THE DAVROS VARIETY HOUR (The Witch's Familiar w/ Vacuum of Comments)

[@CulturePhilter]

Perhaps the one chair on Skaro should have instead been a sofa of reasonable comfort. 😁

[@SamyulDavis]

Can't believe this one flew us both by

[@plantainsame2049]

@@SamyulDavis but it is obvious that the episodes of talking about Clara right she's the Missy's familiar and the doctor's Apprentice that's not just me right

[@ishaandw]

I adore this 2 parter. The first part is a whole lot of weird fun stuff going on and the second part is really profound and thought provoking. This just inches World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls for me

[@thevacuumofcomments2946]

Something I forgot to mention: this episode also nips in the bud the fan complaint about Hell Bent- that the Dr (and the show) should care about the timelords and Gallifrey more than Clara. The Dr saving Gallifrey is paralleled by Davros saving Skaro and the Daleks. The Dr returning to the timelords is recontextualised by Davros as an inherently fascist ideal: “a man should have a race, a people, an allegiance”

[@gabrielandriel8960]

Which is just dumb If you really think about It for two seconds, but sure.

[@thevacuumofcomments2946]

@@gabrielandriel8960 I mean, it's not at all saying anyone who was invested in the Dr finding his home again and getting closure is a fascist. It's just interrogating the idea that the Doctor's race, their blood, is what the character and show should be focused on

[@gabrielandriel8960]

@@thevacuumofcomments2946 I didn't understood in that way the first time, is just that the idea of the doctor caring about his people is not fascist, in order to it be really a fascist idea he would need to put his "race" as the supreme, look at things like descolonization in most countries for instance, the idea of belonging to somewhere is not a "inherently fascist ideal", it can be, but it also can be a healthy way to engage with culture if you are open to celebrate not only yours, but others as well, instead of try to destroy and deem then is degenerate and non-pure, like Davros does. But that is just a problem I have with how the New series takes on Davros and Daleks since day one, that the doctor is just one step away to be just like the Daleks, which never ring true to me, the Doctor can be scary, and even amoral, but he/she could never be comparable to a dalek. This is also kind disingenuoes, because no fan that would like more time lord stories want the show to be all about the timelords, maybe they would like a season finale, not to become the focous of the show.

[@thevacuumofcomments2946]

@@gabrielandriel8960 Yeah belonging is great, we all need to feel that. It's just the insistance that the Dr should belong with the Timelords as opposed to Clara (or any other companion) that I think Moffat is objecting to. And the show is agreeing with you, Davros is a warped mirror, not a straight-up reflection.

[@alternatethirteenth5594]

Finally, another fan of this story!

[@nightowl8477]

It is impressive to have such a detailed character study of four characters - plus the Daleks - in just 45 minutes. It's Who's drama at its very finest, just a shame Steven couldn't refine the plot mechanics. It is a little clunky in places, and I think that is the fault of The Magician's Apprentice above all else. Could have been much more streamlined, but it works where it counts. Interesting too that in a series of dualic inversions, Davros usurps Missy as a dark parallel to the Doctor. Instead serving as a parallel to the companion. Is this Steven re-evaluating the Master's stature in Doctor Who, or a mission statement of what Missy would go on to be, come Series 10?

[@nightowl8477]

I also like that he can turn off his lightbulb. Does he turn it off when he sleeps, or keep it on as a lil nightlight?

[@astrosleep9625]

Ahhhh I missed this series! Such a brilliant idea! So many episodes I think would be interesting to hear your opinion on. I would love to hear your opinion on 1:The Gunfighters 2:Underwater menace 3: Death to the Daleks 4: Horns of Nimon 5: Time Flight 6: Two Doctors 7: Happiness Patrol 9:Unquiet Dead 10:Doctors daughter 11:Wedding of River Song (or good man goes to war) 12: Hell Bent 13:Haunting of Villa Diodati All of the above are guilty pleasures of mine 😂

[@harryjackson2215]

Love these episode discussions/breakdowns

[@AzureBirb]

I think it's pretty much on the money that the Daleks are "reliving their nostalgic glory days" in this story. To perhaps take it a step further, the Daleks are of course Nazi analogues, and one of core tenets of Nazism and similar far-right ideologies is the appeal to a alleged time in the past where their people/race/civilization/etc was "great" and that they need to return to the "old ways" in order to be great again. This is itself a incredibly noxious - perhaps the most noxious - form of nostalgia. The ultimate irony of course is that this great past was never real - the past the Daleks are desperately invoking in this story was one where like six Daleks were holed up on a dead planet, and cutting the city's electricity rendered them all immobile. So here they are, desperately trying to return to a golden age that exists only in their fanatical minds, until eventually their sewers, the embodiment of how their ideology places no value on life beyond it's usefulness to their greater genocidal cause, finally consumes them.

[@thevacuumofcomments2946]

You're speaking my language! All they've done is gone back to square one, they were conquering the universe, fought the timelords and now all they have left is Skaro. It's telling that no one else in the universe shown at the start seems worried about the Daleks. Maybe Colony Sarff was used by Davros because the rest of the universe doesn't take them seriously anymore?

[@nightowl8477]

The sewers are interesting. Because those *are* the old Daleks of the Classic serials. And they're literally shit. The ones up above have the casings - the shiny retro _appearance_ - of the old, with the truth of the past locked away, far below. The Doctor exposing this truth that the Dalek ideology isn't just failing now, but always was, as the sewers rise into view is very telling.

[@nightowl8477]

@@thevacuumofcomments2946 - in using Colony Sarff, Davros is allying himself with another race. Effectively admitting that the Daleks aren't good enough (going against their very ideology, therefore) just to scrape some kind of victory. Much akin to Hitler's allegiance with Japan towards the end of WWII. Just doesn't work if we don't know Sarrf's motivations. The story is full of half-completed allegories, there's a frustrating amount of filling-in on the audience's part to be done. [shaking fist to the air like a Have-I-Got-News-For-You-Tennant] _"MAGICIAN!!!"_

[@thevacuumofcomments2946]

@@nightowl8477 I just think what would be really effective is having the Daleks center stage and then in part 2 Colony steals the show. It would demonstrate the point a little better rather than having Colony be there from the get go and treat the point like it's already been made. Sarff is loyal to Davros we get that from dialogue. I assume Davros made him, tho that might be banking on knowledge from Genesis? That he makes creatures?

[@nightowl8477]

@@thevacuumofcomments2946 - true, we can still have Missy and Clara in the sewers, but honestly we only need to see the Daleks above once, instead of making it a proper reoccurring set. Have Sarrf in the second part as you say...but maybe under a different design.

[@ezra_harryvitale5626]

I love this story so much! It used to be my favorite Dark story, but then I watched Dalek again :) I think the whole of the Capaldi era is amazing and I do love season 9!

[@tamaramacadam8650]

I feel like I should thank God by name that I have no idea who Bowelstrek is. Anyway, I quite liked this episode, honestly. I actually had a whole bunch of fun with The Magician's Apprentice, simply because I really like Missy basically whenever she's on screen, and there was a LOT of her being particularly insane. Easily my favourite incarnation of the Master, and she really played about with Clara's psyche in that. 'Twas fun.

[@jaschul]

Davros is easily my favorite DW villain. And yet, I think his story is done. Even moreso than the Master's was by "The Doctor Falls." There's really nothing left to do with Davros, and as long as the Daleks themselves continue to exist within DW (i.e., forever), Davros isn't needed.

[@caberknight9013]

Love this 2 parter so much. It’s so good

[@DokkaChapman]

For me this 2-parter was like finding a top you kinda like in Primark. It would be perfect if it wasn't for the naff print or wank buttons, but it's cheap and it fits you so you're tempted to get it. A prime example was the whole "doctor in Davros chair" moment. If he had done the line "question is where did I get the tea?" without the cringe follow-up line "answer, I'm the Doctor just accept it". At least by his final episode they poked at how cringe 12 could really be.

[@theentity5201]

how did davros survive the destruction of the crucible and make it out of the medusa cascade? Where and how did the bronze dalek design come to be? was it a new paradigm or a gradual upgrade process? some things really haven't been answered

[@TheLegacyofHitchcock]

The same way Davros survived being shot in Genesis of the Daleks and succumbing to the Movellan virus in Resurrection. Like the Master, Davros is one of those villains that gives death the middle finger. If Davros is onboard a ship before it explodes, he has an escape pod (Rememberance). If something seemingly lethal is attacking Davros, he.... just toughs it out I guess. As for the bronze Dalek design, I always assumed that it was an upgrade for the Time War.

[@Altmetalpunk]

Fan service in dw to me works like 90% of the time. It works because of the way the doctor's timeline works.

[@bluehero-96]

I actually liked The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar, and detested the rest of series 9, aside from Heaven Sent and whenever Capaldi made one-liners. He alone got me through series 9.

[@LukSter18998]

“Bleach is Amazing” says the naruto tuber

[@Altmetalpunk]

This season was so good. Not as good as season 10 but still really good and made up for the failed experimentation of season 8

[@wnyduchess]

Adapt the sixth doctor big finish story davros, it would be dope

[@aajbajwaj296]

who are the episode titles named after?

[@SamyulDavis]

clara, in relation to her and the Doctor and her and Missy :)

[@stephennoonan8578]

Hello Sam. I really enjoyed this discussion about one of my favourite stories from one of my very favourite eras. You might remember some years ago (on a KZbin account that is now sadly defunct) a long, laudatory comment I left about your Twelfth Doctor video, and your Eleventh Doctor video, and, if memory serves, on a video about ‘Deep Breath’. However, it’s become apparent recently that I was somewhat less obliging at a later date. 😬 I’d like to wholeheartedly apologise for behaving at that time like the worst sort of pompous, humourless twit. Indeed, I’d go further: I’d say that I was being, in the present parlance, ‘a complete and utter dick’! I was, for various personal reasons, going through a rather tedious, cantankerous, ‘Puritanical’ phase. In actual fact, your Classic series analyses - admirably - don’t just re-tread the same well-worn paths of trying to find some new, but almost inevitably hackneyed, hyperbole for (e.g.) Genesis of the Daleks. You always look for fresh, surprising perspectives. Instead of (I think this might have been what prompted it) being preposterously offended on behalf of a particular story set on a Sandminer, I might have commented on an observation as hilarious as (of the Shadow in the Armageddon Factor): “Look at him! (This is what your friends think Doctor Who is like)” 🤣 And when I found an excuse to watch a lot of First Doctor material recently, your video on the era was one of the most stimulating. It inspired me to read the Marco Polo novelisation; and your take on the ‘show-breaking’ potential of the Meddling Monk was fascinating. I’d actually love to discuss it (and many other things) with you. You are without doubt one of the most original and charismatic DW KZbinrs around. That you don’t just focus on the televised material, but consider EVERYTHING, from the novelisations, through the audio dramas (even to the annuals!) is just wonderful. I think your surreal, elliptical, contrarian take on the series is utterly brilliant- and unique! 😁

[@SamyulDavis]

Hi! I never got that impression at all! Just glad to have grassroots fans still engaging with the show and my stuff enough to feel strongly about it :) I would adore discussing a Who story of your choice as part of my fan-to-fan commentary tracks, please let me know if that's something you would ever be interested in or have time for! I have my copy of the 1st doctor adventures ready to go, have a good Easter Doctor!

[@stephennoonan8578]

@@SamyulDavis If you’re still up for it, yes I’d love to! This is it: ku tod oc tod liam toh TA nanoonnehpets If you ‘sigfnify your understanding’, I can eradicate it. 😁

[@SamyulDavis]

@@stephennoonan8578 Doctor Who and the Neopets? Great choice

[@stephennoonan8578]

@@SamyulDavis Wasn’t that one of the lost stories of season 27? By Graeme Curry, possibly. 😉 Why don’t you send me an email suggesting stories (from any era) YOU’D like to discuss or haven’t discussed before. That would be brilliant! 😁

[@moom7049]

Highkey have a Crush on you, You’ve got good Doctor who Takes.

[@MegaDratsab]

ummm... why is it called The Magicians Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar?

[@SamyulDavis]

Clara!

[@HiperPivociarz]

This doesn't work for me as a Davros finale, cause he doesn't change. He was lying throigh his teeth the whole time. He's still that same old Davros. And the Doctor doesn't change either. He was willing to save Davros before, hell, he was willing to travek the universe with Dalek Kaan, this is a lesson he already learned long time ago in the Tennant Era.

[@Paul_M_Bradley]

I have long regarded this as my least favourite story of all of Doctor who. After this, I'm tempted to give it another go

[@wonderproductions3949]

I hated part 1 on first viewing.

[@pp-wl1tf]

Dislike the implication that because Chibnall plays the Daleks straight, he inadvertently makes fascism “look cool”. It just feels like you’re actively trying to dislike that era.

[@SamyulDavis]

RTD made them look cool and imposing too, whilst making it clear they're desperate, terrified things to be pitied as well as hated. Take that last crucial bit away and you have what Chibnall has been emulating from series 1-4.