For the first time since the seventies, Doctor Who received an unexpected omnibus repeat showing on 27th September, combining the first two episodes into one. The Rugby World Cup is having a painful effect on the viewing figures and England were playing on the 26th when The Witch's Familiar was originally shown. Although no reason was given for the Sunday afternoon repeat, it is a reasonable presumtion that it was to alleviate the pain of this conflict.
In the omnibus edition, the episodes flowed straight though with no credits or reprise and titles in the middle, just a fade to black a caption for the second episode title and on with the show. In the original broadcast, the story recap was all that preceded the titles, reminding the viewers that the Doctor had thrown away his sonic screwdriver to speak to the young Davros, Missy and Clara had teamed up to track him down and had ended up being exterminated by the Daleks on Skaro. The TARDIS had also been exterminated of course, and the Doctor was last seen brandishing a Dalek gun at young Davros. What a way to end the first episode of a new series! Could any of that be taken at face value though?
Cut to the first new scene and the world is spinning upside down... but wait, it's Clara you is spinning, tied by her ankles and hanging from a rocky outcrop with Missy sat beside her telling her a story that ultimate explains why they aren't dead...
Missy uses an analogy in the form of a presumably true story about the Doctor who has been travelling via teleport but is low on power as he is surrounded by invisible android assassins. We don't when this event took place as we see the Doctor briefly as the fourth then first incarnation, with Missy saying "Doesn't matter which face he's wearing, they're all the Doctor to me. Lets give him the eyebrows." The solution to the Doctor's predicament reveals that Missy used the same method of escape when Clara saw her shot at the end of Death In Heaven and indeed again on this death defying occasion. I'll leave that reveal to Missy though. She then turns Clara's attention to future solutions. Since this relationship they currently have is based on Clara thinking like the Doctor to lead the way, Missy tells her to consider the Doctor and asks why he always survives. It's not 'because he's the Doctor' or because he's just brilliant. It's because he always assumes he's going to win. But this time he didn't. This time he wrote a will and is trapped at the heart of the Dalek empire, a prisoner to the creatures who hate him most in the universe. Missy ends with "and we have a pointy stick!" - which she has been whittling all the while, threatening to kill Clara in the even of starvation!
So the scene is set and the adventure can continue. The Doctor is having a long discussion with Davros (who is weak and dying, remember) and for the most part, their side of the story is cerebral and philosophical. Davros presents the Doctor with yet another chance of genocide, pointing out that he is connected to every Dalek on Skaro and has been using their life energy to keep himself going and that reversing this could wipe them all out. Mean while, the action and fun is happening with Clara and Missy who see their teaming up differently to each other. Clara denies that they are a team, for example, but Missy cheerily replies "Of course we are. Every minor needs a canary!" There is a pit in the ground and Missy wonders how deep it is, to which Missy replies, "You could chuck a stone down or something," "Oh yeah, good idea" and Missy give her a shove! They've found the Dalek's sewer, which coincidentally is also their graveyard and it's ever so slightly alive!
It's hard to pick out good bits without telling the whole story, it's really that full of goodness! Missy again steals the show, but Clara does a fine job as her foil. There's a wonderful moment where Davros tells the Daleks that the Doctor is escaping and they start to chant an old familiar "Seek! Locate! Destroy!" but they soon back off in fear when he rolls around the corner in Davros's chair! A beautiful moment accompanied by a shot of Davros on the floor as just a torso. Missy uses a Dark Star Alloy to attack a Dalek before putting Clara into it as part of an undisclosed plan, the delights in the casing's vocal circuits translating Clara's sweet voice into a rasping tirade of Dalek expressions (her name comes out as "Dalek" and "I love you" becomes "Exterminate" - the sort of thing we saw with Oswin in Asylum Of The Daleks)
Davros plays on the Doctor's compassion to help him and in the guise of a desire to see the sunrise one last time, he traps the Doctor into distributing regeneration energy throughout the whole of the Daleks "This'll probably cost me an arm or a leg somewhere down the line" say the Doctor "Or I'll just be really small" - all references to previous Tenth Doctor events. But he's not helping the old decrepit half-man in a Dalek skirt, he's helping a little boy he abandoned on a battle field. Again Julian Bleach puts in a fabulous performance and the writing throughout is clever, witty, emotional and full of Dalek goodness.
There is a certain irony and balance in the final solutions. By apparently falling for Davros's trap, the Doctor revived the generations of Daleks laying as a dormant mush in the sewers to rise up and consume those still living in their casings - much like Missy's Cybermen rising from the human dead in Death In Heaven, the Doctor has taken inspiration from Missy as she was inspired by him. The very final solution is getting the word 'Mercy' into the Dalek vocabulary by going back to save the young Davros so that Clara could save herself (again, I'll let you watch it yourself to see how that fits in)
Other things to take from this episode include the resolution of the TARDIS being exterminated - it was safely redistributed via the HADS (Hostile Action Dispersal System), as featured in series seven's Cold War and introduced in The Crotons in Patrick Troughton's era - the reminder that the Doctor no longer has his sonic screwdriver but, in his words "I'm over screwdrivers... I'm all about wearable technology now" so he has sonic sunglasses instead (Psst! Don't tell anyone, but they come in handy in a couple of episode's time) - Davros opens his eyes (for the last 40 years it had been assumed he simply didn't have normal eyes!) - and finally, Missy makes her escape off-screen following the line "You know what? I've just had a very clever idea" whilst surrounded by angry Daleks (is there any other kind?!!)
Over all, a thoroughly enjoyable episode and great to have a strong Dalek story again. Oh and the fate of Clara was in question again wasn't it? Sat there trapped inside a Dalek case unable to get her identity out through the speakers. Jenna Coleman has said that her exit is clever and fitting so this could have been it, going out the way she came in, trapped inside a Dalek (Asylum Of The Daleks again). Very clever writing, very clever publicity.
No comments:
Post a Comment