Doctor Who: The Magician’s Apprentice.

Well this was a weird one.

It’s not easy to acclimatize to this kind of format at the beginning of the series. A two-part piece is normally something you’d put in the middle of a series or at it’s conclusion. Throwing it in at the begging has the effect of the viewer not being able to engage with the material properly. This episode does suffer for this, with none of the plot really getting going until over half way through. Had this been placed in the middle of the series or at the end, there would have been a huge body red herrings and plot points pre-established to keep the audience interested.

That’s not to say that this isn’t a good episode; it is. It calls back to the classic series, both in tone and literal in-show references, but still has enough modern comedy to work today. Capaldi is awesome as always, jumping between Tom Baker-esque buffoonery and compelling drama.

The story is basically the baby Hitler problem. The Doctor meets a child he knows will grow up to be an evil dictator. He faces the dilemma of whether to help him or to leave him to die. Of course (predictably) it’s implied that the Doctor left him to die and hence Davros, developed a fear of death that would lead him to create the Daleks.

As is typical of Moffat it’s pretty heavy subject matter to be dealt with in family show, but he just about pulls it off.

There are a couple of sticking points, the most prominent of which is Missy; not her return  - like she says – that’s not really important – but the fact that Clara basically goes “oh ok, you’re back.”

This was the person she was going to kill in cold blood at the end of the last series. Like Amy before her, Clara’s personality has been rebooted to suit the new series’ plot. It’s not impossible for her to act this way, in terms of character development, but that development needs to happen on screen else what’s the point of having the same companion in every episode.

But enough of that; onto the main bit of this episode; the cliffhanger. The Doctor somehow travels back to first time he met the child Davros, this time to kill him, in order to stop the elderly dying Davros from causing the deaths of Missy and Clara. This is something that’s been building throughout Moffat’s tenure. The darker side of the Doctor.

Is this the moment that the Valyard is born? The Doctor altering time in a massive way for selfish ends. Is this how he starts?

Anyhow, it’s a good enough episode, even if it’s not the best thing for a casual viewer.