Doctor Who The Witch’s Familiar Review

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Clara Oswald, Colony Sarff, Daleks, Davros, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Sereis 9, Doctor Who The Witch's Familiar Review, Hattie MacDonald, Jemma Redgrave, Jenna Coleman, Kate Stewart, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor, The Witch's Familiar

The Witch’s Familiar

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Doctor is trapped and alone at the heart of the Dalek Empire on the planet Skaro, surrounded by Daleks from throughout the ages. Having witnessed Clara, Missy, and even the TARDIS suffer maximum extermination at the orders of the Supreme Dalek, the Doctor now faces Davros simultaneously on the eve of his death, and via an uncanny twist of destiny, on a pivotal moment from when Davros was a child. Will the Doctor now kill this child, or will mercy prevail, as the Time Lord endeavours to risk everything to save his friend?

The Witch’s Familiar continues the two-part opening story of Series 9, with an even darker episode, written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Hettie Macdonald (The director of 2007’s Blink). The cliff-hanger “Exterminate” ending of the Magician’s Apprentice left us all on the edge of our seats, when the Doctor appeared on the battlefield strewn with Hand-mines in Skaro’s distant past to exterminate the young Davros with a Dalek gun-stick. Now in The Witch’s Familiar, the story builds from this crucial moment as fate, compassion, and evil collides with far flung consequences as the Doctor confronts Davros on Skaro.

With the loss of Clara, Missy, the TARDIS, and without even the Sonic Screwdriver to help him, the Doctor must faces his ultimate challenge on Skaro as he wrestles with his conscience at the gates of Davros’ beginnings. The heart-stopping quandary of the cliff-hanger with the young Davros (brilliantly played by Joey Price) holds this episode on a constant knifes edge, while in the future, protracted, almost heart-felt exchanges unfold between the Doctor and Davros as the old enemies debate the Daleks ultimate defect and the fate of Gallifrey. This really plays to the strengths of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, his performance is totally compelling, especially when the Doctor realises the Life Support / Hyperspace Relay in Davros’ chamber can touch the beating heart of every single Dalek on Skaro – once again presenting the Time Lord with the temptation of inflicting genocide on the Dalek race. Julian Bleach brings a cold, rasping, cocktail of evil and emotion to this ancient version of Davros, as the Daleks creator’s heinous scheme finally become apparent. Indeed, The Witch’s Familiar shows sides to the Doctor and Davros unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

Naturally enough Clara (Jenna Coleman) and Missy (Michelle Gomez) were not killed during the climatic moments of The Magician’s Apprentice. Missy’s gleefully casual explanation quickly alters Clara’s perspective on their escape from extermination, with a gloriously psychedelic classic Doctor story / energy manipulating / teleporting just-in-the-nick-of-time solution. Clara’s uneasy alliance with Missy continues as they find a way into the Dalek city, where the Time Lord has gone AWOL from the Infirmary in Davros’ own chair, but his audience with the Supreme Dalek is cut short as the coils of Davros’ grand design ensnare him once more!

Much of The Witch’s Familiar revolves around the epic face-off between the Doctor and Davros, there are several moments here that revisit classic elements from Genesis of the Daleks (1975), and every scene between Capaldi and Bleach in the infirmary crackles with tension as the Time Lord confronts his arch-enemy. Peter Capaldi is excellent, he brings so much gravitas to his role as the Doctor, but it is Julian Bleach as the wizened Davros who makes for the most riveting viewing in this episode with a outstanding turn as the Daleks creator that is almost on a par with Michael Wisher’s magnificent original performance as Davros from Genesis of the Daleks. Indeed, when Davros asks the Doctor “Are you ready to be a God?” there are echoes of a similar debate that Davros once had with the 4^th Doctor (Tom Baker) in Genesis of the Daleks – about unleashing a virus that could destroy all life in the universe – and the Dalek creator even eschews the 12^th Doctor’s own mission statement from Series 8 when he asks the Time Lord “Am I a good man?”

The Daleks are at their ruthless best once more, cold, calculating, and extremely protective of Davros. We also get to see a lot more of the Dalek city in this episode, a glorious re-imagining of the original 1963 sets and city model designed by the late Raymond Cusick, where Daleks now fly amongst its gleaming futuristic spires and towers. Scenes in these eerie corridors also resonate powerfully with the Daleks classic debut story. Putting Daleks from different eras of Doctor Who together on screen was an inspired move for these episodes, the Supreme Dalek and his new & classic Dalek minions make a formidable sight, and director Hettie Macdonald ramps up the horror as Clara and Missy descend into the grungy Dalek sewers where we discover even more disturbing qualities about these mad Skarosian tanks of bubbling hatred.

Jenna Coleman is exceptionally good here as Clara. Missy’s plan, to hijack a Dalek and then get into the city with Clara hiding inside the Dalek’s casing, is also reminiscent of the very first Dalek story, when Ian (William Russell) hid inside a Dalek, and we really get a sense of Clara’s fear as the casing closes around her – chillingly echoing the soufflé girls fate in Asylum of the Daleks (2012). Michelle Gomez is brilliant as the evil Missy, her incarnation of the renegade Time Lord is wickedly enchanting, and Missy’s summation of the genetically hard-wired Dalek remains condemned to rot in the sewers leads to a startling lesson in Dalek vocabulary for the Impossible Girl. Perhaps most unexpected of all is the comparison Missy makes with the Cybermen to explain how the Daleks reload, which like much said here in the Dalek sewers, certainly offers us plenty to dwell over…

After their ploy to reach Dalek control succeeds, Missy treacherously begins to bargain with the Daleks, and offers Clara “gift wrapped” inside the Dalek casing. Meanwhile, it seems the Doctor has been foolish enough to look into his enemy’s eyes, and believing him sincere, he willing uses a fraction of his regeneration energy to power the Hyperspace Relay and grant Davros his dying wish – to live long enough to see the sunrise on Skaro. But to the Doctor’s horror his regeneration energy is suddenly leeched away by Colony Sarff (disguised as the coils of the machine) where it is transferred into every Dalek on Skaro, making them into Dalek / Time Lord Hybrids, while also simultaneously revitalising Davros during the process! Perhaps inevitably Colony Sarff (Jami Reid-Quarell), the serpentine henchman of Davros, does get a little overshadowed by everything happening in this episode, but his menacing presence is still used to great effect.

The exciting finale has Missy arriving in the Infirmary to assist the Doctor at a critical moment, the Doctor reveals that he knew what Davros was planning, and soon generations of decaying mutant Dalek hatred – revitalised by the Doctor’s regeneration energy – is bubbling up from the bowls of Skaro to wreak havoc on the Dalek Empire! If that wasn’t exciting enough, everything is rounded of with a magnificent scene where the Doctor has to see through Missy’s deceptions to save Clara from her Dalek casing. A showdown with the Supreme Dalek follows just as the revolt of mutant sludge strikes the Dalek city, while Missy also has a really good idea at an opportune moment, and the Doctor and Clara are finally reunited with the TARDIS thanks to the Hostile Action Dispersal System – first used in the 2^nd Doctor story The Krotons (1968/9) and more recently in 2013’s 11^th Doctor story Cold War – and a very nifty pair of sonic shades. Soon the Doctor and Clara are ready to leave Davros and the Daleks to their fate. The contents of the confession dial remain a secret for now. But the question of how a tiny sliver of mercy managed to find its way into the DNA of Clara’s Dalek remains, and it is this startling moment of realisation that provides the Doctor with the impetus to complete one life-changing task before they set off on their adventures in time and space…

The Witch’s Familiar saves an exciting time-twisting surprise for the last moments of this opening two-part adventure. Steven Moffat ushers in some big timey-wimey developments in this episode. Some will admire the scale and ambition of Moffat’s vision, others will no doubt balk at his playing fast and loose with the rich tapestry of the series’ mythology, but this is still probably one of Moffat’s most ingenious storylines, and the pay-off is all the more powerful because of the Doctor’s unwavering sense of compassion and mercy.

The Witch’s Familiar certainly lives up to the expectations of this first half of this new season opener. I found this episode to be just as exciting, if not more so because of the face-off between the Doctor and Davros, there were moments here that seemed like a natural extension of classic scenes from Genesis of the Daleks, the Daleks were well served by the story, and the conclusion was outstanding! Series 9 is already shaping up to be one of the best yet, I really like the dynamic between the Doctor and Clara now, they make a great team, Missy was also excellent in these episodes, and the return of the two-part stories make for most a welcome – and long overdue – addition to the programmes format. Roll on the rest of Series Nine!

Images Belong: BBC

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Doctor Who The Magician’s Apprentice Review

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Clara Oswald, Colony Sarff, Daleks, Davros, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Series 9, Doctor Who The Magicians Apprentice Review, Hattie MacDonald, Jemma Redgrave, Jenna Coleman, Kate Stewart, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Ohila, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor, The Magicians Apprentice, The Sisterhood of Karn, UNIT

The Magician’s Apprentice

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

Doctor Who series 9 begins with the blockbusting premier episode The Magician’s Apprentice, where the skies of Earth have succumbed to a strange alien power as a desperate cry for help echoes from the past, and Clara Oswald needs to find her old friend the Doctor. But the Time Lord has gone missing, is this really the Doctor’s final night, and what terrible event could have driven the Doctor into hiding? Clara must join forces with the most unlikely ally of all if she is to find the Doctor, dark secrets from the past return, old foes will be confronted, and soon the Doctor will have to face the most impossible challenge of all …

The Magician’s Apprentice is about as epic and cinematic a series premier as Doctor Who has ever had, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie Macdonald (director of the highly acclaimed 2007 episode Blink), the opening moments alone quickly establish what we can expect from this the dark and ominous two-part story – and indeed the new series itself.

A blanket of fog swirls over a battlefield on a distant world as a child of fate runs though a mud-strewn land covered in Hand Mines… But what is the secret shame of this awful place that has made the Doctor take to the shadows, and who is the mysterious cloaked figure – Colony Sarff – that has been searching for the Doctor? When a bizarre alien force strikes the Earth, freezing passenger jets in the skies, not even Clara, Kate Stewart, and UNIT can locate the Doctor. So, when the Doctor’s old enemy Missy inexplicably reappears in a foreign locale, with a Confession Dial that holds the Doctor’s last will and testament, Clara must form an uneasy alliance with Missy to find the missing Time Lord. Their journey will take them across space and time, but the Doctor is already proceeding along a dark path of destiny, one that will soon lead him into the most terrible danger of all and a confrontation with his deadliest foes – the Daleks!

Peter Capaldi’s performance in the Magician’s Apprentice is little sort of superb, Capaldi seems completely at ease now in his role as the 12th Doctor, and his commanding presence permeates though every aspect of the episode. His incarnation of the Doctor is clearly not afraid of making difficult decisions either – or accepting the consequences of his actions. Jenna Coleman is also on fine form as Clara Oswald, and the erstwhile Impossible Girl once again proves she is as confident and resourceful as ever. Michelle Gomez returns as the new gender-swapped incarnation of the Master, Missy, to meddle in the Doctor’s and Clara’s lives again – while gleefully glossing over her apparent demise in the Series 8 finale Death in Heaven (2014) – and Gomez excels herself here as the Doctor’s wickedly evil nemesis. It’s also good to see Jemma Redgrave returning as Kate Stewart, along with UNIT, to deal with the crisis Missy has engineered to get their attention.

The Magician’s Apprentice is a big, bold adventure, set on a grand scale, and the pace doesn’t slow for a moment as time ladies Clara and Missy team-up to find the Doctor just as he is about to face his greatest moral dilemma and most ruthless adversary. The story travels between numerous locations in time and space: including a grim battlefield in the past, an alien bar, the grand fortress of the Shadow Proclamation, the planet Karn, an outlandish medieval tournament in Essex 1138 AD, and a very familiar looking city on the Daleks original home planet of Skaro…

The character of Ohila (Claire Higgins) from The Night of the Doctor (2013) also returns along with the Sisterhood of Karn (Last seen in the 1976 story The Brain of Morbius), and Ohila’s tense scenes with Colony Sarff (Jami Reid-Quarell) resonate powerfully with her appearance in the 1^st online prequel for Series 9. Jami Reid-Quarell is also very menacing as the snake-like Colony Sarff, a strange creature with a message for the Doctor, whose quest has taken him to the Maldovarium, the planet Karn to address the Sisterhood of Karn, and even the mighty Shadow Proclamation, but nobody seems to know where the Doctor is. The Magician’s Apprentice weaves a complex path through Doctor Who’s mythology – past and present – juggling extensive nods to the past and a wealth of continuity references, with some perhaps far more pertinent than others, along with a few surprise voices from the Doctor’s own past as well!

It seems the mad man in the blue box has really disappeared this time, because even the Daleks are looking for him! Yes, the Daleks are back with a vengeance in The Magician’s Apprentice. Daleks from throughout all of time have assembled to wreak havoc on the Doctor in a story that harkens right back to their origins. Nearly every type of Dalek that you can think of is here for this ultimate Dalek team-up! Seeing the original classic 1963/64 slivery-grey Dead Planet style Daleks, a black domed guard from Evil of the Daleks (1967), along with a grey Renegade and the Special Weapons Dales from Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), in the same scenes as gold / bronze modern era Daleks, a Dalek Sec style Black Dalek, overseen by the gleaming red and gold Supreme Dalek from The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End (2008) and its like all our fan-boy dreams have leapt from the pages of the old TV Century 21 comics to unleash maximum extermination on TV!

The Dalek city in The Magician’s Apprentice has been beautifully realised on screen in this episode, a clear homage to the original 1963 Dalek city on Skaro designed by the late Raymond Cusick, and its been reimagined here in exquisite detail. The design of the Daleks control room in this episode – whilst containing nods to Cusick’s designs – also provides a delightful throwback to the Peter Cushing Doctor Who films, Dr Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks’ Invasion of Earth 2550 AD (1966). Even the 12th Doctor’s revised costume has a hint of 60’s era of Doctor Who about it, especially the Hartnell style check trousers.

Ok, here we go. BIG SPOILER ALERT! The Daleks are back, Missy is back, but there’s one more old adversary vying for the title of the Doctor’s arch-enemy – much to Missy’s consternation – in this episode, Davros! Yes, the creator of the Daleks, the Dark Lord of Skaro, is dying, and he has sent Colony Sarff to bring the Doctor to his chamber on board a medical space station. Julian Bleach reprises his role from 2008’s The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End, giving a blood-chilling performance, and the malevolent creator of the Daleks certainly has a few nasty surprises for the Doctor! The lines between past and present blur constantly as the young boy Davros, played by Joey Price, cries for help ring out across time to haunt the Doctor, and I can’t think of one instance in the history of Doctor Who where sound of the TARDIS dematerialising has ever sounded so cruel…

The Magician’s Apprentice is a great start to the new series. In fact, there’s so much going on in this first episode of the opening two-part series premier that it actually feels more like a series finale! Steven Moffat has gone for big spectacle, high drama, and full timey-wimey overload for The Magician’s Apprentice. Drawing heavily on the programmes past, the intricate plot is dark, intense, and even the 4^th Doctor’s iconic “If someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you, and told you that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives… could you then kill that child?” speech from 1975’s Genesis of the Daleks takes on a whole new perspective in the context of the Doctor’s actions in The Magician‘s Apprentice – setting up some interesting themes that will no doubt impact on the ongoing narrative of new series. There are moments of wry humour too, particularly when Missy and Clara are working together, the way Missy compares the Daleks plan to destroy the TARDIS with a certain part of a Dalek casing is another standout moment, and it’s clear that the Doctor’s bond with Clara is now even stronger than ever.

Exciting, if initially a little bewildering, The Magician’s Apprentice, while somewhat grim at times, also has a great sense of adventure and fun – especially when the Doctor makes a surprise – if somewhat superfluous – rock and roll entrance with an electric guitar! It’s a story that probably needs multiple viewing to fully appreciate every nuance of the storyline, even the Sonic Screwdriver has an unexpectedly significant role to play, but despite the slight overloading of the script there is still a lot to enjoy here. Once all the characters have been drawn together, a space station that isn‘t quite what it seems leads to a fittingly epic face-off between the Doctor and Davros, and the build up to that first glimpse of the Dalek city and then the Daleks themselves are both breathtaking moments.

Minor quibbles aside, I really enjoyed this first episode, and thought it got the new series off to a fantastic start. The Magician’s Apprentice races towards an incredibly exciting cliff-hanger, the stakes get raised impossibly high as the full horror of the Daleks plan actually sends the Doctor to his knees, and you will be left wondering how those nerve-jangling final moments can possibly be resolved in the conclusion of this two-part story – The Witch’s Familiar.

Images Belong: BBC

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