Doctor Who Review: The Witch’s Familiar (Season 9 Episode 2)

This week’s episode of Doctor Who, titled “The Witch’s Familiar,” is about deception and mercy in a time where The Doctor is trapped with Davros plus Clara, Missy and the Tardis are gone.

Let’s get the ‘mercy’ portion of this out of the way.

The first show of mercy is The Doctor saving young Davros and taking him home. This solidifies the concept in the young creators mind for future generations of Daleks, a secret malfunction in their making. The second show of mercy is The Doctor telling Missy to run after he catches her in a lie about Clara’s whereabouts.

He’s able to handle Missy goofing off and causing mischief, but when it comes to his companion and almost killing her via Missy’s manipulation, he pulled the breaks on their reunion. *throws popcorn at the screen*

Both are moments of mercy that The Doctor gives his enemies even though they don’t deserve it.

Now onto the deception portion of the episode. This section is bigger and more important than the small scale ‘mercy’ concept they tried and failed to push on you throughout the episode.

In the opening episode last week, we weren’t quite sure why Davros wanted to meet with The Doctor. Why was he searching for him across the universe? And in this episode it isn’t clear in the beginning either. You think that maybe Davros is trying to gain sympathy from The Doctor. He asks questions like: “Was I a good father?” “Was I a good man?”

Davros’ entire dialogue with The Doctor is beautifully done. So much that as the episode keeps on going, we are shocked. We are pulled into this tale that he is weaving. We believe him and wonder if Davros still has human feelings of compassion inside of him. He even makes a joke with The Doctor about our Time Lord not being a good enough doctor in the medical sense, to save him.

It’s astounding how far Davros manages to pull us and The Doctor into his tale. In no time we’re sympathizing with him and feeling bad for laughing when his chair is stolen and he’s left a withering mess on the floor.

What? Don’t act like you didn’t laugh too!

When The Doctor decides that he’s going to give that little boy he left on a battlefield his last sunset, we’re still cheering for him. After all, The Doctor is a compassionate man that manages to not kill Missy on sight after all the stuff she’s pulled. This should be an okay last measure for an ill man?

Wrong! Doctor Who show-runner, Steven Moffat, pulled the RUG OUT from underneath us!

Davros was lying. He was using The Doctor’s compassion to get what he wanted, the regenerative power of a Time Lord inside of a Dalek body. In essence, a hybrid of both. It feels like the end for a moment. This is it. The Doctor is going to die, and we have been made fools by believing that wrinkly old raisin.

Wrong! Moffat’s playing tricks on us once more!

The Doctor already knows what has been happening the entire time. (Sorry for doubting you Doctor.) He knows what kind of person Davros has always been. And he used the game being used on him to his own advantage, resurrecting all the decaying angry Dalek matter living in the sewers of Skaro, all while making hybrids with his regenerative energy. The entire scene is a well constructed showcase of dialogue and chemistry between mortal enemies that have been at it since 1975.

With the grand destruction of an unknown number of the Skaro population, it won’t be the last time we see these two together. It’s a tale as old as time between the creator of the Daleks and The Doctor. And as for the Daleks, they always come back whether you blow up, drown, or disintegrate the unfeeling creatures. They’re like weeds.

Other Observations:

• Clara entering the body of the Dalek is a harrowing reminder of the Souffle Girl we were first introduced to in Season 7. Glad she popped right out of that in a jiffy.
• It is hard to see why The Doctor is putting any effort into rescuing Clara. The show is telling the audience that they should care about their relationship, but it’s hard to accomplish that with lackluster scenes between the two. With the departure of this companion coming soon, any hopes of this dynamic being fixed are ultimately dashed forever.
• Missy is HILARIOUS the entire episode. We all saw her return coming ,but the showrunners get points for trying to fool us into believing Clara and Missy were dead. The most memorable scene is when the Time Lady attacked a Dalek with her brooch (Given to her by The Doctor for her daughter?!). She pokes at its body, ripping holes in its armor, while taunting it with a Southern twang to her voice. Missy continues to surprise and delight with her insanity.
• The Doctor appearing in Davros chair is a ROFLMAO moment.

We’re closing this off with a special shout out to Julian Bleach. The actor who has only played Davros twice before, gave a top notch perform in a very limiting costume where facial expressions were his weapons. The fact that we don’t know what happened to Davros at the end of the episode means that we will most likely see this brilliant actor once more!

What was your favorite moment from this week’s episode? Did Davros fool you as well? Which Missy moment made you laugh? Tell us in the comments section below!

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Doctor Who airs Saturdays at 9/8c on BBCA.