Spoiler alert for the “Magician’s Apprentice”
The “Doctor Who” premiere for the ninth series began much as one would expect: with a bang. Featuring Peter Capaldi as the famous time lord, the “Magician’s Apprentice” opens on a young boy in the middle of a war zone. After the soldier who tries to help the boy dies, the Doctor comes to rescue the boy. However, just before he saves the boy, the Doctor learns that he is Davros, the creator of the malicious Daleks.
Capaldi perfectly acted out the shock the Doctor flee at confronting his worst enemy and the writers brilliantly timed the cut to the intro right at the incredibly suspenseful moment where the Doctor seemingly abandons Davros to die.
Fast forward to present day where Clara Oswin Oswald, played by Jenna Louise Coleman, sees that all the planes in the world have stopped moving. After a humorous exchange with her school’s headmaster, she hops on her motorcycle and rides to the Tower of London, the headquarters of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT).
As though the episode didn’t already have enough iconic villains, the Mistress, played by Michelle Gomez, returns with the best “I’m back, deal with it” line in the revived series when she, “Okay, cutting to the chase. Not dead. Back. Big surprise, never mind.”
The end of the suspense filled episode left the Mistress and Clara presumed dead thanks to a trap the dying Davros designed on Skaro as the Doctor confronts his mortal enemy.
After the disappointment series eight created, the “Magician’s Apprentice” offers welcome excitement. Head writer Steven Moffat made the perfect comeback episode and begun to cement love of the twelfth doctor. From the Doctor entering a Medieval duel in a tank while playing an electric guitar to snake creature Colony Sarff’s confrontation with the Sisterhood of Karn and the Shadow Proclamation to the Doctor pointing a Dalek gun at the child Davros and threatening to “Exterminate” him, series nine of “Doctor Who” is starting off strong.
