Doctor Who S09E1 - The Magician's Apprentice (spoilers)

[Iroscato]

The fuck even was that?

[Crazedwraith]

Ha. Not watched. wasn't sure if I wanted to and I forgot when the moment came.

Not good then?

[Iroscato]

I gave it a 2. Might have been a bit premature, as it often is better on a second viewing, but...I'm still trying to figure out what the buzzing fuck was going on.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I gave it a three, but yeah, seems Moffat wasn't kidding with those hints about "we might have a series-finale style opener." Only catch is, we haven't had the whole season to build up to it.

Seriously, there were about five different things going on in the first half hour, all of which could have made for an interesting story in their own right. The sky freezing and UNIT investigates without the Doctor around? Yeah, sounds like it could be interesting. Missy reappearing and trying to get the Doctor's attention? Again, episode by itself. That snake colony guy hunting down the Doctor, passing through the Shadow Proclamation? Could be good for half a story or so.

And what the ever-loving Hell was that "party" in AD 1138 supposed to be? Incidentally, nice SW reference there. I was expecting it to be some future Medieval reenactment or something, not the actual middle ages, featuring the Doctor screwing up the timeline by introducing them to electric guitars, the word "dude," and a fucking tank!.

Moffat, what were you smoking when you wrote this? I want some, if it can make you think that this was a good script then maybe it can make my career prospects more attractive to me.

[Iroscato]

Thing is, the scenes between Davros and the Doctor were superb, really reminiscent of the old confrontations the two would have and very meaty. The hook at the start was really cool as was the overall idea of the plot. But again...Moffat. And co. Need. A. Filter.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Indeed, the Doctor/Davros scenes were excellent.

However the hole thing just reinforces Clara's special snowflake status. She dies, so he is apparently willing to go back and change a truly vast part of his own history.

The really terrible thing? It's a decision he'd already faced in Genesis of the Daleks (from his perspective, twelve hundred years or so ago): "if someone pointed out a child to you, and said he would grow up to destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?" The Fourth Doctor said no. Twelve apparently says yes because it's Clara who's dead. The episode even quotes that dialogue! Jesus Christ kill her off already.

[Iroscato]

Yeah man, the whole thing about UNIT calling her up, then her pretty much taking the lead in figuring the whole thing out...blegh. Clara Oswald must die

[Eternal_Freedom]

Clara Delenda Est?

[Batman]

Okay, that was weird even for the Capaldi era.

[The Romulan Republic]

It started out okay. It had an interesting, compelling, even shocking opening and a spooky (if somewhat derivative) atmosphere.

But it went downhill. For one thing, their was a lot of rehashing of old stuff- Spoiler

the Doctor believing he's going to die, killing the Master/Missy, bringing her (and Davros) back with no real explanation... And it doesn't really fit with what passes for continuity in Doctor Who. I mean, why did we never see this will thing all the other times the Doctor thought he was about to die? And why would going up against Davros yet again make him think he was doomed (unless he was planning to let Davros off him out of guilt)?

Plus their's the whole killing a bunch of characters when you know it won't stick, though it was fairly well-executed considering.

And just having Missy drop a line off-hand about the Doctor having been a girl once? Really Moffat?

Still, that opening... damn. Not that it was completely a surprise. It wasn't hard to guess it was on Skaro if you've seen Genesis of the Daleks.

And that's what this really appears to be, at least in part- a rehash of Genesis of the Daleks. Don't get me wrong, I like Genesis.

I'm just not terribly thrilled to see Moffat's remake of it.

[Eternal_Freedom]

The offhand line about the Doctor being a girl once was one of three things she said, one of which was a lie. But it wouldn't surprise me if Moffat is testing the waters for a female Doctor.

Of course, since we've already apparently seen the Doctor as a child, and he was referred to as "he" it's likely it's just Missy messing with Clara's head.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah. That makes sense.

But it makes me think that with this much foreshadowing/hinting, the decision to make the next Doctor female has already been made, or all but made, and at this point its just laying the ground work. I'd actually be tempted to bet money on it happening.

[SpottedKitty]

The offhand line about the Doctor being a girl once was one of three things she said, one of which was a lie.

But was she lying when she said that?

An interesting, if confusing, opener, although some bits would have made more sense if I'd known there were online prequels (anyone know where to find the second one?).

Not sure if I can disagree with "Clara delenda est", shes's getting to be a bit too much, to the point of skewing the dramatic direction of the storyline. I have read the episode synopses in the Radio Times, and I think the best we can hope for is something better next season. Or maybe the Christmas special?

I'm looking forward to the fun bits of this season, though.

[Parallax]

Notes made as I was watching it.
Spoiler

New doctor who episode.
Nice dilemma with the child to start off the season
Alien bar/casino/den of scum and villainy is using nick cave and the bad seeds as background music 'the weeping song'.
Alien fell asleep on his tennis racquet and is apparently on roller skates - villains aren't creepy when you're half expecting roller disco music to start playing.
Planes have stopped? Must be Qantas.
Clara insults Scottish people to someone called lethbridge-stewart. And said Scottish person doesn't punch her in the face.
One of the main faults with this show of late has often been Clara has been the focus, so far this problem is worse than ever.
They've tweaked missys personality to be more like the original master, which is a great thing. Evil but classy. Not manic idiot.
The doctor riding a tank while playing an electric guitar. Didn't expect that.
Peter Capaldi has apparently stolen Patrick troughtons checkered pants.
Did they ever explain how davros went from severed but alive head in remembrance of the daleks back to wheelchair cripple?
This show seems to be at its best when it appeals back to the classic series. Unlimited rice pudding.
The daleks already have time travel tech, hence the time war, why would they ever need a tardis? Obvious deception is obvious.
Oh, I saw a special weapons dalek.

[mr friendly guy]

Not going to vote on this until I see part 2. However already it smacks of typical Moffat fare.

1. Make the villains even more badass by having the Doctor beg for mercy and scared. Happened with Matt Smith and the Great Intelligence.

This might work if the villains had outsmarted the Doctor initially. However this was not the case. It was a blatant trap and the Doctor should be aware that even if he thinks he can eventually turn the trap its always going to be difficult when you ceded the initiative to the opponent. I mean its not like this hasn't happened before. In classical Who they did it better.

For example in Androids of Tara, the Doctor cased out the meeting place early, had K-9 ready and stopped the fake companion android ploy.

2. Clara wank

3. Starts off interesting then becomes a let down.

[DaveJB]

It's almost like Moffat looked at "Attack of the Cybermen's" level of fanwankery and took it as a challenge. Aside from that it was actually decent overall, but I think it'd have worked better if it focused on Missy or Davros, not both at the same time. Then again, maybe the second half will justify using both. We'll see. Although if it turns out that Missy covertly slipped Clara the same sort of "teleport me to safety while making it look like I've been vaporized" device that she presumably used to escape death at the end of last season, I'll be pissed.

As an aside, while I don't have any particular love for Clara, I can't help but think that some people here are actively looking for excuses to hate on her. The Doctor travelled back to avenge her death? Yes... and Missy's death, and the destruction of the TARDIS. Did we forget those? UNIT consulting Clara as to the weird goings-on? The only other contemporary companions they could have consulted were Martha and Mickey (Rose is off in another dimension, Donna doesn't remember anything about her time with the Doctor, and Amy and Rory are dead). Admittedly it'd have been nice if they were namechecked, but then neither of them have had any contact with the Doctor since the Ten>Eleven regeneration, so any help they could give would be very limited. In fact, that scene with Missy and Clara in the town square actually seemed designed to deflate the notion that Clara is somehow particularly special to the Doctor or as a companion in general.

(As another aside, I could swear that I'd seen that town square before on an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares!)

[Bedlam]

I wonder is they're going to have an explanation for the mix of daleks milling around? The one that caught them was more retro than the others, plus the heavy weapon dalek and a few others. They had the mix in the asylum episode and that made a little sense, it might work if this is all Davros's plan and he's picked up whatever spare daleks he could get his claw on.

I can see the doctor not saving Davros as a child post time war, although I did think he was mostly over that by now. Of course there could be a twist that not saving Davros and letting him survive by himself is an important part of what made him what he is so saving him would actually destroy the Daleks.

Of course it goes without saying that there's no chance that Missy and Clare are dead particularly with no bodies being left behind.

[Steve]

Moffat seems to have this thing where he thinks we want to see the Companions more than we see the Doctor. Yes, the Companions are the viewpoint characters for the audience. But they're not supposed to always be the focus. The fandom didn't love Elisabeth Sladen because Sarah Jane was more important than the Doctor, but because she complemented the Doctor, she helped him and wasn't the Load like other Companions could be.

I gave the episode a 3, since it had good parts, but it's not the major episode it should have been. And I'm starting to think it's time for Moffat to move on before he wears the franchise out to the point it goes off the air again.

[NecronLord]

I cheered when the daleks shot Missy and Clara. It won't stick, but by god they're both annoying.

When did the Dalek Supreme become the audience identification character?

I wonder are the old-fashioned daleks meant to be 'civilians' compared to their military perhaps? Technicans or some such. Or perhaps the city was having a dalek historical reenactment or festival where they all get into old-style casings. Some explanation is necessary I think.

Nice to see the Special Weapons dalek and it seems that the Cult of Skaro has been re-founded, as the black dalek has inherited Dalek Sec's identification code under the eyestalk. I wonder what its name is.

[B5B7]

Just what sort of 'find the Doctor' algorithm is UNIT running? Even Clara said that she knew it was a party but didn't suspect that it would be the one that they arrived at.
The thing with the frozen planes could have been real cool, but turns out it was just some attention seeking by Missy.

[Eternal_Freedom]

The Doctor travelled back to avenge her death? Yes... and Missy's death, and the destruction of the TARDIS. Did we forget those?

No I didn't forget those. However, there is a big difference between being willing to go back into his own past to save them and going back to a point where he can remove the Daleks from existence. This is something he chose not to do when ordered to by the Time Lords, when he knew of the millions of worlds and lives they would destroy...but now it's his friends that died, so suddenly that's a viable option?

Did the Doctor cross his own timeline to save Katerina? Or Adric? Or Lynda? Or any of the other countless people he has known that have died? Nope. But Clara? Absolutely, yeah, let's go kill Davros and cause what should be an apocalyptic paradox.

[The Romulan Republic]

What he's doing definitely crosses a line, regardless of weather he's doing it for Clara or Missy or the TARDIS or anyone else.

However, it could be still salvaged if it turns out he has some other plan and that the whole killing Davros thing is misleading. Not that I have much hope for that.

[Temjin]

Saw the episode yesterday with some friends. All of us were really of the opinion that we can't really tell if that was a good episode or now until we see part 2. It really felt like just half an episode. I wonder if the better suggestion would have been to stick both parts together and do it as a TV movie. As it is, I found the episode to be a bit of let down.

I didn't find Clara to be that annoying in this particular episode. I'm just annoyed that she's even in the episode at all, or this season. She nearly ruined half of the last season and I'm really hoping she doesn't do the same this season.

[Hillary]

I really, really, really don't know what to say about that.

The set up was great - the idea that The Doctor is responsible for Davros I like a lot. The scenes between the two were excellent. I love Missy - fabulous performance and some cracking lines. She's picked up the spirit of the Master excellently. Snake boy was another plus.

I also quite like the fan service of the Sisterhood and Special Weapons Dalek getting some airtime - it was done without hurting the story. The former advanced the storyline and the latter didn't waste any time and was just a nice present for us saddoes.

But, but, but...Clara - when did she suddenly become the Earth's leading expert on ETs to the point that L-S deferred to her? Why the whole guitar and tank nonsense? It goes completely against how the Doctor has always behaved. Introducing future tech to Earth's past has simply been a no-no. Especially weaponry.

Also hate the implication that the Doctor would be willing to alter time in order to bring back a dead companion. Again this runs entirely contrary to what has happened before. I guess I'll have to hold back final judgement on this point until part 2, as Moffat is fairly good at misdirection and we may get a completely unexpected resolution that negates this.

It was still better than most of last season however. Moffat seems to have dialled back the Doctor's character - he is much less of an arsehole than before (notwithstanding the whole guitar shithousery). For that we must be grateful.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'll agree with that last part- this time around, continuity issues notwithstanding, the Doctor probably felt more like the Doctor and less like a dick.

I'm hoping this will a the season where Capaldi's Doctor really has a chance to shine.