| 254a – "The Magician's Apprentice" | |||
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| Doctor Who episode | |||
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| Cast | |||
Others
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | Hettie MacDonald | ||
| Written by | Steven Moffat | ||
| Produced by | Peter Bennett | ||
| Executive producers | Steven Moffat Brian Minchin | ||
| Music by | Murray Gold | ||
| Series | Series 9 | ||
| Running time | 1st of 2-part story, 46 minutes | ||
| First broadcast | 19 September 2015 (2015-09-19) | ||
| Chronology | |||
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| List of episodes (2005–present) | |||
"The Magician's Apprentice" is the first episode of theninth series of the Britishscience fiction television seriesDoctor Who.[1] It was first broadcast onBBC One on 19 September 2015.[2] The episode was written byshowrunnerSteven Moffat and directed byHettie MacDonald. It is the first of a two-part story; the second part, "The Witch's Familiar", aired on 26 September.
In the episode, the alientime travellerthe Doctor (Peter Capaldi) disappears and gives a confession dial—his version of a lastwill and testament—to his former childhood friendMissy (Michelle Gomez). Missy and the Doctor'scompanionClara (Jenna Coleman) track down the location of the Doctor before his expected death, and the three are taken prisoner on the planetSkaro where a weak and dyingDavros (Julian Bleach)—an enemy of the Doctor and the creator of theDalek race—seeks the Doctor after recalling an encounter from Davros' childhood.
Filming began in February 2015 inTenerife,Spain.[3] The episode was watched by 6.54 million viewers and received positive reviews.
TheTwelfth Doctor has returned to the planet Karn. There, Ohila of the Sisterhood explains that someone has been seeking him across all time and space. She asks the Doctor if he will go, insisting: "You owe that creature nothing." He says that he will, but that he will first 'hang out' for a bit.[4][5]
Another prologue to the episode, titled "The Doctor's Meditation",[6][7] was released inRussia,Canada, theUnited States andDenmark on 15 and 16 September 2015, alongside a 3D cinematic release of "Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven".[8] On 18 September, this was released onFacebook in theUnited Kingdom, and also made available through other online channels. In this prologue, the Doctor appears in medieval times alongside Bors, who appears to be a loyal friend, and in the 6 minute clip, questions who he must face, asking whether he faces an old friend or a foe. The Doctor replies that he must meditate, but has trouble doing so.[9]
The Doctor, travelling across a war-ravaged landscape, encounters a young boy trapped in a field of "handmines". After throwing the boy his sonic screwdriver so he can communicate with him, the Doctor encourages the boy and tries to save him, until he learns that the boy isDavros, the future creator of theDaleks, and as a result, abandons him.
On present-day Earth, all the planes are frozen in mid-flight.Clara is summoned toUNIT headquarters to help contact the Doctor. While there, they are contacted byMissy, who needed to get UNIT's attention to arrange a meeting with Clara. At a café, Missy asks Clara for help finding the Doctor as Missy had received his "confession dial", theTime Lords' equivalent of a lastwill and testament, and believes the Doctor may think he is dying. Clara helps Missy track down the Doctor toEssex in 1138.
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Clara and Missy find the Doctor has spent the last three weeks partying. Colony Sarff, a composite being made from numerous snakes, and an agent of Davros, tells the Doctor that Davros is dying. Sarff presents the Doctor with the sonic screwdriver the Doctor gave to Davros years before. The Doctor feels shame for having abandoned Davros as a boy, and agrees to be taken away; Missy and Clara persuade Sarff to take them as well. As they leave, Bors is revealed to be a Dalek "puppet" and secures the Doctor'sTARDIS for the Daleks.
Sarff takes them to aspace station, and the Doctor is led alone to Davros, who shames the Doctor for his actions in the past. Meanwhile, Missy is suspicious of the gravity of the station, and shows Clara that the station is just an illusion, as they are on the planetSkaro, the Dalek homeworld. They are captured by the Daleks and taken to a room where the TARDIS has been procured. The Doctor attempts to plead for their lives, but Davros says he has no control over the Daleks, and Missy, Clara, and the TARDIS are seemingly destroyed. Davros derides the Doctor's compassion as his "greatest indulgence" and wants him to confess, finally, that "compassion is wrong".
On the battleground, the Doctor speaks to young Davros in the Doctor's personal future. The Doctor pulls out a Dalek weapon and vows to save his friend the only way he can.
A Kaled soldier is depicted armed with a bow and arrow; this is an allusion to a line spoken byHarry Sullivan inGenesis of the Daleks (1975): "they're going to finish off with bows and arrows".[10]
Colony Sarff visits the Maldovarium, a bar last seen in 2011's "A Good Man Goes to War".[11] The scene features several returning aliens: theSycorax, theHath, theOod and aTivolian.[12] The Shadow Proclamation, an intergalactic police force last appearing in 2008's "The Stolen Earth", also briefly returns, featuring the Shadow Architect (from the same episode) and aJudoon.[11][13]
TheSisterhood of Karn, already seen in the 2013 teaser "The Night of the Doctor", originally appeared in the 1976 serialThe Brain of Morbius.[13][14]
UNIT seeks the Doctor using a computer algorithm, plotting on a map the locations of various crises at which he has been rumoured to have appeared. These correspond with locales for many of the Doctor's past adventures: San Martino (The Masque of Mandragora);[10]New York City (The Chase, "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks", and "The Angels Take Manhattan") and three possible appearances inAtlantis (The Time Monster,The Underwater Menace, andThe Dæmons).[10]
Davros plays excerpts from his prior conversations with the Doctor's earlier incarnations, ranging fromGenesis of the Daleks to "The Stolen Earth".[15] Most notably, he shows footage (fromGenesis of the Daleks) of theFourth Doctor asking the question "if someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?"[11]
Several different designs of the Daleks from across the series' history reappear in the episode, alongside their creator, Davros, and their home planet, Skaro. The first Dalek shown in the episode is a blue-and-silver model as first seen in 1963.[11]
Clara, upon deducing the Doctor's location and intent, says "Do not go gentle into that good night", the first line of the titular poem byDylan Thomas.[10]
When the Doctor spies Clara and Missy, he plays the opening notes toRoy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman".[16]
The Doctor's playingelectric guitar and teaching medieval people the term "dude" echoes the moviesBill & Ted's Excellent Adventure andBill & Ted's Bogus Journey, films featuring two rocker teens who travel back in time – in a telephone call box – and teach historical figures their customs.[16] ActorPeter Capaldi plays the guitar himself and was part of apunk rock band called The Dreamboys in the early 1980s alongsideCraig Ferguson.[17][18]
Shooting on the episode began on 12 February. To provide the necessary Dalek props, some were taken from the nearbyDoctor Who Experience exhibition.[19]Scenes set on Skaro's surface were filmed onTenerife, one of theCanary Islands'.[10]
Kelly Hunter had previously appeared as the Shadow Architect in theseries 4 episode "The Stolen Earth", with Julian Bleach also having appeared as Davros in that episode and its conclusion, "Journey's End".Clare Higgins played Ohila of the Sisterhood of Karn in the mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor", which was part of the50th Anniversary specials in 2013, and again in the season finale "Hell Bent". Jami Reid-Quarrell made a subsequent appearance as "The Veil" in"Heaven Sent", the penultimate episode of Series 9.
The trailer for the episode was released on 5 September 2015.[20]
A cinema screening of "The Magician's Apprentice" was held on 27 August 2015 in Edinburgh as part of The Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.[21] It was also screened along with "The Witch's Familiar" on 10 September 2015 in Cardiff by BAFTA Cymru with a Q&A session following.[22]
The episode was watched by 6.54 million viewers, the lowest consolidated rating for the programme since theMatt Smith episode "The Crimson Horror". There were 1.3 million "download requests" through the BBC's iplayer service.[23] The overnight viewing figures indicated the episode was watched by 4.58 million viewers onBBC1, the lowest overnight figure for a series opener since the show returned in 2005. It gained a 21.2% share of its timeslot and came second for the night, behindThe X Factor.[24] It received anAppreciation Index score of 84.[25] The episode broke records onBBC America with 1.1 million viewers in the 18–49 category. All together, 1.97 million watched on the night in the United States.[26]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score) | 8.7/10[27] |
| Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer) | 83%[27] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The A.V. Club | B[28] |
| Paste Magazine | 8.5[29] |
| SFX Magazine |  [30] |
| TV Fanatic |  [31] |
| IndieWire | A+[32] |
| IGN | 9.4[33] |
| New York Magazine | [34] |
| Daily Telegraph | [35] |
| Radio Times | [36] |
OnRotten Tomatoes, 83% of 18 critics gave the episode a positive review, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "In 'The Magician's Apprentice', Peter Capaldi and the writers settle into an emotionally engaging tone while raising the stakes for the Twelfth Doctor".[27]
Scott Collura ofIGN awarded the episode a 9.4 out of ten, deemed "amazing". He went on to say "The Twelfth Doctor can have lots of fun in this episode, but he can also hit some real dark patches too. And it’s the climatic[sic] reveal/cliffhanger here that will help bring this Doctor towards the latter emotional state". He further praised the episode's writing, stating that the episode "[delivers] a real jolt to the system for both the Doctor and the viewer to start off Season 9".[37]
Patrick Mulkern ofRadio Times rated the episode as 5/5, praising the episode's story and concept. He said "Steven Moffat promised us a season opener that feels like a finale and, boy, does he deliver. In fact he delivers boy. Boy Davros. A brilliant idea – just waiting for someone to have it". However, he also noted that "there’s no real sense of jeopardy . . . in a universe where everything is now 'unzappable'".[11] Nick Setchfield ofSFX also gave the episode five stars, claiming it was "full of wit and menace" and "unafraid to take on the show's museum piece classics".[38] However, Benji Wilson inThe Daily Telegraph gave it 3/5, saying that the "jury is still out" and questioning whether "seemingly catastrophic events" can be very thrilling in theDoctor Who universe which "keeps reminding you you're not supposed to take it seriously".[35]
In 2023,The Daily Telegraph ranked the episode the 33rd best in the show's entire run.[39]
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