Well now, this is more like it, Steven Moffat. Why couldn't you have written an episode this good to open the last series, Capaldi's first as the Doctor, no less? Excuse me but Deep Breath was deeply rubbish (see my review here). The following episode, Into The Dalek, was a vast improvement, challenging the Doctor's ethics and prejudice with a 'good' Dalek. I suppose having that as Capaldi's first ever full episode as the Time Lord would have been a bit much - having him face his oldest enemies in his newest incarnation, straight out of the box, as it were, would be a lot to ask of a new Doctor.
You do Dalek episodes so well, Moff, much better than your predecessor, Russell T Davies, who seemed to think that having the Daleks in the final two episodes of nearly *every season* was a good idea, with their masterplans notching up the apocalypse-ometer with each passing finale. They just wanted to destroy or overtake the Earth/Universe/Reality Itself. Moff, you were wiser to give them a back seat for Matt Smith's first couple of series, then bring them front and centre for the barnstorming Asylum Of The Daleks, with the Dalek Parliament and titular Asylum to boot. You even made a version of future companion into one of the tank-dwelling mutants! Boldness!
Now, with The Magician's Apprentice (I like that there is no mention of Daleks in the title but an indirect hint to their creator, Davros), you've given us another good 'un. I was a little uncertain at first, what with that whole war thing going on and those 'hand mines' (one letter away from land mines, very clever, Moff) a bit too reminiscent of the mitts of the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth (but not Pan's hands, though).
Once the Doctor appeared with his 'acoustic corridor' (nice) and the little boy he wanted to save from the hands (oddly able to make hissing noises, despite having no visible mouths) revealed his name, I was hooked. Steven, you had me at 'Davros'. Capaldi's look of anguish was the perfect lead-in to the titles and it all very nearly made up for the fact that you've still kept that bastard awful rendition of the theme tune (bar a slight change at the start - an improvement, at least). Anyway, I didn't mind it as much after *that* opening scene. Maybe the mines' glaring, searching eyes influenced Davros' design of his future one-eyed creations?
Once the Doctor appeared with his 'acoustic corridor' (nice) and the little boy he wanted to save from the hands (oddly able to make hissing noises, despite having no visible mouths) revealed his name, I was hooked. Steven, you had me at 'Davros'. Capaldi's look of anguish was the perfect lead-in to the titles and it all very nearly made up for the fact that you've still kept that bastard awful rendition of the theme tune (bar a slight change at the start - an improvement, at least). Anyway, I didn't mind it as much after *that* opening scene. Maybe the mines' glaring, searching eyes influenced Davros' design of his future one-eyed creations?
Following this was a pleasing homage to Star Wars' Mos Eisley cantina scene, with Colony Sarff (Jamie Reid-Quarrell), looking facially like the Channard Cenobite from Hellraiser 2 (horror films seem to be an influence, here) as he glides around in his monk-like cloak, inquiring about the location of The Doctor. Sarff veered dangerously close to saying 'Dok-TOR!' as has become a parodied cliche of our hero's past enemies. Apparently, Davros (presumably the same one we saw earlier, it's surely not a common name in the galaxy but there must be more than one across the whole of spacetime? Bit silly to feature two different ones in the same episode, I suppose) - 'creator of the Daleks and Dark Lord of Skaro' (crikey, Moff, someone knows there's a new Star Wars film coming out!) is dying and requests a final audience with the Doctor, whom no one seems to be able to find. Usually, the dastardly Daleks have no trouble here, so things must be bad.
The Doctor has also given his 'Confession Dial...the last will and testament of the Time Lord known as the Doctor' to Missy (Michelle Gomez), AKA The Master, on the eve of his final day. Oh no, we're not going down the death of the Doctor route again, are we, Moff? Since you've been in charge, he's had more 'final days' than hot companions. First, we had him being potentially erased from history in The Big Bang, then he was 'killed' at Lake Silencio in The Impossible Astronaut, followed by him visiting his own grave at Trenzalore in The Name/Time Of The Doctor. Mind you, I would like a Confession Dial myself.
She argues her case to Clara for being the Doctor's oldest and best friend, a defence so far so good, where she lists various misadventures through which she's cared about him, until she says 'since he was a little girl...' That's one angry fanboy fist shake and a cry of 'MOFFAT!' narrowly avoided (just) by Missy's qualifier that 'one of those is a lie. Can you guess which one?' I really want to see the Cloister Wars now, though. Assuming that last one wasn't the lie.
The Doctor has also given his 'Confession Dial...the last will and testament of the Time Lord known as the Doctor' to Missy (Michelle Gomez), AKA The Master, on the eve of his final day. Oh no, we're not going down the death of the Doctor route again, are we, Moff? Since you've been in charge, he's had more 'final days' than hot companions. First, we had him being potentially erased from history in The Big Bang, then he was 'killed' at Lake Silencio in The Impossible Astronaut, followed by him visiting his own grave at Trenzalore in The Name/Time Of The Doctor. Mind you, I would like a Confession Dial myself.
She argues her case to Clara for being the Doctor's oldest and best friend, a defence so far so good, where she lists various misadventures through which she's cared about him, until she says 'since he was a little girl...' That's one angry fanboy fist shake and a cry of 'MOFFAT!' narrowly avoided (just) by Missy's qualifier that 'one of those is a lie. Can you guess which one?' I really want to see the Cloister Wars now, though. Assuming that last one wasn't the lie.
On the upside, the Doctor is not dead yet but 'hiding' in mediaeval England. Which is to say, he's been larking about with the local yokels, building wells to avoid meditating (see the prequel, The Doctor's Meditation), making friends with his 'idiot' friend Bors and engaging in duels using a spoon as we all wished he hadn't in last season's poor Robot Of Sherwood. I'm glad were weren't subjected to that sight again this time around but instead treated to seeing the Doctor enter the episode - following some stuff with companion Clara (Jenna Coleman), Missy and a largely pointless stunt with frozen planes - standing atop a tank (presumably remote controlled or driven by one of the Doc's local mates), playing electric guitar (Capaldi being a former member of punk band, The Bastards From Hell. His rendition of the theme tune here should replace the current one). I couldn't help but smile at this...for about a minute, then it got annoying as the Doctor regaled them with recounts of his exploits among them, including introducing the word 'dude' several centuries too early. Very cool, Doctor, now stop channelling your previous two incarnations, please and get back to being the more clean-talking Malcolm Tucker you were last year.
Thankfully, this pretty much happens once Colony Darth, sorry, Sarrf, slithers in and delivers his message to the Doctor, who already seems to know it, given what he says in the prologue and prequel mini-episodes. He willingly gives himself up to Sarrf, as do Missy and Clara, despite the Doctor's protests.
Back on Skaro, the Doctor finally meets with Davros in the original Dalek City (an improved version of the model one seen in The Daleks their very first story during Hartnell's tenure in 1963), who looks much like we saw him in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End - the two-part finale of Tennant's third season. I remember reading in Davies' book, The Writer's Tale, an early script draft of those episodes featuring Davros' origin story on Skaro and now we're getting Moffat's version, which is arguably better. How the Dark Lord escaped the burning Crucible ship during the finale of Journey's End, is as much of as mystery (a Miss-tery?) as how Missy avoided death by Cyberman at the end of last season's Death In Heaven, or, indeed how she overcomes death by Dalek here. Hard to believe one of the baddest bitches in the universe would allow herself to be exterminated so easily, even if these Daleks are, as their creator says, 'only children' and are, as such, less developed but more impulsive. Could be that what happened on the Crucible resulted in Davros' dying?
Clara's extermination came as more of a shock, despite the knowledge that, glory be, Jenna Coleman will be leaving before the Christmas special (can we have a more straightforward, less smug, more Rose-like companion next time, please, Moff?) I just didn't expect her to go this soon. Obviously, given this series' promotional material, she will appear in subsequent episodes and we know, don't we, Moff, that people have a hard time dying in your version of Doctor Who? It would be a true shock if a companion actually stayed dead. OK, there's Danny Pink but he was so boring, he barely counts and he still showed up in the Christmas special, after having died an episode earlier. Let's hope that's the end of the silly sod. Speaking of which, Rory wouldn't stay dead, Amy Pond resurrected at least once and I don't even want to get started on River Song, who had died in Forest Of The Dead but appeared as a hologram for her last appearance and will show up in this year's X-mas episode. Crap, I got started, didn't I?
Sufficit to say, companions tend not to stay dead for long in Moffat's Whoniverse. In Magician's Apprentice, he's pulled another Moffat mishanter (Google it), where, as with the end of The Pandorica Opens - the penultimate episode of Smith's first season, everything has gone to pot - Clara and Missy are dead, the TARDIS is destroyed and the Doctor is trapped in a room with his deadliest enemy. Only, no, he's back on ancient Skaro, aiming a Dalek gun at Davros' younger self, ready to exterminate the exterminator creator. Well, the Doc did something similar in the Eccelstone episode, Dalek, and was told a few episodes later that he would 'make a good Dalek', so, now, maybe he will. He would be the first Dalek, in a way. Question is, how did he get back to early Skaro without the TARDIS? Perhaps he uses the TARDIS of the First Doctor, possibly in the Dalek City if this is set at the time of their first appearance in the show? If so, where are the Thals - that other indigenous Skaroan race? Whatever, it's bound to be another deus ex Moffina, as with the Pandorica itself in The Big Bang.
I was very impressed by The Magician's Apprentice and hope that it has set the tone for the rest of the series, which has a lot to live up to if so.
Images courtesy of http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0/galleries
