The Magician's Apprentice (TV story)

The Magician's Apprentice
Doctor:	Twelfth Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Featuring:	Kate, Missy
Main enemy:	Davros, Daleks, Colony Sarff
Main setting:	Earth, Skaro
Key crew
Writer:	Steven Moffat
Release details
Story number:	253
Premiere broadcast:	19 September 2015
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x45 minute episode
Production code:	5.1
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	The Doctor's Meditation
Next →	TBA
Production order
Next →	TBA

The Magician's Apprentice was the first episode of the ninth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It saw the return of Kate Stewart, as well as Missy, the latest incarnation of the Master, who had apparently been killed by a Cyber-converted Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart at the end of Death in Heaven.

Synopsis

Where is the Doctor? When the skies of Earth are frozen by a mysterious alien force, Clara needs her friend. But where is the Doctor, and what is he hiding from?

As past deeds come back to haunt him, old enemies will come face-to-face, and for the Doctor and Clara survival seems impossible.

Plot

A young Davros

On a misty battlefield, soldiers flee a bombing run. When the dust settles, one of the soldiers notices a small figure running in the mist. The soldier's companion warns him they need to leave, for Kal drones are going to pass through the area to pick off those whom the bombing run missed.

The soldier says he thinks he saw a child and will catch up; he runs off and discovers a boy, whom he tells to stop. Dressed in the same uniform as the soldier, the boy turns fearfully and is asked if he is lost. The boy nods and the earth below him rumbles; something appears to be tunneling underneath it. The soldier warns the boy to be still and quiet; he takes out a scanner. It turns out the soldier and the boy are standing on a Handmine field; they will be safe as long as they remain still and quiet.

The soldier pulls out some tools and tries to keep the child calm; he asks if the boy has ever seen a Handmine before. The boy nods and points to the man's leg; a muddy hand has clamped onto the soldier's ankle. The soldier looks upon his ankle in fear and then back to the boy; the Handmine pulls the soldier down, creating a gaping hole that closes afterwards.

Alone and panicked by what he has seen, the boy begins to scream for someone to help him. His cries aggravate the Handmines; several muddy hands with a single eye on their palms rise from the ground and search for the source of the noise.

Cast

• The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
• Clara - Jenna Coleman
• Missy - Michelle Gomez
• Davros - Julian Bleach
• Colony Sarff - Jami Reid-Quarrell
• Kate - Jemma Redgrave
• Jac - Jaye Griffiths
• Mike - Harki Bhambra
• Bors - Daniel Hoffmann-Gill
• Boy - Joey Price
• Kanzo - Benjamin Cawley
• Mr Dunlop - Aaron Neil
• Ohila - Clare Higgins
• Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
• Shadow Architect - Kelly Hunter
• Alison - India Ria Amarteifio
• Ryan - Dasharn Anderson
• Newsreader - Stefan Adegbola
• Newsreader - Shin-Fei Chen
• Newsreader - Lucy Newman-Williams
• School Girl - Demi Papaminas
• Dalek - Barnaby Edwards
• Dalek - Nicholas Pegg
• Soldier - Jonathan Ojinnaka

Crew

to be added

References

To be added

Story notes

• To keep Davros's return a surprise, Julian Bleach went uncredited until the episode's release.

Ratings

To be added

Production errors

To be added

Continuity

• From the Doctor's perspective, both WC: Prologue and TV: The Doctor's Meditation take place entirely within the narrative of this episode.
• Davros replays footage to the Doctor of their earlier confrontations featuring his previous incarnations: the Fourth Doctor (TV: Genesis of the Daleks), the Fifth Doctor (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks), the Sixth Doctor (TV: Revelation of the Daleks), the Seventh Doctor (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks), and the Tenth Doctor (TV: The Stolen Earth). Highlighted due to its particular relevance to the situation is the Fourth Doctor's question to his companions:

"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?" (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)

• Clara is still teaching classes about Jane Austen, only this time she seems to have met her. (TV: The Caretaker (TV story))

Home video releases

To be added

Footnotes