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The Witch's Familiar (TV story)

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Revision as of 19:36, 24 October 2015 by 50.249.204.21 (talk)
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The Witch's Familiar was the second episode of the ninth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It probed the reason why the Doctor had fled from Gallifrey and gave a needed explanation as to why Skaro had returned after it was shown to be destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks, as the Daleks were said to have remade the planet anew. It also divulged how Missy had escaped her death in Death in Heaven through the use of a device to teleport away nanoseconds before she was shot by a cyber-converted Brigadier, which made it appear that she had been disintegrated. This was the same with Missy and Clara in The Magician's Apprentice, when shot by Daleks.

This story was further notable for exploring several new narratives with Davros. It was the first time he was shown outside of his chair, and this revealed that he has no legs at all and both his spinal column and defunct left arm are a combination of robotic Dalek technology hooked into the machine. The episode also shows Davros turn off his eyestalk bulb and open his own eyes for the first time in all his appearances, and toyed with the possibility of him dying an indisputable death as well as him possibly regretting his actions. The story was also the first to show Davros cry, as well as the first to show him and the Doctor share a moment together where they genuinely find something funny and laugh together.

In that same respect, the mechanics of a Dalek were given an in-depth look, showing how they control their casing functions, the weaponry and how their capacity for speech is filtered and conditions them so they must not utter anything which betrays their basic functions of hatred, as well as giving a rational explanation for why they repeatedly shout, "Exterminate!" in the bulk majority of their appearances.

In addition, having given the young Davros his sonic screwdriver and it wearing out with age, the Doctor decided against carrying around another screwdriver and instead revealed that he now has a pair of sonic sunglasses.

It was also a clever way to make the regeneration count unknown to the audiance again.

Synopsis

As he's trapped in a terrifying Dalek city, the Doctor is without his sonic, and without his TARDIS and is all on his own.

Can the Doctor resist his greatest temptation, and will he show his greatest enemy compassion?

Plot

On the outskirts of the Dalek City, Clara awakens to find herself suspended upside down in the air by rope and Missy sharpening a stick nearby. Missy tells her they'll probably have to hunt for food, hence the stick, and that Clara is tied up "in case there's nothing to hunt". She quickly explains how they survived being shot.

She recalls how the Doctor once faced Android Assassins who almost killed him had he not used the energy from their blasters to activate his teleport and escape. Missy then states the Doctor then found himself in another trap with vampire monkeys soon after but that it was a story for another day. Clara realises Missy copied what the Doctor did with their vortex manipulators, except the results of which has burned them out.

Missy frees Clara from her restraint and both stare at the city, knowing they have to return to help the Doctor with just a sharp stick. As they begin to approach the city Clara asks if she can have a stick for herself only to be told to make her own.

 
"Admit it- you've all had this exact nightmare."

Meanwhile the Doctor searches the infirmary and finds a gunstick, grabs it and threatens Davros, aiming directly behind his head. The Doctor tells Davros to get out of his chair, and soon the Daleks see on their screen that "Davros" is leaving the infirmary. As they inform Davros to stay in the room Davros call them for help and tells all Skaro Daleks to find the escaping Doctor. A Dalek finds Davros on the floor, as the Doctor rolls into the Dalek room in his wheelchair, stating that the Daleks have had "this exact nightmare". He demands to know where Clara is, but is attacked by Colony Sarff, who hid in the chair, and knocks the Doctor unconscious.

Meanwhile, Missy and Clara are standing in another area on the outskirts of the City, having heard the Doctor's call for Clara, they enter a Dalek sewers, Missy pushing Clara down into it; they wanted to find out how deep it was, which was 20 ft. As Clara reawakens, she finds Missy standing in front of her, grabs her stick and threatens her. However, Missy reclaims her stick and enters the main sewer area, explaining that all the "nasty stuff" they see on the walls are old decaying and angry Daleks that have been left to rot and liquify. Missy soon cuffs Clara to a security camera, which spots her and sends a Dalek to collect her. As a Dalek approaches, Missy attacks it, using her brooch to poke holes in the casing, allowing the old Daleks to enter it and kill the new Dalek as revenge.

Back in the infirmary, the Doctor awakens to find Davros back in his chair. Davros tells him to be grateful as the chair he sits on is the only other chair on Skaro, and that the Doctor should be privileged, but he quickly picks himself up. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, Colony Sarff is hidden amongst the tubes of Davros' life-support. The Doctor learns that Davros is "vampiring" off the Daleks to stay alive; so long as the Daleks' hearts beat, so does Davros'. Davros shows the Doctor that he took the confession dial and sunglasses, wondering why he came. The Doctor explains that he came because a sick, dying man asked him to. Davros asks to see the Doctor with his own eyes, shutting off the implant in his forehead and opening his true eyes. Realising that Davros is indeed dying, both the Doctor and him have a laugh that he isn't a really good doctor after all.

In the sewer, Missy has Clara sit in the Dalek's armour, closing it and sealing Clara inside. She has Clara attempt to say kind things, but they all come out as "exterminate" or "I am a Dalek"; she then explains that, unlike the Cybermen, who cut out their emotions, the Daleks harness it to fire their weapons, and that they reload by saying "exterminate." They proceed into the hospital, where a Dalek questions Clara as to why an intruder is in the city; however, Missy takes control, explaining to the Dalek that she is a Time Lord, and that it had better inform the Supreme Dalek that "the bitch is back".

 
The Doctor's regenerative energy is drained from him by Davros.

In the infirmary, Davros wonders about how both the Daleks and Time Lords fought in the Time War, but now only Gallifrey is gone. The Doctor explains that he saved Gallifrey, but cannot find it. Davros congratulates the Doctor, as he himself was not able to save his species. Davros begins to show remorse for all his terrible deeds and asks whether he was a good man. Davros says all he wants is to see one last sunrise, but cannot open his eyes now. As the sun looms on the horizon, the Doctor asks Davros "not to tell anyone that I did this" as his hand starts to glow with regenerative energy. The Doctor approaches Davros' life support, intending to use a small portion of regenerative energy to revive Davros just long enough for him to see the sun rise. However, the moment he touches the life-support, Sarff binds him to the cables, and the machinery begins to drain more energy from the Doctor, transmitting it to the Daleks, renewing them. Davros laughs, commenting that regenerative energy is "The ancient magic of the Time Lords", and remarking that he thought he would have to vivisect the Doctor to take it from him. He gloats that the Doctor's compassion has driven him to open his veins of his own free will, allowing all Daleks to "Drink the blood of Gallifrey."

In the Daleks' command room, Missy walks up to the Supreme Dalek, calling it her "special favourite" and not to tell anyone. The Supreme Dalek declares her to be an enemy of the Daleks for being one of the Time Lords, but Missy pokes fun of its logic; the Daleks considered anyone who isn't one of them to be an enemy, so stating that she's Gallifreyan is pointless. Suddenly, all the Daleks freeze, with their casings seeming to shut down. To the horror of both Missy and Clara, the regenerative energy stolen from the Doctor begins leaking from their casings. Leaving Clara behind (as the Dalek casing moves too slow), Missy runs off the infirmary, where she frees the Doctor; however, its unknown if the amount of energy stolen by Davros was sufficient to rob the Doctor of any of his remaining regenerations.

Davros gloats the Daleks have gained new strength, and that his own life has been prolonged; however, the Doctor has two words for him "Moron" and "Sewers". Missy begins laughing, wondering what her friend has done this time. At that moment, all the decaying Daleks, wakened by the regenerative energy transmitted into them by Davros, start attacking the city, causing an earthquake. The Doctor sets off to find Clara, and Missy follows after informing Davros that it was a pleasure to finally meet him. She pokes his eye implant, and runs off after the Doctor, laughing.

In the hall, Clara finds them, but cannot tell the Doctor that she's inside the Dalek shell, due to it not speaking what she wants. Missy tries killing her, by tricking the Doctor into thinking that the shell killed Clara. However, when Clara begs to Doctor not kill her, she causes the casing to say "mercy". The asks the Dalek why it hasn't killed him, and when Clara causes the casing to say "I... show... mercy", he lowers the gun and tells her to open the casing by thinking the word "open", which Clara does. The Doctor glares at Missy for trying to trick him into killing Clara and tells her to run. After freeing Clara of the Dalek casing, they head back to where the TARDIS was destroyed. The Doctor then reveals that the HADS broke apart the TARDIS to save it; using his new sonic sunglasses, the Doctor brings it back together, allowing him and Clara to flee. Missy is caught by the Daleks, but tells them that she has an idea.

The TARDIS has materialised on a nearby hillside outside the Dalek city and the Doctor and Clara are standing watching the city as it suffers damage. The Doctor wonders why the Dalek shell was able to say "mercy". He then realises what he must do. He returns to young Davros, shooting the Handmines with a Dalek gun, telling him it doesn't matter what side anyone's on so long as there's mercy. He then begins guiding Davros back home.

Cast

Uncredited

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Individuals

  • Missy mentions she had a daughter.
  • Missy has a pendant made of a dark star alloy.
  • Davros mentions that the Doctor's compassion is like a cancer, that grows stronger in him and that it will kill him in the end.
  • When Clara said the Doctor always survives because he's clever, Missy counters by saying there's a lot of clever dead people.
  • Missy references Elton John's The Bitch Is Back, when telling a Dalek those exact words.

Species

  • Missy implies that Time Lords are capable of eating humans, though she may have been making this up to unnerve Clara.
  • Regenerative energy can apparently be used to renew any life form if extracted from a Time Lord's body.

Story notes

  • Missy is seen in a sewer. Previously, in the Doctor Who spoof The Curse of Fatal Death also written by Steven Moffat, an incompetent version of the Master was shown falling into an absurdly vast sewer three times and taking three hundred and twelve years to climb out each time.
  • Davros says the Doctor is privileged to be able to use the only other chair on Skaro. This was similarly brought up in the spoof The Curse of the Fatal Death, where the Doctor and his companion were tied to chairs by Daleks; when his companion asked why the Daleks had chairs, the Doctor promised to "explain later."
  • A dying Davros telling the Doctor that he wants to look at him with his own eyes is very similar to a scene in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when Anakin Skywalker says he wants to look at his son Luke with his own eyes as he is dying, and, like Davros, has been hooked up to mechanical apparatuses after suffering crippling injuries, including a mask over his face as part of his Sith identity as Darth Vader.
  • On 27 September, the day after the episode's broadcast, the two-part opener was broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD as one single feature-length episode.
  • This episode saw a rare use of the mild expletive "bitch" on the series, spoken by Missy. This is notable as the episode premiered pre-watershed hours on BBC One and Doctor Who is often considered a family-friendly television series. To further denote the rarity of this language on the show, the expletive was last heard in the second episode of Series 1, in TV: The End of the World by Rose Tyler, over ten years ago.
  • Missy told Clara Oswald a story about the Doctor that happened a long time ago, and told it didn't matter to her which incarnation it was, as they were all the Doctor, but told Clara to imagine "the eyebrows" (Twelfth Doctor).
  • The Dalek sewers connect to the Dalek City via the Lower Level Thirteen.
  • Davros, as a child, thinks that the Doctor might be a Thal.
  • Missy says that murdering Daleks is like golf to Time Lords. Ironically, this line was previously used in a different show Steven Moffat writes for - Sherlock - where the detective mentions that the activities of secret terrorist organizations are basically golf.
  • Daleks have one genetic flaw that Davros was unable to eliminate; respect towards him.
  • Missy said that Cybermen suppress emotion whereas Daleks channel it through their gun.
  • Daleks are unable to say anything that betrays their basic function of hatred.
  • Davros says that regenerative energy is "The ancient magic of the Time Lords", and describes it as "The blood of Gallifrey."
  • Daleks are shown to be controlling their casing via telepathy.
  • The inside of the Dalek-casing have a button that can open and close it.
  • Davros mentions a Gallifreyan prophecy about a hybrid creature that was half-Dalek half-Time Lord.

Ratings

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Continuity

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

External links

Transcript of The Witch's Familiar at Chrissie's Transcripts Site

Footnotes

  1. ↑ That was my Dalek. That was my Dalek. Retrieved on 9 October 2015.
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