Doctor Who: 10 Big Questions After The Witch's Familiar
Just what secrets is the Doctor still hiding from us?
Warning...plenty of huge spoilers for this week's episode.
The Witch's Familiar did the impossible, building on the dramatic events of last week to create an episode that was even stronger than The Magician's Apprentice. With the set up in play, audiences were treated to two fantastic pairings; a fascinating moral debate between the Twelfth Doctor and Davros and Clara joining Missy as the titular witch's familiar.
But it was also an episode that left us with some pretty big questions, many of which are sure to have huge ramifications over the rest of series nine. Steven Moffat also left us some tantalizing clues about the Doctor's past, adding more mystery to a 52-year old character (in TV terms) without radically changing the mythology to anger established fans.
That's not an easy thing to do but The Witch's Familiar may have taken steps to provide a fresh perspective on the Doctor like old classics such as The Deadly Assassin or the abandoned Cartmel Masterplan. Audiences have already gone back to the very beginning when Clara helped the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan pick the right TARDIS, but if this week's episode is anything to go back, the biggest questions are what led him to that point in the first place...
10. What Was The Doctor Running From?
The fascinating dialogue between Davros and the Doctor certainly revealed some big home truths over the course of the episode, with the creator of the Daleks suggesting the Doctor left Gallifrey for a far bigger reason that boredom and the thrill of adventure. He teased the legend of the hybrid - more on that later - but perhaps there is something bigger that we haven't seen yet.
Steven Moffat has already successfully changed the direction of the show, with the Doctor now searching for his home planet when he had spent centuries trying to stay free of it. Perhaps this is the next step in the evolution of that tale. The closer he gets to Gallifrey the more we learn why he ran from it in the first place.
The answer to this question would certainly provide an intriguing new direction for series nine...