Series 9 - The Witch's Familiar

          Ooh, that was quite good, wasn’t it? Two parters in modern Who have often fallen into the trap of one part being big and brash, and the second being more low key. Following on from “The Magician’s Apprentice”, “The Witch’s Familiar” kept the story moving, offered explanations and genuinely felt like the continuation of the first part. If this is how this season of multi-part stories is going to play out, then I am all in.

The explanation for Missy and Clara’s escape wasn’t a cheat as far as I’m concerned, and framing it against a story about the Doctor (and wasn’t the black and white lovely?) helped add to its authenticity.  Missy and Clara are fantastic together. I’ve seen others notice a similarity between their “partnership” and the Delgado Master/Jo Grant relationship during the Pertwee era. I already feel that the Michelle Gomez incarnation is the closest we’ve gotten to the Roger Delgado Master, and I can absolutely see the parallels. The Missy and Clara scenes in the Dalek sewers were some fine examples of the two playing off of each other. Missy is insane and knows it, Clara knows it, but when Michelle Gomez plays it straight without the “bananas” front and center, you can almost see Clara trying to keep from respecting her. While I write this, I remembered the Sharaz Jek and Peri scene from “The Caves of Androzani”, “You think I’m mad?... I am mad”. You could give that line to Missy and she would knock it out of the park.

Michelle Gomez and Jenna Coleman would be enough to make this story great, but then we get to the Doctor and Davros. My God, but Capaldi and Julian Bleach are on fire in their scenes. Two ancient enemies, but more similar than I think either one would ever care to admit. Asking each other the questions that only lifelong enemies can raise. Davros “weakening” more than we have ever seen (or will ever see again, I’d wager) to get to the Doctor’s compassion, his mercy. Giving up some of his regeneration energy so that his archenemy can see one last sunrise? This is a Doctor who will sacrifice. He may just be an “idiot with a box,” but I don’t think there can be any doubt that the Doctor is a Good Man. The switch by Davros, switched again to the double bluff by the Doctor doesn’t lessen that. I really think that if Davros HAD been telling the truth the whole time (and part of me thinks there were moments where he was) the Doctor would have sacrificed that regeneration energy, let Davros die, and call it a day. He’s not stupid, our hero, but he is compassionate. Will he die of it, as Davros insinuates? Foreshadowing for Capaldi’s eventual regeneration (long may that day be postponed)? His “I wouldn’t die of anything else” echoes Chris Eccleston’s “Coward. Any day.” Frankly, how often has the Doctor died for his compassion already? At least 5 times, by my reckoning. Is it any wonder that this character is my hero?

A top notch conclusion to the opening two-parter, “The Witch’s Familiar” cements Missy as a Master who is every inch the Doctor’s equal and opposite. Davros became once again a silk tongued nemesis, without the ranting and insanity that other stories have made the default. As for our two leads, they are where they belong – the Doctor and Clara Oswald, in the TARDIS.