History Recap / DoctorWhoS35E2TheWitchsFamiliar

* ObfuscatingStupidty: Lampshaded
->'''Davros:''' Still you play the fool.
->'''Twelfth Doctor:''' Well, by now that should make you nervous.

** Similarly, her BadassBoast to the Supreme Dalek suggests a previous meeting between the two.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Doctor warns his enemies that there's no telling what he'll do if he finds out that Clara Oswald really is dead; as Missy and Clara overhear this the former marvels that this is what it's like when the Doctor has no hope -- that he's capable of destroying everything, even them. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven "Face the Raven"]], Clara is KilledOffForReal and in her FinalSpeech she orders him ''not'' to go down the path of destruction, knowing he can't handle being alone. Alas, it doesn't take -- thanks to the horrors visited upon him in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]] exacerbating his anguish, he temporarily becomes a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, willing to risk the universe's safety to bring her back from the grave in the SeasonFinale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]].

* SpotOfTea: The Doctor somehow procures one after he hijacks Davros' chair.

The one where the Doctor steals Davros's chair.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Davros and the Doctor share a genuine laugh over Davros's comment about him not being a good (medical) doctor.

---> '''Missy:''' Tell him [[Music/EltonJohn the bitch is back.]]
** The Doctor rolling into the chamber filled with Daleks sitting in Davros's chair.
---> '''The Doctor:''' Admit it. [[ImYourWorstNightmare You've all had this exact nightmare]].

** Missy and Clara's vortex manipulators save them from being vapourized. This likely also serves as a retroactive explanation for her survival of the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]], and possibly several other times when s/he escaped certain death over the years, including the end of the episode.

** The Doctor references the episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E742 "42"]] when he says he's been in charge for 42 minutes.

* FakeShemp: In Missy's story, we see silhouettes of the Fourth and First Doctors (floppy hat and long scarf, grey slicked-back hair and Edwardian suit) as it is ambiguous where exactly in the Doctor's timeline it is set.
--> '''Missy:''' Doesn't matter which face he was wearing, they're all the Doctor to me. So let's give it to [[InSeriesNickname the Eyebrows]].

* HopeCrusher: Davros is pushing the already guilt-stricken Doctor to the DespairEventHorizon in hopes that he can turn him into a man willing to kill Davros's younger self, willing to commit genocide against the Daleks at last . . . all to prove his own belief that the Doctor and his compassion are wrong and have an ultimate victory over his nemesis.

* KickTheDog: Missy hides Clara in a Dalek casing, then subsequently tries to goad the Doctor into killing her.

--> '''Davros:''' You would threaten a dying man?

* MythologyGag: Moffat combines Daleks, the Master, a possible final end for the Doctor, exploring the fact that the Daleks have at least [[LampshadeHanging another chair]], and a trek through some distinctly unpleasant sewers for the first time since [[Recap/DoctorWhoTheCurseOfFatalDeath his first televised Doctor Who story]].
** "My vision is impaired! I cannot see!" -Says a Dalek being overwhelmed by the sludge at the end, quoting a line from back when dealing with them was as easy as covering or gooing up the eye stalk, back in the original series when suffering BadassDecay.

** The Doctor upon realizing Clara is inside the Dalek.

--> '''Missy:''' Cybermen suppress emotion. Daleks channel it . . . with a gun.

** Tripling as a CallBack and ContinuityNod - one of the Daleks we see responding to Davros's cries for help and the Doctor at loose in the city is a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Special Weapons Dalek]]

* StatusQuoIsGod: Despite the teasing of both Davros's death and possible HeelRealization, he's just as alive and evil at the end of the episode as ever he was, JokerImmunity in full effect.
* SuddenAnatomy: Davros's makeup usually has no visible eyes or eyelids, just depressions indicating an EyelessFace. It's jarring to see him without eyes in one shot, then having them in the next.

-->''"I'm over screwdrivers, they ruin the lining of your jacket. These days I'm all about ''(pulls out his new Sonic Sunglasses)'' wearable technology!"''

-> "''So long as there is mercy. Always mercy."''

* DrivingQuestion:
** This season's arc questions are formally introduced in this episode after being seeded in the premiere: What is the Doctor's confession -- the '''''real''''' reason he left Gallifrey millennia ago? And what about this prophecy of a Dalek-Time Lord Hybrid warrior?
** How exactly ''did'' the Doctor procure a cup of tea?

** Missy and Clara's vortex manipulators save them from being vapourized. This likely also serves as a retroactive explanation for her survival of the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]], and possibly several other times when she escaped death, including the end of the episode.

** Davros's insistence that the Doctor had ulterior motives in leaving Gallifrey is reminiscent of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartmel_Masterplan Cartmel Masterplan]], which would have suggested that the Doctor was a reincarnation of one of the founders of Time Lord society. In fact, we know that the Doctor ''did'' have at least one ulterior motive: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks to hide the Hand of Omega]].

** One of the Daleks in the room with the Supreme is a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Special Weapons Dalek]]. It even gets a line when the Daleks are mobilizing. Can be seen as an AuthorSavingThrow to having been so blink-and-miss back in ''Asylum.''

** On top of that, we see her silhouette in the FlashBack, ''and'' one must wonder how Missy knows all of this when the Doctor was alone without a companion or the TARDIS. Yes, ''she'' (well, most likely 'he' at the time) probably sent the 50 invisible killer robots after him.

** We see a brief glimpse of a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Special Weapons Dalek]].

* SuperSpeed[=/=]SuperReflexes: According to Missy, the Doctor managed to dodge gunfire from dozens of robot assassins, run several thousand calculations in his head, and concoct a plan to escape his assailants, all in the space of ''four nanoseconds or less''.

* SuperSpeed[=/=]SuperReflexes: According to Missy, the Doctor managed to dodge gunfire from several robot assassins, run several thousand calculations in his head, and concoct a plan to escape his assailants, all in the space of ''four nanoseconds or less''.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Missy uses a knife to carve herself a pointy stick, but the knife is never seen or mentioned again, and they are described as armed only with a pointy stick, not with a pointy stick and a knife.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"I... show... mercy..."'']]

Part 2 of the opening two-parter of Series 9.

At the end of "The Magician's Apprentice", the poor Doctor was begging for mercy that would not be granted him. Having chosen to abandon an attempt to rescue a young Davros from a hand mine field upon realizing who the boy was (leaving him nothing but a sonic screwdriver), the Doctor -- now presently a prisoner of the dying scientist and the Daleks on Skaro -- helplessly watched as Clara, Missy, and even the TARDIS were exterminated by the Daleks.

* AgeWithoutYouth: The Daleks in the sewers. Daleks are made to keep living, but they still age and rot...

* BaitAndSwitch: Davros searches through the Doctor's possessions, noting the Time Lord confession dial. The Doctor subsequently tells him that some of his things are off-limits... and quickly swipes his sunglasses away.

** Missy's story ends with her surrounded by Daleks as Skaro is torn apart around her... [[JokerImmunity and she's just had a very clever idea.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: The Doctor is approaching this point as the story begins, having lost his friends - in particular Clara - and the TARDIS. He calms down eventually, but not before delivering a threat that appears to frighten even Missy.

* DrivingQuestion: This season's arc questions are formally introduced in this episode after being seeded in the premiere: What is the Doctor's confession -- the '''''real''''' reason he left Gallifrey millennia ago? And what about this prophecy of a Dalek-Time Lord Hybrid warrior?

* HopeCrusher: Davros is pushing the already guilt-stricken Doctor to the DespairEventHorizon in hopes that he can turn him into a man willing to kill Davros's younger self, willing to commit genocide against the Daleks at last... all to prove his own belief that the Doctor and his compassion are wrong and have an ultimate victory over his nemesis.

* InSpiteOfANail: At the end of the episode, it turns out the Doctor ''saved'' Davros as a young child, and told him the value of mercy... and he still turned out an utter bastard. That one bit of mercy saved Clara's life, though, in spite of what Davros would become. It also goes a way to explaining Daleks like [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E2IntoTheDalek "Rusty"]] and why they need a MoralityDial to stay evil.

* OhCrap: Davros realizing that all the Daleks buried in the sewers have just been empowered and are coming after him.

* OutOfCharacterMoment: Specifically, the Doctor and Davros sharing a genuine laugh and the Doctor subsequently transferring regeneration energy to heal Davros... at the same time reinvigorating the decayed and bloodthirsty Daleks in the sewers.

--> '''Missy:''' Cybermen suppress emotion. Daleks channel it... with a gun.

** The BBC blundered and aired a trailer for this episode before the previous one aired - thus revealing the return of Davros early.

* TheUnreveal: We don't find out what's in the Doctor's confession dial. (At least, not in this episode.)

* WhamLine: Missy had a daughter and the Doctor probably knew.

* WhamShot: Daleks regenerating.
** The Doctor donning the sonic sunglasses now we know they're sonic.

** We never learn the fate of Bors, the Doctor's friend from the middle ages. We last saw that he'd been converted into a Dalek puppet, but we know from the case of Tasha Lem from "The Time of the Doctor" that this does not necessarily mean the person is lost forever.

** If the Doctor kills young Davros, there will be no Daleks and the universe's history will be rewritten. He might get his friends, his homeworld, etc. back. No one need know he killed a child to do it... ''what will he do?'' It turns out he was saving Davros.
** Davros invokes this trope when he tells the Doctor that the cables would give him a means to kill all of the Daleks on Skaro; not in self-defense or as the justifiable action of war, but as pure, cold-blooded genocide. Davros even further baits him by saying, "No one would ever know." The only other person in the room, himself, is dying.

* FakeShemp: In Missy's story, we see silhouettes of the Fourth and First Doctors (floppy hat and long scarf, gray slicked-back hair and Edwardian suit) as it is ambiguous where exactly in the Doctor's timeline it is set.

* ArcWords: This episode formally introduces the big arc word of Series 9 as the prophecy of the ''Hybrid'' is first broached. There's also:

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Davros delivers one to the Doctor in a chilling IronicEcho:

---> '''Missy''': Tell him [[Music/EltonJohn the bitch is back.]]

---> '''Doctor''': Admit it. [[ImYourWorstNightmare You've all had this exact nightmare]].

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: A twenty-foot fall onto solid rock leaves Clara with little more than a few small scrapes. Likewise, she also endures having Dalek tech implanted in her temples but comes away with little more than a couple of marks.

* BrickJoke: The previous episode had Missy complaining when the Doctor said Davros was his arch enemy and she would claw his eye out. When they do meet, she gives his third eye a good poke.
* TheCameo: The First and Fourth Doctor make a small appearance, albeit in a non-speaking role.

** Missy and Clara's vortex manipulators save them from being vaporized. This likely also serves as a retroactive explanation for her survival of the events of "Death in Heaven" and possibly several other times when she escaped death, including the end of the episode.

** Continuing the theme of this story following up ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]'', a Dalek having the word "mercy" in its vocabulary is a plot point that saves Clara's life. In ''Genesis'', Daleks ''not'' having "pity" in their vocabulary bank got Davros's [[TheDragon Dragon]] and only friend killed by them.
** Also in ''Genesis'', we got to hear the Doctor and Davros give their respective opinions on genocide: The Doctor doesn't believe he has the right to commit genocide even against the Daleks, while Davros insists that committing genocide "would set me [[BlasphemousBoast up above the gods]]!". In this episode, Davros tries to push the Doctor into committing genocide against the Daleks, and the Doctor refuses.

** Even the exact wording parallels ''Genesis''. Davros tells the Doctor that touching the wires would be "to hold in your hand the heartbeat of every Dalek on Skaro", in the same way that he imagined "to hold in my hand a capsule" that would destroy all life in the Universe, back in the earlier story.
** The Dalek in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang The Big Bang]]" begged River Song for mercy once it learned who she was. Though out-of-character for a Dalek at the time, this explains where the Dalek got it from.
** Missy implies she'd have ''eaten'' Clara if other opportunities for food escaped or hadn't presented themselves. Her presumed predecessor, the Simm-Master, actually ''did'' eat people in his final story line.

** Upon his regeneration, the Supreme Dalek said he was "renewed," which was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks the first term]] used to describe the process.
** The Doctor references the episode ''"42"'' when he says he's been in charge for 42 minutes.

* CrossReferencedTitles: With "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice The Magician's Apprentice]]".

* DespairEventHorizon: The Doctor is approaching this point as the story begins, having lost his friends - in particular Clara - and TARDIS. He calms down eventually but not before delivering a threat that appears to frighten even Missy.

** Missy disables a Dalek and replaces the mutant inside with Clara. She is a lot bigger than the mutant, but there's clearly a lot of empty space in a Dalek shell. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan Daleks in Manhattan]]" previously demonstrated that you can stuff a human in that thing, and the First Doctor's companion Ian Chesterton effected an escape in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]'' in much the same way.
** The Doctor briefly hijacks Davros's life-support chair to get to the stronghold of the Dalek base.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Doctor warns his enemies that there's no telling what he'll do if he finds out that Clara Oswald really is dead; as Missy and Clara overhear this the former marvels that this is what it's like when the Doctor has no hope -- that he's capable of destroying everything, even them. In "Face the Raven", Clara is KilledOffForReal and in her FinalSpeech she orders him ''not'' to go down the path of destruction, knowing he can't handle being alone. Alas, it doesn't take -- thanks to the horrors visited upon him in "Heaven Sent" exacerbating his anguish, he temporarily becomes a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, willing to risk the universe's safety to bring her back from the grave in the SeasonFinale "Hell Bent".

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Missy goes from saving Clara to threatening to eat her, to teaming up with her, to using her as bait to shielding her from an explosion. Also, she goes from saving the Doctor's life, to goading him into exterminating Clara in minutes.

* InSpiteOfANail: At the end of the episode, it turns out the Doctor ''saved'' Davros as a young child, and told him the value of mercy... and he still turned out an utter bastard. That one bit of mercy saved Clara's life, though, in spite of what Davros would become. It also goes a way to explaining Daleks like "Rusty" and why they need a MoralityDial to stay evil.
* InternalHomage: Much of the episode is this to ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks The Evil of the Daleks]]'', down to one of the final scenes being very similar.

* LostInTranslation: When Clara tries speaking in the Dalek casing, the words come out in Dalek form, and it is incapable of translating any concept foreign to the Daleks. Any expression other than hate is "Exterminate!" and any concept of self is boiled down to "I am a Dalek!", meaning she is unable to tell the Doctor she is Clara or even express herself in a non-Dalek fashion.
* MadeOfIron: Clara. Twice during this episode she endures falls that would, in real life, possibly result in injury: she's effectively dropped on her head when Missy undoes the ropes after hanging her upside-down, and she is later pushed down a ''twenty foot'' drop and, while she is knocked unconscious briefly, she immediately shrugs it off with only a couple small scratches. Even hanging upside down for an unknown length of time doesn't even make her woozy (you try it). She also seems to immediately shrug off the fact she just had wires stuck into her head from the Dalek.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: The Doctor realises that the Dalek he is told killed Clara is unusual when it isn't trying to kill him and keeps saying "Mercy!", a concept which should be foreign to it.

* StabTheScorpion: The Doctor's appearing in front of young Davros with an energy weapon and shouting "Exterminate!" makes it look like he's about to try killing Davros before he becomes evil. Instead he uses the weapon to take out all of the "hand-mines."

** The Doctor donning the sonic sunglasses now we know they are sonic.

* TheUnreveal: We don't find out what's in the Doctor's confession dial. ([[spoiler: At least, not in this episode.]])

* RulefSymbolism: To show that the Doctor and Davros are NotSoDifferent from each other, when the ending depicts the Doctor taking a young Davros home, it shows that the Doctor is holding a Dalek gun, while Davros is holding the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

* TheUnreveal: We don't find out what's in the Doctor's confession dial.

** Missy implies she'd have ''eaten'' Clara if other opportunities for food and/or escape hadn't presented themselves. Her presumed predecessor, the Simm-Master, actually ''did'' eat people in his final story line.

[[caption-width-right:350: I... show... mercy...]]

--->"I'm over screwdrivers, they ruin the lining of your jacket. These days I'm all about ''(pulls out his new Sonic Sunglasses)'' wearable technology!"

* MadeOfIron: Clara. Twice during this episode she endures falls that would, in real life, possibly result in injury: she's effectively dropped on her head when Missy undoes the ropes after hanging her upside-down, and she is later pushed down a ''twenty foot'' drop and, while she is knocked unconscious briefly, she immediately shrugs it off with only a couple small scratches. Even hanging upside down for an unknown length of time doesn't even make her woozy (you try it).

** "Supreme Dalek, [[WesternAnimation/ChickenRun your sewers are revolting!]]"