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Doctor Who Recap: ‘The Witch’s Familiar’

By Barry Rice

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Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor in a promotional image from ‘The Witch’s Familiar,’ the second episode of Doctor Who’s ninth series.(Credit: BBC)

Last week Doctor Who returned for its long-awaited ninth series with ‘The Magician’s Apprentice,’ the first of a two-part story. Tonight we got the epic conclusion — but before we get to that, let’s remember where we left off. Things were looking pretty dire, with Missy and Clara seemingly murdered by the Daleks, the TARDIS destroyed, and the Doctor trapped in a chamber with a dying Davros. And now, ‘The Witch’s Familiar’…

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

The episode opens with Missy and Clara, alone in the desert. So there’s that sorted right off the bat; they’re not dead, they escaped. But how? Well, Missy has the answer to that. As Clara hangs upside down by a rope (where did the rope come from anyway?) and Missy whittles a stick, the sinister Time Lady entertains the Doctor’s companion with a tale.

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Once upon a time, the Doctor (Missy doesn’t recall which version, so we see glimpses of the First and Fourth Doctors before she decides to just make it the Twelfth) was trapped by an army of invisible android assassins. With four nanoseconds to escape their deadly laser blasts, she challenges Clara to explain how the Doctor survived. She surmises that he must’ve stolen one of their transport devices and reprogrammed it to teleport him at the moment their blasts struck him. Ding, ding, ding — Clara is correct. And (as many fans had speculated) that’s exactly how Missy and Clara escaped, as well. Missy used the same technique to reprogram their vortex manipulators.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Doctor has found a non-functioning Dalek gunstick and, well, made it functional again. He threatens Davros at gunpoint and, in a hilarious bit of slapstick, steals his chair. (“Anyone for dodgems?”)

Missy and Clara make their way back to the Dalek city through the sewers, which aren’t exactly the same as ours. They’re still full of brown, disgusting goo, but in this case it’s the remains of still living, decaying Daleks. Missy uses Clara as bait to lure a (normal, not-decayed) Dalek to their location and then kills it by poking a few holes in its armor and letting the angry, rotting sewer-dwellers seep inside. Upstairs, the Doctor’s victory is short-lived as it’s revealed that Colony Sarff has a mass of snakes stashed in Davros chair that easily overtake him.

Missy forces Clara to climb inside the Dalek armor and hooks her to its telepathic circuits. She quickly learns that the Dalek software makes a poor substitute for Google Translate, as her words are twisted when she speaks. “I’m Clara Oswald” comes out as “I am a Dalek,” and “I love you” becomes “Exterminate!” Not to mention, when she gets emotional, the gunstick fires (according to Missy, emotions are how Daleks reload).

Related: Doctor Who Recap: ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’

The Doctor meanwhile, awakens back in Davros’ chamber (in the only other chair on Skaro — a rare bit of hilarity from Davros). The two have a bit of a heart-to-heart while Dalek-Clara leads her “prisoner” back to the Dalek Supreme. Davros antagonizes the Doctor over his compassion, asks why he left Gallifrey in the first place, and threatens to open his confession dial. Davros lets the Doctor in on a secret: the cables he’s connected to sap lifeforce from every Dalek on Skaro. If the Doctor so desires, he could reverse the flow and kill them all. Once again, the Doctor is tempted with genocide upon the Daleks, but relents. When the Doctor reveals that Gallifrey was not destroyed, Davros has a breakdown. He opens his real eyes (what?!) and looks upon the Doctor while tears stream down his face. He’s dying quickly but wishes he could see one last sunset with his real eyes.

Of course, the Doctor decides to do what he can to make that happen, so he wires Davros up to preserve his life long enough to make it through the night (not out of shame, but because he owes the little boy he abandoned that much). when the sun finally rises, Davros lacks the strength to open his eyes. So the Doctor pulls out one last trick: he musters up a bit of regeneration energy and channels it through the cables to help Davros see. Unfortunately, Colony Sarff is disrobed, uncoiled, and hiding among the cables — he grabs the Doctor and holds him firm, forcing him to continue pumping out more and more regeneration energy. Davros laughs at the Doctor’s ignorance and reminds him of a Gallifreyan prophecy (wait, what?) about the coming of a hybrid Dalek/Time Lord creature.

As the Daleks surrounding them fall silent and begin to glow with regeneration energy, Missy realizes what is happening. She grabs a Dalek gunstick and runs after the Doctor; she enters Davros’ chamber with guns a-blazin’ and blasts Colony Sarff, freeing the Doctor. It’s too late, though… Davros is restored and the Daleks are stronger than ever. But guess what? The Doctor is never as stupid as he seems; he knew what Davros was up to and allowed him to drain the regeneration energy. Why? Because the energy healed not only Davros and the Daleks, but the angry, discarded sewer-Daleks as well.

(Continued on next page)

Next: PAGE 2: Escape!!!

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(Credit: BBC)

The city begins to crumble as the brown poop-Daleks seep upward and destroy their healthy brethren, and the Doctor and Missy leave Davros to his fate. In the hall, they come face-to-face with Clara, still stuck in a Dalek shell. With Clara unable to tell the Doctor who she really is though, Missy then twists the game to her favor. She tells the Doctor that Clara is dead; yes, she escaped with Missy, but was exterminated in the desert by this very Dalek. She hands the Doctor the gunstick and tells him to kill the Dalek. The heartbroken Doctor aims the gunstick at Clara as she desperately tried to tell him who she is. Eventually, she’s able to say the word “mercy,” which the Doctor recognizes as an anomaly. He helps Clara open her armor, then warns Missy to run. (He still has a gunstick after all, and he’s even more angry now).

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Clara and the Doctor return to where the TARDIS was destroyed, and the Doctor reveals that it was never destroyed — it merely displaced itself (another fan theory proven correct). Meanwhile, Missy finds herself surrounded by Daleks and trapped. Suddenly she has an idea. Back to the Doctor, he may no longer have a sonic screwdriver but no matter — now he’s into wearable tech. No, not an Apple Watch — he’s talking about those sunglasses he was sporting last episode. They’re sonic. He uses them to reassemble the TARDIS and quickly transports Clara and himself outside the crumbling city.

Related: REVIEW: Doctor Who: ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’

As they watch the city fall, the Doctor puzzles over how Clara was able to make the Dalek say the word “mercy.” Realizing it must’ve been introduced into their vocabulary at some point, the Doctor dashes off in the TARDIS again. Now we’re back to the last week’s final moments as the Doctor re-emerges on the battlefield beside the young Davros. He aims the Dalek gunstick and yells “Exterminate!” — but, as yet another fan theory proves to be correct (damn, we’re good), he doesn’t shoot Davros. Instead, he uses the cannon to eliminate the hand mines. Then, telling the boy that the distinction between friends and enemies matters little at the moment, he takes him by the hand and walks him home.

Wow…what a whopper of an episode! There were a lot of shocks, some of them jaw-dropping even. We never saw what happened to Missy or what her splendid idea was, nor did we see what ultimately became of Davros (you know as well as I do that he’s not dead, though). There were a few weaks points (the prophecy that came out of nowhere and made zero sense) and lapses of logic (the Doctor knew what Davros was up to, but still thought it was a good idea to give the entire Dalek race a jolt of regeneration energy?), but ultimately it was a rousing two-hours of television.

We’ll have a round table review of ‘The Witch’s Familiar’ on Monday morning, with thoughts and opinions from our entire staff. For more info on next week’s episode and beyond, check out our frequently updated guide: Doctor Who Series 9: Everything There is to Know So Far.

What did you think of ‘The Witch’s Familiar’? Any ideas on what the events could foretell for the future of Doctor Who this season? Sound off in the comments below!

Next: REVIEW: Doctor Who: Four Doctors #5 (Comic Book)

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