Doctor Who Series 9 episode 2 review - The Witch's Familiar

Not really got any introductory blurb for this one so... Let's take a look

OK, what the freaking heck is up with these titles? They are completely unrelated to the context of the episode (apart from the Doctor being declared a wizard in a minor scene in the first episode and let’s be honest, it was a throwaway line) obviously they were designed to be non-spoilerish since the main bulk of the plot was easy to spoil, especially in the first episode.

But I digress, this episode was… surreal. It was weird, really, really weird, from Clara and Missy working together to Davros crying at the thought of the Doctor recovering his homeworld of Galiffrey. Nothing about it seemed right and it was all a bit head scratching

Then the last 10 or so minutes happened, and suddenly everything fell into place. The Doctor’s back to being clever, Missy’s still psychotic but the Doctor has no delusions over it, Davros is back to being the evil villainous mastermind we know and love and Clara and the Doctor finally share a scene together after being apart for the majority of this opener.

So let’s sum up the plot. Davros makes a play to the Doctor’s morality in an attempt to create some Dalek-Time Lord hybrid that was greater than the sum of its parts (haven’t we done this one already?) whilst Missy and Clara, who survived thanks to teleport bracelets (the ones that allowed Missy to survive her last encounter) attempt to rescue the Doctor by infiltrating the city with Clara dressed as a Dalek

I didn’t care much for the Clara/Missy bits, sure it set up the ending but the dynamic was used largely for comic relief so that rather lost my interest. I’m glad the relationship between Missy and the Doctor seems to be more one-sided because that was my major gripe with the last episode.

Gripes with this one, where do I even start? How can the Doctor create regeneration energy at will? Since when did the TARDIS have a failsafe to prevent it from being exterminated and a force field that deflects Dalek blasts (extrapolator shielding only absorbed them)? Why does Davros think that the Daleks have compassion for their creator when they’ve routinely sided against him (think back to old who folks, the Daleks fought wars against one another)? What was the point of that snake assassin? What is his backstory and origin?

Also, does the Doctor’s actions in this episode explain the mercy screaming Dalek back in the season 5 finale? (It talked only to River, so I can see why the Doctor was unfamiliar)

This episode did not blow me away in the way I Moffatt intended it to. The plot was like coming out of a fog and seeing the daylight for the first time in a while. Any light would’ve looked great. I’ll at least give it credit for it not retreading old ground and not doing a full Genesis of the Daleks (the child was barely a plot point in this episode) but its flaws are sadly too hard to ignore

Rating 6/10

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from Doctor Who and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use