Cybermen controlled by
Missy take to the air and explode over 91 populated areas in the British Isles, creating clouds that rain "Cyberpollen" that resurrects the dead as Cybermen, including
Danny. Similar events occur all over the world.
UNIT takes Missy and the
Twelfth Doctor into custody on board a UNIT plane where, per incursion protocols, the Doctor is inducted President of Earth.
Clara stalls the Cybermen inside St Paul's Cathedral to keep herself alive by pretending to be the Doctor. She is saved by Danny, who retains his personality. Clara awakens at a graveyard where Danny reveals his identity. Missy escapes capture and kills UNIT scientist
Osgood. A horde of flying Cybermen attack the plane. Clara calls the Doctor on the
TARDIS's phone. Missy admits she gave Clara that phone number to bring her and the Doctor together. She then blasts open one of the plane's cargo doors, sending Chief Scientific Officer
Kate Stewart plummeting towards the ground while Missy teleports to safety. The Doctor takes the TARDIS to the graveyard. Because Danny cannot see Missy's plans without activating an inhibitor which deletes Danny's emotions, Clara activates it. Danny reveals that a second rainfall will convert living humans into Cybermen. Missy proposes the Doctor control the Cyberman army to prove he and Missy are the same. The Doctor rejects the gift, accepting he is not a "good man", and passes the control bracelet to Danny, who has kept his personality. Danny leads the Cybermen into the sky, where they explode, stopping the rainfall. Missy claims the planet
Gallifrey is in its original location. Clara tries to kill Missy for Danny's death, but the Doctor stops her to prevent her from becoming corrupted by revenge.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart—brought back as a Cyberman—vaporises Missy instead. He gestures towards his unconscious daughter Kate whom he had saved. Danny contacts Clara from the Nethersphere, a data cloud storing recently deceased minds intended for the Cyberman army. Having only the power to bring one person back before the Nethersphere shuts down, Danny resurrects the boy he accidentally killed. He asks Clara to return the boy to his parents. Clara later meets with the Doctor. Assuming Danny is alive again, the Doctor interrupts Clara to lie about finding Gallifrey and his plans to return home. Clara lies that she and Danny are going to be fine. In the mid-credits scene, Santa Claus knocks on the TARDIS door to tell the Doctor neither he nor Clara are fine.
Continuity As the first full episode to feature Missy with her true identity as the Master revealed, "Death in Heaven" features various references to previous episodes featuring the Master. Osgood refers to previous incidents on Earth featuring the Master, including his tenure as Prime Minister in "
The Sound of Drums" (2007). When boarding the airbase, the Doctor believes that he is going to the
Valiant, an airborne aircraft carrier partially designed by the Master in "The Sound of Drums". Missy uses the phrase "Oh, my giddy aunt", an expression associated with the
Second Doctor. The Cyberman head that Kate reveals is from the 1968 episode
The Invasion, which also featured Cybermen invading near St. Paul's Cathedral. The location of the planet Gallifrey—"in the constellation of Kasterborous" at galactic coordinates 10-0-11-00:02—was first mentioned in the
Fourth Doctor story
Pyramids of Mars (1975). == Production ==