Here's what you need to know; the Doctor has made a terrible mistake, and now an old enemy calls for a last time. He and his friends, Clara and Missy answer the call, only to be dragged into a trap that could be the end of them.
This episode is something I was not expecting, for a first episode of a series, it has the feel of a finale. This episode opens with a very good twist, I did say this review would have spoilers, so you've been warned, The Magician's Apprentice opens in a battlefield, and a kid is running through the battlefield, and ends up trapped by creepy hands with eyes on them sticking out of the ground, I think the writers are doing the same as me and preparing for Crimson Peak. The Doctor appears through the fog and offers to save the kid's life, until the kid says his name, I did expect that it would be someone important in the Doctor Who universe, I did not expect him to be Davros, and at that point I was completely engaged. Now onto 2 things that I was less engaged by, the first is U.N.I.T, I don't understand why U.N.I.T has become so important lately, especially since after series 8 ended there wasn't really anyone left in U.N.I.T that I liked, they are only in the episode briefly, but I just don't think they should be as important as they are. The other thing is something I warmed to as the episode went, Missy, on one hand, how is she alive, that's something that the episode doesn't really explain, and why does her head pop out of the screen, whatever it was meant to be, it was stupid. just like with series 8 though, I warmed to her character, even though I'm not entirely sure why Clara is able to stay calm around the woman who turned her boyfriend into a Cyberman. Moving forward, I loved the scene where the Doctor rolls into the battle arena rocking an electric guitar on the roof of a tank, it was just so bizarre I couldn't not laugh, then in slithers the snake guy and I just shrug, it's not that I hate him, I just find him strange, why is he a giant snake covered in other snakes, and he doesn't do anything other than slither and say a few lines, why not just have a guy in robes, it would be less weird. Now here is the shit, at a certain point in this episode I was completely hooked, to be honest I don't want to go any further with the plot because I think spoiling it would be dumb, even in a review filled with spoilers, there are some spoilers that should never be spoken. But there's one thing I don't think I like, in previous series' of Doctor Who, after a Dalek shoots someone, the body doesn't get disintegrated, but here it does, why? Is a dead body too grim for the kids, in a show that used to have a pansexual space con artist played by John Barrowman, it may sound morbid, but it's a little detail that really bugs me, especially given how dark Doctor Who can be.
The Magician's Apprentice really had me surprised, I can't say it's a flawless episode, there are some weird things, like the big head computer screen and the snake guy, and there are some things that just don't make sense, like how Missy is still alive. The Doctor is cool in this episode, the big twist at the beginning was awesome, the reveal at the end was even more awesome, and it ends on a cliff-hanger that actually made me mad that I have to wait 7 days to see the end, meaning either I'm really impatient, or this episode had me gripped, this is a damn good episode that I would highly recommend.
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