The Magician's Apprentice (TV story)

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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 and Missy, as well as Davros, who was shown prior to his disfigurement for the first time on television. In the Doctor Who Extra for this episode, Steven Moffat explained that he liked the logic of how the Master always managed to somehow come back again to fight the Doctor, despite most of their past encounters seemingly ended with the Master succumbing to a fatal accident or facing hostile aliens.

The episode shows the first encounter between Davros and the Twelfth Doctor, as well as the first televised encounter between the two of them since their meeting during the Doctor's tenth incarnation. The episode gives no explanation as to how Davros managed to survive after the events of Journey's End, nor when the Doctor discovered he had done so. Though, it's not entirely impossible that the Doctor always suspected that Davros wasn't dead; much like the Master, Davros had always managed to survive what was certain death on numerous occasions.

The episode also placed the Twelfth Doctor in a moral dilemma that he himself had brought up many years ago in his fourth incarnation in the television story Genesis of the Daleks: "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?", with the Doctor coming face to face not only with Davros in the present, but also as a child in the past.

However, it was not the first story to depict Davros as a child. Big Finish Productions' I, Davros chronicled his rise to becoming leader of the Scientific Elite, starting in his early teenage years.

Synopsis

The serpentine Colony Sarff has searched the entire universe for the Doctor, to give him the final message of Davros; however, the Time Lord is nowhere to be found.

This is quite serious, as not even the Doctor's closest frenemy, Missy, is able to find him as well. Adding onto this is the fact she was given his Confession dial, which in human terms is the last will and testament of the Doctor...

Plot

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, because clam 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. The boy, dressed in the same uniform as the soldier, turns fearfully as he is asked if he is lost. The boy nods and the earth below him rumbles; something appears to be tunnelling underneath it. The soldier warns the boy to be still and quiet, and takes out a scanner. 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, before the Handmine pulls him down into the earth, creating a gaping hole that closes behind him.

A young Davros.

Several muddy hands with a single eye on their palms rise from the ground. Alone and panicked, the boy begins to scream for someone to help him. Suddenly, something lands beside him: a sonic screwdriver. The boy picks it up, and sees a man through the mist. The Doctor has arrived to help the child. Using the sonic screwdriver to create an audio corridor, they talk. The Doctor tells the boy that he has one chance in a thousand of surviving, but that he should focus on that one chance: one is all he needs. He asks the boy what war this is, not knowing when or where he is. The boy, confused, replies that "it's just the war." He is similarly confused when the Doctor asks him what planet this is. The Doctor tells him not to mind. In an attempt to reassure and comfort the boy, the Doctor asks him what his name is. The boy replies, "Davros. My name is Davros."

At the Maldovarium, Colony Sarff, an envoy of Davros, is searching for the Doctor. He demands that the patrons tell him his location. He is met with silence, prompting him to ask again; his shadow shows Sarff transforms into a giant serpent to intimidate them. Later, in the Shadow Proclamation, the Shadow Architect refuses to tell Sarff where the Doctor is, insisting that she has no idea. Later still on Karn, Ohila warns Sarff of the dangers hunting the Doctor can bring; the Doctor is where he always is: "One step ahead and right behind you.". Colony Sarff tells Ohila that Davros is dying, but is still anticipating his final meeting with the Doctor. They then leave, giving Ohila a message for the Doctor, unaware that the Time Lord is hiding from behind the rocks.

On present day Earth, Clara is teaching in Coal Hill School; she forces a student to spit out his gum. While teaching about Jane Austen, Clara accidentally rambles about actually meeting her. She looks out the window, noticing something amiss; using a marker, she draws a circle around a plane in the sky, realising that it's frozen in the air. After assigning her class to use their mobiles to search about any information, Clara is told by another teacher about a call for her. Knowing it's UNIT, Clara leaves for the Tower of London. She attempts to contact the Doctor, but receives no answer. Clara phones UNIT, telling them to not send a helicopter, as it will get frozen just like the planes.

"Pardon my Sci-Fi, but this is beyond human technology."

At UNIT HQ, Kate Stewart is tracking the frozen planes; all attempts to contact them have failed, as they are literally frozen in time. Jac notes that this can't have been done by any humans (as with the fall of Torchwood, all alien technology has been stored in the Black Archive.) Clara deduces the planes aren't being weaponized because an invasion involves stealth, not spectacle; "someone needs to point a gun at our heads" and this is the gun. At that moment, the Doctor channel is opened, and lyrics appear on the screen, with one repeating word — Missy. Missy appears on-screen, explaining that the frozen planes were just a way to get their attention. She proposes a meeting with UNIT, asking for eight snipers; two for her brain stem and three for each heart. This way, they can feel safe as the snipers can "shut off" Missy before she can regenerate.

At 16:00, Clara and Missy meet in a cafe, where Missy demonstrates her ability to freeze the planes with a simple Time Lord trick. She also notes that Clara must have tried contacting the Doctor by now; Missy explains that she can't find him either. Clara dismisses it, stating it happens sometimes; the Doctor tends to get into adventures even when a companion isn't around. Missy then reveals that it's worse than she thinks, showing Clara the Doctor's confession dial — containing the Doctor's last will and testament. She explains that a confession dial is given to a dying Time Lord's closest friend on their final day. Clara attempts to touch the dial, but is zapped by it; Missy explains that it was given to her, not Clara.

This confuses Clara, as Missy tries killing him; she retorts they both trying killing each other - "it's basically our texting." Missy explains their friendship is more complex than Clara can comprehend; this is quite true, as until the Master regenerated into Missy, she had no interest in trying to mend her relationship with the Doctor. Wondering if Missy has turned over a new leaf, Clara is answered by the mad Time Lady vaporising members of UNIT. Threatening to have the snipers kill her, Clara demands Missy show she cares about the Doctor. Missy releases the planes from the time stop, revealing nothing else could have been done with them; they were just stuck in time.

Missy explains the Doctor is facing his final day, and therefore has come to Earth; however, when and where is unknown. Using Doctor and Blue Box as key words, several locations pop up on the UNIT computers, including several for Atlantis; however, this is getting them nowhere, as it could be anyone of the Doctor's past lives. Frustrated, Clara asks Missy how a Time Lord would spend his final day. Missy says that it's supposed to be in meditation and contemplation of the absolute. Knowing the Doctor is showboat, Clara tells Kate to track mentions of the Doctor not involving an alien disturbance, and they discover his location: Essex, the Middle Ages. Missy congratulates Clara and slaps a vortex manipulator on her wrist; they then both vanish into the past.

Clara and Missy arrive in a castle, where Missy is whooping madly from the trip. Missy explains that the vortex manipulator she put on Clara is slaved to her own; where Missy goes, so does Clara. Noticing Clara a bit woozy, Missy tells her to lean over the side and "pick a local" to throw up on. It turns out they are in an arena. Wondering how they will find the Doctor, Clara is told to look for anything that stands out - anachronisms. At that moment, they hear an electric guitar playing; the Doctor arrives in a stadium, playing guitar on a tank. His opponent, Bors is annoyed; the Doctor laughs that he wanted an "ax fight". The Doctor begins making bad jokes, to which Clara notes is not like him; Missy retorts "you really are new, aren't you."

To Clara's surprise, the Doctor looks right at them and starts playing Pretty Woman to clue them in; Clara heads down, wondering how the Doctor picked her out of the crowd. The Doctor says he always sees her, and hugs her; Clara notes this isn't like him. The Doctor states he spent the past days wearing items his last lives did,. stating all of him is welcome to his party. Missy arrives next, wondering what he's up to. The Doctor gets the crowd to boo at her, calling her the Wicked Stepmother. When Missy shows him the confession dial, the Doctor says he still has an entire day before he dies, playing a tune on his guitar,

Sarff's true form

However, Bors is next heard choking; the Doctor checks his neck (thinking he tried to eat marbles again), finding a snake, which he tosses off Bors. The snake slithers back to Colony Sarff, who had followed Missy and Clara to find the Doctor. Sarff demands the Doctor come with him to Davros, prompting the Doctor's usual bravdo. To intimidate him, Sraff reveals his true form: a large snake wrapped by several smaller snakes to mimic a human form. The crowd flees, prompting the Doctor to demands Sarff not harm them in exchange for his cooperaetion. Sarff reforms into a humanoid, telling the Doctor that Davros remembers and wants a final meeting. The Doctor, recalling an action about which he feels great shame, agrees to go with Sarff. Missy notes it's she's never seen him ashamed. Sarff binds the Doctor's hands with a snake.

Missy and Clara demand to be taken as well, to which the Doctor is against. Sarff withes as hissing comes from him. The Doctor demands to know what he's doing, to which Sarff explains is voting among themselves; the colony is a democracy. Sarff says that the vote is in agreement. Missy and Clara have their wrists bound as well. The Doctor, Clara and Missy are teleported to Sarff's shuttle. In their absence, Bors — revealed to have been converted into a Dalek puppet by Sarff — procures the TARDIS and informs Dalek High Command.

During the trip to Davros, the Doctor explains that he's his archenemy; Missy takes offense, as she thought she had that honor. The Doctor goes on to explain Davros was a child of war, who tried to save his species by sealing them inside tanks. Thus this created the Daleks, who have since been wiping out lives across time and space without anyone able to truly stop them. They soon arrive at what appears to be a space station hospital; the Doctor muses at how it's where Davros ended up. In the hospital, the Doctor goes with Sarff to see Davros, leaving Clara with Missy. As he leaves, he mentions the gravity. Both the Doctor and Missy have noticed that the gravity is natural. The hospital cannot be a space station. Missy daringly opens the air lock.

The Doctor encounters a dying Davros.

The Doctor meets with Davros, and they talk of how their conflicts have been fuelled by a single disagreement — was Davros right to create the Daleks, or was his lack of compassion wrong? Davros plays several recordings of the Doctor's various speeches to him about morality. He ends on the Doctor's reasoning against destroying the Daleks: it would not be right to kill a child who would cause nothing but evil once grown, given he is still innocent; recalling, in a cruel twist of fate, the Doctor seeing Davros as a child. The Doctor tells him that his point has been made.

Clara and Missy walk out, apparently into outer space. However, they are breathing, and apparently walking on solid ground. Missy realises that, once within the planets atmosphere, one begins to synchronise with it. The illusion vanishes, showing a city in the middle of a wasteland; Missy reacts with horror and disbelief (a rarity for her), while Clara is left confused. At the same time, the Doctor is shown the truth by Davros; they are on Skaro, the Daleks' home world.

Sighted by a Dalek, Clara and Missy are taken to see the Supreme Dalek, who has a large weapon aimed at the TARDIS. Missy attempts to reason with the Daleks - if they don't destroy the TARDIS, she can help them fly it, allowing them to conquer the universe. However, the Supreme Dalek demands Missy's total exterminated, and she vanishes in the blast.

The Doctor pleads with Davros to not let Clara come to harm — but Davros tells him that he does not control the Daleks. Davros observes the Daleks' choice to wait for Clara to run. As she runs, they exterminate her, causing her to vanish. The Supreme Dalek then orders the TARDIS to be destroyed and it is seemingly vaporised by the weapon aimed at it. Davros reasons with the Doctor that this happened because the Doctor showed him compassion as a child, despite knowing his destiny — allowing Davros to create the Daleks, who have now killed his friends.

"Exterminate!"

The child Davros, still pleading with the Doctor not to leave, hears the TARDIS rematerialise behind him, and disbelievingly asks him how he has moved. The Doctor explains he's come from the future, and that he has to save his friend in the only way he can. Brandishing a severed Dalek gunstick, the Doctor glares towards the child, shouting "Exterminate!"

Cast

Uncredited

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Story notes

  • To keep Davros' return a surprise, Julian Bleach was not credited prior to airing. The young Davros, played by Joey Price, is not credited as Davros, but rather as "Boy".
  • The Radio Times programme listing was accompanied by a head-and-shoulders shot of Missy operating her control device, with the accompanying caption "Doctor Who / 7.40 p.m. Missy is one of many searching for the missing Time Lord as the series returns".
  • This was the first series opener in the BBC Wales series to be directed by a woman.
  • On 27th September, the day after the broadcast of TV The Witch's Familiar, the two-part opener was broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD as one single feature-length episode.
  • This is the first story in which both Davros and the Master appear.
  • The episode's credits list the creators of the Kahler, Skullions, Hath, Blowfish, Ood, and Sycorax, all of whom were present when Colony Sarff was searching for the Doctor. This is the Skullions' first appearance on Doctor Who, having previously appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures.
  • This is the first time a Special Weapons Dalek has been shown to apparently talk on-screen, and also features the gold oblong windows encircling its dome lighting up. These traits were subject to debate and speculation ever since the Special Weapons Dalek model first appeared in Remembrance of the Daleks, as the model featured was never shown speaking either in that serial, or in Asylum of the Daleks. A new model was used in the story, completely separate from the prop used in the first two stories.
  • The title sequence was slightly modified starting with this episode; the clock gears, gas and the first Roman numeral clock face tunnel now have a purple hue.
  • This episode begins with a flashback, following on from its beginnings in The Doctor's Meditation.
  • The read-through for the story took place on 9 February[3], and production began on the 12th.[4].
  • The words Missy uses to announce that she is alive are similar to the words Sherlock uses to tell Watson he is alive in BBC's Sherlock.
  • This is the first story in which the Master is shown to be frightened of the same thing as the Doctor.
  • Missy refers to the Cloister Wars, the night the Doctor stole the moon and the president's wife, and also implies he was once a girl. She explains one was a lie, but doesn't specify which. (The last one is believed to be false; as the Doctor did steal the moon, but the President's daughter was with him instead.)
  • Missy refers to the vortex manipulator as "cheap and nasty time travel" as the 11th Doctor once did. The Big Bang (TV story)
  • The congregation of Daleks that Clara and Missy meet on Skaro include:
  • Peter Capaldi actually played the guitar in this story and the rest of the season, having been a musician in real life.
  • Michelle Gomez confirmed on Twitter that her tickling a nearby Dalek's bumps when referring to the TARDIS as "the dog's unmentionables" was improvised[5].
  • This story is the first time Ohila has been featured in a full-length episode of Doctor Who as opposed to mini-episodes.
  • It appears the tank the Doctor rode in on is a Challenger 2 currently used by the British Army.
  • The design of the Dalek city and the sliding doors in it pays homage to the set of the first Dalek story, TV: The Daleks.
  • Roundels have been added to the lower section of the TARDIS control room.

Ratings

Filming locations

  • Fuerteventura, Canary Islands[8]
  • Convento de San Francisco, Garachico, Tenerife, Canary Islands
  • Parque Nacional del Teide, Tenerife, Canary Islands

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • When Colony Sarff is leaving Karn, the glow of a hoverboard, used to make him appear to slither along the ground, can be see under his robes.
  • After Missy opens the door to the cell she and Clara are in, the snake binding Clara's hands disappears without an explanation.

Continuity

Home video releases

DVD releases

The Magician's Apprentice was released on DVD as part of "Doctor Who: Series 9, Part 1" on November 2 in region 2 and November 3 in region 1.

Blu-ray releases

to be added

Digital releases

to be added

Footnotes

  1. ↑ That was my Dalek. That was my Dalek. Retrieved on 9 October 2015.
  2. ↑ https://www.starnow.com.au/christosgauci/photos/8109717
  3. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3JZDF14smXfkQNdlcbsGXM5/the-magician-s-apprentice-the-fact-file
  4. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/DoctorWho/photos/a.182096918471010.52777.127031120644257/1065351840145509/?type=1&permPage=1
  5. ↑ https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/648186904089919489
  6. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34307519
  7. ↑ http://doctorwhowatch.com/2015/09/22/doctor-who-the-magicians-apprentice-smashes-ratings-record-in-the-us/
  8. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3JZDF14smXfkQNdlcbsGXM5/the-magician-s-apprentice-the-fact-file

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