The Bells of Saint John

232 – "The Bells of Saint John"
Doctor Who episode
Official poster from the BBC website
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companion Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara Oswald)
Others Celia Imrie – Miss Kizlet Robert Whitlock – Mahler Dan Li – Alexei Manpreet Bachu – Nabile Sean Knopp – Paul James Greene – The Abbott Geff Francis – George Maitland Eve de Leon Allen – Angie Maitland Kassius Carey Johnson – Artie Maitland Danielle Eames – Little Girl Fred Pearson – Barista Jade Anouka – Waitress Olivia Hill – Newsreader Isabella Blake-Thomas – Child Matthew Earley – Man Antony Edridge – Pilot Richard E. Grant – The Great Intelligence
Production
Directed by	Colm McCarthy
Written by	Steven Moffat
Produced by	Denise Paul Marcus Wilson (series producer)
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Caroline Skinner
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Series	Series 7
Length	45 minutes
Originally broadcast	30 March 2013 (2013-03-30)
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "The Snowmen" "The Rings of Akhaten"

"The Bells of Saint John" is the sixth episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It premiered in the United Kingdom on 30 March 2013 on BBC One; the episode was the first of the second half of the series. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Colm McCarthy.

In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) is looking for Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman), a woman whom he has met by chance on two previous occasions only for her to die both times. He manages to find a third version of her in the present-day London, where Miss Kizlet (Celia Imrie) is helping the Great Intelligence use the world's Wi-Fi to upload people to a datacloud via robots known as Servers, casually referred to as Spoonheads.

"The Bells of Saint John" was designed to be an "urban thriller", in that it is taking "something omnipresent in your life and making it sinister". It was watched by 8.44 million viewers in the UK. The episode received generally positive reviews, although several critics felt that the plot and threat were lacking.

On 23 March 2013, BBC released a short prequel video to the episode, written by Steven Moffat. In the prequel, the Doctor is sitting at the swings of a children's playground when he meets a little girl. They talk about losing things, and the Doctor states that he has lost someone twice and he hopes he might be able to find her again. The girl tells him that, when she loses something, she goes to a quiet place for a think, and then can remember where she put it. As the girl leaves, it is revealed that she is Clara Oswald.

A man on a computer screen describes how human souls are uploaded to the Internet when people use their computers to log in to a certain Wi-Fi network. The man reveals he has been uploaded and is lost.