Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Hettie MacDonald
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez,
Julian Bleach, Jemma Redgrave, Clare Higgins
Transmitted BBC One 27th September 2015

A very enjoyable and assured beginning to the 2015 Doctor Who run hit UK screens in two extra-length instalments earlier this month, but most notably we had a special feature length 'omnibus', which is a rarity for this show on the BBC. Some significant stories of the past have had their edited outings, be they involving Sea Devils, Metabelis Spiders, or Kaleds, Thals and Mutos. 

If you are wondering how different this plays out as an omnibus, the answer is 'not all that much'. The story is strong enough to hold the attention in one sitting, and there is no real need to edit scenes around. Hence we get The Magician's Nephew in the opening credits, and later a caption saying Part 2 - The Witch's Familiar before the next sections play out.

As pointed out by my colleague, this new story works a treat as a sequel to the wonderfully composed introduction to Davros (then played by the late Michael Wisher) and his battle of wits with the Fourth Doctor, i.e. Genesis of the Daleks.

As a follow-up, much inspiration is found in the original and compounded. Macabre Imagery and unsettling themes permeate the onscreen-narrative. Once again Steven Moffat comes up with a wonderfully gruesome idea via the hand mines (a literal device that destroys all humanoid life). But the most disturbing image is the idea of the Doctor being visibly ashamed of his decision to abandon an innocent child, because he knows far too much as an unlimited Time traveller.

The Doctor is given a lot of good line - few better than his rousing recommendation to overcome the 1 in 1000 odds by focusing on the 'one'. Yet Missy is still stealing scenes left and right, sometimes with the help of witty lines but not necessarily always - and played just the right side of stagey - by the very assured Michelle Gomez. And surely it would be more fun to have a Time Lady around anyway? I will unequivocally now declare her as the best Master of the last 35 years. It is also pleasing to have an explanation for her survival from last year's finale, even if that undermines the poignancy of a changed Brigadier saving the Doctor from killing his long-lost friend/worst enemy. 

I admire the episodes' intent to give us three key villains/monsters, if perhaps not the most epic or cosmos threatening main story. Of course some upgraded Daleks are no good, but maybe there is a force other than the Time Lords that may arise to oppose Daleks. If we don't see them torture and kill innocents, it becomes somewhat an abstract concept. Yet this two-parter's ability to bring proper exploration of the Doctor/Davros relationship is very good and acted by a par of expert hands to the best of their ability.

            The whole mystery/mystique over what and who made Davros the normal boy into a genocidal maniac is at the heart of this story, inasmuch as the Doctor wonders just what that period was like so as to made a huge change to one individual. Some of us know of the I Davros audio series and I wonder if showrunner Moffat is letting it link in or not, but perhaps that should not be a big issue when we have a Time War and various timelines left, right and centre these days.

There is some irony though with Davros surviving time and again when a sworn enemy of the Doctor, but only now is that precedent set; the eventual rescue of the boy in order to ensure that mercy is indeed part of the Dalek make-up, no matter how deeply hidden in practice.

As to how well he stands up with having the same actor from 7 years ago. I can firmly say that Julian Bleach is even better this time round with a more thoughtful script for him. He could rant jarringly every other screen moment he had in Journey's End. It may also help he has such a chilling henchman in Colony Sarff to do his bidding, and so he feels he has many cards to play apart from his own Dalek creation.

We do have a lot of location hopping, but it's really the combination of two renegade Time Lords and one amoral genius from a brutally war-torn world that really makes this feel justified as an extended pair of episodes. I also think as an adult fan it is a good thing to make children audience  think of character and themes as much as whacky ideas and flashy spectacle.

Sound and repeated words help generate some real atmosphere in this story: the repeated cries of 'Help Me' to a mentally paralysed Doctor, both back then in early Skaro history, and now in the present narrative, and also 'Davros knows, Davros remember'.  Those catchphrases not only resonated with a Doctor who deep down cares despite a brusque exterior, but surely also many sympathetic viewers. The re-use of classic Dalek sound effects is also never a tired thing, as they evoke all sorts of feelings of foreboding and trouble.

There is plenty of continuity with classic and modern Doctor Who, and it is mostly done in an elegant and non-indulgent manner. It is a nice surprise to have the Shadow Proclamation back after so long (if very briefly once more). Elsewhere we see Karn once again and how it is now revisited in a transmitted main channel episode (The Night of the Doctor was a brief return for Paul McGann's incarnation as he regenerated with help from the Sisterhood).

But this paying homage to the past would not count for much if we did not have a reliable strong storytelling process which yields an engaging narrative. There is some clever suspense over how the Tardis has become hidden in both parts of this feature. We worry but know essentially that the Doctor always would know his ship and how to call on it when needing it most. Rather more unexpectedly for our grey-haired hero, the reveal of where exactly he has agreed to meet Davros is done beautifully, with Murray Gold's music really selling the shock for the Doctor.

Using Skaro in both past and present is the main anchor for the very busy first part. Of course lots of galaxy-trotting is nothing new in this era but can still be a jolt, and even more so when including the material of the online prequels. The re-use of old style Dalek arches is such a great idea, and I would think any black and white Dr Who followers - who recall the eerie menace of the original Daleks - will be happy. Less impressive to my mind is the re-occurrence of having seemingly all the Dalek versions without any sense of hierachy and so adds little to that conceit brought in from 'Asylum Of The Daleks'.

Cheeky humour is never far away despite overall dark core to this story. Peter Capaldi on guitar is a wonderful moment, and a nice way for the real-life actor to stamp a bit more of himself on this constantly evolving Doctor. Few past regenerations have been very musical, but the Second Doctor was one type to  play more than a few notes on his recorder.

Also funny and avoiding tastelesness is a brief joke over 'did Clara kiss Jane Austen'. It works as a nicely ambiguous character detail as she has not found another boyfriend, and may still be grieving Danny.  And there is a clever  gimmick with planes stopping and being potential bombs. Rather than played for high stakes, it comes off as amusing and typical of the show's frequent irreverance. It is a neat link into  Missy confirming her return in a laidback and fearless way; much like when she first burst onto screen in early episodes of Series 8.

Some elements of the feature are perhaps more vital than others. I liked having Kate Stewart back on-screen (however minus the presence of the real Osgood, who remains officially dead as of now). But really there  is not much for UNIT to do other than have agents killed off by Missy. Also the limited time means little opportunity for character development for Kate. The upcoming story with the Zygons will be a much better sign of where the show wll take this long-established component of the Doctor Who mythos. 

A few other nitpicks must be admitted before I round off. Early on we have the young Davros with no idea as to what his planet called. Maybe he is just too young, or schools are non-existent in this world. But still one would have thought astronomy would exist to a degree given all that we are told in Genesis? Regardless, if Davros had early aspirations to being a great scientist, it certainly didn't happen before he first met the Doctor in his long life.  

As for the withered version of the Dalek creator that we all know (and love to hate), I did not really care much for the way he opens his eyes. For me it seemed a bit of a cheat. It may have been a bold idea on paper, but seems to defy the very clear precedent that he long ago lost his normal vision and so needed an artificial eye-piece. Thus he created the Daleks to have one themselves. Maybe they are fake eyes, as he tampers with himself genetically once again (c.f.The Stolen Earth's display of his body). I just feel, unlike the prolonged laugh with the Doctor, that it was a slightly mistaken breaking of ground.

But overall this is a very strong edition of brand New Who, and a marked improvement both on Series 8's opener. and on its singular story to feature the Daleks. With more multi-parters to come immediately, this could end up being a very different series, but one that consolidates last year's solid return to form for Steven Moffat and all his diligent cast and crew.

WRITER - PAUL CORNELL
ARTIST - NEIL EDWARDS
COLORIST - IVAN NUNES
LETTERER - RICHARD STARKINGS AND JIMMY BETANCOURT
DESIGNER - ROB FARMER
EDITOR - ANDREW JAMES
ASSISTANT EDITOR - KIRSTEN MURRAY
RELEASED SEPTEMBER 23RD 2015, TITAN COMICS

“In a way, this was why I gave her to you in the first place, to make you see – the friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend. Everyone’s a bit of both. Everyone’s a hybrid.”

Although he couldn’t have known this at the time of writing, in having Missy utter these pivotal words towards the climax of “The Witch’s Familiar” last Saturday, Doctor Who’s resident commander-in-chief Steven Moffat almost directly alluded to the discussion point which has arguably been at the heart of Paul Cornell’s grand Four Doctors crossover event: precisely what role do the travelling companions who join the TARDIS crew play in Theta Sigma(s)’ lives, and must we always assume that their impact upon the aforementioned mad man in a box is wholly beneficial? Certainly, there’ve been examples in the past of the Doctors’ allies failing to live up to his occasionally lofty expectations – few would likely contest the hypothesis that Adam Mitchell didn’t do himself any favours in 2005’s “The Long Game”, for instance – and one has to wonder, based on the events of 2009’s “The Waters of Mars” amongst other companionless tales, whether the increasingly fleeting nature of each assistant’s tenure takes its toll upon the series’ one constant protagonist from time to time, but not until now has this intellectually stimulating subject matter been considered any great detail, hence why – in spite of its various shortcomings, déjà vu-ridden sequences perhaps the most prominent bugbear – Titan Comics’ first Who-centric Summer event has made for such delightfully entertaining reading to date.

For those who’ve been struggling to stay abreast of what’s undoubtedly been one of the more convoluted entries in the Whoniverse’s ever-expanding array of time-bending yarns, at the heart of Cornell’s contemplation upon the relationship between the Doctor and his accomplices – better known as the character dynamic which continues to power the programme and its various spin-offs fifty-two years after the former’s inception – lies an alternate version of Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor whose (admittedly already flimsy) moral compass had the misfortune of becoming completely warped at the moment that his Impossible Girl elected to betray him in Season Eight’s much-loved “Dark Water”. Not only that, but rather than live out his days as his previous selves did, namely by searching the universe in search of new recruits, this Valeyard-esque parallel echo opted to voyage across dimensions so as to join forces with the Time War-afflicted Voord and spread an indoctrinatory message of peace across the cosmos.

Keeping up? If not, then fret not, since rather than continually prioritising his narrative’s dense techno-jargon and complex mythology as was the case on occasion in previous issues, Cornell instead takes the approach which worked wonders for him in 2007 with “Human Nature / The Family of Blood”, bringing the relationship at the tale’s heart (in the aforementioned televised serial’s case John Smith and Joan Redfern, though here it’s undeniably the Doctor and Clara) back to the forefront just in time to allow for a real humdinger of an emotional denouement. Precisely how Four Doctors concludes we shan’t of course spoil here for fear of robbing anyone of the satisfaction of experiencing Issue 5 devoid of any foreknowledge, yet suffice to say that the manner in which the piece’s psychologically unhinged ‘villain’ rounds off his dialogue with Coal Hill School’s least reliable teacher since the 1960s will surely bring a tear to both eyes, especially given how neatly the moment complements the true Twelfth’s televised reaction to his friend’s ultimately insignificant backstabbing in the process.

Jenna Coleman’s soon-to-be deceased (unless she overcomes her addiction to adventuring, of course) construct isn’t the only companion involved in drawing Cornell’s meticulously plotted five-part saga to a close, however – Gabby Gonzalez and Alice Obiefune both factor into its resolution just as heavily as Clara and Missy did into “The Witch’s Familiar”, despite all four characters seemingly having met their demises in their respective tales’ previous instalments. Indeed, this reviewer couldn’t be more relieved to confirm that whereas Four Doctors’ penultimate chapter cruelly mishandled the former pair by only having them fulfil a somewhat meaningful role at the very last moment, Issue 5 in contrast affords both of them pivotal roles, with Gabby in particular heading on a trajectory which couldn’t be more vital in terms of how proceedings wrap up. Perhaps another entry in Gabby’s frequently marvellous series of diary writings would have sweetened the deal even further so far as boosting her and Alice’s enhanced contributions, but even so, it’s nothing short of fantastic to see the scribe take heed – at precisely the right moment, too – of the fact that successful Who serials pay just as much attention to the exploits of the Time Lord’s invaluable assistants as to the show’s namesake.

Speaking of the word “fantastic”, it’s high time that we addressed the singular, big-eared elephant still residing in the room a month on from this otherwise blemish-free (well, thereabouts) storyline – the absence of Chris Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor. Rest assured that whilst Cornell doesn’t suddenly shoehorn in the first of the character’s post-20th Century incarnations in a desperate effort to rival the five or so issues which Titan have already dedicated to him this year, by no means does he outright ignore the huge extent to which the Oncoming Storm and Rose Tyler developed upon the interactions between past Doctors and companions; quite to the contrary, he uses the fact that Eccleston’s war veteran seemingly spent virtually all of his life in Rose’s company to both justify their joint disappearance (of sorts) and progress the finale’s above-mentioned contemplation of the supplemental and detrimental ramifications (particularly the latter) alike of its central players’ dependence upon one another.

In just about any other isolated Who comic-book arc, such a fleeting sequence as that which we’ve vaguely (albeit with good reason) commented on here would doubtless come off as an indulgent digression intended to evoke little more than a sense of nostalgia in the mind of the hard-core Whovian reader, so it’s incredibly telling of Cornell’s near-unparalleled finesse as a spinner of yarns that he takes the moment in question and utilises it not only as a means by which to celebrate the highlights of Doctor Who’s modern revival ten years on from its debut, but moreover to immensely deepen our understanding of how the Doctor’s companions continue to keep his darker moral facets at bay. Matt Smith’s incarnation once speculated in the presence of Sarah-Jane and Jo that the universe might just shiver in the event of his demise, yet on the basis of Four Doctors’ captivating fifth part, it seems safer still to say that if the 2000-year-old Time Lord ever took permanent leave of his travelling assistants, the universe – not to mention the audience – would surely require therapy as a result.

Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Hettie MacDonald
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, and Julian Bleach
Transmitted BBC One 26th September 2015

Rule One: The Doctor Lies.

Previously on Doctor Who…..

Having met a child Davros on an ancient battlefield, the Doctor is running. His last confession is in the hands of Missy (Not Dead, Big Surprise). His confession may or may not be to do with Davros, he’s not letting on why, but he’s pretty sure he’s going to die. Clara and Missy come looking for him. A Snake Man made of Snakes kidnaps all of them and takes them to see the dying Davros, who wants a word. On Skaro. Cue Dalek Guns and dead friends. Doctor beside himself. Flashback/flashforward, the Doctor aiming a Dalek gun at young Davros. *Cliffhanger Sting*.

Rule Two: Steven Moffat loves a wind-up:

Ok, so there was no way that Clara, Missy, and the TARDIS were really toast, was there? Would have made for a very short series, wouldn’t it? Steven Moffat knows this, and really, so do we. We’ve seen the trailer. He also knows that we know. Thus, The Witch’s Familiar opens with a wry reference to those ‘How we did it’ montage scenes from Sherlock, as Missy offers a cheeky explanation of how they survived via a flashback of the Doctor (one of them, anyway) getting out of the same sort of jam. Consequently, Missy and Clara have escaped and are now outside the Dalek City, in Clara’s case - tied up and upside down while Missy contemplates lunch.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is still in the Dalek City, unwillingly continuing his fireside chat with Davros. This is broken up by a brief escape where the absolutely livid Twelfth Doctor manages what none of his predecessors did. He not only gets Davros out of his chair, but he does a bit of cosplay, and takes the Mark 1 Travel Machine for a spin. It’s a fun moment, but doesn’t last. The Daleks mobilise, in a cool moment they pass through their arches en masse like it’s 1966 - and the Special Weapons Dalek TALKS. 

This diversion over, interrupted by Colony Sarff, he’s soon back with Davros (in the only other chair on Skaro), and Davros resumes his spiel. Their conversations in The Magician’s Apprentice were highly reminiscent of their first meeting in Genesis of the Daleks. That story is echoed even more here, Moffat paraphrases Terry Nation, and cleverly turns famous lines on their head, as the Doctor, shamed by his role in the making of his arch-enemy, is on the back foot for a change. Davros plays the Doctor like a stradivarius here, the wily old goat. Yes, he is dying. We learn that his biological link to the Daleks is the reason he can’t die. He lays it on thick, and the Doctor obliges him. 

Capaldi continues to be a revelation. He rages and swaggers, yet shows sympathy for his ailing foe, trying to help him in his dying hours, even as confusion and disbelief loop around those eyebrows. Julian Bleach almost has us feeling sorry for Davros, turning Season Eight’s “Am I a good man?” question around on him. We even see his eyes, which we always assumed he didn’t have. They share a laugh together. But, even in an episode of Doctor Who that dares to show us Davros’s eyes, that reinvents the Daleks biology, that casually throws in a reference to a relative we never dreamed of - Moffat doesn’t go that far. Davros is still thoroughly rotten to the core and has been playing him. It’s a trap, Davros never intended to die, and the Doctor ends up giving away regeneration energy to him and his creations.

Rule Three: Missy is a compulsive liar.

Meanwhile, outside the walls, the two-hander going on between Clara and Missy is just as central as the one between the Doctor and Davros. The odd couple make their way to the Dalek City through the sewers, where we learn the icky truth of Dalek drainage, which will eventually prove the undoing of the Daleks on the surface. Their exchanges are electric, Clara is smart, but ever so straight-laced, while Missy is freewheeling and more dangerous than ever, as Michelle Gomez, preamble over, really gets going. She can’t be trusted in any way, shape, or form. One of the traits that Moffat has introduced is a tendency, like Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight to casually reel off multiple explanations passed off as truth. She tries to kill Clara more than once, then, in an echo of Oswin’s fate in Asylum of the Daleks, locks her inside the casing of one. Here we learn more about what it’s like to be inside one, and this is no Ian Chesterton-hiding-inside-a casing deal. Missy puts her through her paces in the same way Davros puts his prototype through the motions in Genesis. The language of a Dalek is different to ours, it doesn’t translate, certain words will only come out as Exterminate. When Dalek-Clara finally comes face to eye-stalk with the Doctor, she can only, desperately try to say her name - which comes out as “I am a Dalek”. Missy tries to persuade the Doctor to kill her, in-between attempts at cosying up to the Daleks (“The bitch is back”). It’s only Clara’s desperate cry of “Mercy”, that alerts the Doctor to who’s under the hood, and that the word Mercy is even in the Dalek dictionary. And then the Doctor runs again, as Missy smiles sweetly at the Daleks and says that she’s got an idea.

This takes us back to that cliffhanger, where the Doctor returns to that battlefield encounter with the child Davros, tooled up. Needless to say, it’s the hand-mines that get it, and he leads the child that will one day grow up as his arch-enemy (don’t tell Missy, she’ll scratch his eye out) by the hand away from his doom, and the word Mercy finds its place in Dalek lore. 

Obviously Davros is still going to grow up to be that man. Something awful will happen to him, but something else, and another day. There are still questions to be answered that will probably be answered in about ten weeks time, and Missy will undoubtedly be back at some point, having not been ‘killed off’ for once. Speaking of which.....the Doctor seems pointedly more worried about Clara possibly dying than ever before. Is this the hidden arc of the series? Who knows. Surprises to come no doubt. In the meantime, let’s savour this, the best two part story Doctor Who’s had in years, riffs, silver Daleks, sewers, ray bans and all.

The Man Behind The Master - The biography of Anthony Ainley
Written by Karen Louise Hollis
Published by Fantom Publishing, September 2015

In many ways we probably know more about the mysterious figure from the Doctor's past than we do of the man who played him throughout the 1980s, Anthony Ainley. A man who fiercely protected his privacy, we knew little of him other than the persona he chose to play at conventions and the like. In her biography of the actor, Karen Hollis attempts to bring us a better perspective of "The Man behind the Master".

With such a private man, this was always going to be quite a daunting task - for fandom, his own date of birth hadn't been confirmed for quite some time - other than it being the same day as his Doctor Who co-stars Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred - until it was realised that he had been registered under his mother's name and it wasn't until later in life that he adopted his famous father's surname. However, Hollis took on the challenge: "Using exhaustive interviews with friends and colleagues from every aspect of Anthony's life, including his best friend from school, fellow children from the Actor's Orphanage, cricketing friends, colleagues, and those who remained close to him until his death in 2004, this book aims to uncover the real Anthony Ainley."

As one might expect, his life is presented in broadly chronological order, forming some three phases: his childhood as Anthony Holmes in the Actor's Ophanage, evacuation to America in the Second World War and his own military service; into drama, and of course Doctor Who; and then his 'other' passion of sport and in particular, cricket.

However, what quickly becomes apparent is that even those who were close to him and might be called friends didn't seem to be able to pinpoint exactly what was going on inside the enigmatic Anthony, even as a child - in fact you'd be forgiven in thinking that the early part of the book was more about the likes of Granville Bantock and Judy Staber! What we really get here is context, the observations of those who were his contemporaries in the Orphanage of the life there, and on how Anthony would have fitted into those routines (or not!). This was par for the course for much of the book, as with the man himself keeping himself to himself we can only read anecdotal evidence of his life and ambitions.

That's not to say there isn't a lot to be said about Ainley. The book certainly serves to bring all the aspects of his life together in one volume, and whilst it might not be as in depth on the actor as I personally would have liked, it's testament to the reseach by Hollis that there is a lot I didn't know about his life to still discover, such as his pre-acting career, him knowing Tom Baker for a long time through his half-brother Richard, his relationships with Sarah Badel and Kate O'Mara, and the far-reaching influence of Noel Coward.

His acting career is also well-documented, though as one might expect Doctor Who dominates the book, and was his main passion thereafter - well, that and cricket! The book examines each of Ainley's stories and his interaction within them, and his later convention appearances and later return to the Master in the game Destiny Of the Doctors. In this area we are, of course, on firmer ground and so the chapters are far 'meatier' than the earlier ones. It's a shame in many ways that Hollis didn't draw more on his fan correspondence within the book - the author told me that she instead wanted to focus on friends, colleagues, and family, though she does reflect in the book that he did engage with a number of fans in this way, including herself! Fandom is of course covered in the book, and it was a nice surprise to find an unattributed quote of mine lurking within the text too!

As well as the prime "character" of the biography, his family are also covered, with his mother Clarice featuring quite prominently (he lived with her for much of his later life), plus a chapter devoted to his father, Henry (of which perhaps more is known than Anthony!).

The only real criticism of the book I have is that in many cases it seems like several pieces have been "cut'n'pasted" together rather than presenting a continuous narrative, for example where people's names can flick between full-, fore- or surname in consecutive paragraphs; there was also a case where the story over the Master/Tremas pseudonym becomes deja-vu as it is refered to again in consecutive paragraphs, an effect of the way quotes were presented. Having had to constantly re-assess, re-edit and reposition text in my literary efforts over time (including this review!), I know it is easy for things like these to get overlooked when ensuring that everything ends up where you want it to be, and it doesn't actually impact the facts being presented, only that I found it interrupted my own concentration when reading!

Overall, I think the book does a very reasonable job of patching together Ainley's life, and bringing the various facts and figures together. However, it does also hang a lot on the 'gossip' about him, which is the unfortunate effect of documenting somebody who took great pains not to be documented!

Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Hettie MacDonald
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Julian Bleach, Jemma Redgrave, Clare Higgins
Transmitted BBC One 19th September 2015

We leave on a cliffhanger where the Doctor's left trapped, alone, and defenseless, his friends apparently exterminated, and at the end of his rope. He reappears, somehow, on that ancient battlefield - apparently so desperate that he's training a Dalek gun at the child Davros. And with that, Doctor Who brings back two more old friends - the killer cliffhanger, accompanied by the return of the 'sting', leaving you with your heart in your mouth until next week.