Doctor Who: The Magician's Apprentice

Title: The Magician's Apprentice
Episode: 9.01
Earth - Present and 1138
Skaro and Karn

Companion: Clara

Guests: Michelle Gomez {9}
Jami Reid-Quarrell {1}
Jemma Redgrave {10}
Julian Bleach  {174}

Writer: Steven Moffat {w86}
Director: Hettie Macdonald{d3}

Rating: ****

A battlefield somewhere as soldiers run from Biplanes with lasers, the Doctor tries to rescue a boy in amongst a bunch of handmines (Landmines that are hands, with eyes). After throwing his sonic-screwdriver to the child, the Doctor ask the boy his name, to which he responds, Davros (creator of the Daleks). The Doctor leaves.

A creature in a hood called Colony Sarff visits a number of places and asks, "Where is the Doctor?" until he visits the Sisterhood of Karn, where they ask him for the message from Davros. Back on Earth, Clara spots a jetliner suspended in the sky and races to U.N.I.T. to discover what is causing it.

#planeshavestoped 

With the assistance Kate Lethbridge-Stewart they discover it's a hello from Missy. She's in a square drinking coffee waiting for Clara to come talk to her. They discuss the fact that the Doctor can't be found and that Missy has received a confession dial, the last will and testament of the Doctor. To be delivered to his best friend on the eve of his death. Clara thinks Missy is delivering it to her, when in fact it was delivered to Missy. They have been best friends since childhood.

Clara tracks the Doctor to the year 1138 in Essex and Missy vortex manipulators them there. Colony Sarff tracks the Doctor, by following his friends. He summons the Doctor to see Davros and throws him the sonic-screwdriver that the Doctor left with the young boy in the battlefield. The Doctor agrees, then Clara and Missy insist on traveling with him.

The Doctor appears before Davros where, Davros plays back old Doctor footage of their squabbles. Meanwhile Missy and Clara discover that the gravity isn't right for a space station, it's to perfect. Turns out they're on the planet where it all started, the home of the Daleks, Skaro.

Opening: 9

Setting: 8

Conflict: 9

Plot: 7

Dialogue: 7

Aliens: 10

Costumes: 9

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Doctor: Your chances of survival are 1 in a thousand, so here's what you do. You forget the thousand and you concentrate on the one.

Colony Sarff: Tell the Doctor, Davros knows, Davros remembers. Tell him he must face Davros one last time.

Missy: See that couple over there? You're the puppy.

Doctor: I've also introduced the word 'dude', several centuries early.

Missy: Wait a sec, Davros is your arch-enemy now? I'll scratch his eye out.


Next time on Doctor Who: The Witch's Familiar