Loved the line "We had to hunt around to find another chair" - genius!
Devious Davros, tricksy Missy and Dalek Clara delight in The Witch's Familiar
Readers please note: THIS IS A POST-UK BROADCAST REVIEW – THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! Kelly says: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it turns out Clara and Missy escape from the death-by-Dalek shocker in the first episode of this two-parter for the opening of Doctor Who, Season 9. Vortex manipulator For The Win. And the TARDIS is also intact …
COMMENTS
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Monday 28th September 2015 10:11 GMT TRT
Re: Dalek variants
The emotional energy being captured and used to power the weaponry is a neat touch. Kind of fits in with the Exillon episode sort of and explains why the SWD is bred to be a totally psychotic being of utter self-loathing, hated by all other Daleks, to generate so much more energy for the weapon.
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Saturday 26th September 2015 21:45 GMT Chris King
"These days, I'm all about wearable technology"
One thing about that always struck me about the "classic" series is that it had a sense of "timelessness" about it - few (if any) mentions of contemporary technology, and few attempts to set things in specific years.
With previous mentions of wi-fi and bluetooth - and now wearables - this is going to seriously date the show in a few years time, even more than low-budget wobbly sets and rubber monsters will ever do.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 12:42 GMT Dan 55
Re: That point about the 'arm and a leg' gag...
In The Time of the Doctor he said he had a whole new regeneration cycle, so that's another 13 incarnations.
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Saturday 26th September 2015 23:14 GMT Chris King
Re: Who's Who?
I'll be more worried if he starts quoting David Cameron - and sounding more convincing with it. Come on, you can imagine Julian Bleach saying “for too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone..."
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Sunday 27th September 2015 08:06 GMT Voland's right hand
Close but no cigar
In the classic Beatles photo, the Beatle on the left is parked illegally on top of the sidewalk and is in front of where the lamppost is nowdays:
http://www.pocketfullofliberty.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/beatles-abbey-road.jpg
The one in the Dr Who shot is parked 15m down the street, still illegally too. In fact, even more illegal - it is on top of a double yellow line bang in the middle of the bus stop. I guess there may be something in the VW genes about breaking rules...
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Sunday 27th September 2015 09:42 GMT Chris Daemon
Pew pew!!
I shoot you with my laser gun! - No, I have an anti-laser-shield! - Ah, but these are anti-laser-shield-rays, yeah - Uh, I went back in time to replace your laser with plain LEDs, HAHA.
It goes on and on... like damn five year olds playing space-cowboys.
At least Missy is deviously delightful. And the snake thing was clever, and those creepy hands. Compassion with the doctor, in contrast with Missy - who steals the ca... you know what...
Can I please have a Missy show? I rather watch that lunatic go through time and do evil than watch Goody Twoshoes Oswald do her... goody twoshoe things and speeches. I know that we should relate to her, because everyone else is larger or dumber than life, so we have relatable characters like pre-horse-chompers Rose, Asthma UNIT Girl, or The Rory. It's just not working with Clara.
So what happened to Danny, then? Weren't we supposed to get yummy Danny at the cost of Souffle Girl? A male companion for a change? Instead we stay with never-changing Clara, who keeps upbeat and naive, largely unphased by her boyfriend sacrificing himself. Amy was a strong, independent character - with Oswald, we get the dumbass in distress.
I am under no circumstances arguing the damn sunglasses. It's just hate-bait, move along now, nothing to see here... it'll be a screwdriver soon enough. Not like you could reshoot the next episodes anyway.
Moffat is the man who eats your dreams and craps nightmares in your head... he is so good with scares like that. I hope that will show this season.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 09:54 GMT Dan 55
Re: Pew pew!!
I liked this week in comparison with last week's. Last week just random stuff happened, this week at least it was coherent and the Doctor/Davros part was well written.
I did however hold the faint hope for a moment that when the Doctor said, "I'm so sorry" after opening the Dalek to find Clara inside, he would have to break the news to her there's no getting those nano-tech wires out of her head and Clara would be stuck in there and via the magic timey-wimey would eventually wind up in the Asylum of the Daleks. No such luck.
And Moffat probably did that to us on purpose, just because he could.
Or maybe the nano-tech is still there and slowly changes Clara over the course of the series...?
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Sunday 27th September 2015 11:19 GMT Chris Daemon
Re: Pew pew!!
We certainly got answers and a Abrams/Lindelof mystery-box fail was averted. They could have given more of a headnod to Daleclara - had that actually happened, which we can argue until the cows come home. A Lovecraftian storyline in Doctor Who, and it was a mere cameo, sigh.
A major letdown with the Trenzalor event, and wasting episodes on whimsey and nonsense (snakes on a plane!!!) at the expense of properly closing a storyarc.
It's still a good show, but I have no hopes of Moffat pushing it beyond the boundaries of eye-candy, cheap mindf's, and cringeworthy puns.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 09:47 GMT x 7
I was really hoping this was the episode where Clara becomes trapped in the dalek suit, and becomes the Oswin Oswald hybrid dalek in which she first apppeared.......maybe that will happen in a later episode, thus bringing her plot line full circle and killing her off.
I would make her the hybrid that this series seems to be desiring - and the other daleks hatred of impurity would explain her exiling to the dalek lunatic asylum planet. However....I've a feeling the last episode is going to need a revisit from Matt Smith
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Sunday 27th September 2015 11:14 GMT graeme leggett
The asylum Oswin/Dalek is a different one. For those who watched Asylum, the Clara/Dalek in this one is an interesting parallel; trapped but denying it versus trapped and aware, forced Dalekisation versus (duped) volunteer. questions around what makes a Dalek, a Dalek etc.
You've also got the possible juxtaposition that the Doctor might shoot a child deliberately (though at some level we know that wouldn't happen) against possibility of shooting a companion by accident.
And people say Moffat doesn't think through what he writes.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 11:31 GMT adrianww
Hang on...
...reading the reviews here and most of the other reviews that I've seen in the press or online, did the reviewers actually watch the same episodes as I did?
They were very, very poor indeed. OK, so Dr Who isn't (and has never been and is unlikely ever to be) high art, but it has on occasion been interesting and entertaining. For all their occasional failings, the Eccleston/Tennant seasons did have some nice moments, the odd interesting story or plotline and the introduction of some rather fine new "baddies". As a reboot of the tired old original series, it was quite welcome and showed a fair bit of promise. Almost as though the Beeb were taking it slightly more seriously this time around.
But then Matt Smith happened. Not that he was particularly bad, but as his time in the Tardis continued, the whole thing started to come apart as far as story lines, characters and general quality of the overall narrative were concerned. By the time he regenerated, a new Doctor was already long overdue and I had some high(ish) hopes for Peter Capaldi, so long as he got decent scripts.
Oh well, so much for that then. Decent scripts? Chance would be a fine thing. If anything, they've gone even further down the pan than they already were. I wouldn't even mind if they had come up with something where I could actively dislike it (perhaps taking it in a determinedly different direction altogether) but no, it's just a whole heap of "meh". The bits that weren't eminently predictable were simply boring - characters that were even more cardboard cut-out than usual (if possible), plot devices that were either glaringly transparent or supremely ad hoc and an overall feel of mediocrity. I watched the second episode just to see if it picked up any after a pretty abysmal first one. Being fair, the second episode was probably better than the first, but not enough to warrant making any special effort to watch a third.
Perhaps it's time for this McTedium Sandwich with Extra Cheese to be put back on the shelf for another couple of decades until someone can come up with another interesting reboot...
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Sunday 27th September 2015 18:35 GMT adrianww
Re: Hang on...
Fortunately, nobody. I watched it because - in general - I have always had a soft spot for Dr Who, harmless and fun hokum that it is. I enjoyed it as a kid and I have enjoyed it a fair bit during the last few years. However, as I said, I think that during Matt Smith's tenure as the Doctor the general standard of the writing and development of the series deteriorated. And, if anything, it seems to be getting worse. Or, at least, getting no better.
Once upon a time, I would make an effort to see each episode in a series. During the last couple of series, I missed the odd episode here and there and found that it had reached the point where I wasn't that bothered about catching up with the ones I'd missed (even though that's easy enough to do nowadays what with iPlayer, etc.) I watched the first episode of this series in the hope that they had given it a bit of a refresh and were going to give Peter Capaldi better scripts to work with. I then watched the second episode to see how they wrapped up the story (and whether the first episode was just an unfortunate aberration). Sadly, while the second episode was somewhat better than the first, it certainly doesn't give me hope for the future.
So...as I said, fortunately no-one is holding a gun to my head and forcing me to watch and, short of having absolutely nothing else to occupy my time of a Saturday evening (which is unlikely to be the case most of the time) I don't expect to be watching any more. And I'm still baffled by all the fairly glowing reviews I've seen around the place. I can only assume that they have been written by inveterate Dr Who fans who would give a sound thumbs-up to any old drivel so long as it had two hearts and a Tardis.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 13:50 GMT tabman
Dalek Hybrid & a usual copout
It seems possible(to me anyway) that Clara is going to be the Dalek Timelord hybrid. Clara's "impossible girl" history plus the dalek nanotech = possible timelord dalek??
I hoped assist hope that there would be no sonic escape. It's got to the point where you expect the sonic as much as you expect the end credits.
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Monday 28th September 2015 14:12 GMT Whitter
Re: Dalek Hybrid & a usual copout
My guess from the "running Doctor" and "Confession" was the Doctor scarpered from Galifrey after he created a Dalek (or Kaled) / Timelord hybrid: likely candidates being
(a) himself (?! He's a Timelord after all!)
(b) The Master (see (a))
(c) long-lost Susan
(d) all of the above
And for true sillyness,
(e) Lunbarrow styley, all Timelords: The Other's genetic manipulation of the Galifreyans into timelords right back at square one!
Missy's "We're all hybrids" does tend to play to b, d (and even e), but there's no point in second guessing. Most plot lines don't add up after all!
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Sunday 27th September 2015 18:32 GMT phil dude
hard wired Dalek voice box for the pundits....
Sort of echoes our media today, reinforcing what we already supposed to believe.
"I am Clara Oswald" becomes "I am a Dalek"
"You are not a Dalek" becomes "Exterminate!!!!"
A nice piece of empathy and a "see it from their point of view".
A quick poll.
Are today's political parties more or less dogmatic than Daleks?
P.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 21:02 GMT Anonymous Custard
Re: hard wired Dalek voice box for the pundits....
I'm still wondering quite how both the Doctor managed to fit into Davros's chair when only the top half of Davros got removed from it (and so presumably the Doctors legs must fold up small for easy storage) and furthermore how Clara managed to fit inside a Dalek case when every time we've seen the actual mutant inside other Daleks (in the past few series) it's been at most about the size of a football. I know she's the Impossible Girl, but that's pushing it a bit.
A fairly good episode (certainly better than most of last season), but those two kinda spoilt the immersion for me a bit.
Oh and:
And can we expect to see the Time Lord ditching the creepy tech specs for an Apple Watch in Season 10?
Didn't Captain Jack have one of those a few series ago?
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Monday 28th September 2015 09:55 GMT graeme leggett
Re: hard wired Dalek voice box for the pundits....
The "is there enough space inside the Dalek case" issue can be addressed by watching the Daleks in Manhatten two-parter. You can check by watching it, but in my opinion it's a bit of a rubbish episode.
Or going further back to The Daleks or Planet of the Daleks, where smallish blobs are pulled out but grown men climb in.
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Monday 28th September 2015 10:00 GMT Simon Harris
Re: hard wired Dalek voice box for the pundits....
"and furthermore how Clara managed to fit inside a Dalek case when every time we've seen the actual mutant inside other Daleks"
That bit has precedent. In "The Daleks" way back in 1963 (the second ever Dr Who story) Ian gets into the shell of a captured dalek. I guess you can't get more canon that that.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 19:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
I actually enjoyed this episode right up until the end after last week's pile of garbage, why of why did they have to do that with the sonic sunglasses? they had a good thing going, tense and very well written exchange with Davros, the switch to turn it on the daleks then the plot twist to understand why daleks know the word mercy. I also quite liked missy in the episode.
What are we going to get next I wonder? A "Digital" episode done in some kind of third person shooter style from the viewpoint of his google glasses.
I understand they are trying to appeal to the "yoof" of today and I understand they are going to try and nick the simple folk that watch x-factor but imho they are just going to kill the show. Could it be because of the funding being part american? I honestly don't know what they get for that or if it includes creative input, BBCA = BBC + AMC in case anyone is wondering. Let's be honest Dalek's in Manhatten was pure American shite. No offense to Americans it's was just rubbish compared to a lot of other TV I've seen created over there.
I will continue to watch as I'm a fan of the original and lots of the recent series however if this becomes a regular occurrence then I'll just switch off as there are only so many times I can tell my TV to f*ck off.
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Monday 28th September 2015 04:50 GMT Number6
If the Doctor knew what was going to happen, then the sunglasses were a good plot device to allow him the functionality of the sonic screwdriver without Davros knowing what it was. I doubt if Davros would have let him grab the screwdriver but sunglasses are harmless.
Hopefully he'll tread on them in the Tardis before the next episode, as a one-off it was good, as a piece of kit, bad idea. How's he going to aim it in dim light?
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Sunday 27th September 2015 21:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Some nice performances, but it's a joke
The performances of Capaldi and Gomez are pretty good (Gomez has the edge) but Coleman's character just relies upon bluff & ignorance; not necessarily her fault though. Plot has a germ of worth but that's as far as it gets. More annoying than entertaining, which is a shame, considering how good the cast can be.
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Sunday 27th September 2015 22:18 GMT Anonymous Coward
Even for a children's programme the writing of Doctor Who is juvenile and lazy. Every single episode has plot holes one can drive a star cruiser through and the characterisation is one dimensional (oh, the irony). Deus ex machina drives most conclusions and the humour is cringe inducing as is the sfx and set design. I'm an SF advocate in all its forms but this dim-witted science fantasy for intellectually challenged kids just annoys me!
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Monday 28th September 2015 08:57 GMT Bernard M. Orwell
"Deal with it".
Here we go again, a first episode that had some promise. I applauded the appearance of Davros, looking not a whit different from when he was opposed by the god-like Tom Baker, and Peter Capaldi delivered dialogue not a million miles different in style from the vastly superior Mr. Baker. For the duration of the first episode I had some hope that the new series might actually be reasonably good.
But then along came the rubbish writing. In spades.
How many more times in a series are we going to have the tropes of Doctor is dying/Tardis gets destroyed/Companions killed, but they get better? At least in the past Moffat has had the grace to actually put those memes in separate epsiodes. As he's clearly spaffed his entire plot writing capabilities in episode one, I can't help but wonder what he's going to trot out for the rest of it. Probably some angst, a temporary separation from a companion because of "personal differences", some dull moralising about the sanctity of life/power of love/isn't it grand to have friends and, no doubt, the discovery of a place that the doctor has forgotten or doesn't recognise etc. etc.
As for the sunglasses, right down to the way he puts them on, is a blunt homage to the "deal with it" meme (Have a google and you'll see what I mean, if you're not already familiar with it).
What exactly is Moffat trying to say?
Is this REALLY the best Sci-Fi Britain can offer?
I'll still watch it......wonder why?
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Monday 28th September 2015 11:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
I think you're looking waay too much into this...
Did the young Davros end up in possession of the gunstick? Also, what became of the sonic screwdriver? The two things that could (maybe) help to bring about a Time Lord-Dalek hybrid mutant.
To be honest I think the author looks deeper into these plots than Moffat is doing. Because so far I have yet to see Moffat make a real change stopper and following up on it. I mean: "The impossible girl", Claras was allegedly going into the doctors timeline and she was fixing everything. Yet in later seasons you then hear nothing about this anymore. Not that I mind, but it would enhance the whole atmosphere, it would add a little more depth to the plots.
Yet instead any plots used in a season generally end once the season is done, and we won't hear much about it anymore. There are notable exceptions of course; think about the Doctors daughter, yet one could argue that the Amy Pond era basically spanned more seasons so its only natural that they re-used characters and plots.
Need more proof? Well, remember "Victory of the Daleks"? Most people disliked it because it introduced the new "salt and pepper" brightly colored daleks, yet even so it did open up a whole new plot twist where the daleks had renewed themselves and went back into the timewars. I'd say that's a massive plot twist which just screams for a follow up as it has the potential to rewrite timelord history itself. Yet nothing... On the contrary, it looks to me as if the producers try to pretend that this never happened, as can be seen in these two episode. Understandable for sure since many fans did not care for those new daleks, but still...
It was Moffat who opened the door to all the bizarre time-driven plot twists (like the re-run in the finale which re-used scenes in the season itself but from a completely different perspective). So why stop there? At the very least it could have been a nice way to hook into history and get rid of the new "dalek paradigm".
All of which surely promises more Davros as this season's story unfolds.
But about the daleks: hasn't Moffat already told us last year (or the one before) that he wanted less dalek appearances, not more? In my opinion there was only 1 reason why they were used in the opening episodes: to undo some of the decline in interest and popularity. Although I really hope for more appearances I have some serious doubts that they will reappear in this season.
The master, sorry: Missy, for sure.. but the daleks? I dunno.
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Monday 28th September 2015 13:14 GMT Ugotta B. Kiddingme
Re: Michelle Gomez for...
The casting of Michelle Gomez in the role of Missy/The Master was absolute genius. And to answer your question, I believe quite a bit of the actress is in the character. Gomez did three episode story arc on the HBO series The Brink this past season. I think it highly unlikely the writers of that show made her character similar to a character she portrayed on another network's show. That had to be the personality and style of the actor showing through. I must definitely look for more of her work.
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Monday 28th September 2015 15:10 GMT Howard Hanek
I Hate To Be The Bearer Of Bad News
"Yes Doctor, every test I performed reinforced my diagnosis".
"I'm very sorry to tell you this but you're suffering from a terminal case of nostalgia"
"You're life will become an infinite loop and, after a time, you will cease functioning out of sheer boredom"
"People will flee at the mention of your name"