Doctor Who series 9 The Witch's Familiar review

Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who.
Here's what you need to know; believing his friends to be dead, the Doctor is trapped on Skaro at the mercy of Davros, but now maybe Davros has other plans, things may not be what they appear.

On the plus side / predictable side, it's explained how Missy survived dying in series 8, I won't explain, but I'll say I completely called it. That said, now here's something I was a bit disappointed by, that being Missy and Clara didn't die when the Daleks exterminated them, I was thinking that the Doctor's story would have been more impactful if they were actually dead, same with the destruction of the TARDIS. I didn't hate that they were alive, and they obviously wouldn't stay dead even if they were dead, but the episode starting with them out in the desert still alive really takes the thunder from the Doctor dealing with their deaths. The Doctor and Davros are the backbone of this episode and they have some really good scenes, it's cool to see these 2 polar opposites locked in a room together, and the Doctor is forced into some pretty emotional stuff in this episode. What I am going to say next is a huge spoiler, you've been warned, but let's talk about Davros' plan. Davros deceives the Doctor, tricking him into feeding his regenerative energy into Davros and thus the Daleks on Skaro, I really like the deception, because the matter of friend or foe is something this episode really plays with, and I thought the first deception worked, then the Doctor deceived Davros' deception and it kind of lost me a bit, as clever as the Doctor is, I don't believe that he would be able to completely see through Davros' play and think up a play of this own, especially given that Missy ends up saving him, did he also predict that she would save him, even after he thought she was dead, it just doesn't make any sense to me, I think it would have A been smarter and B more impactful if the Doctor genuinely fell for Davros' deception, given that what ends up ruining Davros' plan would have happened anyway. I really liked how the plan fails, with all the regenerative energy going to all the Daleks, including the rotten ones buried under the city, and the city just collapses into the sludge, I thought that was really clever, and really gross. I also adore the scene with Clara inside the Dalek and Missy trying to trick the Doctor into killing her, I loved that scene, I just did. And I liked the ending, which elaborates on the ending of the last episode, the Doctor goes back for Davros, but rather than killing him, he kills all the creepy hand monsters, I think it's a very good ending to the episode, it puts to rest the story of young Davros and the Doctor.

This episode had some slightly disappointing aspects, and a sizable and bothersome plot hole that the more I think about the more it bothers me. But it has a few really great moments, and a resolution that I really liked, I liked this episode in general, again, minus a few flaws, but it's not bad, and it's worth a watch.