Review of The Magician’s Apprentice
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I think most fans can agree by now that, like him or not, Moffat has a pretty distinctive style. When you go into a Moffat episode, you have certain expectations. No one should be surprised, then, to discover that in the Series Nine opener, he’s up to his same old tricks.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2015 BBC

The first, and perhaps most notable, of these tricks is giving us an (at least mostly) enjoyable Part One in a two-part story. Moffat excels at set-up, giving rich scenes and hints at things to come that get our fannish hearts pumping with that lifeblood of our breed, speculation. Time will tell how it all pans out, but experience suggests that the conclusion of the tale is unlikely to live up to the promise of its beginnings.

One thing we know Moffat can do well, though, is creating creepy “monsters” (at least the first time he uses them). The opening scene on the unknown battlefield provides that in spades with the “hand mines,” even though I’m still trying to decide whether I think they’re more or less frightening after finally seeing one tripped. The mix of this advanced weaponry with more archaic kinds (biplanes, bow and arrow) gives us—in retrospect—visual clues to go with the spoken ones about which war it is (especially for those viewers familiar with Tom Baker’s run). Yet, it’s still a bombshell when the boy’s identity is revealed and the opening credits roll.

When we return to the story, we follow Colony Sarff (a creature that I found blasé, but was no doubt hide-behind-the-couch-worthy for those with even a touch of ophidophobia) into the Maldovarium (a hangout that evoked the cantina from Star Wars with its eclectic clientele), the Shadow Proclamation, and the planet Karn.

Given the previous roles of both the Shadow Proclamation and Karn in recent plot arcs (Series Four and the lead-up to the Anniversary Special, respectively), I’m fully expecting one or all of them to become important by the end of the series (though not until the finale). After all, it’s one of Moffat’s hallmarks to seed clues that only become apparent when a series is viewed in the aggregate. Regardless, we learn that Davros is now searching, so far fruitlessly, for the Doctor. But when Colony Sarff reports its failure, Davros is unconcerned; he knows he can get to the Doctor through the Doctor’s friends.

That’s when we cut to Clara’s classroom and the crisis that brings her back together with Kate Stewart and UNIT. (How awesome, by the way, is it to see Kate without reference to the Brigadier and a woman of color as the next highest ranking UNIT member on site? Whoever’s responsible for that piece of casting, thank you!) Having switched here right from Davros, I was expecting this ploy to be something he had perpetrated. I was thus surprised to learn that Missy was behind it, despite knowing from pre-series hype that I couldn’t avoid that she was going to be in this episode (caught up in the story, I had forgotten).

(As an aside, it’s painfully obvious here that Moffat really doesn’t understand Twitter (as if we didn’t already know that). Not only is Clara unlikely to have instinctively guessed the exact hashtag Twitter had latched onto, but the one she spouts uses way too many characters. #ThePlanesHaveStopped? Really? Who uses a twenty-character hashtag unironically?)

Moffat’s scripts rarely give us time to stop and contemplate a situation, though, and this one is no exception. We get caught up in the drama of Missy’s return (explained as clearly as the Master’s escape from obvious, certain death ever is: “Okay, cutting to the chase: not dead. Back. Big surprise. Never mind.”) and her explanation of her relationship with the Doctor.

This extended scene with Missy and Clara feels, as so many of Moffat’s more recent scripts do (both in Doctor Who and in Sherlock), like the writer trying to answer his critics from within the story. Having given a certain section of fandom what they’ve been wanting for ages by making the Doctor and the Master snog at the end of last season, he’s now trying to backpedal and appease those who think that relationship ought to be purely platonic.

“Don’t be disgusting,” Missy chides Clara for suggesting Missy loves the Doctor. “We’re Time Lords, not animals.” Instead, it is “…a friendship older than your civilization, and infinitely more complex.” Yet minutes later, she’s telling the Doctor she knows he’s walking into a trap because “traps are my flirting.” Which is it? As usual, Moffat tries to have it both ways and thereby undermines the power of both perspectives.

Meanwhile, the Doctor seems to be making quite a ruckus for someone who’s trying to hide from either an enemy or a friend. I would be very surprised if it turns out it wasn’t his intention all along to get himself dragged in front of Davros, whatever his motivations may be, and I think the events of the Prologue back me up.

Maybe he’s just buying himself a little time to prepare, but he has to know that when she gets the Confession Dial, Missy will come looking—and if Missy can’t find him herself, she’ll get Clara to do it for her. He is expecting them. I don’t have a working hypothesis yet on what he’s up to, why he wants to let Davros win (or at least think he has), but I don’t think any of the Doctor’s behavior is the least bit sloppy or accidental. He means to be found.

And the way he hurls anachronisms into the spacetime continuum is glorious, riling up the rabble with his nonsensical-to-them puns. (Again, kudos for the casting director for putting actual people of color in the crowd.) If I didn’t love Capaldi’s Doctor before, that “Axe Fight” (and his Troughton trousers!) would’ve sealed the deal. From time to time we’ve seen the Doctor’s musical side—playing the recorder or the spoons—but I think watching him lay down a few choice power chords is my favorite iteration yet.

So why is he so dead set (pardon the potential pun) on coming face to face with Davros after having left him in the lurch as a child? I’m not sure, but there are plenty of other questions left unanswered, as well. The Doctor’s medieval arena opponent turns out to be a Dalek puppet, which means the Daleks have known for some time that he’s there (while Davros supposedly can’t find him). Are the Daleks working with Davros or against him?

More to the point, though, is whether or not the Doctor knew Missy would be working with either party. Remember how when the planes stopped, it was placed into the narrative in such a way as to suggest Davros was responsible? I submit that he actually was; Missy and Davros (and the Daleks?) have been working together from the get-go. Upon re-watch, that still fits with her actions: Missy is doing her part to get Clara to find the Doctor so that Colony Sarff can follow Missy to him.

Why am I so convinced? Because I didn’t believe for a nanosecond that either Missy or Clara actually got exterminated, nor the TARDIS destroyed. Perhaps that started when the script began to turn into The Curse of Fatal Death (what with Missy trying to strike a deal with the Daleks and fondling their Dalek bumps etheric beam locators), or maybe it was a combination of other factors. We’ve seen similar tricks before:

Planet of Fire: the Master gets “vaporized”
A Death in Heaven: Missy gets “vaporized”
Bad Wolf: Rose gets “vaporized”
Frontios: the TARDIS gets “destroyed”
The Stolen Earth: the TARDIS gets “destroyed”
The Impossible Astronaut: series arc opens with the Doctor dying

And yet TARDIS, Master/Missy, Doctor, and Companion all returned from these supposed ends. I’m sure the timing of the announcement of [spoiler] Jenna’s departure from the show was meant to lend credence to the idea that Clara really did die here, but surely no one but the least experienced young viewers are falling for it.

At any rate, aside from that unbelievable portion near the end of the episode, there were any number of fun, atmospheric, intriguing twists and exchanges, ending with the Doctor (apparently) ready to make up for lost time. His former self asked, “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?” Will this Doctor really answer “yes”? (I doubt it.) Will Moffat continue the same old tricks and disappoint in the second half? (Probably.) Only The Witch’s Familiar knows.