[Doctor Who] #901 - The Magician's Apprentice

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Doctor Who has finally returned for another season featuring Peter Capaldi as the twelth incarnation of the Doctor. Many have been wondering which direction the show would go as it was already confirmed that the Impossible Girl was going to leave this season. Now we finally have the first episode of Doctor Who that also will kick off this year’s new season of television with quite a bang. Simply titled “The Magician’s Apprentice” we are given a much closer look at one of the Doctor’s most decisive decisions that will decide the fate of everyone around him.

Just a quick spoiler alert! I will be talking about some spoilerific elements of the episode, so be sure to watch the episode before you continue reading! You have been warned!

The episode starts off with us on a planet that seems to be trapped in a never-ending war with a young boy surrounded by strange hands that are about to drag him into the ground, which are like mines. Suddenly he receives the classic screwdriver of the Doctor, who is trying to help him, but when asking what his name is, he finds out he is Davros, the man who will one day create the Daleks. Shortly after we follow a new alien that is a humanoid creature that consists of a variety of Snakes, who was sent by a dying Davros to find him. On earth, suddenly Missy returns to earth stopping planes from flying and revealing that just maybe the Doctor is losing himself.

It seems that ever since the ending of last season, the Doctor has been travelling through time as per usual, but was forced to face the reality that his goal to help everyone if they are in need might come at a price. I confess that I only came to watch Doctor Who with Matt Smith’s incarnation so that I had to research who exactly Davros is, but once I came to realize the implications his existence has on the Doctor it was an amazing feat to see him actually make the decision he did and for it to come back to haunt him.

As powerful the opening was, the confusing was the follow-up returning to earth with planes suddenly stopping in mid-flight. It was nice seeing Clara Oswald taking on the situation and it seems that while the Doctor was away she didn’t just sit around waiting for him since the Christmas special, but it was a bit odd seeing her still being a teacher and then suddenly jumping over to join this organization to find out what was happening with the planes. Also, as great as it was too see the return of Missy and the fact that she still is evil, even if she know considers herself the Doctor’s closest friend, I was confused why she was back and how the doctor knew about it after receiving a pretty serious send-off in the last season. Though the joke about Clara’s boyfriend being dead was delightfully evil.

My biggest complaint would be the fact that seeing the Doctor in Medieval times on a tank with an electrical guitar was rather strange. Even if he knew he was going to die soon, it just didn’t make sense for the Doctor to suddenly act this way and teaching people the word “dude” ages before its actual inception. It just seemed extremely out of character with him then too suddenly hug Clara, which was something this incarnation of the Doctor despised, and I simply got a bit confused by the end wondering if this was in fact the Doctor, or a fake. With the reveal that the man he was fighting being a Dalek may explain why everything brought into that age didn’t change the timeline, but then it made me question why the snake person had to find the Doctor’s friends to find him, if the Dalek’s already were with him? This part simply was a bit off for me personally.

Finally, while the confrontation between the Doctor and a now dying Davros was quite interesting, especially when they used actual conversations from previous Doctors, something I as a newcomer to the franchise actually find quite interesting, what really got me was the Daleks actually exterminating not only Missy, Clara, but even the Tardis. While knowing from a previous episode that the Tardis was not truly going to be destroyed, but was destined to be the Doctor’s gravestone, it still was quite a surprise to see. I had a gut feeling this would potentially force the Doctor’s hand and it certainly did with the episode ending on quite a cliffhanger. He returned to the young boy Davros, but instead of trying to show him compassion actually is holding a Dalek’s head like a gun and stating “Exterminate!”. What made this so interesting was the fact that the Capaldi Doctor takes a much darker turn and was even described as a “Good Dalek” in the last season, which this action might cement him in history. Could this maybe be a hint at Capaldi becoming the rumored dark side of the Doctor, the Valeyard?

Here is my opinion on the matter! What did you feel about the episode? What was your favorite moment? Leave a comment below!

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