Following from last week's disaster "The Magician's Apprentice", I was interested to see if Moffat could fix the mess he had created. In short, he has failed miserably.
"The Witch's Familiar" is a more focused piece of television than "Magician" as it is set in one place and there is some sort of plot that moves. However, there is barely enough substance for the full 45 minutes or so. All the scenes are dragged out to fill time, and most of this is Missy being a crazy person. This incarnation The Master is an embarrassment to previous incarnations. Just comparing her to Roger Delgado is making me cringe. For at least 80% of the episode she is just laughing and making silly sounds and teasing Clara, and for the other 20% she is half-serious about what's going on. Not only does it not make any sense, it is distracting to the rest of the episode.
"Familiar" is basically two plots going on at once, one with The Doctor and Davros and the other with Clara and Missy. In fairness, The Doctor does have some interesting conversations with Davros, and Julian Bleach puts in a stunning performance, but even I was bored after the first 20 minutes. It's a shame that these okay scenes were ruined by the vast amount of Clara and Missy. There is no sense of urgency or threat here; the Daleks are laughable and Missy doesn't isn't even bothered about what's going on. Classic Who had a perfect mix between camp/fun and serious, and that's what made it so great. "Familiar" is just an embarrassment.
The ending is a cop-out of course, because Moffat is obviously out of ideas. Seeing the Daleks being defeated with slime (with no explanation) was hard to watch. While watching this episode, there is no satisfaction or a feeling of completeness because there is hardly any substance. One may even feel that this two-parter should have just been a 1 hour premier. At least that way it would feel (somewhat) more satisfying, and would be over quickly.
"The Witch's Familiar" is a more focused piece of television than "Magician" as it is set in one place and there is some sort of plot that moves. However, there is barely enough substance for the full 45 minutes or so. All the scenes are dragged out to fill time, and most of this is Missy being a crazy person. This incarnation The Master is an embarrassment to previous incarnations. Just comparing her to Roger Delgado is making me cringe. For at least 80% of the episode she is just laughing and making silly sounds and teasing Clara, and for the other 20% she is half-serious about what's going on. Not only does it not make any sense, it is distracting to the rest of the episode.
"Familiar" is basically two plots going on at once, one with The Doctor and Davros and the other with Clara and Missy. In fairness, The Doctor does have some interesting conversations with Davros, and Julian Bleach puts in a stunning performance, but even I was bored after the first 20 minutes. It's a shame that these okay scenes were ruined by the vast amount of Clara and Missy. There is no sense of urgency or threat here; the Daleks are laughable and Missy doesn't isn't even bothered about what's going on. Classic Who had a perfect mix between camp/fun and serious, and that's what made it so great. "Familiar" is just an embarrassment.
The ending is a cop-out of course, because Moffat is obviously out of ideas. Seeing the Daleks being defeated with slime (with no explanation) was hard to watch. While watching this episode, there is no satisfaction or a feeling of completeness because there is hardly any substance. One may even feel that this two-parter should have just been a 1 hour premier. At least that way it would feel (somewhat) more satisfying, and would be over quickly.