Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode One The Magician’s Apprentice

This is the first of my review posts. In these posts I’ll be reviewing recently released books, films and Television shows and discussing them, good points and bad. I’ll try and keep these reviews spoiler free and if I can’t I’ll be sure to place a warning. I won’t be speculating on what I think will happen next if I’m reviewing a TV series or a film that is going to have a sequel and because I don’t like making guesses and I will only be reviewing things that have been recently released so you won’t find any Shakespeare or Dickens here. Now I’ve said all that let’s talk about Doctor Who.

I’ve been a big Doctor Who fan since the relaunch in 2005 but since Russell T Davis stepped down as Showrunner in 2009 I’ve not been enjoying the show as much as I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I like some of Steven Moffatt’s episodes but I don’t always like his writing style and the way he writes the story arc of the series. Although I like Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and Jenna Coleman’s Clara they are my least favourite TARDIS crew due to the way they are sometimes written.

I was pleasantly surprised by the series opener The Magician’s Apprentice. we see the return of several old heroes and villains of the show and the introduction of several new interesting characters. The pre titles sequence was fantastic and set up the series nicely. I have a few nit-picks on several lines of dialogue. A Unit officer says “Pardon my Sci-Fi” and at one point Missy says something about “the dog’s unmentionables” and tickles a Dalek dome seductively. I’m not sure how they got away with the last one when children are watching but it was a great episode all the same.

Normally there is a word, phrase of image that is repeated throughout the series that leads to the final episodes. In series one it was “Bad Wolf” in series five it was an image of “a crack in the wall”. It’s unclear if this series has something similar but we’ve only seen the first episode so it may not be obvious.

Overall I think this episode was awesome and I give The Magician’s Apprentice nine out of ten.