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Doctor Who Blasts Back to Our Screens: A Season 1 Celebration of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor

by hutchm
written by hutchm

Remember 1996? That rather dismal attempt at reviving Doctor Who with a TV movie? Yeah, let’s just forget about that, shall we? Because in 2005, the real deal landed with a bang – and it was fantastic. After a whopping 16-year absence, the Doctor was back, and this time, he brought the magic with him.

Christopher Eccleston stormed onto our screens as the Ninth Doctor, a Time Lord with a northern accent, a leather jacket, and a whole lot of baggage. He was joined by the brilliant Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, a shop assistant who stumbled into a world of wonder (and a fair bit of danger) thanks to a chance encounter with the Doctor.

So, grab your sonic screwdriver, hop in the TARDIS, and let’s revisit the highlights of Doctor Who Season 1:

New Faces, New Places

Right from the get-go, “Rose” throws us headfirst into the action. We meet Rose, our relatable everywoman, and the Ninth Doctor, a whirlwind of energy and mystery. Their first adventure together involves Autons (creepy living mannequins – always a classic!), a trip down a sewer, and a whole lot of running. It’s a perfect introduction to the show’s new era: fast-paced, funny, and with a touch of darkness.

But “Rose” is just the beginning. “The End of the World” takes us to the year five billion (yes, billion!), where we witness the Earth’s fiery demise. It’s a spectacular visual feast, and it also introduces us to the Time War, a devastating conflict that has clearly left its mark on the Doctor.  

Battling the Baddies

This season wasn’t short on memorable villains:

  • The Gelth: These gaseous beings, posing as the dead in “The Unquiet Dead” , gave us a good dose of Victorian gothic horror. Plus, we got to see Charles Dickens himself!  
  • The Slitheen: Oh, the Slitheen! These farting aliens in human skin were a hilarious (and slightly disgusting) addition to the Doctor Who rogue’s gallery. Their plan to trigger a nuclear war in “Aliens of London” and “World War Three” was a perfect blend of comedy and high-stakes drama.  
  • The Daleks: The Doctor’s ultimate nemesis made a chilling return in “Dalek” . This episode was a masterclass in tension and emotion, as the Doctor confronted his past trauma and the devastating consequences of the Time War.  
  • The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances: This two-parter was a creepy, atmospheric masterpiece. The gas-mask-wearing child haunted our dreams, and the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness was a stroke of genius.  

Peeking Behind the Curtain

Season 1 gave us tantalizing glimpses into the Doctor’s past. We learned about the Time War, a devastating conflict that seemingly wiped out his entire race . The Doctor’s guilt and sorrow over this loss were palpable, adding a layer of complexity to his character.  

Memorable Moments (Expanded!)

  • “Run!”: The Doctor’s first words to Rose in “Rose” were an instant classic. They perfectly captured the show’s sense of adventure and urgency.  
  • The Doctor’s rage in “Dalek”: Christopher Eccleston’s performance in this episode was phenomenal. His raw anger and pain were truly chilling.
  • “Everybody lives!”: The Doctor’s joyous exclamation in “The Doctor Dances” was a moment of pure triumph. It reminded us that even in the darkest of times, there’s always hope.  
  • Rose’s reunion with her father: “Father’s Day” was a tearjerker. Rose’s chance to meet her deceased father was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.  
  • The Doctor’s regeneration: The season finale, “Bad Wolf” / “The Parting of the Ways” , was a rollercoaster of emotions. Rose’s transformation into the Bad Wolf entity, the Doctor’s sacrifice, and his regeneration into the Tenth Doctor left us breathless and wanting more.  

Conclusion: A New Era Begins

Doctor Who’s 2005 return was more than just a revival; it was a regeneration, breathing new life into a beloved franchise. Season 1 stands out for its concise storytelling and strong focus on character development. Each episode builds upon the previous one, creating a tight narrative structure that culminates in a satisfying finale. The season masterfully blended the show’s classic elements with a modern sensibility, capturing the imaginations of a new generation while rekindling the love of longtime fans. Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, with his northern accent and war-torn past, brought a raw intensity to the role, perfectly capturing the trauma of the Time War. Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler provided a relatable and grounded perspective, reminding us of the wonder and humanity at the heart of the show.

The season’s diverse array of villains, from the terrifying Autons and Daleks to the comedic Slitheen, showcased the show’s ability to balance darkness and light, humor and horror. The exploration of the Doctor’s past, particularly the devastating Time War, added depth and complexity to his character, while the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness expanded the Doctor Who universe in exciting ways.

Season 1’s success lay in its ability to honor the show’s legacy while forging a new path. It reminded us of the enduring power of Doctor Who: its celebration of human connection, its exploration of the universe’s wonders, and its unwavering belief in the triumph of good over evil.

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Doctor Who

The Husbands of River Song

by hutchm
written by hutchm

I managed to get to the Christmas Special awhile back, but unfortunately I simply didn’t have the time available to give you my thoughts. Was it perfect? No, no it wasn’t … the early parts of the episode were especially clunky and overdone, but boy oh boy did it end well! A beautifully poignant swan song to their love story.

If you’ve not yet watched the episode, I’ll tell you now that you should stop reading as spoilers – well, they do abound here sweetie! 🙂

The Doctor, having somehow ended up on a planet at Christmas time (he always does that) gets mistaken for a surgeon who has to perform a live-saving procedure on the cybernetic and horrendously violent King Hydroflax (Greg Davies) who is dying with a projectile in his brain. His “wife” turns out to be River Song working a con to try to get the projectile—a massively valuable diamond—out of his head to sell it to mass murderers aboard a luxury space liner. River, who has not yet met the Doctor’s present incarnation, fails to recognise him and increasingly frustrates him with her flirtations with Hydroflax. River takes the Doctor aside to discuss the operation he is supposed to be performing; the Halassi Androvar, the most valuable diamond in the universe, has become lodged in Hydroflax’s brain during a raid on the Halassi vaults and is slowly killing him. River wants “the surgeon” to remove his entire head, considering it quicker and easier.

River Song (Doctor Who)

River Song (Doctor Who) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Believing up to this point the Doctor only had so many faces River refuses to recognize ol’ Twelve, leading to some hilarious moments of him trying to make her realize it’s him and her just not having it. In fact she continues to flirt with Hydroflax which only infuriates him more! They are interrupted by Hydroflax, who has listened to their conversation. Being a cyborg, he detaches his head from his mechanical body for safety and orders it to kill them. While River defends herself, the Doctor grabs Hydroflax’s head and threatens to put him in the garbage disposal, creating a stalemate and allowing Ramone, River’s actual husband, to teleport her, the Doctor and Hydroflax’s head outside of the ship. Believing Nardole to have information about River, Hydroflax’s body (which operates independently) decapitates him to use his head as its own. While the Doctor and River bicker as ever, she constantly pretends to love lots of other men, which you can see hurts the Doctor & wounds him deeply.

Although the Doctor is convinced that River knows who he is, she denies it. She reveals she purposely crashed Hydroflax’s ship in their location knowing the Doctor would be in the area with the TARDIS. Being unfamiliar with his new regeneration cycle, she has pictures of his first twelve incarnations. Ramone has only been able to find the TARDIS, not its owner; River decides they will just have to borrow it instead which she further indicates she’s done many times before without his knowledge. Sensing that Hydroflax’s head is beyond recovery and will die imminently, Hydroflax’s body destroys it, leaving only the diamond. River is asked for the whereabouts of the Doctor, but she explains that although she loves the Doctor they are mistaken in thinking that he loves her enough to find himself with her, as she believes the Doctor to be incapable of falling in love. Seeing the steady gaze and mild smirk on the Doctor’s face, River realizes he’s been with her all along and the Doctor confirms this by saying, “Hello, sweetie.”

Being a time traveller, River is aware that the ship is about to be crippled by a meteor strike, which she uses as their escape plan, taking the diamond in the process. The Doctor uses Scratch’s universal bank transfer device to overload Hydroflax’s body, before heading to the ship’s bridge. While the ship is crashing, River realises that they are heading towards the planet Darillium – home to the Singing Towers mentioned by the future River as the place where she spent her final night with the Doctor (“Forest of the Dead”). Realising that they’re unable to save the ship, they flee back into the TARDIS, but the impact of the crash knocks River unconscious.

After avoiding taking River to Darillium for as long as possible to avoid their last date together mentioned by her future self, the Doctor decides to give in to the inevitable. After travelling to the next morning, the Doctor suggests to a man searching for survivors of the crash that he build a restaurant where they’re standing, with a view of the Singing Towers, and gives him the diamond to fund its construction. Travelling forwards in time once again, the Doctor books the table on the balcony for Christmas Day in four years’ time. When River awakes she is told that the Doctor is waiting for her at their table. Hydroflax’s body, now peacefully controlled by the heads of Ramone and Nardole, was pulled from the wreckage and put to work as a waiter in the restaurant.

What we do get that gives the episode some real emotional resonance is the last 15-20 minutes, when River gives an impassioned speech to the onlooking bad guys who want the Doctor about how you can’t expect a sunset or the very stars themselves to love you back, ending with her realization that the Doctor has been with her the whole time. (How many people made a little happy noise when he said “Hello, Sweetie”? Not that I did…) From then until the end, it’s a really nice denouement to her character and their relationship. Even though it won’t be the last time she sees him, it could very likely be the last time he sees her (unless Moffat brings her back again). Referencing the trip to the Singing Towers they never get to take, and River seeing her diary is almost full up, she knows she’s almost at the end, but at least they get a Christmas of 24 years together to enjoy before then. And the Doctor finally gives her the sonic screwdriver she has with her during “The Library.” (!!!)

As I said, this was just a bit of a romp, but there were definitely some quite enjoyable moments. Any time Kingston and Capaldi are sparking off each other, which is actually quite often, it’s pretty marvelous. As Moffat rather callously said a few weeks ago, this episode takes place right after “The Angels Take Manhattan” in River’s timeline, “but it doesn’t really matter.” Turns out, he wasn’t just being a jerk; it doesn’t really matter. Other than a mention of that being the most recent thing in her diary, there’s no holdover for her. And, aside from some mentions of it being a long time since he laughed and saying all good things must come to an end, etc., there’s nothing to announce that the Doctor’s just had a sad few billion years he can’t really remember. This really is just an adventure.

Douglas Mackinnon did a really nice job directing, as he always does. Mackinnon’s now directed eight episodes, making him the third most prolific director of Nu Who behind Euros Lyn and Graeme Harper. He’s always solid, though I will say, the budget of this episode does appear to have been pretty low. It’s very obvious they redressed the Trap Street set from “Face the Raven” for the alien world at Christmastime, and when River and the Doctor confab aboard Hydroflax’s flying saucer, it’s the President of Earth airplane set redressed. This type of thing happens all the time and usually it’s not so noticeable, but here for some reason it really stood out.

And, yeah, some famous comedians in Britain were in this, like the aforementioned Davies and Matt Lucas. And while they both did fine, the episode was really about the Doctor and River. There were lots of great little moments—like the Doctor having both his sonic sunglasses and his new sonic screwdriver (take THAT sunglasses haters)—and the Doctor getting to finally say the “it’s bigger on the inside” speech the way he’s always thought it ought to be said. Stuff like that made the straightforward story a lot more fun.

It’s Christmas. It’s fun. Doctor Who makes us laugh and tugs at our heartstrings. The only real sad thing is now we’re probably going to have to wait nine more months until we get any new episodes. Bah Humbug.

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Doctor Who

Heaven Sent – Doctor Who (S09E11)

by hutchm
written by hutchm

A somewhat different episode to the one that I was expecting, Heaven Sent worked – although it wasn’t without its flaws.  One thing I’ve come to expect from Capaldi at this point is the ability to pontificate at great length.  He’s demonstrated it quite ably in some of more recent episodes of the show (The Zygon Inversion had an excellent example of this as did the amazing conversation between the Doctor and Davros in The Magicians Apprentice), however in each of those cases he had someone else to speak to and play off.  In Heaven Sent, it’s somewhat new territory as Capaldi has basically done a Tom Hanks and is all by his lonesome on the desert island. When you have an episode that is, more than any other in the show’s history, a one-man performance, what you don’t want to do is spend the entire review just talking about how amazing an actor Peter Capaldi is, even if it’s true.

I loved the insights into the Doctor’s character and his thought processes. It was interesting to see how his so-called miraculous escapes are really the result of him retreating into a mental space in his head (represented by the TARDIS console room) and working though all of the variables and possibilities.  Before I dive into this, let’s just get this out of the way. There are some fans out there bemoaning the use of the TARDIS as the Doctor’s Mind Palace and calling it Moffat ripping himself off with Sherlock.  However, while the idea might be somewhat similar the representation of it is extremely different and since these are out of sequence you can see the way Sherlock’s mind palace works – in the Abominable Bride – and it’s extremely different to the Doctors.  The Doctors’ if anything seems to be more like the villain from Season 3 of Sherlock – Charles Augustus Magnussen – as the Doctor’s is more of a physical room (albeit one that is extradimensional and infinitely large) simply shaped to look like the TARDIS console room.

What’s it all about?

The Doctor is trapped in a place he cannot escape, wracked with anger and guilt, with only himself for company, and hunted by a creature he cannot outrun, fight or reason with.  Constantly searching for answers he seems to always end up in the same place and his death (over and over and over) is painful to watch and experience.  Sure, he’s “talking” to Clara, but he’s not, is he? He’s talking to himself and the heart-breaking self-awareness of that takes us somewhere we’ve never actually been: Inside the mind of the Doctor.

However, the one thing this episode really does show us more than anything else is that the Doctor is a survivor first and foremost.  While he might constantly be dying, his deaths are not without a purpose.  See the Doctor always looks at the long game and while we’ve not necessarily seen it to this extent previously, it’s really clear in this episode as his seemingly inconsequential deaths eventually lead to his escape.

Showing how he deals with grief? We’ve seen some of that before, too, in the 11th atop his cloud or the 10th’s casual cruelty towards Martha, but we’ve never been inside the man as he wrestles with it. And he loses here, because he can’t save Clara, because she dies and there’s nothing he can do about it, and she made the choices that led to her death. He knows that, and he acknowledges that she kinda got herself killed, but he also clearer than ever before admits that she did that by trying to be like him. It gives the Doctor another reason to hate himself, and it wounds him in a way that few things have, so much so, that when he realizes what is actually happening to him, it makes him seriously ask himself if he can’t just give up and lose for a change.

There was that moment towards the end of “Heaven Sent” when it’s finally revealed that the Doctor had been repeating the same sequence of actions over and over and over again, hundreds of thousands of times, as he attempted to break through that twenty foot thick wall, wearing it down ever so slightly, before dying each and every time. There’s that awful instant when you realize that every single one of those skulls at the bottom of the lake belongs to the Doctor, each one of them the result of another cycle, another death.  It’s a genuinely chilling moment.  Dying and knowing the only way to break through the Wall in Room 12 is to repeat the process of arrival, fear and death, again and again, the Doctor drags his bloody, broken body from the bottom of the castle to the top. He thinks he has enough time to make it to the teleport room before he dies, and he thinks he’s figured out the way to beat the trap, but he knows that he’s too broken to even escape through regeneration, and that if he doesn’t try… well.

How many times did the Doctor have to die and be reborn within the Confession Dial before he finally broke through that wall? It seems that it couldn’t have been more than a week for each sequence.  There are 52 weeks in a year.  The Doctor was imprisoned for approximately 4.5 billion years.  Very roughly speaking, that comes to 234 billion times.  And now my head hurts.

 

While inside the Confession Dial, the Doctor refused to divulge what he knew of the Hybrid, the entity that “will unravel the web of time, and destroy a billion billion hearts to heal its own.” And that begs the question, of course. This Hybrid that we’ve been told of all season — this thing that is not a fusion of Time Lord/Dalek — is “me”, or is it “Me”? Is the Doctor saying that he is the Hybrid, or that he created the Hybrid by making Ashildr an immortal? And another question: if the Doctor is the one who saved Gallifrey — and has, in fact, saved it over and over again — then why have the Time Lords treated him in this way, by setting up the circumstances that brought the Doctor and Clara to the Trap Street, and ultimately leading to the events that claimed the life of his friend? Are the Time Lords so afraid that they have forgotten who the Doctor is, and how that he can be both savior and destroyer?

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Doctor Who

Doctor Who – Face the Raven (S9E10) – The Death of Clara!!

by hutchm
written by hutchm

Bang & Kaboom … a major shift in direction here and while it’s one we all saw coming, it’s still somewhat troubling in this excellent episode written by Sarah Dollard.  Clara played the Doctor a little too well, made a decision that was true to her character, and died as a result of that decision. This is both good — in the “if you have to die, die saving someone else” kind of way — and bad — in the “don’t stare at the details too much” kind of way — but on balance… it’s a pretty decent way for the Story of the Impossible Girl to end.

Also welcome back to both Maisie Williams’ Lady Me and Jovian Wade’s Rigsy. I actually quite liked the fact that in all three encounters the Doctor has had with Ashildr/Me, she has been a different version of the person that he and Clara met all those centuries before. That makes the character unpredictable, and that’s always welcome. That she kept her word and has spent the years “cleaning up” after the Doctor is good and its also good to see that some thought has gone into the idea of dealing with the refugees of the many invasions of Earth over the run of the show.  It’s also worth noting here that without his making an immortal out of Ashildr, the Doctor would not be facing Mayor Me and her terrible decision to betray him for the safety of the Street. The Moffat years have often made it clear that the actions of the Doctor have consequences. Me is a person who can, will, and does make her own decisions. The Doctor didn’t make her set up the Street, or bring the alien refugees together. The Doctor didn’t make her make a deal with the Quantum Shade or with whomever is behind the threat to the Street and its inhabitants that led her to betray the Doctor.

Blameless in all of this is Rigsy, and again, welcome back Mr. Wade. Some time has obviously passed for Rigsy and his life is seemingly a good one, and that’s very cool to see. Rigsy acts with honor and compassion himself throughout the story, and that post-credits scene where he has painted the TARDIS with a tribute to Clara is almost heartbreaking. I’ve enjoyed both of Wade’s appearances and hope he comes back, although I suspect that the Doctor would like to avoid him for a while.

It starts out with a brilliant mystery that sees The Doctor and Clara scouring the streets of London, both on foot and from the comfort of the TARDIS in flight mode above the city. They’re trying to find the truth behind a sinister countdown that has appeared as a tattoo on the back of Rigsy’s neck, who phones the TARDIS when he notices the weird marks and can’t remember what happened to him the day before.

When they eventually get to the bottom of it all they find themselves mixed up in another intricate web spun by the immortal, Ashildr, who had sentenced Rigsy to death for the murder of a woman within her refugee sanctuary. It’s a finely crafted story that keeps you hooked right the way through, building up to its devastating culmination and leaving you with no doubt that there was no reprieve this time.

So Clara takes the Chronolock (should have called it the Raven’s Mark… missed opportunity, people!) off of Rigsy, which breaks the contract with the Quantum Shade, and Me and the Doctor ignore the stasis chamber in the room, the teleporter in the room, and just act as if there really is nothing they can do. There may not be, and in the context of the story, that’s what is the case. The problem there is that we don’t have any information leading up to that moment where we know anything about the Chronolock aside from the warning that death cannot be outrun, and without that, the revelation of the still-vague rules of the deal between Me and the Quantum Shade comes pretty much out of nowhere.

Series 9 has been jostling the notion that it had become common knowledge that Clara would be getting written out of the show at some point during its twelve episode stint, and every episode saw her coming close to biting the dust. However, in Face The Raven it takes on the challenge of giving Gemma Coleman a fitting end with little uncertainty that the raven would signal her final adventure with the Doctor.

It was always going to be sad saying goodbye to such a significant part of the show for the last few series and that’s definitely the case here. The dialogue and tension are wound to perfection, pulling at your heartstrings as Clara and the good man say their final goodbyes. Jenna Coleman is on exceptional form, as she’s been throughout Series 9, and she delivers some very moving lines, confirming her place in the history of the show.  Because Clara makes the decision to save Rigsy that way because she believes the Doctor will find a way to save her, and we do, too. Even knowing that this is Clara’s final episode, even with all the clues the season has given us that Clara was likely to die, the idea that the Doctor would be helpless to save her, that he would have to watch her die… who saw that coming, really? It’s that last word that she ignores because she knows that people die on the way to those wins, and she’s even called him out on it, in episodes like “Mummy on the Orient Express”. Sure, she was still coming to terms with the new nature of this Incarnation, but still, she’s aware of the body count that follows the Doctor. She’s had that terrible calculus he makes thrown in her face when she applies it herself to the events of “Before the Flood”. She just can’t see that it would be her, and that is the logical culmination of the increased recklessness and thrill-seeking that we’ve seen grow in her over a season and a half.

The episode title screen of the very first epi...

The episode title screen of the very first episode of Doctor Who, broadcast 23 November 1963. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Peter Capaldi also does a very good job of giving Clara the sendoff she deserves, looking as sad as we’ve ever seen him when the reality of the situation hits home. His part is added to by an equally credible performance from Maisie Williams as the scheming Ashildr, whose duplicity is undone by Clara’s intended cunning, which seals both their fates. We’re clearly going to see more of the former Game Of Thrones star and with the Doctor’s newfound anger at her intervention it should be even more of a tumultuous relationship from now on. It was good to see Rigsy back in action and Joivan Wade does a very good job of bringing a fitting level of gravitas to the episode. He’s well poised and natural in the role and we’ll be surprised if he isn’t an early contender for the next companion for the Doctor.

The reference to Edgar Allen Poe’s narrative poem The Raven also acts to bring more weight and deathly intent to the episode and the presentation of it as a spectral raven is genius. Both Sarah Dollard and director Justin Molotnikov should get a lot of praise for crafting such a special episode to see off the impossible girl.  And that leads to one of the two best moments in “Face the Raven”, where Clara extracts the promise from the Doctor that he will not become the Warrior again because she knows him and that’s exactly what he’ll want to do. She accepts what is about to happen to her and accepts that she made the decisions that led her there, and she demands that he does, too, and if she hadn’t… well. This Doctor likely would burn the Trap Street to the ground in revenge, and then hate himself more than he already does for doing it. Because the Doctor does hate himself for all the lives he couldn’t save, for the deaths he is responsible for, for turning his Companions into weapons against Evil… and for being so lonely that he lets someone like Clara become so close to him, so needed by him, that he lets her become too much like him. For that reason alone — his own self-hatred — Clara saves him, one last time.

And next week the Doctor will face the entity(s) behind the threat to the Street, and there his promise to Clara will be bent if not broken. Because not only did they kick off the events that led to Clara making that particular choice, but they wanted the Doctor himself, and his anger and self-hatred and burning desire to fight the evils of the Universe will have a target that he may not be able to resist. And not becoming the Warrior doesn’t mean the Doctor hasn’t made his anger into a weapon before…

Face The Raven is a truly brilliant episode and the remaining two stories in the series, along with the Christmas Special, will have their work cut out for them to live up to the high marker it has set down. While Series 9 has had its ups and downs, Episode 10 does a lot to confirm it as a classic series in the making, and we’re impressed that they managed to create such tension about the end of Clara, despite the fact that it had become common knowledge that she was leaving the show. It also sets things up for one hell of a finale to the series as the Doctor must face the people behind Ashildr’s deception.

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Doctor WhoTelevision

Dr. Who – Under the Lake

by hutchm
written by hutchm

Sorry for the delay on these – been a busy time!

Right lets get started, shall we?  I’m not too sure what it is with the Doctor and monsters related to water – I mean it’s almost like he’s TRYING to scare us isn’t it! 🙂  Let’s be honest – this episode and its partner while not as frightening as the David Tennant helmed Waters of Mars was still enough to send my kids scurrying upstairs leaving me all alone in the dark.  However the ghosts were not what they seemed so without further ado – lets get into the recap.

When the Doctor and Clara bland on yet another seemingly deserted station they don’t really realize that they are trapped underwater. Exploring they come across a derelict and seemingly far advanced spaceship which has some strange writing on the inside that the TARDIS translation engine is unable to read. After the Doctor and Clara both look at it – and it seemingly gets imprinted on their eyes – they continue their investigations of the station. Almost immediately they come across a ghost – something that the Doctor does not believe should exist. When they find the remainder of the crew they explain that the ghost is actually their old commander who was killed, seemingly randomly by the derelict spaceship while they were investigating it.

The Doctor – as mentioned previously – refuses to believe in the existence of the ghost stating that in all of his travels he has never yet come across such entities however as more and more facts seemingly lineup he is forced to agree with this despite his earlier arguments to the contrary. Realizing that the only way they can stay alive is by trapping the ghosts they come up with a plan to get them into a faraday cage where they will be unable to escape.

Managing to trap the ghosts the Doctor and Clara get separated when the emergency protocols activate on the station flooding the hallways with seawater to shutdown an overheating reactor. The Doctor realizes the only way he can figure out what is really going on, is to travel back in time to when the ship itself was discovered Before the Flood (see what I did there?)

Telling Clara that he will come back for her, the Doctor departs in the TARDIS however shortly thereafter Clara sees a new ghost floating outside the window – this time it’s the Doctor.

Thoughts

Not one of the best episodes I’ll be honest.  There were some elements that were interesting but the ship itself was just too cardboard and didn’t have any realism. While I know that Doctor Who is not necessarily about the special-effects they generally seem to at least make an effort and in this case I felt that they hadn’t bothered.

Clara herself however seems to really be making an effort perhaps too large of a one has she seems to be setting herself up for failure. While I know that Clara is leaving the way she’s been acting almost makes me wish she was gone already as more and more it seems that the Doctor is her companion versus the other way around. While Clara has never been my favorite companion, I’ve not actively disliked one and unfortunately that is very much the way I’m starting to feel about her now.  I know – I’m probably just setting myself up here as I’m sure that they’re writing her this way for a specific reason and she’ll turn out to be some god or something that has to sacrifice herself to save the universe, but right now … I don’t like her!

The ghost themselves are interesting I guess, and having them able to manipulate physical objects was a nice twist and something that I was not initially expecting. The timing of this episode was extra good in terms of real life events of course as it was only recently reported that water had been discovered on Mars which tied back to the excellent Waters of Mars episode and had a good correlation to this one.

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Doctor WhoTelevision

The Witches Familiar – Doctor Who (S9E2)

by hutchm
written by hutchm

Lets start with the positive on this episode as it must be said, there were some misses, but still quite a bit to like and while this episode was not as good as The Magician’s Apprentice, it still moved forward in a fairly quick and interesting fashion.

While we all knew that Missy and Clara were not killed at the end of the previous episode, their means of escape from the Dalek’s was explained quite well and their interactions throughout the show were spot on. I especially liked the “view” that Clara had of the Doctor’s escape in a similar fashion and her explanation of his gift for similar escapes from other enemies in the past. Missy specifically while seeming “almost good” last episode, continued that trend here, but gradually and convincingly started to revert to type in a more and more demented fashion and started to remind me of the Joker in some weird and wonderful ways!

Similarly the Doctor and Davros’ conversations and interactions were exceedingly well done and you could absolutely get into it. While anyone would assume that Davros was bluffing and playing on the Doctor’s feelings, more and more throughout the episode, he managed to persuade you of the genuinness of his feelings and his eventual betrayal when it came, as well as how it came was a surprise.

Quick Recap

If you recall from last weeks episode, Clara and Missy were supposedly killed by the Daleks. Well this week starts with them explaining how they escaped (basically Missy had reprogrammed their teleportation devices to send them elsewhere when they were shot by the Daleks) and then discussing how they can break back into the city that is filled with murderous Daleks so that they can save the Doctor.

Entering the sewers of the city – Clara rightly asks, why do Daleks even have sewers? Missy informs her that the sewers are not for removing waste from the Daleks but as they are essentially immortal, when their shell decays the remnants of the Dalek pool in the sewers of the city. While they no longer have the ability to navigate and drive a Dalek shell/body – they still continue to hate as a Dalek and Missy uses this knowledge to trap and kill a Dalek that has come into the sewers searching for the intruder.

“genetically hardwired to keep on living, whatever happens”.

Placing Clara in the Dalek shell – with eerie similarities to Clara’s first appearance on the Doctor in epic Asylum of the Daleks – Clara is “taught” by Missy how to navigate and use the Dalek body. Scarily emotions and words like love and hate and exterminate are the tools that power the Daleks disintegration beams and Clara is quickly frightened by what she’s gotten herself into.

‘How are you supposed to make it go without pedals?’ Clara asked.
‘Telepathic control.’
But inside when she spoke, to her horror she found everything was automatically translated into Dalek-speak.
‘I am Clara Oswald’ came out as ‘I am a Dalek.’

Meanwhile the Doctor and Davros continue their repartee and in a short interlude it seems that the Doctor might have found a quick and easy way to escape when he removes Davros from his chair and uses it to taunt the Daleks in their control chamber.

‘Davros is an insane, paranoid, genius who has survived among several billion trigger-happy mini tanks for centuries,’ he told the army of Davros’ ‘children’. ‘Conclusion? I’m definitely having his chair!’

While this interlude is short, the interaction between the two in the latter half of the episode is both poignant and moving, and Davros particularly does an exceptional job in his portrayal of a dying madman that has seen the truth. When he opens his eyes – well I’ll be honest, thats a scene I NEVER expected to see!

Davros even wept as he asked: ‘I need to know before I go. Am I a good man?’

However, as we’ve come to expect from both the Doctor and his most bitter enemy, leopards just don’t change their spots and while the Doctor is seemingly trapped in his efforts to restore Davros to life so that he can see one more sunrise, in reality the Doctor has realized that its all a setup and trick. Bequething his Time Lord energy to Daleks, the Doctor has realized that its not going just to Davros and those Daleks still in their bodies, but to ALL Daleks on the planet including the bodies of millions and millions of quiescent Daleks that were previously only in the sewers.

generations of Daleks just woke up very cross and they are coming up the pipes ! This city is about to be sucked into the ground, your own sewer is about to consume you !’

Realizing that Clara is trapped in the Dalek shell when she utters the word “mercy”, the Doctor helps her get out. Missy meanwhile is forced to flee as while she’d saved the Doctor from Davros, she’d commited a more heinous crime when she attempted to trick him into killing Clara by pretending that the Dalek body she was inhabiting had actually been the one that killed her.

While we were left last week with the Doctor facing a young Davros seemingly about to destroy him, this week we see the conclusion to that and the Doctor instead exterminates the handmines and saves Davros’ life. The boy wanted to know if was a friend or an enemy though.

‘I’m not sure any of that matters – friends, enemies..’ the Doctor assured him. ‘So long as there’s mercy.’

No!!! Not the Sonic Screwdriver!!

Overall a bit of a mixed feelings here. I mean the first and most obvious thing that must be said here, is that millions of toys around the world have now been consigned to the dustbin of history and I’m sure whole factories full of toy makers are cursing the BBC and Moffat for what he’s done in this most recent episode. If you recall from last week’s episode (The Magician’s Apprentice), the Doctor had given his Sonic Screwdriver to a young Davros, well now its gone (perhaps for good?) and has been replaced by “wearable technology” – sonic (?) sunglasses! I’ll be honest, that’s one thing I really didn’t like – if they wanted to introduce a new line of toys or gadgets, wouldn’t a smartwatch have made more sense? Sunglasses while admittadly cool, just aren’t the right tool in certain situations and just don’t make sense. Of course, in terms of a (secret) grand reveal it’s quite appropriate, as I’m sure everyone was rightfully surprised when it happened! As Capaldi has been featured wearing these shades in episodes being filmed for the remainder of Season 9, it can be assumed that they are here to stay – at least for this season & while the Sonic “Screwdriver” was most definitely not a screwdriver, its a gadget that I will personally miss.

Finally this episode has done nothing more than reenergize the Daleks as while it might seem they are setback by the muck from the sewers, we all know they will be back and if the Doctor knew that Davros was pretending, he’s done nothing more than give him additional life which seems a bit wrong to me? In addition, the same can be said of Missy couldn’t it? She’s an excellent character and I really love the spin she’s brought to the show, but previous iterations of Who had done what they could to stop her … here, he’s just told her to go away. Seems like a bit of a cop out.

Overall I didn’t love this one as much as I did the previous episode. There was some good stuff for sure, but the negatives in my opinion did more to hurt it.

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