TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Witch's Familiar

Not to intentionally start on a negative note, but The Witch’s Familiar was always going to be a bit of an anti-climax after last week’s excellent series opener.

Fortunately, however, the episode was good enough in its own right that said anti-climax is really just a side note – one of a few small niggles in what was otherwise a really rather good episode of Doctor Who.

As with Series 8, we’ve had an early appearance here for classic enemies the Daleks, albeit with a twist, as Davros (Julian Bleach) emerges as more the star of the show than his creations. Picking up pretty much exactly where The Magician’s Apprentice left off, The Witch’s Familiar (I’m with Becky on the series titles!) sees The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) still trapped at heart of the Dalek empire, with no sonic screwdriver, no TARDIS, no friends and, or so you’d think, no hope.

Except of course, he’s The Doctor, and his loyal friends Clara (Jenna Coleman) and er, well Missy (Michelle Gomez) too I suppose, aren’t too far away, having ejected themselves from the compound after Missy saw through its spaceship disguise. Whilst The Doctor chats with his nemesis Davros, providing us with some of the most compelling dialogue we’ve seen in recent series to boot, Clara and Missy steal their way action-movie style through the Dalek sewers in an attempt to rescue him.

Said dialogue provided ample and interesting opportunities for the ‘What makes a good man?’ question to come up again, and what that means when you can quite easily time travel back to the past and not save the life of a small boy who will go on to murder billions – to pluck one example totally at random. Both Capaldi and Bleach handled it magnificently. Capaldi in general has really settled into the role in this second series. Now that he’s not in anybody else’s shadow but his own, a new confidence is emerging, symbolised rather well by his new shades (more on those later). And despite such serious and poignant considerations going on in the foreground – it’s marvellously good fun.

There were laugh out loud moments peppered through the episode, “The only other chair on Skaro”, “Course, the real question is ‘Where did he get his cup of tea?’” and the now infamous “pointy stick” to name but a handful. Michelle Gomez’s continued presence no doubt adds to this general atmosphere of amusement, with Who now unimaginable without her.

She also provides an interesting contrast with Jenna Coleman’s dutiful Clara, who can’t help but come across as much more than a walking hairdo next to her eccentric antics. What Missy is really up to though, remains to be seen. The fact that you can’t help but watch her from the edge of your seat is in part due to the brilliant energy of her performance, but also because at any moment she could drop the mask and dramatically change the status quo. Or you know, just find a new pointy stick.

The episode’s most memorable moment for many will be that of Clara trapped inside the Dalek, itself in many ways a call back to Soufflé girl, and through it our learning about how Daleks translate and channel their emotion into killing. Turns out “Exterminate” isn’t just a catchphrase, it’s their way of re-loading. Who knew? It also gave her a much needed angle, in what was otherwise fast becoming a tea party of The Doctor and his biggest nemeses.

We learn too, that Missy has, or at least had, a daughter at some stage, which, coupled with her seemingly genuine efforts to save The Doctor, leave us wondering just how many gaps need to be filled in our knowledge of their friendship, as opposed to what we already know about how many times they’ve tried to kill each other. Hopefully this reference means we’re going to find out more.

On the downside, I’m not sure quite how to feel about the ‘wearable technology’ instead of the screwdriver. It all felt rather too James Bond for my liking, much as I do like the sunglasses as a fun accessory. The sewers were a bit mad, too. Interesting idea to have decaying Daleks down there, but I couldn't quite understand why they were so angry. Surely, as Daleks, they would understand that they are ultimately just expendable killing machines? And with the spirit of self-sacrifice for the Dalek cause which so many of them have shown over the years, you'd think they'd understand that it's all for the greater good of Skaro? Or maybe this is all part of the development of their emotional side, hinted at frequently in this episode.

Will the show continue down this intriguing vein of balancing on knife edge between fun and sinister? Will we find out more about The Doctor and Missy? What will Clara’s hair be doing next week?

Becky will be with you for all this and more.

-Jen

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Magician's Apprentice

The last series of Doctor Who, the first of Capaldi's reign, was decidedly one of the better and most consistent of recent series, one which put character first and tied it all nicely in with some rollicking timey-wimey adventures. Capaldi's Doctor is on the darker end of the emotional spectrum and it continues here, building on a theme that has been hovering round the edge of New Who for a while; should you change the past if you know it will benefit the future?

The cold open is eerily effective, the puntastic hand mines as creepy as anything Moffat has produced across his writing and showrunning work. The idea of a world shrouded in the fog of war, with little to no chance of survival, immediately gives the episode a murky morality, one which is further compounded by the Doctor arriving to save the boy. Although I was aware Davros would be in this series, I'd missed any reference to him in this episode and remained largely spoiler free (a somewhat momentous achievement in this day and age). The boy telling the Doctor his name during the rescue was a great shock, giving way to the lesser one of the TARDIS leaving, one of those heart-in-your-mouth moments that seemed to ring out throughout the opening credits.

This kind of opportunity to change time, supposedly for the better, is something that has cropped up before throughout New Who, particularly back in the haunting Fires of Pompeii episode (coincidentally, the one that Capaldi guest-starred in). There, we learn that Vesuvius' eruption is a fixed point in time. It cannot be changed, no matter how hard Donna attempts to convince the Doctor otherwise. As mentioned in The Magician's Apprentice itself, it's been previous concern of the Doctor about whether it is morally right to stop a child before he goes on to become a heinous adult. It was used for comic effect in Moffat's earlier season opener, Let's Kill Hitler, but nothing is more deadly serious here.

The episode lends great weight to the Doctor's decision to leave the boy Davros without hammering it home; Colony Sarff (great name) searching for the Doctor across the galaxy and amongst his known associates offered a neat touch. Not only does it allow us to check in with some faces we've not seen for a while, it also works to build the tension for the episode. It also helps that Colony Sarff is as creepy as anything. I'm with Indy: why did it have to be snakes? Missy's introduction, comical as it is, doesn't really shatter that tension either. Michelle Gomez treads a fine line between sinister and outlandish all the way through the episode, but it never crosses into pantomime. And past history dictates that the Master wanting to help out the Doctor is a pretty big deal.

When the Doctor finally gets his entrance (and what an entrance - Rock Star Capaldi needs to be a thing more often), Capaldi gets to shine because this is his episode. We've all seen the Doctor make the tough decisions and (not) destroying Gallifrey still stands at the heart of that; Davros becomes a representation of all of those tough decisions. Everything could have changed if that little boy had been lost to the hand mine. Instead, the Doctor is left with the responsibility that his inaction has led to everything that Davros became; the destruction of everything the Doctor holds dear. The end of the episode, the apparent destruction of Missy, Clara and the TARDIS, hammers that point home. Is this, like so many things he holds himself accountable for, the Doctor's fault?

And with that, we're back on the turrbulent road that is Doctor Who. After the last series possibly restored the faith of some and further alienated others, The Magician's Apprentice is going to do pretty much the exact same thing. It's dense, emotional and entirely character driven and for that, I loved it.

As ever, we will be reviewing alternate episodes across the series so Jen will be with you next week for the wonderfully named The Witch's Familiar (I am loving the episode titles for this series).

- Becky

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Death in Heaven

After what has been a really cracking series, last night millions of us tuned in for ‘Death in Heaven’, the Doctor Who Season 8 finale. And what a finale it was.

Picking up largely where last week’s ‘to be continued’ episode left off, with mercifully only the shortest of re-caps, we re-join The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) outside St Paul’s Cathedral with the newly revealed The Master, otherwise known as Missy (Michelle Gomez). Meanwhile, Clara (Jenna Coleman) is still trapped inside with a particularly menacing looking Cyberman, calmly attempting to talk/lie herself out of danger whilst Cyber-beings descend on every city on Earth.

With the entire planet in danger from extra-terrestrial beings, naturally it wasn’t long before UNIT turned up, this time in the form of the brilliant Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) as well as worthy leader Kate (Jemma Redgrave). Together they hauled both The Doctor and Missy off onto ‘Earth Force One’ an aeroplane with a distinctly presidential feel, as it turns out that in this sort of turn of events, The Doctor sort of becomes Earth President apparently. And with the Cybermen raising a terrifying new army, he hasn’t got a lot of choice but to get on with it.

With so much going on, this episode really benefited from its hour length. For one, we had Missy prancing maniacally about in her Victorian nanny grab, heartlessly killing people left, right and centre one second, and firing off icy, barbed one-liners the next. All credit to Michelle Gomez for her role in this series, she really has been fantastic, and a worthy nemesis for fellow Scot Peter Capaldi, who’s Doctor has developed extraordinarily well into a version of the character we haven’t really seen before. This finale allowed him to come to terms with who he is, a question that’s been hanging over the whole series arc. Turns out he’s just an idiot with a box and screwdriver, which is all we really wanted to hear. 

As well as packing a serious emotional punch through Clara and Cyber-Danny’s heart-wrenching goodbye, (after all, you can’t have a Doctor Who finale without a few tears these days) the episode was brimming with so much action that at times it felt more like a Bond film than an episode of Doctor Who. It certainly carried it off well, mind. From THAT flying scene, to the destruction of the plane to the jet-packing villains, it was real edge-of-your-seat stuff, although mixed with elements of genuine sci-fi horror as the Cybermen went all zombie on us. 

Speaking of emotional punches, it seems that, although the ‘is she or isn’t she’ departing Clara is at least returning for the Christmas Special (more on that in a moment), we have indeed said goodbye to Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson) for good. Not only has he been a great returning character, but he had the unique opportunity of dying three times, twice of which were in incredibly selfless, heroic circumstances. Not only did he save the entire human race, but when given an opportunity to be re-born, sacrificed his own life for that of the young boy he once killed in Afghanistan. It was a fitting tribute to a brave and loyal soldier, particularly given the strong military themes present throughout this series. The only final sadness was that The Doctor never got to find out quite how selfless ‘P.E’ had in fact been, although again it did seem fitting that Clara and The Doctor both parted on a lie. At least for now.

It is often the case with Doctor Who that even when characters leave, we never truly feel that they are gone, gone. (The Master him/herself being a classic example). And it seems that this also will be true of Clara, particularly given the jokey feel to the final credits, including the appearance of Nick Frost (!), as Father Christmas in the Christmas Special prequel.

Frankly it can’t come around quick enough. This series has been excellent, and I can’t wait to see what Christmas and Series 9 have to offer. 

Jen

@jenniferklarge

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Dark Water

Dark Water is the first of the two part finale for this series of Doctor Who and it's a pretty barnstorming episode to kick it all off with questions and revelations in just about equal measure. The shocks come quickly with Danny tragically run over in the episode's moments. A grief stricken Clara to demand the Doctor to help him, threatening him with the loss of the TARDIS if he doesn't do so. The Doctor of course agrees to help and via Clara's strong psychic link with Danny's timeline, they end up at the mysterious 3W with Missy pretending to be a customer service droid. Meanwhile, Danny finds himself in the afterlife with Seb, toying with the decision to delete his consciousness and get rid of his memories forever. However, there hides something much more sinister within Missy's plan and it's not long before Cybermen start walking the streets of London. Again.

Whether or not you saw the twist coming, the Missy reveal introduces a whole bucketload of implications into the Whoniverse as well as bringing back one of the Doctor's most infamous nemeses. Chief amongst which is the idea of gender and regeneration. If Missy can come back as a woman, so too can the Doctor. I can't quite get rid of the nagging feeling that this is merely tokenism, however good Michelle Gomez is, (which is very - extremely - phenomenally good), a way to shut up those calling for more dynamic female characters or, whisper it, a female Doctor. After all, Missy's another classically Moffat mystery woman who just happens to be a Time Lord this time. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath for new and improved female characters.

That being said, I am loving the Clara that we've had this season. Much more interesting than simpering, without a mystery within her to be solved, she's simply just trying to get by as the Doctor's companion as well as navigating her relationship with Danny. The two contrasting scenes with the Doctor at the opening of the episode, first in the volcano and then back in the TARDIS were both expertly constructed. The volcano one in particular was masterfully done with the switching of power dynamics as the Doctor repeatedly called Clara's bluff and the quiet rage with which she dealt with him was solid work from Jenna Coleman. 

The second scene, in which the Doctor revealed he'd simply allowed Clara to act out that scenario, could have come across as another classic manipulation of her. Instead, it's much more emotional; he uses her fantasy to allow her to vocalise her grief before revealing that he'd do just about anything to help her. Given the disconnect and uneasy tension that there has been in the episodes leading up to this, it's a strong resolution for the pair and one which will clearly be tested in the second part of this finale.

The rest of the episode focused on the set up for the second part as we slowly learnt of Missy's plans. Some excellent comedy moments peppered the dialogue, particularly from the Doctor reacting to Missy or Seb's bureaucratic simpering, but the slow sinister reveal of the Cybermen was the strongest point. From creepy, gooey skeletons slowly turning their heads to that incredibly good shot of Clara sat in front of a standing Cyberman, completely oblivious to its existence, the episode utilised the inherent menace in its villains without playing its hand too easily. They've been a little guilty of overexposure recently, especially in the RTD years, but Moffat has been a bit more inventive, literally using an arm at one point to convey enough suspense without trotting out another clunking costume.

The greatest aspect of this episode though had to be the pace. We've often commented in these reviews that many an episode of Doctor Who would be improved if they had a little more time to set everything up or allow for a solid payoff. Too often, these things are rush and as a result, the quality of the episode diminishes. In Dark Water though, the pacing is spot on, the necessity of splitting the story into two parts allowing for everything to breathe a little and for the atmosphere to be carefully established. The emotional opening scenes soon give way to a mystery thriller and the episode felt much stronger as a result. When that cliffhanger comes around, it feels earned, not hurried. 

Next week sees the finale play out and Jen will be with you to see these reviews through to the end of the series. My two cents on the finale as a whole is that it's been a frustrating mix of highs and lows. It started exceptionally well with the uniform excellence of the first four episodes, but since then, it's been a little wobbly. When it hits the scary highs that it did with Listen, the thrills of Into the Dalek or the riotous fun of Robot of Sherwood, the series is fantastic and brilliantly entertaining. Dark Water harks back to that run and I hope it continues next week.

- Becky

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - In the Forest of the Night

In a slightly unusual earth-bound story, this week’s episode of Doctor Who, ‘In The Forest of the Night’, conceptually at least, was something a little bit different.  

One morning, the human race, and specifically for our story, those living in London (an interesting pairing with last week’s Bristol specific episode), wake up to find that the entire city and indeed the entire world, has been taken over by a giant forest, seemingly overnight. This includes Clara (Jenna Coleman) and Danny (Samuel Anderson) who have taken some of the children of Coal Hill School’s bogus ‘Gifted and Talented’ group for a ‘Night at the Museum’ style sleepover. It isn’t long before they realise that, not only is the outside world not quite how they left it the night before, but that they are missing a child, one Maebh, played excellently by Abigail Eames.

Maebh is in actual fact with The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) having found her way to him after being plagued by thoughts she can’t be rid of following the trauma of her older sister’s disappearance – a strong, complex idea to place in the hands of a child actor, but Abigail deals with it extraordinarily well. The Doctor, characteristically displeased that he, once again, appears to have been left babysitting one of Clara’s students, albeit a potentially interesting one, calls her, and in so doing beings the two groups of the story to the Tardis together, not to mention several more schoolchildren.

But what are the trees? What does their presence mean for the Earth? And what exactly has this got to do with Maebh?

The episode sets about to answer these questions, the first two of which are answered well, the latter lesser so. In concept, this was a strong episode, with ‘everyone’s nightmare’, of the dark forest (although this felt a bit of a steal from the common nightmares of ‘Listen’, earlier in the series) serving as just one of the fairy-tale tropes of an episode which also featured CGI wolves and a little girl in a red hooded coat. This glorious sense of the uncanny is heightened further by the lovely shots of vine covered London landmarks, as well as the escaped animals from London Zoo, which themselves blended in well with the episode's ecological ideas.

Speaking of which, I for one would have liked to have seen far more of those. The fact that The Doctor is unable to use his sonic screwdriver for help against natural organisms, including the trees themselves, citing, "Not everything can be fixed with a screwdriver. It's not a magic wand", added a strand of genuine peril to what was an otherwise monster free zone. 

Meanwhile, other areas of the episode just seemed to have been set up as giant solar-flare shaped plot devices designed to reveal the current state of the various relationships in the series at the moment, namely Clara, The Doctor and Danny. The endless lies and bickering about The Doctor, which seems to form the centre of Clara and Danny’s relationship is starting to grow tiresome, although fortunately it does seem as if she’s going to be forced to make a decision soon, if only when she’s finished her marking, whilst The Doctor’s view of Danny seems unchanged.

This was, however, an episode which gave plenty more opportunities for the consistently brilliant Capaldi to act alongside children, a rewarding running theme of this series, with him disappointed that they don’t seem especially interested in the fact that the Tardis is bigger on the inside. This showed us that, whilst in character, Capaldi’s Doctor is much harsher and colder than previous incarnations, in Tardis at least, he is much more welcoming.

The subplot of the missing child worked reasonably well as an emotional pull, but we weren’t left feeling terribly clear as to how exactly Maebh fit in with it all. I’m willing to bet that this will become a memorable episode in years to become, but as ‘that one with the forest’, rather the one with a missing older sister. 

Still, it was great to learn just a teensy but more about the link between Clara and the enigmatic Missy (Michelle Gomez), as we get the sense that this episode was very much positioned as the relative ‘calm before the storm’, next week’s episode being the beginnings of finale territory.  

All in all an enjoyable forty five minutes of television, just not necessarily the most successful and enjoyable episode of Doctor Who.

Although it seems we will FINALLY learn more about Missy next week to make up for it – look out for Becky’s review of the action…

Jen

@jenniferklarge

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - Flatline

Jamie Mathieson's adventure is one of the better episodes of this series so far (it's going to take a lot to beat Listen for me) and messing with the usual dynamic caps off a thread that has been occurring throughout. Clara and the Doctor may be back on good terms at the end of Mummy on the Orient Express, but there is still the sense that she doesn't quite understand his methods, or agree with them. So how do we solve a problem like that? Stick Clara in the Doctor's shoes, arm her with the sonic screwdriver and see how she does. It's a bold move for an episode, even in a series that has delighted in messing with the Doctor-Companion dynamic and it proves to be an interesting one. 

We've got used to seeing Clara take the lead a little more here and it's given Jenna Coleman a lot more to do. She's handled it brilliantly and her slightly offbeat, slightly antagonistic chemistry with Peter Capaldi has been nicely removed from the mooning and flirting of previous years. Here, she gets to take on the role of the Doctor entirely, even saying cool things that the Doctor would say. I know some people will likely grumble at the Doctor being relegated to a supporting role in his own show, but Capaldi's screen presence is such that the fact he was in one location for much of the episode barely registered. He's still a fantastic Doctor and got to fire off one liners with ease. 

Keeping him in the TARDIS, the one to be rescued, is a further exploration of the idea of playing roles. When the Doctor is guiding Clara through becoming the leader in the group running away from the episode's monsters, the pair discuss the best way to keep them on side; give them hope, they'll run faster, play the hero, they'll believe you can help. There's a lot in here about adopting the name (Clara becomes the Doctor) and playing up to a performance that people have come to expect. By the end of the episode, the Doctor's back with a full size TARDIS and triumphantly becomes 'the man who stops the monsters', which he then of course does.

However, with all this switching, role playing and name changes, there's a sense that the carefully built up identity of the Doctor is fracturing slightly. It's a thread that's run right through the series; this is a man questioning his identity and his actions in this universe and I'm still not sure the Doctor likes what he sees. Even though he's grown in confidence as the series has gone on and picked up hi own recognisable traits, there's a sense of doubt in there. With the Doctor's final parting comments about 'goodness', we're back full circle to his initial question to Clara back in Deep Breath; 'am I a good man?' How far is the Doctor accountable for the deaths and tragedies that occur under his watch and, by extension, is Clara?

In amongst all of this, the actual mystery to be solved at the centre of Flatlines is a rather good one, a locked room mystery with added 'the floor is lava' potential. There have been some creepy foes so far (the Mummy was horrible) and the monsters here continue that run, especially in the creepy stop-motion like animation that created them as they hit three dimensions. It's also refreshing that the Doctor just got rid of them at the end; there wasn't a coda that revealed they were just trying to be nice all along. No, they killed people and threatened others so the Doctor sent them back to where they came from without any fuss at all.

This brings us nicely to the final moments. In characteristic fashion, it appears that one massive revelation has been dropped on us with that last, brief line. If Clara has been chosen by Missy to be the Companion, surely that makes her the woman in the shop who gave her the number for the TARDIS? Given the effect that Clara has had on all aspects of the Doctor's life, this revelation has the potential to be huge. But then, it didn't really reveal all that much and the original questions remain; just who is Missy and how did she get that number? The Missy teases have been handled really well this series, nothing that overshadows the episode's proceedings and just enough to hint at the wider plan. Michelle Gomez may not have been in it all that much just yet, but she's cast a long shadow over the proceedings and I can't wait to see her in action properly. 

- Becky

You can read Jen's review of Mummy on the Orient Express here.

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