Doctor Who: 10 Big Talking Points From The Magician's Apprentice
Surprise returns, shocking deaths and everything inbetween!
Doctor Who finally returned to our screens with The Magician's Apprentice and it was certainly worth it. From the return of Missy as delightfully evil as ever, the Twelfth Doctor showing his lighter, more mischievous side and numerous Daleks (1960's, the Special Weapons and the Supreme Dalek to name a few), there was plenty to keep the audience on their toes from beginning to end.
“Why not start with a blockbuster?" Steven Moffat recently touted The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar "Why leave it till the last two weeks? So yes, it’s like starting with a finale, and having a big, grand, movie-sized story, as opposed to a 45-minute story.”
And true to form, there were even bigger shocks and surprises in store, proving that the trailers kept more than a few twists hidden from fans eager to uncover every stone in search of what was coming up on their favourite show. The first gasp-worthy moment happened before the credits had even begun to roll and continued all the way up to that dramatic, nail-biting cliffhanger.
Here are ten of the huge moments in The Magician's Apprentice. Turn away now if you haven't seen it. And then go watch it. Because if this opener set the tone from what to expect in series nine, this might be the most thrilling year of Doctor Who yet!
10. The Boy On The Battlefield Is Davros
One of the best kept secrets of the series opener was the return of Davros, creator of the Daleks. A couple of months ago, Peter Capaldi teased an image from the new series that showed the Doctor making a mistake that had cataclysmic repercussions. Well he certainly wasn't exaggerating.
After another Moffat-chilling creation, the hand mines trapped the boy, the Doctor appeared to save him, throwing across his sonic screwdriver and trying to convince him that he would survive. It was a thrilling opening, only topped the first of many shocks the episode had in store; the boy the Doctor had saved was his arch nemesis Davros.
Suddenly this episode had nothing to do with Missy or the Daleks - they were just the icing on the cake. The Magician's Apprentice was a Davros story and it was all the better for it.