ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
This is a sort of mixed story really. There are some really
great bits in it, but it also builds its plot around the Doctor being
essentially tricked by Davros into giving up some of his regeneration energy
which is a bit daft… if the Doctor doesn’t know not to trust Davros by this
point then he never will. Having said that, we get more of Missy, and that
improves any Doctor Who story!
The Doctor arrives on a battlefield and encounters a young
boy (Joey Price) who is stuck amongst a minefield of “handmines”. The Doctor
gives him his sonic screwdriver but when he learns the boy is called Davros.
The Doctor then abandons him to his fate.
On present day Earth airplanes suddenly stop in mid-flight
and UNIT contacts Clara, expecting her to bring the Doctor. Instead, it is Missy
who contacts UNIT and insists on meeting Clara at an outdoor café. Here she
reveals she has the Doctor’s “confession dial” which is the Time Lord
equivalent of a last will and testament. They track the Doctor to 1138 where he
has been partying in a very un-Doctorlike way. Before they can persuade him to
go with them he is persuaded by Colony Sarff (Jami Reid-Quarrell) that Davros
is dying and has asked the Doctor to come to him. With Clara and Missy in tow
they arrive on a space station, the Doctor is taken to Davros but Missy and
Clara discover it is not a space station at all, but Skaro, the Dalek
homeworld.
The Daleks decide to kill Missy and Clara and destroy the
TARDIS. The Doctor pleads with Davros to stop it, but he says he has no control
over the Daleks and they fire. Back with the young boy Davros the Doctor raises
a Dalek gun at him and says he will save his friends no matter what.
Missy and Clara are not dead, Missy has used a transmat
device to take them outside the City, but it will only work once. They have to
travel back into the City via a sewer. She then tricks Clara into going inside
a Dalek casing as a disguise. Clara then finds she can only say “Exterminate”
or “I am a Dalek”. Missy then abandons her.
The Doctor does not believe Clara is dead but is tricked by
Davros into giving up some of his regeneration energy to save Davros’ life.
However, the energy is channeled out to the Daleks who use it to rebuild
themselves.
Missy comes to rescue the Doctor and kills Colony Sarff.
They escape from Davros and encounter Clara, still stuck inside the Dalek,
Missy tries to convince the Doctor that Clara is dead, but he sees through the
ruse and rescues Clara after her Dalek asks for mercy. As they leave Missy is
surrounded by Daleks.
The Doctor realises that the only way he worked out that it
was Clara inside the Dalek was its concept of Mercy, so he travels back to
Davros as a young boy and uses the Dalek gun to destroy the handmines. The boy
asks what side the Doctor fights for, and he responds that it does not matter
which side as long as there is mercy.
There’s so much to enjoy here, mostly in the performances of
Capaldi, Julian Bleach as Davros, Michelle Gomez and Jenna Coleman. Despite
this really being a story about Daleks and Davros, it is Missy who you remember
the most as Michelle Gomez continues to build her version of the evil Time Lord
into easily the best since the original.
Having said that, not a lot really happens in this story,
the Doctor is tricked by Davros and people escape. That’s pretty much the lot,
everything else is character and atmosphere, no bad thing but over a two-part
story there is definitely room for more plot.
The handmines are really eerie and the topping and tailing
of the story with the Doctor and the young Davros makes for a very satisfying
conclusion.
All in all, a fair story, but not as spectacular as it
deserves to be.
We also get the first time Peter Capaldi’s Doctor plays his
electric guitar, a trick that would become a bit tiresome at times; and also
the debut of the Doctor’s sonic sunglasses which are cooler.
NEXT UP: UNDER THE LAKE / BEFORE THE FLOOD
© Text copyright - Raving Loony
Productions and
Andrew J. Müller,
Roy Barton
and Shaun Runham
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2022
