S9E2: The Witch's Familiar (MAJOR SPOILERS)

That's really all that matters.If you enjoy it,then it's great.

RED DALEK



I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!

It would appear that the need to have "great scenes" with "lots of great acting" and "poignant moments" takes a priority over the plot making any sense and even recent continuity counting.  

Sure there were great scenes and I enjoyed Davros cackling when he got the Doctor caught in his trap.  Who doesn't enjoy Clara getting pushed down a hole even if it was obvious?  But we now know that the Doctor has been a selfish jerk who never bothered to share his regeneration energy with any of the other countless folks he said he really was fighting to save.  Yes we've seen similar gimmicks before, but always with the TARDIS or River who was half-timelord something or other.  I didn't like them before because it means the Doctor wasn't being as selfless as assumed.  It could be explained away as a one time thing.  Now that there are no more excuses and he can share with anyone, it just makes things a bit worse.

They got through 5 years without ever mentioning Time Lords and 10 years without ever mentioning Gallifrey.  There were golden ages around Seasons 12 and 13 where there were no interior TARDIS scenes period.  

I'd love to see a solid standalone story that doesn't rely on fan mythos or exploring new aspects of the Doctor's past.  A few gags are enjoyable, but not 80% slapstick and 20% tear-jerking emotion.  At least Missy tried to trick the Doctor into shooting Clara.  Even if the how and why didn't jive with anything before (and the killer Dalek poo conclusion was a bit silly).

Get rid of the sonic screwdriver?  Great!  Replace it with sonic sunglasses?  Cringeworthy.  The non-fans I had to watch this with were howling with derision.  I couldn't hide my head far enough to avoid the verbal abuse.  Must return to pre-viewing these online before risking a viewing with anyone else in the room.

Brain of Davros wrote:

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!!!!

Quote :

4.The Tardis being destroyed supposedly and brought back like nothing using the new sunglasses?!?!

When the TARDIS appeared to explode into a million pieces under a barrage of Dalek energy beams on Saturday night, fans were probably about as worried as they were last week when Clara and Missy were apparently vaporised by the tinpot terrors.

We now know the blue box is indeed safe (just like the Doctor's two best friends) – but how exactly did it survive? Four words: Hostile Action Displacement System.

The HADS, as the Doctor often likes to call it, is a TARDIS defence mechanism which – when he actually remembers to switch it on – sees the TARDIS automatically jump to a nearby safe location when it comes under threat (given that he did decide to engage it this time, the Doctor clearly thought a trip to meet Davros could potentially contain some mild peril...)

The HADS was first referred to in 1968 story The Krotons and was used a couple of times by the Fifth Doctor – once in a plan that foiled the Daleks, so they really should have seen it coming this time – and intermittently after that.

It was first referenced in New Who when the 11th Doctor sent the TARDIS to safety from a sinking submarine near the North Pole in series seven episode Cold War. The TARDIS reappeared a short while later... but at the South Pole. In seres eight's Kill the Moon, when the 12th Doctor assured Clara the Tardis would "turn up somewhere" she reminded him "last time you said that it ended up on the wrong side of the planet."

So the fact that it returned to the same place on Skaro this time suggests it's working better than ever...

So your saying we've all been HADS?!

It's a real thing huh?Ok sunglasses for everyone!And yes they are cool😎

"Coming Soon to WHONA Sonic Sunglasses 59.99 by foster Grant"

Ya cuz The Future's So Bright,We Gotta Wear Shades😎

See it all makes sense now

This episode really has me torn. I like the confrontation with Davros, and that the Doctor comes out on top morally again. Cool to see all the old skool daleks. Can't help but think of foreshadowing when Clara is in the dalek.

Liquid daleks were interesting. Almost zombies. The Dalek poo analogy doesn't bother me. They are living dead daleks. The sewers are more catacombs. The scene of the Doc stealing Davros' chair made me laugh.

Good mixture of humor and drama. But this show REALLY needs a break from Daleks and Cybermen. Missy IMO did a good job. I've gotten over how gimmicky the female Master regen is. Were the shades a nod to Roddy Piper's film They Live? Is the season long story arc that we will find out what the Doctor's confession is?

You want to know his confession?













He peed in the Pools of Rassilon when he was at the Academy on Gallifrey and blamed it on the Master causing him to be expelled and become evil.
So basically everything bad that's ever happened in the Universe is the Doctor's fault for one reason or another.

I was thinking more along the lines of the Doc actually being the Master. Perhaps he became the Doc to atone for his sins. So his first 13 lives were the Master, then the Time Lords blanked his memory and gave him a new set of lives. But over the past 2000 years of traveling, the memory block has worn off. Moffat is crazy like that, so you never can tell.

Then the Master is the good guy/girl and the Doctor must Die t.

Or

Susan was really the Master's daughter(mentioned by Missy last ep)and the Doctor had to "run" from Gaillifrey in order to save her from being killed by the Master for her regeneration cycle or whatever.

Too many possibilities but I bet the one Moffat choses won't be good.

Heres Another Clue for you all: The Walrus was Paul...... I couldn't resist.

I have my Sonic Sunglasses Preordered !!!!!!

Guessing what the big reveal about the Doctor is like Apples New Product Launches.  You get so excited from the Hype and disappointed upon the reveal.  

I hope they Never Reveal what he is Running from.

I suspect a Crazy Ex time lady girlfriend that was Stalking him that he met on E-Timelord com a Dating site for the Single TimeLord? Crazy Ex's make us all Run.  

Or he slept with Rassilon's Daughter and Dumped her.  He left her for a Dalek with better Bumps .

Just got an Email my Sunglasses just Shipped later !

I hope they don't reveal what he is running from either. Just leave it a mystery. Have him leave the confession dial on Karn. Keep running.

I hope they leave the Doctor's past pre Hartnell alone for this series.

I'd rather a reboot at around the 60th anniversary and start from the very beginning after Capaldi is done and we get a Big Budget movie first.

Then start from the beginning on Gallifrey and explore his origins in grand scale.

Davros' plan as far as the Doctor understands it? Kill Clara and punish him, or maybe team-up and pull the cables to wipe out the Daleks, or get some moral assurance that Davros is a good man for meaning well when he created the Daleks. Lots of great drama in each of the individual scenes, but put them all together and you get an odd personality disorder type of show that isn't quite coherent from one scene to the next.

How did the Daleks not recognize Missy when they recaptured her? They just exterminated her a few hours before. Oh that's right, they ignored continuity from the previous week's episode so that Missy could utter something out of character for The Master, or really for any Timelord we've seen before.

The HADS had been ignored for decades and is well described by SJA. But previously the TARDIS had been displaced to a new location that the Doctor had to find. This time the TARDIS dispersed into tiny fragments, yet somehow the "forcefield" of the TARDIS shell was still there. None of the Daleks bumped into it and the Doctor can walk right through it. He then was able to reform all the fragments back around him and pop, he and Clara are safe inside. Another clever idea that doesn't seem to jive. Even using pseudo-science I'm still not sure what that forcefield was or how it worked.

It would all be far more clever if the writers figured out how to work around the established rules rather than inventing new powers that seem to make the Doctor invincible when needed. Removes any sense of danger the rest of the time if you know that there can be a new, unexplained ability to save the Doctor.

You have to admit so far in 2 Episodes, Blowing Season 8 Away.  No Danny Clara Soap Opera Crap!.  


I look at this episode and See Merchandising Potential !

Coming soon From Underground Toys Old Dalek Sewer Goo $99.99
Missy Pointy Stick 39.99
Davros Speeding Chair custom made for Capaldi 449.99, with Peter Capaldi Butt imprint 999.99
Support Bra for Dalek Bumps 24.99 Victoria Secrets

Come Soon to the E Channel Keeping up with Dalek Kardashian !!!

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I laughed out loud when missy poked Davros in the Eye. lol #ThreeStooges

Ya I must admit I did chuckle at the eye poke too 😋 She has become the Joker.

I'll give Moffat credit though because he did answer the one question I did have in the Whoniverse.

What's worse than a Dalek?

A Dalek covered in Shite!

The Master has been The Joker since John Simm so it's consistent.

I didn't like it then either but what can you do.

I guess Moffat is already doing Moriarty in Sherlock so we have to suffer a psycho in a dress for a few years

Why were these called The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar?

The Doctor is The Magician & Clara is his apprentice because she tries to follow his example, whereas Missy is The Witch & Clara is her familiar because she merely uses her like a tool.

So all comes down to Clara again!!!

Believe me when I tell you all that I will relish her death on screen more than you can imagine.
Of course I blame Moffat again because I liked her at first.

Wait, why is Clara getting the blame this week? Other than the start of Magician's Apprentice these first two episodes have been pretty Clara-lite with her not contributing to the resolution.

squishy wrote:

Wait, why is Clara getting the blame this week?  Other than the start of Magician's Apprentice these first two episodes have been pretty Clara-lite with her not contributing to the resolution.

Yeah, I enjoyed her in both episodes.

She was ok but I think I'm over her these days,and she should have been gone last year.

Ronpur wrote:

NuWHo is made for them...

Truth -- and sadly these last couple of episodes have really hammered that point home for me. More than ever, nuWho is about quirky character moments involving characters that, sadly, aren't really all that compelling. It's cheeky; it's snarky... and it's soulless nonsense. I cringed every time that Davros attempted to claim the moral high ground over the Doctor; this is the dude who created murdertanks with the express goal of exterminating every other sentient race in the universe. Davros asking, "Am I a good man?" even as he asserts that the Doctor embrace genocide so that he can feel the power of a god? Give me a break. The script offers a reason for the incoherence of this exchange -- that each party was trying to manipulate the other -- but a script that feels the need to explicitly handwave its own glaring weaknesses reveals itself for the disjointed garbage it is.

Thanks for the memories, guys. Glad y'all are still at it.