9x01 The Magician's Apprentice

[eve11]

Well my DVR is messed up. It says it recorded 1 hour 5 minutes. However it starts about 20 minutes into the episode ("I know you've been looking for him. I can't find him either"). I was very confused watching it and then found a different source that started from the beginning (but inexplicably ended a little bit before my DVR copy began).

Also my recording wasn't actually an hour. It stopped a minute or so into the Graham Norton show, with like 25 minutes left on the time strip at the bottom and asked if I wanted to keep or delete the recording. IDK what's going on but the short version is that I got to see most of the episode in one form or another.

And aha, it wasn't the Master that the prequels were talking about. Davros again! My goodness, pulling the stops out on episode 1, eh? Actually this has been my favorite Twelfth Doctor episode yet. I loved the party and the "ax battle". I loved Missy a lot (even though she ruthlessly killed people) and Missy and Clara's interactions. I liked the snaky villains... it reminds me of something from somewhere though and I can't remember what. A bug-man. An exterminator made of bugs? It sounds like an X-files episode but it might have been a movie or possibly Buffy? Help me out internets. ETA: Oh I bet it was Buffy; one of the assassins sent to kill her in early s3 or late s2...

Right back to Doctor Who. I liked the way the Doctor and Missy were on the same wavelength with the gravity (loved her petulant "I know!"). It also reminded me a bit of Frontier in Space with the Doctor and the Master locked up together.

I don't exactly know why the Doctor thinks that he's going to die after/during facing Davros. I do think it sucked royally that the "idiot" apprentice guy got turned into a Dalek clone though. Boo.

I like that he's into hugging now. But I must say I object vehemently to the TARDIS being destroyed. And I suppose that Clara and Missy pulled some kind of trick on the Daleks or something because obvs. neither of them really got killed. So as far as a cliffhanger ending, it's more like, "what's the trick there" and not "OMG are they really dead!?"

Also come to think of it I've no idea why it is called "The Magician's Apprentice" either.

So I'm looking forward to next week. Hopefully my DVR won't mess up again.

Comments

[betawho.livejournal.com]

"it reminds me of something from somewhere though and I can't remember what. A bug-man. An exterminator made of bugs?"

The burlap covered, "made of bugs," "Boogeyman" in "Nightmare Before Christmas?" The stop motion animation Tim Burton Halloween/Christmas movie?

[eve11]

Ah, I do believe it was the Buffy episode; he was a makeup salesman though, not an exterminator: http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Norman_Pfister

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I rather loved it...Magician's Apprentice could refer to Clara. Dunno...just know I REALLY need to see next week NAO!! For a variety of reasons, really. But Who most of all, lol!!

*HUGS*

[cyriljackal.livejournal.com]

Well I think "Magician's Apprentice" is a reference to Clara in how she learned from The Doctor, and she somehow becomes an apprentice or learns how to do things in a Missy-like way and she's the "Witches Familiar" since Missy likened her to a pet like a witch would have an animal as their familiar.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I read your post and then had to go watch the episode again (probably the first time in five seasons I've watched an episode twice in a row like that).

I like this episode, too. The Doctor and Missy have definitely got a relationship that goes far beyond either friend or enemy at this point, and it's fun to see that playing out a bit.

My only peeve with the episode is that I feel the writers have fallen into a habit of 'killing' characters and then 'oops, not really.' It was a bit of a gimmick with Rory, but they've been doing it with the Master for decades. Time to come up with a new trick.

For me, I guess the cliffhanger is more, what will the Doctor actually do with little Davros. It would cause a major shift in the Who universe if he actually killed him, so I doubt that actually happens, but does he intentionally decide he can't let himself go down that road, or does something else come along and prevent him from doing it? I liked the way they pulled out that comment from the Fourth Doctor to show the struggle he must go through.

[clocketpatch]

I really liked this episode too. I thought that the title refered to Davros actually: Magician comes to the aid of a young boy, teaches him a lesson, and leaves him his wand.... except the lesson learned wasn't that great. I'm curious to see how tuings turn out next week. Obviously the Doctor isn't going to kill a kid so... is he going to extermnate the hand mines, take Davros as a companion, and try to teach him a different lesson? (And how did he get into the past anyway without a TARDIS? Something is fishy)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

is he going to extermnate the hand mines, take Davros as a companion, and try to teach him a different lesson?

I really hope we don't get this; it would be too much like that Christmas episode with Kazran.

I was wondering about how he got back to the past without his TARDIS too, although perhaps he used a vortex manipulator -- they seem to be lying around for the taking in this episode.

[eve11]

That might work, or maybe the Daleks send him back through a Time Corridor or something. I think that the deaths are an obvious fake. Maybe Missy resuces the Doctor and takes him back to the war.

Davros is trying to get the last laugh on the Doctor, to prove to him that compassion is weakness. So my thought is, maybe the lesson will be that nothing will change the future:

If the Doctor leaves well enough alone, Davros is hardened as a child and still escapes with the screwdriver, taking his 1 in a thousand chance and that shapes his destiny.

If the Doctor does show Davros compassion here as a young boy and saves him, it will not be enough to erase the horrors of war, and someone or something else will step in either to re-mold Davros to the man he becomes, or someone else will fill in.

If the Doctor kills Davros as a child (unlikely), he will somehow still get resurrected or remade.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Missy has been surprisingly superfluous so far in terms of the main plot line, which makes me suspect she's going to turn out to be pivotal to the resolution. I'm even wondering if there's some big plan between Missy and the Doctor, perhaps outlined in that Time Lord "confession" of his.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I think that's the right analysis. Regardless of what the Doctor does, Davros is already too damaged and is going to create the Daleks no matter what.

BBC America is running some Fourth Doctor serials, and I have Genesis of the Daleks on DVR, which I have to watch before Saturday. I can't wait!

[eve11]

ah I see. That is a good interpretation!

I think that something fishy is going on. But I would be willing to bet that Davros has orchestrated the Doctor going back in time. Either the exterminations/destruction was a feint, or somehow things get re-wound?

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

My theory (pardon my cutting in; bad habit ^.^ ) is that the "apprentice" is in reference to Clara, as she's already had to serve as substitute Doctor ('Flatline'), and is doing so again, dealing with Missy practically on her own (and is it just me, or did Kate seem virtually helpless in the UNIT scene? Seemed almost like Clara was the one running the show--which, again, can be interpreted as her being the apprentice, since the Doctor pretty much works for UNIT, when he can be bothered). Perhaps in turn "familiar" will refer to her, because perhaps she and Missy might have to band together to get the Doctor out of this mess.

I'm sure the Doctor believes he's going to die at Davros' hand; Davros really doesn't seem the type to take his own abandonment lying down, as well he shouldn't (holy hell; I just almost sympathized with the bad guy!).

This is making me want to rewatch 'Genesis of the Daleks'.