff. Anyways, since I can’t find it anywhere online does anyone here know how fast the Minecraft player can punch a block? I.e. punches per second or other increment of time. Might as well outright say what I’m trying to calculate here, let’s just say that if a doctor who Minecraft mod were to include a block of azbantium that was coded to be faithful to the episode, how long would it take for the player to mine it using only their fists? For reference, Minecraft does allow for blocks that take a very long time to mine barehanded, last I heard you could mine through obsidian with your fists but it takes 26 minutes to do. I was originally gonna try and find out how much time of the 4.5 billion years was specifically spent beating on the wall, but I didn’t know how long each 'cycle' was till now.

Do you suppose that could have been a little faster if he kicked a few times or brought a tool with him?

He was in there 4.5 billion years, the loop lasts about 2 days so that's about 183 per year. 823.5 billion times but it's probably a little a couple billion more due to the year not splitting into 2 evenly. And one or 2 extra to make a loop.

Seems to be once every 12 hours for 4.5 billion years. 730 times a year times 4.5 billion years. That comes to a total of 3,285,000,000,000. 3 trillion 285 billion times. just in this episode alone. +13 deaths for his previous incarnations.

with how many times he had to punch that diamond looking wall im guessing its in the millions

Also the 11th doctor said he was 2000 when possessed by the cybermen in that episode with the cybermen and babysitting.

One has to remember the Doctor is a Time lord, he is a humanoid alien from planet Gallifrey and that his physical punching power maybe different to that of humans on Earth.

But he survives longer at the wall for each version as he gets further

11 didn't have his ability taken away by old age. He was at the end of his lifw due to not having any regenerations left

This is very useful video for when I am buried in my diamond coffin. Now I know exactly how many punches I need to break free from it 🤣🤣🤣

I'm pretty sure when 11 gave his age, he was talking about since birth--not just since he last regenerated.

How come he never used the shovel?

MY OWN THEORIES & THOUGHTS TO THIS QUESTION ABOUT THIS EPISODE OF (DOCTOR WHO) My best guess is that (The Doctor) created a cloning chamber when he first got to where he was at; An once there time after time he had cloned himself, and each one clone regenerated himself two billion times in 43 billion years in this story of within this episode of (HEAVEN SENT). Now the reason why I theorize a cloning chamber is because of how the machine looked, and to add how it is designed with a special type of device that fits on (The Doctor’s) head before his body turns into dust; An so I imagine that the device that fits on (The Doctor’s) head is a type of memory device, and i it has a limited amount of memory that it is capable of collecting, and then transferring to the machine before his body turns to dust in order for the clone to be given a certain amount level of memory, and to add the rest is all of his super high level of intelligence. So this way it would make a proper amount of sense to why (The Doctor) continuously repeated everything he does throughout the whole entire time he is trapped within the mysterious place of the story episode titled (HEAVEN SENT).

Once every 82 minutes for 4.5 billion years, if you ask me.

To be honest I still don’t get how the confession dial got him to Gallifrey at all? Nothing in the episode explained it in a way that made it clear how.

Would that work? Would the punches have any effect?

Uh, the punches each time would have increased each time. We know this because every time he starts punching, he’s a bit further away from the veil, otherwise he wouldn’t get any further with his seconds in eternity speech.

If you didn’t watch the whole video for whatever reason, it’s a shit ton of times.

My main problem with the episode is the skulls. There would eventually have been a point where the Doctor just slams into a solid layer of skulls (and stools and glass shards)when he leaps from the window and dies. In stagnant water with nothing gnawing at the skulls, they don't decay fast enough.

I wonder how this ordeal compares to the traumas of the Last Great Time War ?

I thought each cycle of him was 3 days at the most. So i calculated 547,860,000,000 cycles of him for that whole time based off 3 days.

Hey I have question if the veil stops only when it heards confesion the Doctor never confesed before, why does the veil stops everytime he says that he is afraid of dying? Is that a plothole?

This was a question I didn't know I needed to know the answer to until I saw the title to this vid, but thanks! Now, however, I have another one -- is it true that azmantanium is 400x harder than diamond? How would we find out how many punches diamond would need to break through, and how does that compare to the number from this video divided by 400?

But when he scans and says that the wall is 20 feet thick that was when he was in the castle for over 7000 years

But here's the question hoe strong was each punch if the wall is even stronger than diamond

Zero - he was got by a form of weeping angle that kept sending him back to the start. Simple really.

I know this seems bad but we need to thank illness for making the series go on this long. If Hartnell had never gotten ill the show would probably only last about 7 years.