Doctor Who is back! Doctor Who is back.
If I was left in the middle of the field surrounded by a bunch of hands peeking out of the soil watching me with their single eye in the middle of their palm, I would probably break down crying and proceed to be sucked into a sink hole. That is because Doctor Who is surprisingly amazing at not just presenting these fantastical science fiction worlds and situations, but also injecting a healthy dose of horror enjoy to haunt your dreams. During Stephen Moffat’s reign we’ve encountered quite a number of episodes that are sure to make you feel unsettled.
Just because Clara hasn’t been gallivanting across time and space with the Doctor as of late, that doesn’t mean that things aren’t still happening. It doesn’t mean that she has lost her touch. Clara has always been clever and alert, but her quickly realizing that the planes have stopped is a unique twist. In fact, upon heading over to Clara quickly goes to work with figuring it all out without him.
Enter Missy.
I’m quite pleased to see more of Missy. I knew it was coming, but there’s something brilliant about her delivery. Not only that, but there’s something crass and obnoxious about her. Her long standing relationship with the Doctor is what really drives this insanity. She has a serious interest in the Doctor and sees their relationship as symbiotic and necessary for them both. In many ways it’s like how The Joker sees his relationship with Batman. The offense Missy felt when the Doctor said someone else was his arch enemy was an amusing little moment. Missy adds an interesting element to the show.
While we briefly saw The Doctor in the field with the boy in the episode opening, his first appearance when Clara and Missy arrived was the most amusing one. The Doctor appeared being positively quirky and playing the guitar in a medieval setting. The reunion was quite sweet as The Doctor promptly embraced Clara.
Seriously, the horror elements in surprisingly tied with Davros. Watching the snake man unfurl was unsettling. However it was the knowledge that it was the Doctor’s actions from earlier that made Davros the way he was. It was yet another smart move that didn’t just make this episode another installment, but further developed the world and what we know of it. In this case we got more information of how the Daleks came to be. With such a long standing enemy it was interesting to see how things were pushed as they were. More importantly it gave an even deeper meaning to why the daleks hate the Doctor. It was also a nice tough showing a number of different interactions different iterations of the Doctor have had with Davros.
The result is a complex evolution to their relationship. As we saw the Doctor pushed further and further. The Doctor is willing to do anything to save his friends.
Obviously this episode ended on a cliff-hanger, but it was a solid return to Doctor Who. I’m positively excited and thrilled to see the second part of the episode.
What did you think of the episode?
So, I pondered... 