The Magician's Apprentice (TV story)

 was the first episode of the ninth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It saw the return of Kate Stewart and, as well as Davros, who is shown prior to his disfigurement for the first time on television.

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
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 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. 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. Suddenly, a small device is thrown to the boy. It is the 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 he should focus on that one chance. One is all he needs. He asks the boy what war this is, as he isn't sure when or where he is. The boy is confused and says that "It's just the war." He is similarly confused when the Doctor asks him what planet this is. The Doctor tells him to never mind. To reassure and comfort the boy, the Doctor asks him what his name is: "Tell me the name of the boy who isn't going to die today." The boy replies with: "Davros. My name is Davros."

At the Maldovarium, Colony Sarff, an envoy of Davros, is searching the universe for the Doctor. He isn't there, where a great many species that have met him are patrons. In the Shadow Proclamation, the Shadow Architect refuses to tell Sarff where the Doctor is, insisting that she has no idea. On Karn, Ohila warns Sarff of the dangers hunting the Doctor can bring. Colony Sarff tells Ohila that Davros is dying, but is still anticipating his final meeting with the Doctor. He then leaves, 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 looks out the window, noticing something amiss; using a marker, she draws a circle around a plane in the sky, realizing that it's frozen in the air. After assigning her class to use their mobiles to search about any information, Clara is told about a call for her by another teacher. Knowing it's UNIT, Clara leaves for the Tower of London, while attempting to contact the Doctor, but receives no answer.

At UNIT HQ, Kate Stewart's tracking the frozen planes. Clara deduces that the planes aren't being weaponized because an invasion doesn't forewarn itself. At that moment, the Doctor's communication channel turns on, and a lyrics appear on the screen, with one repeating word - Missy. appears on-screen, explaining that the frozen planes were just a way to get their attention. She proposes a meeting with UNIT.

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 and shows Clara the Doctor's confession dial - containing the Doctor's last will and testament. A confession dial's given to a dying Time Lord's closest friend on their final day. The Doctor's confession dial has been given to Missy, but will only open once he's dead. The Doctor's living his final day, Missy tells Clara, and has therefore come to Earth. Clara tells Kate to track mentions of the Doctor that don't also mention an alien disturbance - Essex, the Middle Ages. Using a vortex manipulator, Missy and Clara vanish into the past.

Clara and Missy arrive in a castle where the Doctor's performing a music gig for a primitive crowd atop a tank. They think he's a magician, and his apprentice is Bors. The Doctor defends his actions to Missy and Clara, saying that his last party is going how he wants, which includes being able to mess with time. Sarff arrives and demands for the Doctor to speak with Davros. The Doctor thinks back to his encounter with the child Davros, and agrees to go with Sarff. Missy and Clara demand to be taken as well; after voting, Sarff agrees to take them with, binding all three's hands with snakes. The Doctor, Clara and Missy are teleported to Sarff's shuttle. In their absence, Bors - now a Dalek puppet - procures the TARDIS and informs Dalek High Command.

Travelling to Davros' location - an apparent space station hospital - the Doctor tells Clara who Davros is - the creator of the Daleks; a war child who sealed his species inside tanks to preserve them. In the hospital, the Doctor goes with Sarff to see Davros, leaving Clara with Missy. Both the Doctor and Missy can feel the gravity - it's natural. The hospital isn't a space station. Missy opens the air lock.The Doctor meets with Davros, and they talk of how their conflict's been fueled by a conversation - is Davros right to create the Daleks, or does he lack compassion? At that moment, Davros plays several clips of the Doctor's various speeches to him about morality. To highlight the point of this, Davros plays the Doctor's reasoning against destroying the Daleks; additionally, the Doctor wondered if it would be right to kill a child who would cause nothing but evil once grown. Remembering seeing Davros as a child, the Doctor tells him that his point has been made.

Clara and Missy walk out apparently into apparent outer space, until Missy realizes that, once on the planet, one begins to synchronize with it. The illusion vanishes, showing a city in the middle of a wasteland; Missy is in horror and disbelief, while Clara is left confused. At the same time, the Doctor is shown the truth as well by Davros; they're on Skaro, the Dalek home world.

Sighted by the Daleks, Clara and Missy are taken to see the Supreme Dalek, who's with the TARDIS and a large weapon aimed at it. 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, Missy is exterminated, vanishing; the Daleks appear to have upgraded their weaponry since the war on Trenzalore.

The Doctor pleads with Davros to not let Clara come to harm - but Davros doesn't control the Daleks. Davros observes the Daleks' preference for waiting for Clara to run. Then, they exterminate her. 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, that have killed Clara and Missy.

Back on the battlefield, the Doctor returns to the child Davros, confusing the boy on how he ended up behind him. The Doctor explains he's come from the future, and that he has to save the friends that have died thanks to Davros' future actions. Brandishing a severed Dalek gunstick, the Doctor glares at the child, shouting in anger "Exterminate!"

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * - Michelle Gomez
 * Colony Sarff - Jami Reid-Quarrell
 * Davros - Julian Bleach
 * 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 - Lucy Newman-Williams
 * Newsreader - Shin-Fei Chen
 * Daleks - Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg
 * Soldier - Jonathan Ojinnaka

Uncredited

 * School Girl - Demi Papaminas

Story notes

 * To keep Davros' return a surprise, Julian Bleach was uncredited in Radio Times.
 * 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".
 * In Welsh, "Sarff" means "serpent".
 * This was the first series opener in the BBC Wales series to be directed by a woman.
 * 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 talk on-screen, and also reveals that the gold square windows encircling its dome actually light up. This trait was subject to debate and speculation ever since the Special Weapons Dalek model first appeared in Remembrance of the Daleks, because that particular Dalek was never shown speaking, nor was the one seen in Asylum of the Daleks.
 * 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 immediately after its prompting in The Doctor's Meditation.
 * The read-through took place on 9th February, and production began on the 12th.
 * The congregation of Daleks that Clara and Missy meet on Skaro include:
 * The original silver and blue model used from TV: The Daleks to TV: The Space Museum.
 * This story marks this model's first colour appearance in the series proper.
 * The Emperor Dalek's personal guard from TV: The Evil of the Daleks.
 * This story marks this model's first colour appearance in the series proper.
 * The grey and black model used from TV: Day of the Daleks to TV: Remembrance of the Daleks.
 * The Special Weapons Dalek from TV: Remembrance of the Daleks.
 * This story reveals that the cage-like structure at the top of the SW Dalek functions identically to a standard Dalek's dome lights, illuminating with each spoken syllable.
 * A black Dalek resembling Dalek Sec, who maintained a presence in the series from TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday to TV: Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks.
 * The Supreme Dalek model from TV: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End.
 * This model's appearance as a commanding authority for the Daleks seems to designate it as the Supreme Dalek for the New Paradigm.
 * The incumbent bronze model that has been in use since TV: Dalek.
 * Missy introduces herself with "Today I shall be talking to you through the square window", a phrase from Play School, in-which the presenters would appear through a square, circular or arched window.

Ratings
Overnight: 4.6 million

Filming locations
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Convento de San Francisco, Garachico, Canary Islands

Parque Nacional del Teide, Canary Islands

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * The Doctor is hidden while Colony Sarff looks for him on Karn. He later has a conversation with Ohila about the message they are given. (WC: Prologue) He goes from there to meditate in 1138 (TV: The Doctor's Meditation), where Clara and Missy find him.
 * Clara mentions that it has been "ages" since they last saw . (TV: Death in Heaven)
 * The Doctor previously mentioned he is running from an old familiarity. (WC: Prologue, TV: The Doctor's Meditation) It turns out to be Davros.
 * The Doctor previously gave Ohila a confession dial, telling her she knows who to give it to. (WC: Prologue) This turns out to be Missy.
 * Clara says the Doctor will "go Scottish" if UNIT doesn't have a reason for calling him. (TV: Deep Breath)
 * Missy reintroduces herself to UNIT on their computer screens with her song "Hey Missy". (TV: Death in Heaven)
 * Missy throws her return, not being dead, away as no big deal, and Clara also asks how she can be alive, having been shot by a Cyberman. Clara also points out that she and the Doctor saw Missy die on Earth (TV: Death in Heaven). This is also not the first time in which the Master has escaped from certain death without giving an explanation as to how he survived. (TV: Castrovalva, Planet of Fire, Survival).
 * Clara considers herself the Doctor's best friend. (TV: Death in Heaven)
 * Missy has a new version of her device. She kills several people with it. (TV: Dark Water / Death in Heaven)
 * Missy tells Clara to "say something nice", or else she kills everyone else. (TV: Dark Water / Death in Heaven)
 * Missy says a Time Lord is supposed to die after meditation, in which it shows acceptance of it. (WC: Prologue, TV: The Doctor's Meditation)
 * Clara says Missy constantly tries to kill the Doctor and she says he keeps trying to kill her. (TV: Terror of the Autons et al.)
 * Missy is wearing a Vortex manipulator and uses it to travel in time (TV: The Empty Child et al.)
 * The Doctor reminds Clara he and Missy have known each other a long time. (TV: Terror of the Autons, Utopia, et al.; PROSE: The Eight Doctors, The Dark Path)
 * Missy describes vortex manipulator time travel as "cheap and nasty". (TV: The Big Bang, COMIC: Space in Dimension Relative and Time)
 * Missy asks Clara if Danny Pink is still dead. (TV: Dark Water/Death in Heaven)
 * Clara mentions that the Doctor is not the person to party. (TV: Deep Breath etc.)
 * Clara is surprised by the Doctor's hug, knowing he doesn't like it, he tells her it's a way to hide one's face. (TV: Deep Breath, Listen, Death in Heaven)
 * The Doctor mentions that he helped Bors and his men to dig a well. (TV: The Doctor's Meditation)
 * Bors calls the Doctor a magician. (TV: Time Heist, Last Christmas, The Doctor's Meditation)
 * When the Doctor says he's been there all day, Bors says he's been there for three weeks. (TV: The Doctor's Meditation)
 * The Doctor says he spent a whole day in a bowtie. His previous incarnation wore bowties. (TV: The Eleventh Hour et al.) He also said he spent the day before that in a long scarf. His fourth incarnation wore a long scarf. (TV: Robot et al.)
 * The Sisterhood of Karn appears. (TV: The Brain of Morbius, The Night of the Doctor)
 * The Shadow Proclamation reappears as well as the Shadow Architect. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
 * Judoon are also present there. (TV: Smith and Jones etc.)
 * The Maldovarium is visited. (TV: The Pandorica Opens, A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Several species appear in the Maldovarium:
 * Sycorax (TV:The Christmas Invasion).
 * Ood (TV: The Impossible Planet, etc.)
 * Skullions (TV: The Man Who Never Was)
 * Haths (TV: The Doctor's Daughter)
 * Kahlers (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
 * The Doctor says he no longer has a screwdriver. He had earlier stopped using his screwdriver when it was destroyed by the Terrileptils during his fifth incarnation (TV: The Visitation et al.)
 * Bors becomes a Dalek puppet. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, The Time of the Doctor)
 * The Doctor says Davros is a child of the Thousand Year War. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks; AUDIO: Innocence)
 * Davros replays footage to the Doctor of some 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)
 * The Tenth Doctor (TV: The Stolen Earth).
 * During the aforementioned series of clips, highlighted due to its particular relevance to the situation, Davros plays 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)
 * The Doctor and Davros talk about the Last Great Time War (PROSE: Engines of War, TV: The Day of the Doctor) and their argument they have had about the Daleks' creation since they met. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks etc.) The Doctor said their argument ended in the War, but Davros said it survived the War. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
 * Davros mentions to the Doctor that he doesn't control the Daleks. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks et al.)
 * Clara is still teaching classes about Jane Austen, only this time she seems to have met her and has kissed her. (TV: The Caretaker)
 * The Doctor had previously contemplated his death on a battlefield, at Trenzalore (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * As UNIT tracks locations that the Doctor has visited in the past across the globe in an attempt to deduce where he could have gone for his last destination, Jac notes San Martino, (TV: The Masque of Mandragora), Troy (TV: The Myth Makers), multiple visits to New York (TV: The Chase, et al) and three possible versions of Atlantis. (TV: The Underwater Menace, The Dæmons, The Time Monster)
 * The Doctor concludes that the war must be very old going by the mix of technology. He previously made the same observation later on in the same war. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
 * Missy makes a similar bargain with the Daleks as the Doctor did when first meeting them (TV: The Daleks), offering to teach them how to operate the TARDIS in exchange for her life.
 * Davros believes the Doctor's greatest weakness is his compassion. The Daleks have previously made the same observation. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
 * The predecessors to the Daleks are humanoids. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
 * The Master and the Daleks worked together on one previous occasion. (TV: Frontier in Space)
 * Clara combines her computer skills and talent for understanding behavior to find the Doctor. She previously did the same to find Miss Kizlet's uploaded victims. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)

Home video releases
To be added