Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 2 – “The Witch’s Familiar” (2015)

Is “The Witch’s Familiar” a better-written, better-plotted episode than “The Magician’s Apprentice?”  Hard to say.  It has its share of slapdash storytelling, it teases yet another unappealing-sounding prophecy, and there’s one reveal at the end that’s just straight-up silly.  Also, it doesn’t quite feel cohesive as the conclusion to what came before it, like the two episodes are pieces of the same picture, but each is from a differently-cut puzzle.  However, I was completely along for the ride with this one and enjoyed it immensely.  Goes to show how willing I am to love all things Who when the characters are relatively on-point.

I feel like I can say even less about the plot than last week.  Basically, big Doctor-Davros heart-to-heart with some accusations, some rebuttals, some moral questions, and some subterfuge.  Meanwhile, demented odd-couple team-up featuring Clara and Missy (who calls Clara the canary to Missy’s miner.)  The episode expands a bit more on the make-up and workings of the Daleks as well.

I love the Doctor here, which is maybe weird, because he doesn’t technically do much.  This whole story is strangely light on things actually happening, and in this episode in particular, Clara and Missy get almost all the action.  That leaves the Doctor to his discourse with Davros, much of which is pretty great.  The Doctor has evidently thought long and hard about the “Who am I?” question since last season, because he has some terrific things to say about it, and the history between him and Davros really comes through.  Both last week and here, the prickliness seems severely reduced.  Not sure if this is due to extenuating circumstances or if it’s a revamp of the Doctor’s character.  Hopefully, it’s the former – as I’ve said, I don’t like it when he crosses over into dickish, but I love me some cantankerous Twelve.  He can be compassionate and love adventure and get grumpy about things, which I love about him.  It wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me, but I don’t want him too ironed out.

It’s fun to watch Clara and Missy working sort-of together.  Once again, Missy is used to good effect, being clever and pulling in insights that comes from lifetimes of knowing the Doctor.  I like, though, that she’s still completely evil with a capital “self-serving.”  She screws with people and does horrible things basically because she feels like it, and while she may ally with you if your interests temporarily overlap with hers, don’t take your eyes off her for a second, because she will throw you under the bus when she sees an advantage in it.  That’s good – she’s the kind of baddie that really just needs to stay bad, and too many villains’ characters suffer if they’re neutered to keep them around more conveniently.  On the Clara front, it’s not a big “win” episode for her, but she again demonstrates concern for and understanding of the Doctor.  We’re two episodes into this run, and the writers haven’t made her do anything that really aggravates me.  Has the show turned over a new leaf re: Clara?  Please, please, please!

I will say that the episode drops the ball on what I think was an excellent opportunity.  I won’t go into too many details in the interest of keeping spoilers to a minimum, but there’s a sequence where I was begging for Clara to get a flash of one of her other in-the-Doctor’s-timestream lives.  The comparison seemed so perfect, and I thought sure we were going there – it would’ve been a neat way to give Clara some good emotional material to work with, a bit of a parallel to the Doctor – but nada!  I was disappointed.