Tennant fangirls got a mention in one comment - always brings a nostalgic tear to my eye.

Aahhh, the Tennant fangirls.
Wonder where they are now?

I've always found it to be true that the mere ability to type out the word 'Sheeple' is a clear sign that a person is a unique and special little snow flake. A free thinker. A bright spark that has ascended to a higher plain of thinking than other mere mortals and broken free from the squalid curse of simple hive minded thinking that most of us suffer with. We should all bow to their infinite wisdom. Sheeple! It's like people but mixed with sheep! Amazing. The idea that people that throw that term around are in fact arrogant socially maladjusted losers with a horrendously over enflated sense of self worth and their own uniqueness is a scurrilous and terrible one and I shant hear of it. Anyway. The Witches Familiar! Looks like a beauty!

'Baaaaaaaaaaaaa'

Haha

Agree it is effective when The Doctor loses his cool as it happens so little.

Experiencing an intense moment of giddy squeeing euphoria that will soon turn regenerate into crushing disappointment when they realise Big Finish is Audio only.

Post of the week!

And, risking being accused of being part of the sheeple crowd, I agree with you, and many others, that TWF looks like it'll be simply fab.

What gets me about these people who think we should all have the same opinion as them are the ones that don't like it when we praise an episode they don't like and then get on the bandwagon that we always agree with what Moffat does. I do like Moffat's era because it has refreshed the way we think of the show but don't alway's agree with the track it can take.

To me the whole story is on a knife edge so to speak, based on the outcome of this second part. If it answers all that part 1 made us ask, and is as throughly entertaining as part 1 then it could be an all time classic story, or if not, it could be a missed opportunity.

We all know Moffat is great at a set up, but I feel that he doesn't always do so well in the pay off, but since part 1 was seemed like a big step up in terms of his writing, I'm trying to be more optimistic this time that he can/will deliver.

Either way, given that it's said to be heavy with dialogue between the doctor and davros, I think we can at least assume it will be a particularly quotable episode. Would be good if we get something memorable like in journeys end where davros really took the doctor down a peg with 'The doctor, the man who keeps running. Never looking back because he dare not out of shame.' Even from part 1 there has already been some good stuff though where he talked about the daleks.

Baaaaaaaa!

I'm hoping there's time for a reprieve from dying, wheezy Davros to make way for a bombastic gloat-fest speech. A Davros episode isn't a Davros episode without a good rant.

Still, "so many backs with a single knife" is good too

Ah, so you only "cut and paste" the word "sheeple" and didn't actually type it then....

Coz, you know, if you'd typed it, you couldn't possibly be in that group/flock.

Still a little suspicious of the dying myself and wondering if it isn't just part of some bigger plan. Either that or maybe he is really dying but is somehow saved by the end of the episode. Either way I really can't envision Davros stone cold dead by the end of it all.

They should do. If Moffat was less smitten with Gomez and her risible, toe-curling iteration of The Master he would perhaps be able to see that Bleach's Davros is one of Nu-Who's high-points, one which cuts across all camps of the audience to universal acclaim. We should be having more of him, not less. He's a proto-Darth Vader before Darth Vader and yet has been shabbily treated post Genesis and right through to the RTD/Moffat era as well. If I were in charge I'd build a season around him and Capaldi going head to head over a proper season arc.

Likely watching whatever he is now in.

I'm here sweetie!

I do agree to an extent. I think Davros is great and I can't believe it's been seven years since he was last in Doctor Who but then I can't help feeling he would be less effective if he appeared more often and they would probably end up softening him up as they have done Missy. There is also the problem that the Daleks tend to get sidelined when Davros is around.

It did get terribly tedious in Classic Who that every Dalek story, post Genesis, was actually about Davros. In think New Who has shown the Daleks can be brilliant on their own.

And I must admit I've not missed Davros over the past seven years. I am loving that he's back but its a lovely surprise rather than something I felt needed to happen.

Seven years though! I remember watching destiny of the Daleks in 1979. I was only nine years old and it felt a lifetime since Davros had last appeared, even though it had only been five years.

Wearing my pedant's badge with pride, there was actually only four (and a bit) years between Genesis (March / April 1975) and Destiny (September 1979). There hadn't been any Dalek stories in that period either.

Another clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JroLBfILmQ

I cannot WAIT for Saturday. The first part was a fantastic episode and every review I've read bar one has said part 2 is even better.
On another note - is Hettie McDonald the first female director to get her hands on the Daleks? Stunning job she is doing too

I thought seven years was a really decent gap, and it shows quite how much the show is able to do without going around in too many circles. We get an obligatory Dalek appearance each year, and it seems Moffat has since done the same with the Cybermen as well (we'll see if that rings true for Series 9, and if he'll stick to a Cybermen in episode 12 every single time as well) but in a way it's nice not to feel like we're constantly recycling absolutely everything.

I wasn't keen on The Master coming back for Series 8 as it was too soon after Simm for me, and I don't like the villains feeling like they're on a conveyor belt. I ultimately like Gomez though, and enjoy her take on the character. In a way, I'm now actually interested in a semi-recurring role for Missy. She's a villain through and through but the occasional two-parter where she's not the central villain could be interesting - if at least to make the friendship between her and the Doctor more credible. It was great to see her playing more of a companion to the Doctor, or even more of a Doctor-fill-in for Clara and it really worked for me... without diminshing her villainy in the long-run.

Davros was a welcome return and the gap feels about right. We've over doubled the number of series since his last appearance, so I don't feel like we're doing the whole "conveyor belt" thing. He's a wonderful free-ticket to a different, bigger Dalek story too. I'd be happy to see him come back in the finale. But for more of a recurring role, perhaps not. Less is more, basically. A sad contradiction that I love Julian Bleach and he makes everything more awesome, but I think too much would risk devaluing it because they couldn't write sufficiently enough to bring him back more frequently.

Yeah. Seeing Davros again was a real treat. It felt like an event after all those years. That's why its worth resting characters for a decent amount of time...(cough*River Song*cough). When they come back it's a special thing. If and when Jack returns my goodness I will be screaming.

The Magician's Apprentice & The Witch's Familiar will be repeated together on BBC One on Sunday @ 3:15pm

Judging by the BBC American figures, they're probably still watching..

I will put this in spoilers in case anyone wants to avoid the teasers...