Doctor Who Review : Series 9 Episode 2 - "The Witch's Familiar"
The Doctor is trapped and alone on the planet Skaro, at the heart of the Dalek empire, no sonic, no TARDIS, no help. After last week's hair raising cliffhanger which left all us viewers guessing and wanting more, the answers were all finally revealed and things came to their natural conclusion to resolve this two part story.
Should probably put a spoiler alert out before I start this review, you may not want to read this if you haven't seen the episode and don't wish it to be spoiled for you.
As an episode I really enjoyed "The Witch's Familiar" it wasn't any out of this world or brilliant, but I did think it was good. It's not uncommon for me to enjoy new doctor who. I know there are some pretentious people out there and think I love every classic series story and hate every new series story which isn't true at all.
I really liked the way the episode started, the pre title scene with Missy and Clara and how they managed to escape The Daleks. We get to learn how Missy survived after she was blasted in Death in Heaven (Last year's series finale) I've become drawn to like Missy now. Michelle Gomez, just has that talent of acting strange in a very weird and disturbing way but at the same time she gets one up on you, I feel like she understands her character totally and plays it the way it should be done - straight and also a little bonkers but not over doing it. I also liked the fact that for the majority of this episode Clara was with Missy. They work very well together and the dynamic they have is very different to the type of dynamic Clara has with The Doctor. It's always good to mix things up and do the right things when they come along.
So we are five minutes into this episode and Where's The Doctor? He's with Davros. It's clear that Davros and The Doctor have a history together. This episode attempts to deal with issues that have been left unresolved since 'Genesis of the Daleks' back in 1975. I have to say both Peter Capaldi and Julian Bleech give fantastic performances in those one to one scenes. It's been a while since we got a good one to one stand off between The Doctor with any big baddie really. I feel like we got it in this episode. It was a lot better developed then say 'Journey's End' for me at least, because when you got a baddie as good as Davros who is up there in the top 5 as The Doctor's worst enemies as he is the man behind the Daleks. The Daleks have killed millions of people and destroyed planets, dominated and terrorised throughout the whole entirety of the shows history.
I'm not overly keen on one to one stand offs, I tend to be very particular, mainly because I find them lacklustre in terms of action. There have been some great one to one stand offs in plays, films and tv shows which I have liked, but a one to one stand off done badly is very dull and boring. This wasn't dull and boring at all, what Davros and the Doctor talk about in this episode, the last time there was a one to one stand off as good as that between the Doctor and Davros was in the Big Finish story "Davros" (2003) with Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor and Terry Malloy's Davros.
I really liked watching those scenes and Davros as a character has hidden agendas as well, showing symphony and affection actually congratulating The Doctor and showing a more sentimental side. What did it for me was when Davros opened his eyes for the first time, that was the first time we saw that happen on screen. (being nit picky however, seeing as Davros was in a tragic and horrific accident, I would have preferred it and it would have looked more realistic if the eyes were pink, maybe a bit more blood shot perhaps.) he's never opened his eye's why? well now we know. of course it was all an act to get The Doctor to hand over his regeneration energy but it was very cleverly done.
Another favourite part of mine was Dalek Clara, and the identity of showing a friend within the foe. I thought that was really good, it's very original especially with this type of enemy (the daleks). I liked all of Clara's bits in this story, both parts one and two. Jenna gives off a very strong performance throughout.
The only nip picks were, the eyes could have been a bit more blood shot - a bit pink, sonic glasses, the ending was spoiled a bit by having it rushed. I think it needed a bit more polishing just to resolve it as 'the end' just to round things off.
Overall, praises all round, no heavy criticism's this week which I love. I want to watch Doctor Who and enjoy it, I love it, it's my favourite show on TV. I never want to not moan about it. but not all the stories are brilliant. Great Dalek stuff going on, nice mixtures of different types of dalek. Mainly though it did what it set out to achieve which was focus on The Doctor and Davros which it did. The only thing I was confused about was the title.
I'll give 4/5. Making it 7/10 for the whole story.
NEXT WEEK : Under the Lake.
