BWW Recap: DOCTOR WHO is Back in 'The Magician's Apprentice'

DOCTOR WHO is back! Season 9 opens with The Doctor, Clara, and Missy facing an old foe! Read on for more of my recap, but beware of spoilers!

A child is seen running away in a battlefield, where there are literal hand mines. A soldier talking to the boy gets taken into the ground by the hand, and now hundreds of hands, WITH EYES, are coming out of the ground. Gross! The boy cries out for help and not long after a sonic screwdriver lands in front of him. In the distance, The Doctor tells the boy to pick it up and the boy tells The Doctor that his name is Davros (yikes).

Meanwhile, over at some space bar, Colony Sarff is asking for The Doctor. At The Shadow Proclamation, the Sarff asks for The Doctor, and asks him what Davros wants with him. He even goes to he Sisterhood of Karn to find him, and there he says that THe Doctor must face Davros one last time. The Doctor, at the Sisterhood, overhears.

Davros tells Sarff that to find The Doctor, you must first find his friends. Uh oh, not looking good for Clara. Over at Coal Hill, Clara notices that planes have stopped flying, and she tells her students to tweet "#PlanesHaveStopped." How 21st century of her. Of course UNIT calls her and she rushes over there. At UNIT, Clara and Kate Stewart try to figure out why this is happening. Clara thinks someone needs their attention. On the "Doctor Channel" they got a message, but not from The Doctor. The message says "Hey Missy you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind." Missy is back!!!

Clara goes to meet with Missy and Missy tells her that even she can't find The Doctor. Missy shows her the 'Confession Dial" aka The Doctor's will that would only be delivered on the last day of his life---and Missy was given it. She tells Clara that The Doctor is in danger, and asks her that if tonight is The Doctor's last night, where in all of time and space would he go. Missy transports her and Clara to where The Doctor is. They find him, playing electric guitar on top of a tank and wearing sunglasses, in the middle of a an "axe" fight with some Vikings in 1148.

Colony Sarff, who is a SNAKE MADE OF SNAKES, finds The Doctor because Clara and Missy led him there. He tells The Doctor that, "Davros knows, Davros remembers" and then throws him his old sonic back (the sonic from the beginning of the episode). Clara realizes The Doctor is ashamed, and asks him what he's done. We come back to the opening scene, and we find out that The Doctor left the young Davros when he heard his name, and now hes ashamed of what he's done.

The Doctor agrees to go with Sarff and Missy and Clara demand to go with him, and so all three of them are taken by Sarff. A Dalek, discussed as a Viking, finds the TARDIS and is told by it's superior to "procure the TARDIS." The Doctor explains to Clara who Davros is, and how he created the Daleks out of war. "Davros made the Daleks, but who made Davros?" The Doctor asks....well I'm assuming it was him.

Clara tells The Doctor she thinks he's been lying, and that he has to make it up to her, so he has to come back. Missy points out that the gravity is messed up on the spaceship Davros lives on, like it's a planet. Davros and The Doctor come face to face, and Davros tells him tonight is the night they decide who is right and who is wrong. Missy and Clara explored and realized that they are not on a spaceship, but on a hidden planet. When the planet becomes visible, they realize they are on Skaro!

Missy and Clara are captured by Daleks. The Daleks kill Missy! The Doctor begs Davros to save Clara, but he can't save her. The Doctor asks why he ever let him live, and Davros tells him it is because of his compassion. The TARDIS is destroyed and we flash back to the opening scene again. This time The Doctor has a piece of the Dalek and plans on killing the young Davros, as he yells, "Exterminate!" the episode flashes "To Be Continued."

Wow, what a season premiere. Unlike the season 8 premiere which had me a little skeptical for the season to come, this episode was incredible. The Doctor faces Davros, his arch-enemy (much to Missy's dismay). This time, however, it seems as if Davros has outsmarted The Doctor...or has he? After the TARDIS is destroyed and Clara and Missy are exterminated, it seems as if it's the end for The Doctor, but just before it's all over, we see The Doctor back with a young Davros, this time, about to kill him. This begs the question, however, will The Doctor kill? Even if the young boy grows up to become the creator of the most henace species in history, at the time he is just an innocent young boy. The Doctor will have to decide between saving his friends or being someone who saves the innocent. I'm very interested to see what he decides next week.

This episode also cemented my love of Missy. She is so sassy and funny, and such a great counter to Clara and The Doctor. When she isn't the villain of the episode (well she kills two people, but technically she isn't the bad guy for the moment) she creates a lot of fun moments in the episode. Her and The Doctor's rapport is great, and like she tells Clara, Missy and he have a friendship that transcends any kind of friendship that earthlings can understand. I hope we get much more of her in Season 9.

I'm sad to have heard that this is Clara's last season as the companion, because she really has become one of my favorite companions. The Clara we saw in Season 7 is nothing like the Clara we have now. She is so strong and smart and independent, and although she loves and enjoys being with The Doctor, she doesn't need him to survive. I also think it's great how much he needs her, she's so smart and able to figure out things in a different, more human way than The Doctor. Though it's sad she's leaving, I'm very interested to see how she leaves The Doctor, and if it's on good or bad terms.

"The Magician's Apprentice" was a great way to start Season 9, and I can't wait for what is to come!

Thoughts from tonight's episode:

-That Confession Dial is definitely coming back this season, and I bet it has a huge thing to do with the finale of this season

-Can The Doctor play an electric guitar on top of a tank more often? Because that was amazing.

-I love how Missy was jealous that The Doctor called Davros his "archenemy"

-Clara's use of hashtags was very modern of her, I loved it

-I loved the callback to the old blue Daleks! So many old Who moments and people in this episode.

-Clara isn't even The Doctor's best friend, ouch, she's just a puppy, according to Missy

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Make sure to catch the conclusion of this two-part episode next week. Leave your comments on tonight's episode below, or tweet me at @kaitmilligan. And be sure to head over here next week as I live recap another episode of DOCTOR WHO!

Photo Credit: Simon Ridgway, © BBC WORLDWIDE LIMITED

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