Doctor Who: The Witch's Familiar (9x02)

I'm pretty happy. The Moffat-itis appears to be mild, here. Let's just get right into the thick of it.

Cons:

There are a couple of "twists" in this episode that I think were a bit too twisty. Not in the sense that they were too confusing, but in the sense that they were trying too hard to be like "gotcha!" The first was that Missy and Clara aren't really dead. Oh, please. Quelle surprise. The next one was that Davros wasn't really connecting compassionately with the Doctor at the end of his life. There's this moment when the Doctor, in a fit of pity, uses a bit of his regeneration energy to try and allow Davros the strength to see one more sunset. The minute the Doctor exposes some of his energy to Davros, Davros uses it to power up all of the Daleks on Skaro. There was even a twist on the twist, because apparently the Doctor knew all along what Davros was up to. This annoys me because I hate it when protagonists are impossibly ahead of the game all of the time. It makes it hard to find anybody who's an actual threat.

The third "twist" was the resolution of last week's cliffhanger, when we saw the Doctor "exterminate" the young Davros in a desperate effort to save Clara. But this time we see what really happened - the Doctor exterminated the hand mines and saved young Davros, thus giving him the ounce of compassion that he needed for years later, so that Clara could be saved. I guess the reason this is a con is because I would have been annoyed either way. I'm annoyed at the attempted trickery - of course the Doctor didn't kill an innocent boy for crimes he had not yet committed. But I don't know what I would have preferred instead... I would have been even more annoyed if the Doctor had actually killed him somehow.

Also, one other thing - in typical Moffat style, there are certain things that are just never explained about any of this story line. How exactly, for example, did Missy manage to transport Clara at the exact moment she was being "killed" by the Daleks? I get how she did it to herself, but how did she do it to Clara? And how exactly did the Daleks manage to rebuild Skaro? Not going to get any answers about that, are we? And the big one - why did the Doctor think he was going to die? That's a puzzler. I hate that I can't trust Moffat to come clean on these things. It's become impossible to tell when something is supposed to be a big twisty mystery with a convoluted solution at the end, and when we're just supposed to shut up and take it, without bothering to question the unexplained.

But like I said, the Moffat-itis was minor enough, and there were a lot of things to praise about this second half of the premiere.

Pros:

Missy. Again. Michelle Gomez pretty much stole the show. She was full of hilarious little moments. I love how you can never quite figure out what her plan is, or if she even has a plan. If the Doctor is Chaotic Good, than Missy is Chaotic Evil, or more accurately just plain Chaotic. She saves Clara's life, but then tries to get the Doctor to kill her later on, while Clara is disguised as a Dalek. Why? Well, we'll never know for sure, but it seems as if Missy just thought it would be a bit of a laugh. That's fantastic. Missy is the kind of villain I adore. If you ask me, she's Moffat's Moriarty done right. (No offense to Andrew Scott, who of course does a brilliant job in Sherlock).

It's always touching to see how much the Doctor cares for Clara, and that was one of the central themes of this episode. Missy points it out as she and Clara watch from afar. The Doctor is practically begging the Daleks to tell him that it was a trick - that Clara is not really dead. And he's threatening that whoever gives him the bad news that she's really gone isn't going to like what happens next. There's a sharpness to Capaldi's acting that really makes you believe it - the Doctor without any hope is a scary thing to behold.

But what makes this episode so strong in terms of the Doctor's characterization is that even though he still believes Clara to be dead, he goes back and talks to Davros, revealing that he came to see him because he was old, and dying, and because he asked. The Doctor was willing to help this dying old man in his final moments, even though he blamed him for the death of one of his closest friends. That's pretty powerful stuff.

And speaking of powerful stuff: the best moment of the episode was the "mercy" part, with Clara inside the Dalek. I'm surprised they didn't make more out of the fact that we first meet Jenna Coleman when she's inside of a Dalek, but the parallel was there all the same. Clara tries to tell the Doctor that it's her, but all that comes out is "I am a Dalek," and that sort of thing. Missy is egging the Doctor on, telling him that this is the Dalek who killed Clara. But eventually Clara gets the Doctor to say "mercy." It's a hint of goodness in the Daleks, put there by the Doctor himself when he saves Davros' life as a child. The Doctor recognizes Clara, and gratefully unstraps her from the Dalek.

And what happens next is awesome - the Doctor tells Missy to run. Now, there are a few different ways you can interpret this. Maybe the Doctor is telling Missy to run because Daleks are inevitably going to be chasing them. But maybe he's saying it because he's so furious at Missy for trying to get him to hurt Clara that he's not quite sure what he'll do to her if she doesn't get out of his sight. I love that mix of anger and mercy in the Doctor. He doesn't really want to hurt Missy - but he just might, if she doesn't run away.

There was some good creativity with the Daleks in this episode - they're a frankly ridiculous enemy, if we're being honest, so it's always nice when they can become a legitimate threat. I loved the idea of the sewers being made up of nearly dead Daleks - the word for "sewers" is the same for "graveyard" in their language. Spooky! Incidentally, this also led to quite a punny line. When the Doctor's regeneration energy is used to power up the Daleks, it also powers up the ones in the sewers. They start reanimating and attacking their brethren. The Doctor declares: "Your sewers are revolting!"

There were a few other funny jokes, too. When the Doctor rides out among the Daleks in Davros' chair, looking like half-Dalek himself, he says to the assembled crowd: "admit it - you've all had this exact nightmare." There was also the moment when Missy unceremoniously pushes Clara down a ditch to test how far down it goes, or the running bit about the pointy stick. Lots of funny little moments here.

I think, ultimately with this show, it comes down to trust. I just don't believe in Steven Moffat anymore. I don't trust him. So even when I enjoy an episode, my skeptical mind keeps asking me when he's going to piss me off next. I hate that feeling, but it's hard to get away from. I just want this show to be out of his hands, and I don't think that feeling is ever going to fully change.

8/10