Photos and Videos: DOCTOR WHO Season 9, Ep 3 "Under The Lake" Sneak Peek

Who ya gonna call? We’ll find out tonight on Doctor Who as the Doctor and Clara are being haunted by ghosts in “Under the Water”, which marks the beginning of another two-part episode concluding next week. Doctor Who airs tonight on BBC America at 9 PM ET.

Are any Whovians out there stumped about the meaning of last week’s episode title, “The Witch’s Familiar”? We haven’t figured it out yet, so if you have any ideas, let us know! Although the episode title might have been a bit vague, the episode itself proved to be an excellent and satisfying conclusion to the previous episode, “The Magician’s Apprentice”.

When we last left the Doctor (Peter Capaldi), we assumed that he intended to “exterminate” young Davros in order to (presumably) save Clara (Jenna Coleman). However, by the end of the episode, we learn that the Doctor actually saved young Davros by exterminating the hand mines. But this wasn’t as important as the episode previews led us to believe since we know the Doctor is incapable of hurting a child. What was truly at the heart of this episode was the Doctor’s conversation with Davros (Julian Bleach). And it truly was a conversation, and not a confrontation. After all, when Davros asked the Doctor why he came to see him, the Doctor responded in the most quintessential Doctor way by saying “I came because you’re sick, and you asked.” Later, when we found out that Davros was manipulating the Doctor, we wondered if the Doctor’s words were genuine or if he was playing along with Davros’ manipulation game. Still, we thought the conversation between two old enemies was insightful, regardless of the objective. We’re certain that we haven’t seen the last of the Doctor and Davros together, especially since Davros’ last words to the Doctor were about a prophecy on Gallifrey about a hybrid creature of two great warrior races. Makes us wonder what Missy is going to be up to this season since the episode ended with her surrounded by Daleks and the lightbulb going off over her head (ok, we used our imagination for that last part). And while we hope that Missy isn’t going to play a part in fulfilling the prophecy, we already started thinking of new nicknames (Mistress Dalek? Miss Dalek?) for her just in case.

Elsewhere on Skaro, Missy and Clara’s Excellent Adventure continued with some pretty great banter. Actually, Missy pretty much pwned Clara, right down her convincing Clara to climb into an empty Dalek. (Seriously, Clara?)

And speaking of the Impossible Girl…is her storyline about to come full circle? If you recall, we first met Clara in the seventh season opener “Asylum of the Daleks”, when she was introduced to audiences as Oswin Oswald (“Souffle Girl”). At the end of the episode, we learned that Souffle Girl wasn’t just inside a Dalek, turns out she actually was a Dalek. So is it a coincidence that Clara was once again trapped inside a Dalek during the “The Witch’s Familiar”? We think not, and with this being Jenna Coleman’s last season as a companion on Doctor Who, we’re expecting Steven Moffat to surprise us with one more Clara mystery before Jenna exits the show.

Tonight’s episode of Doctor Who promises to be fun and scary. We are super excited that one of our favorite Doctor Who writers, Toby Whithouse (@hanniganspiteri), is back and writing not one, but two new episodes this season. We don’t know too much about the latest Doctor Who two-parter (“Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood”), but then again the less you know is what always makes a ghost story fun and surprising.

Read on for the BBC America episode synopsis of “Under the Lake” directed by Daniel O’Hara, followed by the episode trailer and two (spoiler-free!) video sneak peeks:

When an Underwater Base comes under attack, the Doctor and Clara must save the frightened crew and defeat an impossible threat. But what is behind these terrifying events? And can they really be haunted by Ghosts?

In this clip, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat explains that the show rarely features ghost stories. We also have Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi explaining what the Doctor and Clara are up to on this mysterious abandoned base.