DW 9.01. The Magician's Apprentice
Would you believe it, but it's meta café time! Cobbled together in haste, but there's so much there to dig into that I couldn't leave it... Themes are touched on, and they light up past stories and events, creating new patterns, highlighting things previously dark.
First of all, some flailing over Missy...
As you all probably know, the only two people I ship the Doctor with are River & the Master/Missy. (I don’t ship the Doctor with Companions, as they’re not his equal. They just don't have the right dynamic.)
And this episode left me a very happy shipper. <3
The following exchange probably encapsulates things best:
DOCTOR: Gravity!
MISSY: I know! *eyeroll*
I loved how she wasn’t the bad guy this time round, that she was actually more-or-less on the good guys side, even though that didn’t make her 'good'. It’s a far more interesting dynamic, and they can do much more with her this way. Also it’s a terrible simple way of showcasing how Clara - despite being Super Competent Companion - is still only human and doesn’t know everything.
Together, they make quite a team - Missy has the Time Lord brains and knowledge and Clara has the moral compass and conviction. A shame that they dislike each other, but I do love them together. The Doctor’s pretty women…
There were so many things - hand mines, seeing The Shadow Proclamation again, the classic Dalek, Clara and Missy’s ‘space walk’, all the women (♥) - but for now I shall concentrate on a 'few' specific things that stood out for me... Because as Cultbox said:
This isn’t entry-level Who for beginner Whovians. It could never have made the screen in 2005. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine it existing before 2013, so much does it feel like the next logical progression in Steven Moffat’s evolution of the series.
(x)
Meta: The Magician’s Apprentice
FOURTH DOCTOR: If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you, and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?
Genesis of the Daleks
This quote is forty years old. But it is a tune we have heard many times since - it’s been picked up repeatedly in various guises.
MELS: A significant factor in Hitler’s rise to power was the fact that the Doctor didn’t stop him.
Let’s Kill Hitler
It cuts to the heart of a lot of the issues of a show that deals in time travel. How much to do interfere. How much can you interfere? What kind of obligation do you have to prevent suffering or meter out punishment? (The Tesselecta was one answer.)
(Everyone go read Everyone kills Hitler on their first trip if you have not done so before. Short and hilarious and perfectly illustrates time travel issues.)
In this case, the biggest question being the one the Doctor voices: Who created Davros?
This episode gives us an answer - or at least hints at one, buried beneath the general factor of Davros being a child of war.
Last season we had Clara meeting the very young Doctor, laying down foundations that would help him become who he is.
Here we have a similar situation, but negative - the Doctor plants the words ‘survival’ in young Davros’ mind, something which will take root and flourish. And then abandons him… So far, the answer to ‘Who created Davros?’ is, apparently, the Doctor.
And the repercussions are many. (No matter what happened or happens.)
The Doctor is dying (again)
DOCTOR: Well, a little while ago, a very long way from here, I was looking for a bookshop. Instead, I found a battlefield. Story of my life. I've seen many battlefields. But this one will be different. This one will be my last.
The Doctor’s Meditation
We have been here before, haven’t we? The Doctor has done a lot of dying.
Although this has a very different slant to it.
- It’s not a regeneration story.
- And it’s not someone (the Silence) trying to kill him ‘for the greater good’.
No… From Meditation:
DOCTOR: I have to prepare myself.
BORS: But why? You've never explained.
DOCTOR: I did something wrong. I let somebody down when I should have been brave enough and strong enough to do better. Tomorrow I pay the price. Tonight, I make myself ready.
This is the Doctor believing he deserves to die because of what he did. Or rather didn’t do. There’s no biological imperative, no one’s holding a gun to his head.
Well, OK, so Davros is looking for him everywhere, but the Doctor isn’t going to go find a Tesselecta to hide in. He accepts that the consequences of his actions merit his death, and does his best to prepare for the end.
MISSY: Ooo. Never seen that before. Doctor, the look on your face. What is that?
CLARA: Shame. You're ashamed. Doctor? What have you done?
Because what he did goes against everything he believes.
TENTH DOCTOR: Never cruel or cowardly.
WAR DOCTOR: Never give up, never give in.
Day of the Doctor
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more.
The Beast Below
AMY: So is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?
DOCTOR: Yes.
The Beast Below
This of course comes off the back of S8: his extended soul-searching and eventual epiphany. Shot to hell on a simple battlefield…
And all he wanted was a bookshop.
I wonder about that.
Sidebar: Bookshop says ‘Ponds’ to me. The Ponds were defined by narratives, creating them wherever they went. River’s diary, Amy’s books, and the myths that sprang up around them - The Last Centurion, Demons Run, numerous pocket AUs wherever they went.
Clara’s associations are different - birds, eggs. (I’ll get back to this) Mostly though, I think Clara works with narratives in a different way. Rather than change the world, she changes herself. Now she used to be associated with books also - Amelia William's book, her mother's travel book, her leaf. However I think she lost this as she took centre stage, vying with the Doctor as the hero of the story.
The point is: Bookshops means stories. And the story of the Doctor and the Daleks is one of the oldest. The Doctor went looking for stories and found so much more than he expected.
And this is where it gets interesting…
(There are many themes resurfacing in this episode. It’s hard to tell which ones are the important ones, so I’ll just throw plenty out there.)
Eggs & survival & CLARA
(Clara is All The Things)
Now the worst thing the Doctor says to young Davros (as far as we can tell) is to focus on survival.
DOCTOR: Your chances of survival are one in a thousand… so here’s what you do… concentrate on the one… survival is just a choice.
The Magician’s Apprentice
And this is something that has consequences:
DOCTOR: Oh, that's it. That's your great victory? You leave?
DALEK: Extinction is not an option. We shall return to our own time and begin again.
Victory of the Daleks
The interesting part is that we are right back into our S7 themes: It’s all about eggs, and survival.
I used to wonder about all the egg imagery, but with hindsight it makes sense. (And I owe this insight to Promethia.)
Gallifrey is the egg.
Locked away, but containing a whole civilisation.
I may have to look at S7 again through the lens of this. Because we had an awful lot of instances that are now relevant to the situation with Gallifrey...
Although I think I will drill properly down into all the egg imagery in another post. For now, first of all I want to concentrate on the Dalek Asylum, which I’ve just realised is terribly relevant.
It’s a planet locked away and inaccessible. Because it was dangerous. We can see the direct parallels with Time of the Doctor and Gallifrey…. and now, Skaro.
- In Asylum it was Oswin’s music (‘Si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!’), terrifying the Daleks with the possibility that their deranged kin could escape. They then deployed the Doctor to destroy the Asylum.
- In Time of the Doctor it was the Church (and everyone else), wondering at the strange message, deploying the Doctor to investigate. The message frightened them (’Although no one understood the message, everyone who heard it found themselves afraid.’) and the translated message and its implications were even graver. The Church would not let Gallifrey return, would not let the Time War start again.
(There is even the utterly delightful touch that ‘Doctor Who’ is the phrase both episodes turn on. It’s what all the Daleks ask as the Doctor leaves, and it is of course the message that Gallifrey sends through the crack.)
But now we have Skaro as the other touchstone mirror. A planet ‘lost’ but now rebuilt, and hidden.
This is why Clara appeared so early - she was always tied to Gallifrey symbolically. And Gallifrey is tied to the Daleks, thanks to the Time War. (I’ll get back to Clara.)
Now in many of the stories of S7, the central issue is between survival of a species, and the impact this will have on the rest of the universe.
A few stories have just a simple ark of some kind (see Dinosaurs on a Spaceship), but mostly survival of one species will impact negatively on others.
Mind you, this isn’t just S7, it’s throughout Moffat’s era. In S5 The Beast Below dealt with this (Great Britain - minus Scotland): a whole civilisation travelling on another’s pain.
Of course it’s episode 3 of S5, Victory of the Daleks, that touches on this in depth, and it’s no surprise - looked at in context - why Moffat has finally decided to go all out and tackle this properly. It’s the flipside to saving Gallifrey: the dark consequences, the Time War casting dark shadows.
The Time War didn’t end. It was just paused. And the Doctor is still caught in the middle, having specifically defined himself in opposition to the Daleks:
DOCTOR: You are my enemy! And I am yours. You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.
Victory of the Daleks
DOCTOR: See, all those years ago, when I began. I was just running. I called myself the Doctor, but it was just a name. And then I went to Skaro. And then I met you lot and I understood who I was. The Doctor was not the Daleks.
Into the Dalek
Now Clara’s first impact upon the Doctor’s life, as Oswin, was to sever the link between himself and the Daleks, a link that goes right back to the second story, to 1963. At the time, we couldn’t help but wonder - who is she, that she has that kind of narrative power?
(And Clara was born on the show’s birthday. Could be seen as a metaphor for the show itself - see this post.)
Now was Oswin’s memory-wipe of the Daleks foreshadowing [this is what will happen - Clara is the key to solving the problem of the Daleks], or was it just there to indicate what kind of role she would play? [This is who Clara is]
The Ponds were about healing the Doctor, trying to put him back together, tackling the underlying issues left behind by his actions in the Time War. Clara is about looking forward; not by coming to terms with losing Gallifrey, but saving it; possibly bringing it back.
Sidebar/c&p from my ‘Kill the Moon post’: There is a lot of bird imagery around Clara. Oswin is listening to ‘Carmen’ (‘Love is a rebellious bird’.) And when we first meet ‘real’ Clara, she wears a bird necklace. And not just any bird, but a symbol of Horus:
Horus was the ancient Egyptian sky god who was usually depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner or peregrine falcon. His right eye was associated with the sun god, Ra. The eye symbol represents the marking around the eye of the falcon, including the "teardrop" marking sometimes found below the eye. The mirror image, or left eye, sometimes represented the moon and the god Djehuti (Thoth).
In one myth, when Set and Horus were fighting for the throne after Osiris's death, Set gouged out Horus's left eye. The majority of the eye was restored by either Hathor or Thoth (with the last portion possibly being supplied magically). When Horus's eye was recovered, he offered it to his father, Osiris, in hopes of restoring his life. Hence, the eye of Horus was often used to symbolise sacrifice, healing, restoration, and protection.
(Wiki)
So, will Moffat try to do for the Daleks what he did for Gallifrey? Somehow rewrite the narrative? He can’t tinker around with the fundamentals the way he now is without changing something major. But what? And how? We probably won’t see the full picture until the end of the season, but this could be fascinating. (And what role might Clara play? Is she the apprentice of the title?)
Under RTD the Daleks kept returning and then getting completely wiped out (S1 finale, S2 finale, S4 finale). Moffat’s first Dalek story brought them back, and he’s kept them hanging around on the fringes, using them relatively sparingly. But by rebuilding Skaro he’s upped the stakes, made them matter in a way they haven’t since RTD’s era. The only time they’ve been the major universe-destroying bad guy is in Day of the Doctor, and there it was more about re-writing the narrative of What The Doctor Did.
Actually, that’s probably what Moffat is doing. He’s (somehow) re-writing the Daleks. He has gone back to the very beginning - not just with Skaro and Daleks capable of destroying the universe, but with the young Davros.
To quote Phil Sandifer:
How do you save the world from its own intrinsic evil? By being amazing, breaking the rules, and, when the narrative points to something awful, telling a different sort of story.
And so the moral heart of the Moffat era stands, for a moment, revealed - an understanding and principle we can take forward in reading everything else that he does. It is an observation that stems inexorably from the history of alchemy within the series and from the underlying imagery of this story. “As above, so below,” the injunction goes - a declaration that manipulating symbols and manipulating objects is, in some sense, the same thing. That a symbol and a thing are in some sense interchangeable. What is the moral heart of the Moffat era? It is simple.
The secret of material social progress is alchemy.
The Alchemists of the Middle Ages Made Transmutation Their Main Aim in Life (The Beast Below)
But how to re-write the Daleks?
Because we have been here before - an old man and the young child he once was; the Doctor caught up in a life, trying to save his friends…
DOCTOR: There are four thousand and three people in a spaceship trapped in your cloud belt. Without your help, they're going to die.
SARDICK: Yes.
DOCTOR: You don't have to let that happen.
SARDICK: I know, but I'm going to. Bye, bye. Bored now, chuck.
A Christmas Carol
Will the Doctor try to re-write Davros, the way he did Kazran?
Except how can he? This is Hitler all over again, except universe-wide.
Of course back in the day the Time Lords authorised the Doctor to kill the Daleks before they ever started… Although this time the implications would be immeasurable. If there are such things as fixed points, surely Davros’ life would be one of them…
(OTOH could this be the key to everything? Save the cheerleader Davros, save the world Gallifrey?)
Remember, the tag-line for this season is ‘Born to save the universe’. What if it’s Davros? (Missy would also be quite acceptable by the way. But I feel that this is Davros’ moment to shine.)
Although Moffat has said that the Doctor starts out by making a mistake…
So basically - it’ll be interesting to see where we go from here.
The Doctor’s Mercy/Compassion
Another theme from S7 that’s returned with a vengeance is the Doctor as moral arbiter. He shied away from it throughout S8 (fallout from regeneration, or Trenzalore, or saving Gallifrey or his ‘Am I A Good Man’ dilemma or something else again - take your pick!), but it’s good to go back. Considering the choices he makes, it’s not something he can hide from.
DAVROS: Do you know why you came, Doctor? You have a sense of duty. Of guilt, perhaps. And certainly of shame.
DOCTOR: You flatter me.
DAVROS: Pity. I intended to accuse. I believe that for the ultimate good of the universe, I was right to create the Daleks.
DOCTOR: You were very wrong.
DAVROS: This is the argument we've had since we met.
DOCTOR: It ended in the Time War.
DAVROS: It survived the Time War. But it will end tonight. That is why you are here.
[…]
DOCTOR: Why have I ever let you live?
DAVROS: Compassion, Doctor. It has always been your greatest indulgence. Let this be my final victory. Let me hear you say it, just once. Compassion is wrong.
Now, I always adored A Town Called Mercy, because it poked at all the Doctor’s issues and didn’t shy away from what it found:
And Clara put her finger on exactly the same issue in the S8 finale:
This is why one of my very first instincts was to watch Hurricane.
Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you’re right?
(If you let the monster live out of compassion, or friendship, or mercy, and the monster kills again, on whose head is it?)
Time Lords are like Russian dolls, all the regenerations nesting inside. And Twelve has a long history, which is obviously coming into play here.
RORY: Who killed all the Daleks?
DOCTOR: Who do you think?
Asylum of the Daleks
I don’t think he’ll kill young Davros, no. That’s a very obvious fake-out.
Killing a child is not who he is, it’s not something he’d ever do.
(Someone else can write up a comparison to Children of Earth…)
Mostly this reminds me of the end of The Pandorica Opens - everyone is dead and the Doctor is helpless.
Or maybe more accurately - the very beginning of Day of the Moon, where everyone appears to get killed off, the Doctor is locked up AGAIN and everything is hopeless… Except the point isn’t ‘oh no everyone is dead’ (again). We know they’ll be back. The point is how do they get out of it. What is the Doctor going to do, how will he fix this? (Ask the right questions. If you start interrogating from the wrong perspective, you’ll be disappointed.)
(Besides he’s from ‘the future’. How did he get back to that field without a TARDIS? Also other parts might be timey-wimey - like, could rock star!Twelve on the tank be from the future? Could the reason he’s so emotional and huggy be because he’s already seen her die? I don't know how that would work, so I'm just going to leave that there. Hat tip to Tumblr for that last insight.)
But what CAN he do? Well… we are back to Kazran. But how much rewriting can the narrative take? Or, will he maybe just fill in what was already to come - it will happen because it has happened? Davros is doomed because he was always doomed. (Although that’s generally not how Moffat functions. But we’ll see. Another parallel might be Dr Simeon from 'The Snowmen' - a child corrupted and twisted and so very lost.)
And who exactly is the Magician’s apprentice? Who is the Witch's Familiar? Who-
TO BE CONTINUED...
ETA: SPOILERS FOR 'THE WITCH'S FAMILIAR' IN THE COMMENTS!!!
First of all, some flailing over Missy...
As you all probably know, the only two people I ship the Doctor with are River & the Master/Missy. (I don’t ship the Doctor with Companions, as they’re not his equal. They just don't have the right dynamic.)
And this episode left me a very happy shipper. <3
The following exchange probably encapsulates things best:
DOCTOR: Gravity!
MISSY: I know! *eyeroll*
I loved how she wasn’t the bad guy this time round, that she was actually more-or-less on the good guys side, even though that didn’t make her 'good'. It’s a far more interesting dynamic, and they can do much more with her this way. Also it’s a terrible simple way of showcasing how Clara - despite being Super Competent Companion - is still only human and doesn’t know everything.
Together, they make quite a team - Missy has the Time Lord brains and knowledge and Clara has the moral compass and conviction. A shame that they dislike each other, but I do love them together. The Doctor’s pretty women…
There were so many things - hand mines, seeing The Shadow Proclamation again, the classic Dalek, Clara and Missy’s ‘space walk’, all the women (♥) - but for now I shall concentrate on a 'few' specific things that stood out for me... Because as Cultbox said:
This isn’t entry-level Who for beginner Whovians. It could never have made the screen in 2005. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine it existing before 2013, so much does it feel like the next logical progression in Steven Moffat’s evolution of the series.
(x)
Meta: The Magician’s Apprentice
FOURTH DOCTOR: If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you, and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?
Genesis of the Daleks
This quote is forty years old. But it is a tune we have heard many times since - it’s been picked up repeatedly in various guises.
MELS: A significant factor in Hitler’s rise to power was the fact that the Doctor didn’t stop him.
Let’s Kill Hitler
It cuts to the heart of a lot of the issues of a show that deals in time travel. How much to do interfere. How much can you interfere? What kind of obligation do you have to prevent suffering or meter out punishment? (The Tesselecta was one answer.)
(Everyone go read Everyone kills Hitler on their first trip if you have not done so before. Short and hilarious and perfectly illustrates time travel issues.)
In this case, the biggest question being the one the Doctor voices: Who created Davros?
This episode gives us an answer - or at least hints at one, buried beneath the general factor of Davros being a child of war.
Last season we had Clara meeting the very young Doctor, laying down foundations that would help him become who he is.
Here we have a similar situation, but negative - the Doctor plants the words ‘survival’ in young Davros’ mind, something which will take root and flourish. And then abandons him… So far, the answer to ‘Who created Davros?’ is, apparently, the Doctor.
And the repercussions are many. (No matter what happened or happens.)
The Doctor is dying (again)
DOCTOR: Well, a little while ago, a very long way from here, I was looking for a bookshop. Instead, I found a battlefield. Story of my life. I've seen many battlefields. But this one will be different. This one will be my last.
The Doctor’s Meditation
We have been here before, haven’t we? The Doctor has done a lot of dying.
Although this has a very different slant to it.
- It’s not a regeneration story.
- And it’s not someone (the Silence) trying to kill him ‘for the greater good’.
No… From Meditation:
DOCTOR: I have to prepare myself.
BORS: But why? You've never explained.
DOCTOR: I did something wrong. I let somebody down when I should have been brave enough and strong enough to do better. Tomorrow I pay the price. Tonight, I make myself ready.
This is the Doctor believing he deserves to die because of what he did. Or rather didn’t do. There’s no biological imperative, no one’s holding a gun to his head.
Well, OK, so Davros is looking for him everywhere, but the Doctor isn’t going to go find a Tesselecta to hide in. He accepts that the consequences of his actions merit his death, and does his best to prepare for the end.
MISSY: Ooo. Never seen that before. Doctor, the look on your face. What is that?
CLARA: Shame. You're ashamed. Doctor? What have you done?
Because what he did goes against everything he believes.
TENTH DOCTOR: Never cruel or cowardly.
WAR DOCTOR: Never give up, never give in.
Day of the Doctor
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more.
The Beast Below
AMY: So is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?
DOCTOR: Yes.
The Beast Below
This of course comes off the back of S8: his extended soul-searching and eventual epiphany. Shot to hell on a simple battlefield…
And all he wanted was a bookshop.
I wonder about that.
Sidebar: Bookshop says ‘Ponds’ to me. The Ponds were defined by narratives, creating them wherever they went. River’s diary, Amy’s books, and the myths that sprang up around them - The Last Centurion, Demons Run, numerous pocket AUs wherever they went.
Clara’s associations are different - birds, eggs. (I’ll get back to this) Mostly though, I think Clara works with narratives in a different way. Rather than change the world, she changes herself. Now she used to be associated with books also - Amelia William's book, her mother's travel book, her leaf. However I think she lost this as she took centre stage, vying with the Doctor as the hero of the story.
The point is: Bookshops means stories. And the story of the Doctor and the Daleks is one of the oldest. The Doctor went looking for stories and found so much more than he expected.
And this is where it gets interesting…
(There are many themes resurfacing in this episode. It’s hard to tell which ones are the important ones, so I’ll just throw plenty out there.)
Eggs & survival & CLARA
(Clara is All The Things)
Now the worst thing the Doctor says to young Davros (as far as we can tell) is to focus on survival.
DOCTOR: Your chances of survival are one in a thousand… so here’s what you do… concentrate on the one… survival is just a choice.
The Magician’s Apprentice
And this is something that has consequences:
DOCTOR: Oh, that's it. That's your great victory? You leave?
DALEK: Extinction is not an option. We shall return to our own time and begin again.
Victory of the Daleks
The interesting part is that we are right back into our S7 themes: It’s all about eggs, and survival.
I used to wonder about all the egg imagery, but with hindsight it makes sense. (And I owe this insight to Promethia.)
Gallifrey is the egg.
Locked away, but containing a whole civilisation.
I may have to look at S7 again through the lens of this. Because we had an awful lot of instances that are now relevant to the situation with Gallifrey...
Although I think I will drill properly down into all the egg imagery in another post. For now, first of all I want to concentrate on the Dalek Asylum, which I’ve just realised is terribly relevant.
It’s a planet locked away and inaccessible. Because it was dangerous. We can see the direct parallels with Time of the Doctor and Gallifrey…. and now, Skaro.
- In Asylum it was Oswin’s music (‘Si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!’), terrifying the Daleks with the possibility that their deranged kin could escape. They then deployed the Doctor to destroy the Asylum.
- In Time of the Doctor it was the Church (and everyone else), wondering at the strange message, deploying the Doctor to investigate. The message frightened them (’Although no one understood the message, everyone who heard it found themselves afraid.’) and the translated message and its implications were even graver. The Church would not let Gallifrey return, would not let the Time War start again.
(There is even the utterly delightful touch that ‘Doctor Who’ is the phrase both episodes turn on. It’s what all the Daleks ask as the Doctor leaves, and it is of course the message that Gallifrey sends through the crack.)
But now we have Skaro as the other touchstone mirror. A planet ‘lost’ but now rebuilt, and hidden.
This is why Clara appeared so early - she was always tied to Gallifrey symbolically. And Gallifrey is tied to the Daleks, thanks to the Time War. (I’ll get back to Clara.)
Now in many of the stories of S7, the central issue is between survival of a species, and the impact this will have on the rest of the universe.
A few stories have just a simple ark of some kind (see Dinosaurs on a Spaceship), but mostly survival of one species will impact negatively on others.
Mind you, this isn’t just S7, it’s throughout Moffat’s era. In S5 The Beast Below dealt with this (Great Britain - minus Scotland): a whole civilisation travelling on another’s pain.
Of course it’s episode 3 of S5, Victory of the Daleks, that touches on this in depth, and it’s no surprise - looked at in context - why Moffat has finally decided to go all out and tackle this properly. It’s the flipside to saving Gallifrey: the dark consequences, the Time War casting dark shadows.
The Time War didn’t end. It was just paused. And the Doctor is still caught in the middle, having specifically defined himself in opposition to the Daleks:
DOCTOR: You are my enemy! And I am yours. You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.
Victory of the Daleks
DOCTOR: See, all those years ago, when I began. I was just running. I called myself the Doctor, but it was just a name. And then I went to Skaro. And then I met you lot and I understood who I was. The Doctor was not the Daleks.
Into the Dalek
Now Clara’s first impact upon the Doctor’s life, as Oswin, was to sever the link between himself and the Daleks, a link that goes right back to the second story, to 1963. At the time, we couldn’t help but wonder - who is she, that she has that kind of narrative power?
(And Clara was born on the show’s birthday. Could be seen as a metaphor for the show itself - see this post.)
Now was Oswin’s memory-wipe of the Daleks foreshadowing [this is what will happen - Clara is the key to solving the problem of the Daleks], or was it just there to indicate what kind of role she would play? [This is who Clara is]
The Ponds were about healing the Doctor, trying to put him back together, tackling the underlying issues left behind by his actions in the Time War. Clara is about looking forward; not by coming to terms with losing Gallifrey, but saving it; possibly bringing it back.
Sidebar/c&p from my ‘Kill the Moon post’: There is a lot of bird imagery around Clara. Oswin is listening to ‘Carmen’ (‘Love is a rebellious bird’.) And when we first meet ‘real’ Clara, she wears a bird necklace. And not just any bird, but a symbol of Horus:
Horus was the ancient Egyptian sky god who was usually depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner or peregrine falcon. His right eye was associated with the sun god, Ra. The eye symbol represents the marking around the eye of the falcon, including the "teardrop" marking sometimes found below the eye. The mirror image, or left eye, sometimes represented the moon and the god Djehuti (Thoth).
In one myth, when Set and Horus were fighting for the throne after Osiris's death, Set gouged out Horus's left eye. The majority of the eye was restored by either Hathor or Thoth (with the last portion possibly being supplied magically). When Horus's eye was recovered, he offered it to his father, Osiris, in hopes of restoring his life. Hence, the eye of Horus was often used to symbolise sacrifice, healing, restoration, and protection.
(Wiki)
So, will Moffat try to do for the Daleks what he did for Gallifrey? Somehow rewrite the narrative? He can’t tinker around with the fundamentals the way he now is without changing something major. But what? And how? We probably won’t see the full picture until the end of the season, but this could be fascinating. (And what role might Clara play? Is she the apprentice of the title?)
Under RTD the Daleks kept returning and then getting completely wiped out (S1 finale, S2 finale, S4 finale). Moffat’s first Dalek story brought them back, and he’s kept them hanging around on the fringes, using them relatively sparingly. But by rebuilding Skaro he’s upped the stakes, made them matter in a way they haven’t since RTD’s era. The only time they’ve been the major universe-destroying bad guy is in Day of the Doctor, and there it was more about re-writing the narrative of What The Doctor Did.
Actually, that’s probably what Moffat is doing. He’s (somehow) re-writing the Daleks. He has gone back to the very beginning - not just with Skaro and Daleks capable of destroying the universe, but with the young Davros.
To quote Phil Sandifer:
How do you save the world from its own intrinsic evil? By being amazing, breaking the rules, and, when the narrative points to something awful, telling a different sort of story.
And so the moral heart of the Moffat era stands, for a moment, revealed - an understanding and principle we can take forward in reading everything else that he does. It is an observation that stems inexorably from the history of alchemy within the series and from the underlying imagery of this story. “As above, so below,” the injunction goes - a declaration that manipulating symbols and manipulating objects is, in some sense, the same thing. That a symbol and a thing are in some sense interchangeable. What is the moral heart of the Moffat era? It is simple.
The secret of material social progress is alchemy.
The Alchemists of the Middle Ages Made Transmutation Their Main Aim in Life (The Beast Below)
But how to re-write the Daleks?
Because we have been here before - an old man and the young child he once was; the Doctor caught up in a life, trying to save his friends…
DOCTOR: There are four thousand and three people in a spaceship trapped in your cloud belt. Without your help, they're going to die.
SARDICK: Yes.
DOCTOR: You don't have to let that happen.
SARDICK: I know, but I'm going to. Bye, bye. Bored now, chuck.
A Christmas Carol
Will the Doctor try to re-write Davros, the way he did Kazran?
Except how can he? This is Hitler all over again, except universe-wide.
Of course back in the day the Time Lords authorised the Doctor to kill the Daleks before they ever started… Although this time the implications would be immeasurable. If there are such things as fixed points, surely Davros’ life would be one of them…
(OTOH could this be the key to everything? Save the cheerleader Davros, save the world Gallifrey?)
Remember, the tag-line for this season is ‘Born to save the universe’. What if it’s Davros? (Missy would also be quite acceptable by the way. But I feel that this is Davros’ moment to shine.)
Although Moffat has said that the Doctor starts out by making a mistake…
So basically - it’ll be interesting to see where we go from here.
The Doctor’s Mercy/Compassion
Another theme from S7 that’s returned with a vengeance is the Doctor as moral arbiter. He shied away from it throughout S8 (fallout from regeneration, or Trenzalore, or saving Gallifrey or his ‘Am I A Good Man’ dilemma or something else again - take your pick!), but it’s good to go back. Considering the choices he makes, it’s not something he can hide from.
DAVROS: Do you know why you came, Doctor? You have a sense of duty. Of guilt, perhaps. And certainly of shame.
DOCTOR: You flatter me.
DAVROS: Pity. I intended to accuse. I believe that for the ultimate good of the universe, I was right to create the Daleks.
DOCTOR: You were very wrong.
DAVROS: This is the argument we've had since we met.
DOCTOR: It ended in the Time War.
DAVROS: It survived the Time War. But it will end tonight. That is why you are here.
[…]
DOCTOR: Why have I ever let you live?
DAVROS: Compassion, Doctor. It has always been your greatest indulgence. Let this be my final victory. Let me hear you say it, just once. Compassion is wrong.
Now, I always adored A Town Called Mercy, because it poked at all the Doctor’s issues and didn’t shy away from what it found:
And Clara put her finger on exactly the same issue in the S8 finale:
This is why one of my very first instincts was to watch Hurricane.
Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you’re right?
(If you let the monster live out of compassion, or friendship, or mercy, and the monster kills again, on whose head is it?)
Time Lords are like Russian dolls, all the regenerations nesting inside. And Twelve has a long history, which is obviously coming into play here.
RORY: Who killed all the Daleks?
DOCTOR: Who do you think?
Asylum of the Daleks
I don’t think he’ll kill young Davros, no. That’s a very obvious fake-out.
Killing a child is not who he is, it’s not something he’d ever do.
(Someone else can write up a comparison to Children of Earth…)
Mostly this reminds me of the end of The Pandorica Opens - everyone is dead and the Doctor is helpless.
Or maybe more accurately - the very beginning of Day of the Moon, where everyone appears to get killed off, the Doctor is locked up AGAIN and everything is hopeless… Except the point isn’t ‘oh no everyone is dead’ (again). We know they’ll be back. The point is how do they get out of it. What is the Doctor going to do, how will he fix this? (Ask the right questions. If you start interrogating from the wrong perspective, you’ll be disappointed.)
(Besides he’s from ‘the future’. How did he get back to that field without a TARDIS? Also other parts might be timey-wimey - like, could rock star!Twelve on the tank be from the future? Could the reason he’s so emotional and huggy be because he’s already seen her die? I don't know how that would work, so I'm just going to leave that there. Hat tip to Tumblr for that last insight.)
But what CAN he do? Well… we are back to Kazran. But how much rewriting can the narrative take? Or, will he maybe just fill in what was already to come - it will happen because it has happened? Davros is doomed because he was always doomed. (Although that’s generally not how Moffat functions. But we’ll see. Another parallel might be Dr Simeon from 'The Snowmen' - a child corrupted and twisted and so very lost.)
And who exactly is the Magician’s apprentice? Who is the Witch's Familiar? Who-
TO BE CONTINUED...
ETA: SPOILERS FOR 'THE WITCH'S FAMILIAR' IN THE COMMENTS!!!