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Five Thoughts on Doctor Who’s “The Magician’s Apprentice” [Review]

By | September 20th, 2015
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

And so another year comes, and with it, another season of adventures of the mad man from Gallifrey, his blue box and his companion. So, get your scarves, sonic screwdrivers and “Steven Moffat Bingo Cards” out and let’s go.

Warning: Some spoilers.

5. Wait Who?!

The episode begins with a cold opening of a war in some time and place, an anachronistic war with a variety of technology being utilized. And one innocent boy stuck in the middle of it, in need of some aid. Enter our hero.

Capaldi enters this season in a strong and simple way: saving a child. Sometimes, the stories in Who can get a bit too big and it’s sometimes hard to forget that the Doctor won’t hesitate, no matter how small. Saving one person is just as important as the multiverse.

And then we learn the child’s name: “Davros”, the future creator of the Daleks.

Well, that certainly a way to get an audience’s attention.

This episode also saw the return of Julian Bleach as the old, dying Davros from the two-part story “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” and, if I’m honest, he is my favorite Davros. I know that may be blasphemy to some people, but the man’s voice, able to switch between mad scientist mania and serial killer intimidation on a dime sells his performance to me.

4. Hey Missy

I really do love Michelle Gomez as the Master.

Say what you want about Moffat’s writing over the years (and trust me, I will), the man can get an occasional laugh out of me and that is mostly due to Gomez’s performance. Combining elements of Simm, Ainley and a splash of Delgado, she is just so positively, deliciously evil. The kind of over-the-top that you love to hate.

And I will say, she does have quite the great knack for playing most people like chumps, although her last scene in this episode did leave something to be desired.

3. AXE FIGHT

Okay, Twelve had a second introduction in this and well, okay…

Picture the Scene:

The Twelfth Doctor enters the scene riding on a tank while playing an electric guitar. In Essex. In the twelfth century.

This scene is absolutely insane. This is something I was going to expect in “Ivar, Timewalker” which I have been considering better Doctor Who fare than Doctor Who over the last half a year. It is nice to know that, despite the less-than-par last season, there is still some anachronistic insanity in this show yet.

2. Genesis and Apocalypse

“Genesis of the Daleks”, the Fourth Doctor episode that gave us the origin of the Daleks and introduced Davros, is often considered the greatest Doctor Who story of all time. While it’s arguable, it is no doubt an important episode. And this episode could be considered the spiritual sequel to that one. Whereas “Genesis” dealt with beginnings, this deals with a Davros at the end of his life. It also brings a quote from that episode back to the forefront and puts an incredibly dark twist to it:

”If someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you, and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?”

“Genesis” wasn’t the only story to be called back too. There was quite the cavalcade of nods, including the return of the Shadow Proclamation from the aforementioned “Stolen Earth”, the Sisters of Karn and of course U.N.I.T. were in full swing as well for a tense scene between Missy and Clara.

1. Moffat Be Moffating

Okay, let’s talk about the ending. Moffat can set some high stakes in his multi-parter episodes. No denying that. And sometimes he is quite capable of following up in the second part. And I will say, that this episode was a very good one for the most part.

Having said that, I am fearing this two-part episode is going to go the same way that the two-part finale of Series 8 went, which had a fantastic first part and an incredibly terrible conclusion. I know I know, I should really hold off judgment until next week, but I feel like it is nearly a similar set up but just with different villains.

Continued below

Not to mention Moffat recycling some of his old plots. Most specifically the “last days” of the Doctor. We had a whole Myth Arc surrounding the so called death of the Doctor that lasted for nearly two seasons. And, to be quite blunt, it really wasn’t that believable back then because one thing that “Doctor Who” has in common with Big 2 Superhero comics is that it seems they will never ever end so there does come that hairline fracture into the Suspension of Disbelief whenever they try to go this angle.

Also: Why was this called “The Magician’s Apprentice”? Seriously. I’ll probably have to rewatch the episode, but I do not understand why it was called that.

Still, all in all, this was a very strong opening to the season. Peter Capaldi finally got to express a great deal of energy that it seemed last season was hampering and made it a lot more fun. Now here’s hoping the rest of the seasons can retain that quality.

One down. Eleven to go.


Ken Godberson III

When he's not at his day job, Ken Godberson III is a guy that will not apologize for being born Post-Crisis. More of his word stuffs can be found on Twitter or Tumblr. Warning: He'll talk your ear off about why Impulse is the greatest superhero ever.

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