Episode #264: The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar

 

"There's no such thing as the Doctor. I’m just a bloke in a box telling stories. I didn’t come here because I'm ashamed. A bit of shame never hurt anyone. I came… because you're sick and you asked. And because sometimes, on a good day, if I try very hard… I’m not some old Time Lord who ran away. I'm the Doctor."

Episode #264:      The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar.

Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:              19th to 26th September 2015.

The serpentine Colony Sarff has searched the entire universe for the Doctor, to give him the final message of Davros; however, the Time Lord is nowhere to be found. This is quite serious, as not even the Doctor's closest frenemy, Missy, is able to find him. Adding onto this is the fact she was given his Confession dial, which in human terms is the last will and testament of the Doctor.

This is an awkward story. Simply put it is a weird jumble of ideas. Aircraft across the world freeze in mid-flight. It's all a ruse by Missy to lure out Clara, so that they can go hunting for the Doctor as Missy has his last will and testament in the form of a confession disc. At the same time a weird alien made up of snakes who works for Davros (didn't he and his creations hate all things not Dalek before this?) is also looking for the Doctor because Davros is on his last legs. When they finally get together it's nothing part running through corridors/Dalek sewers and lengthy not so well written exposition between the Doctor and Davros. The plot is exposed, the Daleks defeated and everyone more or less escapes.

I could take this as a not so great episode but for a couple scenes where we almost get a jump the shark moment (look the phrase up if you haven't heard it before). The lesser one is this weird idea that Daleks cannot ever die and instead continue living as a form of conscious poop in the sewers of Skaro. What? Who let this idea through in the writing department? Seriously. The main one for me is part of the initial meeting of out characters somewhere in medieval England where the Doctor enters the room riding a modern day tank and playing the electric guitar. Again... what? For a television show about time travel, possibilities and occasionally the absurd, this for me broke the verisimilitude of the show. Why would the Doctor do anything like that? Surely that breaks the time travellers rules of messing up the timeline. Especially as they get left behind in medieval England. It spoils the whole first episode for me.

The story as such isn't all that interesting either and doesn't really set up anything with the Doctor or Davros since then, until the time of writing this. It's just a set up for the introduction of two new themes - the confession disc and legends of a half Dalek/half Time Lord hybrid. There have been some good series themes in New Who since it appeared on our screens but this one as it plays out in seasons to come is not one of the best.

More positively, it is good to see Davros back again although there is no explanation has to how he survived the prior encounter during the episode Journey's End". Who villains have survived many times before so that is fine by me. The story does have some nice revelations about Davros and his past, and potentially his inner workings during this two part story and it is probably the only bit of good exposition we get.

I have to be honest and just say that from here on, New Who does take a lengthy dip. Up until where we are with the show at the time of writing this (January 2021) the show has lost something crucial. The stories just aren't as good generally and the show really needs a true fan of the classic era to take over as executive producers and show runners. The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar could have been so much better. 

Episode #204 : The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."

Episode #204:     The Stolen Earth / Journey's End.
Companions:       10th Doctor, Donna Noble, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper.
Air Date:             28th June to 5th July 2008.

When Earth and twenty-six other planets are stolen and taken to the Medusa Cascade and the Doctor is nowhere in sight, it's up to the combined forces of UNIT, Torchwood, Sarah Jane and Rose to fight off the thieves, who only have one thing to say to the resistance: "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" Davros and the New Dalek Empire prepare to detonate a bomb that will wipe out all of existence. The Tenth Doctor is helpless, and the TARDIS faces destruction. The only hope lies with the Doctor's companions — the "Children of Time" — but Dalek Caan predicts that one will die.

This story is a fan's dream. It brings together not just the Doctor and the Daleks, but brings back old companions from the new show as well as bringing in Torchwood and Sarah Jane Smith. How cool is that? Having everyone together and sharing screen time reminds me of The Five Doctors. They come together to fight to defeat the Daleks.

The story ties together a lot of the elements that have appeared in the show since it was brought back on the air as well as wrapping up some elements of the Time War. The strong point for me is less so much that as the revelations presented by Davros about the Doctor and his companions. Davros points out something that perhaps we never considered. The Doctor may not condone violence but in truth his companions become soldiers to do that things that he couldn't usually bring himself to do. It is quite the revelation that has a huge emotional impact when Davros delivers it and shows the Doctor the truth that he might not otherwise accept.

It is great to see Davros again after so long. We learn that he did survive the events of Remembrance of the Daleks and even fought in the Time War itself. Davros created a new Dalek race from his own cells which seems to be a recurring factor in the Daleks these days.

There is one small bugbear for me with this episode. A lot of media attention was directed to the Doctor regenerating in this episode. In fact he does get exterminated by a Dalek and starts to regenerate. He heals using the regeneration energy and siphons the rest into his old hand that the Sycorax cut off. Now that is all fine but, and it is a big but as well as a spoiler, in the future episode The Time of the Doctor we learn that this counted towards the Doctor's regeneration limit. It's now established canon but it doesn't feel right to me as the regeneration doesn't complete so how does it count? But I can live with it. It just rubs me the wrong way a little bit.

At the end of the story all the companions go their own way again. Rose returns with the new Doctor to the Pete's World universe never to be seen again. Unfortunately this is the end of things for Donna. It all goes a bit wrong with the metacrisis and the Doctor is forced to remove any knowledge of him and their time again. It is a sad end for Donna that she spent all this time travelling with the Doctor and then it is all swept away from her.

Episode #151 : Remembrance of the Daleks

"Do you remember the Zygon gambit with the Loch Ness Monster? Or the Yeti in the Underground? Your species has an amazing capacity for self-deception."

Episode 151:     Remembrance of the Daleks.
Companions:    7th Doctor and Ace.
Air Date:          5th to 26th October 1988.

The TARDIS arrives in London in November 1963, where the Doctor and Ace discover that two rival factions of Daleks - one loyal to the Dalek Emperor and one to the Dalek Supreme - are seeking the Hand of Omega, a powerful Time Lord device that the first Doctor hid there during an earlier sojourn on Earth. The Daleks are focusing their search around Coal Hill School - the school that the Doctor's grand-daughter Susan attended - while a military unit led by Group Captain Gilmore is attempting to resist their incursions.

Remembrance of the Daleks is by far my most favourite story of the entire classic series. Everything about this story is just spot on from the script, the production values and the acting. It continues the Dalek civil war plot line that first started back in Destiny of the Daleks. We see the two different Dalek factions actually fighting in the streets of 1963 Earth and the first appearance of the special weapons Dalek. There are also a couple references to the British Rocket Group from the Quartermass series and films.

The 7th Doctor has become a rather manipulative character now and it suits him far better than the clownish figure he started his time as. This starts the first references to what would become known as the Cartmel Masterplan, a direction for the show that would have gone into the background of the Doctor. Unfortunately due to the shows cancellation it was never completed.

This story is the first to show that Daleks can actually levitate and thus "climb" stairs. For years many jokes were made about how you could just go upstairs to escape them. Not any more and their levitation/flight capabilities continue in the new series of the show.

In this story the Doctor uses the powerful Hand of Omega to trick the Daleks and Davros, and has the artifact destroy the Daleks home world of Skaro. This event has been considered to be another shot in the early events of the Time War by Russel T Davis.

Remembrance of the Daleks is so good that I cannot rate it high enough.

Episode #142 : Revelation of the Daleks

Davros: "This part of the galaxy is developing quickly. Famine was one of its major problems."

The Doctor: "You turned them into food?"

Davros: "A scheme which has earned me great acclaim."

The Doctor: "But did you bother to tell anyone that they might be eating their own relatives?"

Davros: "Certainly not! That would have created what I believe is termed... "consumer resistance."

Episode 142:    Revelation of the Daleks.
Companions:   6th Doctor and Peri.
Air Date:          23rd to 30th March 1985.

The Doctor and Peri arrive on the planet Necros where, in a facility called Tranquil Repose presided over by Mr Jobel and his assistant Tasambeker, the wealthy can have their newly-deceased bodies cryogenically frozen until such time as medical science can cure whatever killed them. The Doctor wishes to pay his last respects to his friend Professor Arthur Stengos, and also to assuage some nagging suspicions about the man's death. His suspicions prove justified, as it turns out that this is just a ruse to lure him into a trap. The Great Healer masterminding Tranquil Repose is Davros, who is using the organic material in the cryogenic storage units both as the raw material for the synthetic food that is Necros's biggest export and also to create a whole new army of Daleks with which to take control of the universe.

The story of Davros and the Daleks continues in Revelation of the Daleks. A decent adventure but one with a handful of issues that do spoil it just ever so slightly for me. As a story by itself it is quire reasonable and includes a few things that will reappear much later on in the new Who series, such as Daleks made from human flesh, levitating Daleks and Davros having a ranged electrical attack (though how and where he got that is another matter). There is no explanation for how he survived the Movellan virus but he obviously did.

The real issues that spoil this are length and padding. Revelation is made from two episodes each 45 minutes in length. While the same as a modern episode in this case both suffer horribly from padding to stretch the story out. Part one is horrible for this and it is a wonder that viewers didn't switch channels out of boredom. Even now, watching this adventure for the blog I found myself fiddling with my phone or looking for something to pass the time. Had it been better fleshed out I think this story could well have raised a rating.

The last issue and this does bug me somewhat is the inclusion of quest celebrity Alexi Sayle as a weird DJ for the dead. If you don't know who Alexi Sayle is, he was a well known anarchic comedian in the 1980s. Unfortunately he carries his zanny act into the role of the DJ and it really grates on my nerves because it just doesn't fit in the story.

Revelation of the Daleks continues elements of the Dalek civil war plot that started in their last appearance with the 5th Doctor. Davros is seeking to create a whole new race of Dalek which will be loyal to him and allow him to conquer the universe. He may have succeeded had others on Necros not contacted the Dalek empire and alerted them to Davros' presence on the planet. It doesn't fit in too well because surely the Daleks would have just exterminated everyone on the planet and then taken Davros away to Skaro?

Revelation of the Daleks is not a bad story providing you can sit through it fine and not worry about plot holes.

Episode #133 : Resurrection of the Daleks

"Once the Doctor has been exterminated, I should build a new race of Daleks. They will be even more deadly! And I Davros, shall be their leader! This time we shall triumph! The Daleks shall once more become the supreme beings!!!"

Episode 133:    Resurrection of the Daleks.
Companions:   5th Doctor, Tegan and Turlough.
Air Date:         8th to 15th February 1984.

The TARDIS becomes caught in a time corridor but the Doctor manages to free it and it then materialises in present day London within sight of Tower Bridge. Investigating some nearby warehouses, the travellers stumble into a trap that the Daleks have set for them. The Daleks also attack a space station orbiting Earth in the future. Their aim is to rescue their creator, Davros, who has been held there in suspended animation since his capture by humanity. They want him to help them find an antidote to an anti-Dalek virus created by the Movellans. In addition, the Daleks have constructed android duplicates and installed some of them in key positions of authority on Earth. They now intend to send duplicates of the Doctor and his companions to Gallifrey in order to assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords.

The Daleks return again and this time they plan on rescuing their creator in order to save their race from a Movellan virus. It suggests that the Movellons have been defeated but that the Daleks have no cure for this virus afflicting them. Davros uses this opportunity to turn some of the Daleks into loyal followers thus setting up the start if the Dalek civil war stories to come. For some reason though the Movellons hid their virus cannisters in 20th century London, which doesn't make a lot of sense.

This story also hints at being part of the Time War. The Daleks plan on replicating the Doctor and his companions, sending the replacements to Gallifrey to kill off the High Council. It would seem that in the background to the show the Daleks and the Time Lords are having a bit of a power struggle.

We are introduced to a new lesser villain in the role of Commander Lytton, a human mercenary serving the Daleks. He has brought with him the men under his command, Dalek Troopers, who look silly in Dalek style helmets. He manages to survive this adventure and reappear later on in an episode for the 6th Doctor. It seems odd that the Daleks would use human mercenaries but then it does fit since they need someone immune to the Movellon virus.

The Doctor gets somewhat trigger happy in this story, first by emptying an handgun into a Dalek mutant and then by having the intention of shooting Davros with a laser gun. We fans like to see the Doctor as a no gun sort of guy but the writers apparently forgot about that this time around. Speaking of guns there is an awful lot of gun related violence in this story for Doctor Who. Lytton's "police" guards shot anyone found around the 20th century end of the time corridor and it feels very out of place.

Having had enough of the darker side of adventures with the Doctor, Tegan has decided to leave and go back to her normal life. I'm going to miss her as she has been with the 5th Doctor since the start of his time. She may be the first companion to leave because of the unpleasantness that follows the Doctor.

Resurrection of the Daleks is an excellent sequel to Destiny of the Daleks and will continue in Revelation of the Daleks.

Episode #104 : Destiny of the Daleks

"If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?"

Episode 104: Destiny of the Daleks.
Companions: 4th Doctor, K9 and Romana.
Air Date:       Four episodes. 1st to 22nd September1979.

The Doctor and a newly-regenerated Romana arrive on Skaro and discover that the Daleks are using explosive charges and a group of humanoid slave workers to mine the planet in search of their creator, Davros. A stalemate has arisen in an interplanetary war that the Daleks are waging against the robotic Movellans, and their hope is that Davros will be able to give them the edge.

This was the very first Doctor Who story I'd ever seen. I remember watching it with my father when I was little. I never hid behind the sofa but I do remember closing my eyes tight whenever a Dalek appeared on the screen.

In Destiny of the Daleks we are reintroduced to the Daleks and Davros. We are also introduced to the Movellans, a race of robot conquerors who are locked into a stalemate space conflict with the Daleks. The Daleks seek their creator to give them a means to think out side of the box, and the Movellans seek to stop them at all costs. Problem is, the Movellans are also locked into a sense of logic. It's a pretty good story and definitely worth watching.

Davros is revealed not to be dead as we thought at the end of Genesis of the Daleks, and instead has been in a sense of suspended animation cause by his chair device. The BBC were unable to acquire the same actor for the role as last time and the replacement doesn't quite manage to pull off the role as well.

The Movellans are a neat idea as an enemy of the Daleks who aren't humans. Other than a reference here and then, unfortunately they are not seen again as of this review. I think a reappearance could be quite a nice idea for the new series and how they fit into the Time War arc.

As I mentioned in the prior review we have a new Romana in this story, played by Lalla Ward. No reason is given for her regeneration and it simply appears to be a vanity thing. She also seems able to pick and choose a form rather than get what is given to her. This is never explained. As much as I liked Mary Tamm, Lalla Ward take the role immediately and makes it her own. Having a reason for the regeneration would have made the story better though.

Destiny of the Daleks sets up the future stories that feature Davros. It is an excellent story and the Doctor's odd sense of humour as returned. Well worth hunting down for a watch.

Episode #78 : Genesis of the Daleks

"Today, the Kaled race is ended, consumed in a fire of war. But, from its ashes will rise a new race. The supreme creature. The ultimate conqueror of the universe. The Dalek!"

Episode 78:   Genesis of the Daleks.
Companions: 4th Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan.
Air Date:       Six episodes. 8th March to 12th April 1975.

The Time Lords intercept the transmat beam taking the Doctor, Sarah and Harry back to Nerva and deposit them instead on the planet Skaro at an early point in its history. There a Time Lord gives the Doctor both a mission to prevent or alter the Daleks' development so that they become less of a threat to the universe and a time ring that will enable him and his companions to return to the TARDIS once this is done.

Despite it's length and too much filler elements, Genesis of the Daleks is a truly fantastic story for Doctor Who. In this one we learn the origins of the Dalek race and encounter their creator, Davros, for the first time. Previously the Daleks have simply been hateful cybernetic creatures out to exterminate the universe, but now we seen the how and why of their creation. I think it certainly adds more to the shows mythos than perhaps any other classic story.

In the original Star Trek series there were several episodes that featured planets where everyone wore a wore Nazi, Roman or 20's gangster outfits because it was what was on hand and cheap to use. The costumes in this story remind me greatly of those Trek episodes. The Kaleds resemble the Nazi's (in both costume and expected demeanour), and at other times we see characters running about dressed for the first world world. While I am sure that this was entirely intended for the tone of the story, it does tend to stand out more than perhaps it should.

Genesis has also been hinted at as being the first element of the Time War that is to come. The Time Lords sending the Doctor back to prevent their creation or alter them somehow. He doesn't really do either, just delaying their development for a few centuries at best. How the Daleks learnt that the Time Lords attempted this may never be known but seems like a fair reason to launch a war against Gallifrey.

Genesis of the Daleks really is a must watch story for fans.