Doctor Who: Will The Doctor Kill Young Davros?

"“Clara, be my pal. Tell me, am I a good man?”“I… don’t know.”“Neither do I.”– The Doctor and Clara, ‘Into the Dalek’"

Since the Doctor’s regeneration into his current incarnation, he has struggled more than ever before with his personal nature. Is he generally a good person or not? The above conversation with Clara is far from the first time that he has come face to face with his personal demons.

In ‘Genesis of the Daleks,’ the Doctor chooses at the last minute to not destroy the Dalek race, despite Sarah Jane’s pleading for him to do so. He holds a gun on Davros in ‘Resurrection of the Daleks,’ but is stopped from shooting by a mind-controlled agent of the Daleks. In ‘Dalek,’ he almost murders what was thought at the time to be the last Dalek, but Rose convinces him not to do so.

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There are other non-Dalek-centered examples of the tough choices that face the Doctor. As we can see from his drowning of the Racnoss Empress’s children in ‘The Runaway Bride,’ The Doctor is certainly capable of extreme cruelty for the sake of saving others. This disturbs Donna, who tells him to stop, and plays a large part in her initial decision to not travel with him.

In ‘The End of Time: Part 2,’ the Doctor pulls a gun alternately on the Master and Rassilon, trying to decide which to kill in order to seal the time lock that surrounds Gallifrey, until he sees the sorrowful face of the Woman. He ultimately follows her guidance and shoots the White-Point Star, with the same desired effect.

In ‘The Fires of Pompeii,’ Donna is angered by the Doctor’s refusal to save the people of the city from Mount Vesuvius’s deadly eruption due to it being a fixed point. The resulting compromise is to save Caecilius‘s family, which, considering that Peter Capaldi plays Caecilius, brings us full circle back to the topic at hand.

So, will the Doctor exterminate young Davros, or will he not? Well, of course, both the last scene of ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ and the episode trailers for ‘The Witch’s Familiar’ purposely left the answer to this unclear. The Doctor could very well end up shooting Davros. There are, however, other possible outcomes. The Doctor could change his mind at the last second and save Davros’s life. Alternately, it could be the Doctor’s plan to save him. In either case, the gun would most likely be used on the hand mines.

In theory, saving Davros could potentially have essentially the same result as killing him. If the Doctor gave Davros more assistance rather than simply leaving him with the sonic screwdriver to fend for himself, Davros’s future motivations would be altered.

Regardless of what happens in this crucial moment, it seems that the Doctor is about to frack up big time. As Capaldi told The Mirror, “The Doctor is about to make a mistake that has cataclysmic repercussions . . . [He is faced with] a conflict which is central to his being.” This mysterious mistake raises a plethora of hypothetical questions. If the Daleks get wiped from existence, how would their absence affect events throughout the history of the Universe? Would a huge chunk of the Doctor’s life be completely erased? Would the Reapers come into play due to a fixed point? Who will the Doctor become?

Next: Doctor Who: 'Genesis of the Daleks' REVISITED

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