Doctor Who: 12 Best Twelfth Doctor Episodes

The Witch’s Familiar was a brilliant character piece, that managed to rise above its formidable predecessor. It brought unprecedented depth and humanity to Davros, as the creator of the Daleks congratulated the Doctor for saving Gallifrey and looked on the Time Lord with his own eyes. But just when it seemed as though Davros might prove capable of some form of redemption before his death, it was revealed that he had been attempting to manipulate the Doctor all along in order to harvest his regeneration energy.

However, the Doctor himself had been deceiving Davros, and used the energy to unleash decaying sewer Daleks on an unsuspecting Skaro in a triumphant twist. The ambiguity over how much of what the Doctor and Davros said to each other was genuine made their interactions even more fascinating in retrospect.

The unlikely Clara/Missy team proved equally compelling, with Missy’s unpredictability and ruthlessness keeping Clara’s life on a knife edge. It was hilarious when Clara was forced to climb inside a Dalek and deal with its limited vocabulary, and Missy’s unbelievably cruel attempt to trick the Doctor into killing his companion came as a disturbing reminder that despite her fun personality and bond with the Doctor, Missy was still a sadistic murderer.

Concluding with a moving act of mercy that proved that the Doctor had made a difference, however small, in Davros, the episode’s vindication of the Doctor’s faith in compassion brought it to a fitting thematic close.