Doctor Who Review: The Magician’s Apprentice (Season 9 Episode 1)

The series premiere of Doctor Who, titled “The Magician’s Apprentice,” welcomes us to another year of exploring worlds, saving lives and running with the Time Lord from Gallifrey.

This time around a mystery unfolds around us as to the Doctor’s location, why he would send Missy his confession dial, and the return of an old foe. And let’s not forget about Clara. Vaguely remember her there.

Let’s start untangling this mess!

The Good: Missy & Doctor BFF’s

For as long as the Doctor and Missy (a.k.a. The Master) have been fighting, you would expect them to be bitter enemies who snap at each other.

That isn’t the case in this episode.

Missy is the recipient of the confession dial, the last will and testament of The Doctor. It is given to the oldest and most trusted friend. Missy even slaps Clara’s hands away when she wrongfully believes it’s for her. Her relationship with her frenemy is something beyond love and the contemplation of Clara. They are old friends who keep on trying to kill each other because the other is trying to kill them.

It’s just payback.

When Missy and Clara team up on their hunt for The Doctor and find him, their BFF status is solidified even more! There’s a lot of flirting and bantering, and it’s not even of the sexual nature. It’s a back and forth sort of dance with Missy trying to figure out why the Doctor is throwing this three week party with arenas and gladiators. She knows what it means, and she plays with him as much as he does with her.

It’s oddly endearing and shows these two enemies in a new light. I’m looking forward to more Missy/Doctor bantering for the rest of series nine!

The Bad

Clara is an absolute bore in this episode. She disappears into the background after her classroom opening scene, and never recovers. It’s not like she isn’t important. Clara gets called in by UNIT to help out with the airplanes that had suddenly stopped in the sky. Her expertise is welcome and she falls into a rhythm with the other UNIT members. She has influence and hold, even when escorted to meet Missy.

And yet, she still slips into the background.

It’s impossible to care when she has a hard time contemplating that Missy is The Doctor’s best friend/oldest enemy. There is nothing. It’s also impossible to care that Missy makes light fun of the death of Clara’s love. I continue to hold on to the notion that Clara’s relationship with The Doctor was broken when he regenerated. Their friendship didn’t hold. As a result, my appreciation of her as a companion has faded away.

The Ugly: Child Davros vs Enemy Davros

Doctor Who has always taken a sick pride (I blame you Moffat) on placing certain events, as immovable. Times and places that can’t be changed because they would have irreversible effects. This episode opens and wraps itself tightly around this concept.

A young child that The Doctor is on the brink of rescuing reveals his name to be Davros. He is the creator of the Daleks, the greatest threat the universe has ever experienced, and that for some reason keep on popping up like petulant weeds. They are also the reason why The Doctor’s home world ended up in a pocket of space that it can not escape from at the moment.

Davros’s reveal is big, but we still expected The Doctor to help the child out.

We were absolutely wrong because The Doctor…abandons him. He leaves a young boy that has done nothing, not yet created the destroyers of the world, alone in a field of hand mines. All of us have fiddled with the thought of going back in time to destroy a person in charge of a terrible experience, but we’ve never seen it. We’ve never seen someone actually back away as if to say, ‘You are doomed to do great things. For that I shall not help you.’ The Doctor doesn’t give Davros a chance. He writes him off as something that can’t be saved.

The Doctor not saving Davros could be the event that sets the boy on a path of destruction. Sets Gallifrey and the Doctor on a path of pain.

The episode comes full circle as The Doctor finds out that the presence that is desperately searching for him in the future is a dying Davros. His reveal takes the episode back to the beginning, back to the child being helped, except this time our favorite Time Lord reappears to fix his mistake. He has a Dalek stalk in his hands, ready to kill the creator of the ULTIMATE EVIL THAT HAS RAVAGED THIS UNIVERSE when…the scene ends!

Talk about a cliffhanger!

Other Observations: The episode title is misleading and could have used a name change to correlate with what happens in the episode. Next week’s episode title, “The Witch’s Familiar,” isn’t any better!

Do you think The Doctor should destroy Davros? Will it actually stop the destruction of worlds and deaths of millions? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!

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Doctor Who airs Saturdays at 9/8 c on BBCA.