Doctor Who: The Magician's Apprentice & The Witch's Familiar

After another year's absence Doctor Who is back with a series boasting an almost exclusive return to two part adventures (episodes nine and ten are single part episodes and five and six are 'connected'), which makes me very excited. I find that two parters in Doctor Who allows the writers a lot more room to go deeper with the supporting cast while also providing big, worthy foes that can't be beaten in five minutes due to the time restraints of a forty five minute episode. An entire series full of them makes me very happy indeed even if Series 8 proved that the single episode format could work well too. At any rate it's another interesting shake up to the series formula that has been constantly fluctuating since series six. Here are my spoiler filled thoughts on the first two parter written by showrunner Steven Moffat:

- To summarize by biggest criticism with this middling opening story: it took way too long to get to the point. Davros summoning the Doctor to Skaro and having Missy and Clara tag along before being exterminated should have been in the first 15 minutes, so why did it take 45 minutes to get there? A lot of the opening episode's fluff was pointless: Colony Sarff, the doctor dying (AGAIN?!), UNIT and the plane fiasco didn't add anything substantial to the story. NON OF IT gets brought back up, it's the most egregious padding I've ever seen. In fact if you were to just watch 'The Witch's Familiar' you wouldn't be missing out on anything storywise that wasn't recapped in the previously on trailer. Not everything in 'The Magician's Apprentice' was redundant though, the Doctor rocking a guitar on top of a tank was one of the best Doctor entrances ever. If the first 20 minutes was all just an excuse for that guitar scene then I'll curmudgeonly accept it, but while being a cool image it doesn't add anything to the story. 

This scene would have been great if it was actually in the episode.

- The big shocker of the premiere is that Davros is back, and he's responsible for all of this story's meat. The pre-titles sequence with young Davros surrounded by the 'hand mines' (another great Moffat creation) was a shocking way to immediately suck the audience back in...if you're a Doctor Who fan that is. It seems odd to open the series with such a continuity heavy story, most series openers are light and fluffy to ease potential new viewers in. Fans from series 8 will of course recognize Missy but when it comes to Skaro, Davros (last seen in 2008!) and the multitude of locations glimpsed at in the beginning this was very much a story that glaringly echoes back to old Who. 1975's 'Genesis Of The Daleks' seems to be a big influence here with the fourth Doctor's speech about going back in time and killing a 'ruthless dictator' suddenly becoming a lot more relevant now, including Davros' argument about genocide being necessary. It's ballsy to directly reference one of Doctor Who's most well regarded stories but it added a real weight to the first episode's plot. 

- Also returning is Missy, despite being dead for only one episode. When two characters (let's not forget Davros) can seemingly come back from visibly dying with no explanation given whatsoever then any tension immediately gets dissipated. Granted this isn't Game Of Thrones so we're not going to see anyone important being killed off, but death must still have weight. The cliffhanger to 'The Magicians Apprentice' left me completely cold because of how clearly un-dead Missy, Clara and the TARDIS were. Especially seen as Clara is clearly still alive in the rest of the season. The intrigue must therefore derive from how they survived but even that was devoid of mystery because both of them clearly teleported away with the device on their wrists, the solution that everyone thought off. The final cliffhanger to part 1 though, of the Doctor going back in time and seemingly wanting to kill young Davros was much more interesting and juicy, so I wasn't happy to see it was a cop out by being a flash forward to the end of part 2. It almost like they knew the cliffhanger needed more weight and tacked that bit on at the end. 

It's quite a big deal when Davros comes back, his last appearance was 7 years ago.

- If 'The Magicians Apprentice' was a lot of egregious padding, surely 'The Witch's Familiar' would handle the real meat of the story? Well...turns out there isn't a lot to this story after all. The Doctor/Davros conversations that rekindled old arguments were substantial but everything else feels like it could have all been wrapped up in a 45 minute episode, 60 minutes at the most. Davros just wants to trick the Doctor's into using his regeneration energy to turn his Daleks into Dalek/Timelord hybrids or something...It's not really clear what the beneficial effects are exactly other than rejuvenating dying Davros but I'll go with it. The Doctor knew Davros would trick him into doing this though, and...oh jesus I can't believe I'm typing this...he also knew that the living Dalek waste from the sewers beneath the Dalek city on Skaro would come alive (because of his regen energy) and attack the city above, seemingly destroying it?

- Yes that's right, the Daleks are defeated by brown sludge that is for all intents and purposes sh*t. They diarrhea'd the Daleks to death, that's seriously what happened! It's impossible for me to get my head around this inexplicably dumb resolution, it's literally sh*t. The Daleks were beaten by sh*t (Dalek's can levitate so why is the poo such an apocalyptic issue)? And the Doctor knows about this mutant sludge apparentely, which seems unlikely because he wasn't even aware Skaro existed until now so how could he have known about the sewers? He must have predicted that the Master would have saved him from being tied down with Colony Sarff too, because how else was he going to get out of that energy draining...thing? And as for regen energy, the Doctor has never shown that he can use regeneration energy at will. If he can heal people with this stuff then why doesn't he use it more often?! Moffat clearly just gave up when it came to resolving this thing, I'm just in awe of the sloppy way they all escaped. The Doctor's plan was dumb and Davros was dumb for thinking the Doctor would fall for his crying shtick. It's all very dumb.

- All of the hints pointing towards an interesting philosophical debate in part 1 didn't actually amount to much in 'The Witch's Familiar' either. The implication that the Doctor might have been responsible for making Davros who he is was a great idea to explore but it went nowhere, therefore sucking a lot of the story's perceived importance away and barely scratching the surface of some genuinely interesting moral debates. Should you save a child in danger that will grow up to be a ruthless dictator? Yes apparently, but we don't get a good reason as to why.

Skip the first 20 minutes, it'll be irrelevant to the rest of the story.

- Every Doctor / Davros meeting has always been a great clash of two opposing minds and despite my misgivings with this two parter Moffat executed their ancient rivalry very well.  'Their final conversation' didn't seem very final though, it seems everytime these two meet we get a little bit closer to seeing what makes them both tick in each others presence without ever actually going all the way. The fact that both of them were trying to fool one another didn't help either, because that implies that a lot of the discussions had weren't genuine and led to no serious character development. It's a shame that Davros getting emotional for a change was an act, it would have a garnered a lot more sympathy for his character, but oh well (props should go to Julian Bleach who gave an Oscar worthy performance trapped inside a muppet faced rubber mask). Davros, like the Daleks, will never change. Instead he remained a maniacal, arrogant, manipulating schemy bastard who just so happened to be a deformed cripple in a chair. Ever since 1975 he has continued to be a fascinating villain and an interesting foil to the Doctor, so I really hope we get to see more of him sooner rather than later.

- Onto the Daleks themselves, why are there so many different models on display? In 'Asylum' it made sense because they were all outdated models but here having all sorts of Daleks featured over the years alongside the bronze versions just makes no sense apart from fan service. Aren't they supposed to be outdated models? Did Davros salvage them or something? Seeing the special weapons Dalek back again was cool though, shame HE STILL DID NOTHING WITH HIS GIANT GUN! WHEN YOU GIVE A DALEK A BIG GUN YOU USE IT GODDAMMIT! 

- Troublingly this is their second story in a row that has failed to grab me. Why can't we just go back to the ruthless killing machines of yore? A time when one solitary Dalek elicited an 'oh sh*t!' response? In the Steven Moffat era Daleks have been reduced to a joke, now even their own sh*t can seemingly defeat a massive army of them and their kill count has been significantly reduced. That's not how you handle the Doctor's greatest enemy, they're supposed to be unstoppable ruthless killing machines inside a mini-tank. GET IT RIGHT NEXT TIME.

Colony Sarff was a fun monster but was again just there for flavor.

- My issues with the script aside, how great is Michelle Gomez in this story? She's clearly having the time of her life and brought a lot of fun to a story that doesn't really need her there. Like the series 8 finale the Joker parallels are getting more and more evident but a likeably crazy villain who eats up the screen is a good thing for any show to have as long as it's in manageable doses. Her canary/miner team up with Clara was a great diversion, although if they immediately got back to the city then what was the point of them getting fake exterminated anyway? Answer: Moffat needed a cliffhanger and they needed something to for them to do in part two while the Doctor was reminiscing with Davros. On the negative side of her character I am slightly huffing at the 'softening' of Missy here, she seems a lot less brutal now than she was in 'Death In Heaven'. And by turning the likeability factor of a mass murderer up to ten I have trouble seeing her as a villain anymore and I'm not sure that was the right way to go with the Master. She should be in a lot of ways the anti-Doctor, not his friend. Even with this new, slightly less bloodthirsty version of Missy who is more team-up friendly I also just couldn't see why Clara wouldn't want to kill her every single second she was in that Dalek because of what happened with Danny (this was only two episodes ago!). No scathing remarks from her, nothing. It completely goes against her character at the end of series 8. Still I'm all for more Gomez and considering both villains got out of this story with more than enough leeway for a return ('I've got a great plan' seemed to hint at a Master/Dalek team-up down the line!) I hope she'll be back before the series is over to tie up some loose ends.

- In terms of Capaldi's performance this season I'm a bit worried. Season 9 has so far dropped his blunt, thinly veiled assholery that made him so entertaining last year. As much as I loved him rolling around on Davros' chair and the guitar solo these all seem like things that Capaldi's Doctor from season 8 wouldn't be caught dead doing. I understand he's more assured of himself now that he's done with the 'Am I a good man?' shtick (wonderfully echoed by Davros this time around) but all of that vulnerability that was played up in series 8 suits Capaldi a lot more. In this story he comes off as a bit generic Doctor personality-wise with nothing distinguishing him from Tennant or Smith. I'm hoping that will go away in the next story (he'll be interacting with people other than Clara, Missy or Davros). Basically I liked the dick version of 12, and I want dick 12 back. 

The Doctor's guitar solo was the best part! Loving Capaldi's aged rocker look.

- Sadly Clara wasn't given a lot to do in the opening story other than be Missy's tag along. It was cute seeing her back inside a Dalek and being hilariously mistreated by Missy in 'The Witch's Familiar' but you could have cut both her and Missy out of this story and almost nothing would have changed. Like Capaldi she also came across as being 'generic companion' with nothing to set her apart from anyone else. They might as well have just inserted 'INSERT RANDOM COMPANION HERE' into the script.

- With the exception of the Doctor's confession dial (oh look, another mystery about the Doctor's past!) there wasn't a lot here in the way of hinting at character arcs or setting up the following series with some sort of running theme. What's Clara's journey this season going to be like? Will she evolve like in Series 8? Is there a recurring plot? Will the Doctor continue with this non grumpy phase? I'm hoping the status quo will once again be shook because that's what made Series 8 so great: Clara and the Doctor had evolved significantly by the end and almost became different people entirely. I will be severely disappointed if Series 9 doesn't have the same effect.  

- Other little things that annoyed me: The TARDIS not being destroyed but 'atomically' dispersed was more hand-wavey bullsh*t along with the Doctor all of a sudden having a cup of tea all when confronting the Daleks in Davros' chair (let's not forget Missy's rope either). No, I won't just 'accept it' Moffat, there is literally NO explanation for that! And now all of a sudden we're getting rid of the sonic for a pair of sunglasses?! If this is a continuing thing then I'm not sold, the Doctor 'sonicing' with sunglasses on is not a good idea, period. Maybe as a new gadget sure, but replacing the sonic? No way. Also, why the weird titles? 'The Magician's Apprentice' & 'The Witch's Familiar'. I can't even begin to figure out where these magically sounding names fit into a story about Davros and the Daleks. You could make the case that they could be alluding to Davros or Clara depending on the episode but that's still frustratingly vague and tells us nothing about what this story is about. I'm just going to hold out hope and assume the titles will in hindsight end up signifying something later down the line, maybe after the finale.  

Capaldi's reaction to reading the script: 'Good god, Dalek poo. THAT IS HOW IT ENDS?!'

Overall I wish there was more to this two parter that I could recommend but there isn't anything substantial here other than Davros inexplicably returning for a good chat. It was a good chat but it could have been so much more. This started out as a story with seemingly a lot to say but slowly devolved into something far simpler and much less interesting. Even the twist with child Davros didn't amount to much, it was a gimmick to give the story more weight in part 1 than it warranted. 'The Witch's Familiar' revealed that this wasn't really a story about Davros and the Doctor debating ethics, it was just another bog standard Dalek plot with an awful resolution (DALEK. POO. JESUS CHRIST) complete with a heavy amount of padding in part 1 to fill time. This isn't a good start to the new series at all so it's hopefully not an indicator of what's to come. Consider me extremely disappointed.  

Positives:

+ Davros is back!
+ Lot's of quality Davros/Doctor time
+ Missy was consistently entertaining and insane
+ Pre titles sequence with kid Davros: holy sh*t!
+ The Doctor's magnificent entrance in 'The Magician's Apprentice'

Negatives:

- Story doesn't amount to much
- A LOT of unnecessary scenes, mostly just adding flavor
- Where did the Doctor get that cup of tea from?
- Pacing is off in 'The Witch's Familiar', not a lot of action
- Davros' plan isn't very clear
- The Doctor's escape plan isn't very clear
- The Daleks were defeated by sh*t
- Sonic sunglasses
- The cup of tea, for no reason other than 'because'
- Missy and the Daleks softened as villains, not very threatening
- Capaldi lost his edge
- Why are there so many different Dalek types?
- How did Davros survive the events of 'Journey's End'?
- THE SPECIAL WEAPONS DALEK DIDN'T DO SH*T