S36E02: The Witch's Familiar

[Captain Seafort]

Starts at 1945 BST.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

"Your sewers are revolting!"

I loved EVERYTHING about this one!

[Graham Kennedy]

Liked it. I was glad they got the "Missy and Clara are dead" thing out of the way quite fast, like the idea of the "slightly alive" sewers. I was a bit confused by what exactly the sewer Daleks actually did to harm other Daleks, though. I was half expecting them to all rise up like some kind of ooze monster, like a Dalek version of the Blob or something, and smash all the Daleks. Instead it seemed like the other Daleks just kind of died on the spot for no reason. Maybe I missed something?

And sonic glasses? Just kind of silly.

Loved the scenes with Davros playing nice. They even had me wondering if he might actually mean it, though I never really believed it. Am I the only one who expected to see him completely regenerate, become a normal-looking Human (or rather, Kaled)? That would have been a VERY bold thing for them to do, to lose the iconic look of Davros. It felt like they played it safe a bit to just say he was better whilst keeping all his obvious infirmities the same.

But on the whole, it was a worthy part 2.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I was kinda freaked out by the shots of him lying out of his chair. But then it makes sense to be half a man.

[Mikey]

My fave dialogue of the episode -
Clara: "We're not a team!"
Missy: "Of course we are - every miner needs a canary."

In general, this ep was a fantastic redemption of the haphazard first part. Missy showed even more strongly that she may be as evil as the Master ever was, but in a much more charismatic and fun way - helped in no small part by Gomez' great performance.

I was glad they got the "Missy and Clara are dead" thing out of the way quite fast

Indeed. We all knew that they weren't dead, and we all knew that it wold be accomplished by some sort of handwaving. At least Moffat &co didn't try to play it up or pretend that there was some real plot point behind it.

like the idea of the "slightly alive" sewers

Now that to me was a bit of a one-off, that turned out to be a true bit of handwaving that was passed off as a real plot point. If there was any one bit of this ep that left a weird aftertaste, this was it.

I was a bit confused by what exactly the sewer Daleks actually did to harm other Daleks, though.

I think they infiltrated the casings of the "living" Daleks and killed them. If you recall, Missy reached into the vehicle of the Dalek that Clara baited and pulled out a blackened and greasy Dalek after the "ooze" got into it.

And sonic glasses? Just kind of silly.

Considering what a fiat scriptorum the sonic has been, turning it into a pair of shades is par for the course.

Am I the only one who expected to see him completely regenerate, become a normal-looking Human (or rather, Kaled)? That would have been a VERY bold thing for them to do, to lose the iconic look of Davros. It felt like they played it safe a bit to just say he was better whilst keeping all his obvious infirmities the same.

Perhaps, I sure didn't expect that. I didn't feel like they "played it safe," rather I felt that an incomplete or unaccomplished regeneration was what was to be expected... especially considering that the Doctor wasn't really too drained subsequently.

I was kinda freaked out by the shots of him lying out of his chair. But then it makes sense to be half a man.

Actually, I might have expected an atrophied pair of legs, but the sight of Davros terminated at the middle wasn't too shocking. That sort of injury sort of put to the test the credibility of him surviving well enough to command and wait for help outside of his chair, though.

[Graham Kennedy]

Could be that it wasn't an injury at all. If he gradually lost the circulation in his legs, the point would be reached where his doctors would want to amputate them.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Now tat I ponder it, I never actually had considered what Davros looked like below the waist.

Quiet, you.