The Witch's Familiar
[1] It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie MacDonald, and is the second part of the story begun by "The Magician's Apprentice" on 19 September.
Several different designs of the Daleks from across the series' history reappear in the episode, alongside their creator, Davros, and their home planet, Skaro.
They capture a Dalek using the mutants in the sewer and steal its casing, which Missy convinces Clara to pilot, to help them re-enter the city.
To give Davros enough life to see the sun rise, the Doctor provides some of his regeneration energy, but this travels through the cables to every Dalek, creating new hybrid forms.
[4] When Davros tempts the Doctor with killing every Dalek on Skaro, knowingly committing genocide, he asks "Are you ready to be a god?"
It also refers back to the climax of Genesis, when the Doctor agonizes over whether he has the moral right to destroy the newly created Daleks, ultimately deciding against genocide.
[11] The lower-than-expected ratings were likely due in part to competition from the England-Wales match in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which aired the same evening.
[14] "The Witch's Familiar" received critical acclaim, particularly praise of Michelle Gomez's performance as Missy and the interaction between the Doctor and Davros.
The site's consensus reads "'The Witch's Familiar' is proof that Doctor Who is back on target, ending the two-part season opener with a revealing, meaningful, and twist-driven conclusion".
[25] Patrick Mulkern, writing for the Radio Times, called it a "shining example" of the series, praising it as "underpinned by emotional intelligence" and noting the "excellent" performances of the four leads in "protracted dialogue scenes that test their mettle and demand audience attention", awarding the episode a full five stars out of five.
In particular, he praised Michelle Gomez's performance – "[she] continued to excel as Missy, whirling around dementedly while chewing on dialogue with real relish", and closed his review by summarising that "it packed more ideas into 50 minutes than most shows manage in an entire series".
He praised Missy as a character and her interaction with Clara within the Dalek as "amusing", though "actually quite dark", in addition to acclaiming the dialogue between the Doctor and Davros.
He especially praised the Doctor and Davros' exchange, finding it "by far the best use the TV series has made of the [latter] character since Genesis Of The Daleks".
