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Doctor Who Recap: ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’

By Barry Rice

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Michelle Gomez, Peter Capaldi, and Jenna Coleman star in the Doctor Who Series 9 premiere, ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’. (Credit: BBC)

At long last, Doctor Who has returned to the airwaves with the premiere of its ninth series, ‘The Magician’s Apprentice.’ The first part of a two-part opening story, the plot itself has been veiled in secrecy. Even after multiple public screenings, very little information was actually leaked out before the episode aired.

So now that the cat’s officially out of the bag, let’s break down what we’ve seen.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

The episode opens at the exact moment the prequel short, ‘The Doctor’s Meditation’ ends — on a battlefield. There’s a strange mix of old and new technologies at play and, strangest of all, there’s a child.

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One of the soldiers runs after the boy, only to find him in the middle of minefield. Not just any mines, though; these are the creepy eyeball hands we spotted in the Series 9 trailers. We soon learn they’re called “hand mines.” Clever.

After the unfortunate demise of the soldier, the boy is alone and calls for help. Before long, a familiar object flies through the air and lands at his feet: a sonic screwdriver. And there’s the Doctor, at the edge of the minefield. He tells the boy to pick up the screwdriver and then asks him what war this is and what planet they’re on. The boy knows it only as “the war” and doesn’t understand the Doctor’s question about the planet. So the Doctor asks him his name. “What is the name of the boy who’s not going to die today?” he asks.

“Davros…my name is Davros.”

And there we have it — the rumors are true, the Doctor is meeting the mad scientist responsible for creating the Daleks as a child, where he has a chance to change history. Cue the title sequence.

What follows is a short montage of sorts, with creepy new character Colony Sarff searching the galaxy for the Doctor. We meet a few familiar faces and races, ending on Karn with the delivery of Davros’ message to the Doctor: “Davros knows. Davros remembers.” When his master learns that he has failed to locate the Doctor, Davros tells Colony Sarff that to find the Doctor, one must find his friends.

Next we meet Clara back at her day job at Coal Hill school. She notices a plane frozen in the sky outside the window just before she’s summoned to UNIT HQ. A very take-charge Clara works with Kate Stewart to try and determine what’s going on and where the Doctor is. Soon, they get a very cheeky text message on “the Doctor channel.” It’s Missy. She requests Clara’s presence, along with eight snipers, knowing it’s the only way Clara will agree.

Missy and Clara have a very terse conversation in the cafe square where she’s taken up residence. Missy can’t find the Doctor either, but she does have a “confession dial,” containing the Doctor’s last will and testament. It won’t play until he’s dead, so wherever he is, he’s alive. After Missy demonstrates to Clara that she hasn’t turned “good” by disintegrating a few of the snipers, Clara convinces her to release the frozen planes (yeah, that was Missy’s little ploy for attention).

After a rather convoluted sequence in which UNIT works together with Missy and Clara to figure out where the Doctor’s gone, Missy grabs Clara’s arm and activates a vortex manipulator on her wrist. The duo arrive in Essex in the year 1138, atop a sort of medieval arena. Our old friend Bors from ‘The Doctor’s Meditation’ is pacing before a crowd, holding an ax. Enter the Doctor.

(Continued on Next Page)

Next: PAGE 2: Skaro, Davros, and Maximum Extermination

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(Credit: BBC)

In one of the most spectacular entrances of all time, the Twelfth Doctor enters the arena atop a tank, playing an electric guitar, and rocking those new sunglasses we’ve been seeing in promotional materials. Apparently, he misunderstood when Bors said they were going to have an “ax battle.” After a few truly unfunny jokes (the Doctor attributes the lack of laughter to the primitive era, of course), he notices Clara and Missy watching him from on high and riffs into the opening strains of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman.”

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Colony Sarff then shows up, having tracked Clara and Missy. He again delivers Davros’ message and returns the Doctor’s screwdriver, now worn with age. Missy sees a look in the Doctor’s face she’s never seen before: shame.

Now we’re back on the battlefield and we get to see what the Doctor did after learning the boy’s name. He leaves, apparently deciding that helping his old enemy would be a mistake.

The Doctor accepts his fate and allows Colony Sarff to bind his arms, but Missy and Clara refuse to leave him and soon all four are teleported away. Bors, seeing that they’re gone, runs to find the TARDIS and reveals that he is a human/Dalek hybrid! No, not Bors! He contacts the Daleks to tell them the TARDIS has been “procured.”

On Colony Sarff’s spaceship, the Doctor relates to Clara the tale of Davros and his creation of the Daleks before they arrive at a lonely space station in the middle of nowhere. Soon, Colony Sarff arrives to fetch the Doctor, leaving Clara and Missy alone. As he leaves he gives Missy a clue: “gravity.” It seems the gravity on the space station is too authentic to be artificial, meaning they’re actually on a planet.

At last, the Doctor arrives in Davros’ chamber. He confronts the Doctor with reminders of their past encounters (including some fantastic audio/video clips of classic Doctors), and chastises the Doctor for his compassion.

Meanwhile, Missy and Clara have escaped and the Doctor watches with Davros as the two women make their way into what looks like deep space. Soon, Missy realizes that they’re starting to sync with the local environment, and they learn where they really are: Skaro, home planet of the Dalek race.

Missy and Clara are captured and led into a chamber with the TARDIS and a number of different Daleks from all different eras of Doctor Who. The Doctor is furious. The Daleks announce their intention to destroy the TARDIS, and Missy tries to convince them otherwise. With her knowledge as a Time Lady and a working TARDIS, they could conquer the galaxy! The Doctor tries to warn her off, but he can only watch through the view screen. After an order of “Maximum extermination!” from the Dalek Supreme, Missy is exterminated.

Knowing Clara will be next, the Doctor literally begs, on his knees, for Davros to spare her. He tells the Doctor that he may have created the Daleks, but he cannot control them. The Daleks wait for Clara to run, and when she does, they fire. Clara, too, is exterminated.

Davros tells the Doctor that compassion has always been his greatest weakness. He wants to hear the Doctor actually say the words, “Compassion is wrong.” Meanwhile, the Daleks make good on their threat and destroy the TARDIS.

We return to the battlefield and young Davros, scared and alone. Soon, the Doctor returns, but from the opposite direction. “I don’t understand, how did you get here?” asks Davros. “From the future, to save my friend,” the Doctor replies. He then aims a Dalek turret at Davros and yells, “Exterminate!”

How will the Doctor get out of this one? Are Clara and Missy really dead? Did the Daleks really destroy the TARDIS? Will the Doctor really murder young Davros to save Clara? We’ll find out next week in part two, ‘The Witch’s Familiar.’

In the meantime, look out for our official review of ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ on Monday morning. For much more on the upcoming episodes, check out our frequently updated guide: Doctor Who Series 9: Everything There is to Know So Far.

What do you think? Any theories about what might happen next? Sound off in the comments below!

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