Doctor Who: The Twists and Shocks of Series 9

Series 9 was memorable for being full of twists and shocking moments. But what were the best ones?

For me, series 9 had been one of my favourite series of Doctor Who in a long while. There were a few reasons for this, including the return of two-part stories, a greater emphasis on the Doctor than on Clara (to the point where she hardly shows up for an episode), and Peter Capaldi giving some of his best performances yet. But there was one other thing I liked about it: there were a lot more twists and turns this series, right from the opening minutes.

A twist by itself doesn’t necessarily make a story great, of course. It may help to make it more memorable, but that doesn’t necessarily make it great. ‘Sleep No More’ had a couple of twists (one of which I did admittedly find very neat when it came to finding out that there were no cameras.) But, despite the interesting approach, that didn’t stop it from being one of the weaker episodes of the series for me.

If a plot twist is done right, however, it can really help to give a fresh look to an already compelling story, not to mention the fact that it’s a great way to get audiences talking in the weeks between episodes. Series 8 didn’t have too many of these, although it certainly had two very memorable ones: “He’ll never make a Time Lord” in ‘Listen,’ and the revelation about Missy’s identity in ‘Dark Water’ are definitely big examples. And to be honest, with the exception of that cliffhanger in ‘The Name of the Doctor,’ series 7 didn’t have any memorable ones, either.

For me, this is a key reason why I was glad that the two-parters had been finally brought back, as it provided the perfect opportunity for plenty of cliffhangers, which are such a huge part of Doctor Who. The sight of the Doctor pointing a gun at a child, even a monster like Davros in ‘The Magician’s Apprentice;’ the slow revelation of the Doctor’s “ghost” at the end of ‘Under the Lake;’ the twist of Zygon Clara in ‘The Zygon Invasion;’ Clara’s death in ‘Face the Raven…’ Every single one of these hugely benefited from having an episode of build-up, and in most cases, it really helped that the story hadn’t been rushed in just forty-five minutes.

For many, perhaps the best shock was seeing Gallifrey’s return at the end of ‘Heaven Sent.’ It was certainly an amazing ending to an amazing episode, and despite the fact that the BBC actually ruined the surprise to the story in their own synopsis, it was still an outstanding moment.

But my personal favourite shock? Oddly enough, it wasn’t a cliffhanger. It barely required even five minutes of build-up, and yet it was still done beautifully.

“Davros. My name is Davros.”

This is my personal favourite shocking moment of series 9 for several reasons. First, the dialogue exchange between the Doctor and the boy was handled so brilliantly. It’s the Doctor giving one of his impressive speeches to an innocent child, before becoming completely subverted as soon as the boy gives the Doctor his name.

Secondly, it’s the look on Capaldi’s face afterwards. Just one single look of the Doctor shaken to his core. The entire moment is enough to tell you two things: first, that series 9 wasn’t going to play it safe and that we had a lot of surprises in store, and second, we’d be getting a lot more from Capaldi in terms of performance. I liked series 8 overall, and I enjoyed Capaldi’s Doctor, but I can’t think of a single moment from him in that series that I loved as much as the very opening for ‘The Magician’s Apprentice.’

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The funny thing is that even for someone who was half-expecting it, I was still shocked when I heard the boy’s name. I say half, because while I had certainly heard the rumours of Davros as a young boy showing up in the opening episode – which was enough for me to review the entire audio mini-series of ‘I, Davros’ that explored a similar idea – I still couldn’t quite believe that the return of such a major character, especially after 7 years since his previous appearance, could be sneaked into not one but two episodes with no official publicity. Despite the BBC messing up with the ‘Heaven Sent’ synopsis, massive kudos to them and to the production team for keeping as much of a lid on Davros’s return as they did.

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What was your favourite shock or twist from series 9? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.