In the first episode of the ninth series of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, the Doctor makes an impossible choice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c twice. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Ah, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very good to get back to\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I liked series eight more than I expected to, and so I came into this premiere with optimism. I fully accept Capaldi as the Doctor, and Clara excites me as a companion, though I admit part of that is because I feel so familiar with her. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comforting!<\/p>\n
Yet\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0often relies on that comfort and familiarity. Moffat isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afraid to use certain themes more than once, but when does that become repetitive? There are images and tones and story elements in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Magician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Apprentice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve absolutely seen before. Some of those are referential, while others come off more like an attempt to ground us in this familiar feeling that I referenced before. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m opening with this thought because I have no qualms about any feeling like there is a repetitiveness in this premiere. How many times has something strange affected Earth? How many times has it been resolved without much of an affect on the populace? How many times has Clara died? How many times has Moffat found a way to bring back whomever he wants, even if that deflates the dramatic tension in the show as a whole?<\/p>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe Missy or Clara are dead. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel exciting or new or thrilling to me. At this point, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s par for the course. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shock value for entertainment. Thankfully, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the focus of this episode, and the\u00c2\u00a0actual<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0main story is a million times more interesting than the fate of Clara and Missy. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Magician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Apprentice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d deliberately references \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Genesis of the Daleks\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by having Davros replay footage from that episode, specifically Four\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line about killing a child you knew to grow up to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ruthless dictator.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Now, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u00c2\u00a0very<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0common time-travel moral conundrum, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty sure this is not even the first time\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0addressed it since \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Genesis of the Daleks.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But it feels so exciting to me!<\/p>\n
I know that it interests me because I love the idea of getting to see the war that gave birth to the Davros we know\u00c2\u00a0now<\/i>. I am not terribly familiar with this part of canon, so for me, it feels new. What we see of this war is downright horrifying, and handmines are now the thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll hate forever because WHY WOULD YOU CREATE SOMETHING SO AWFUL. When the Doctor tries to save a boy from the mines, he learns that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a younger version of Davros. Thus, he makes a choice: he abandons the child in the minefield. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I thought the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guilt and shame over that scene was because he had saved a child who had grown up to be one of the worst people in the galaxy. NO, HE LEFT A CHILD TO DIE.<\/p>\n
There is one major thing that confuses me, though. Why is it that the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confession dial gets sent out? Is it an automatic thing, or must the Doctor send it out himself? He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem surprised by its existence when Missy mentions it. And if it is automatic, how can it be\u00c2\u00a0wrong<\/i>? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the one thing in this episode that feels unmistakably Moffat-esque. He loves to rely on massive ultimatums like this to build drama and tension, but this is the first episode of the series. The Doctor\u00c2\u00a0can<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0die. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible. Still, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny that the impetus is a silly way to introduce THE BEST THING EVER: THE DOCTOR PLAYING ELECTRIC GUITAR. And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really playing it, too!!! (Sorry, I have a thing about that; I can always tell when someone isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually playing a guitar correctly.) I just\u00c2\u00a0adore<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0how vibrant and playful the scenes in Essex in 1138 are. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very\u00c2\u00a0Bill & Ted<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Excellent Adventure<\/i>, and\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0made me believe that the Doctor knew he was going to die. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0exactly<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d celebrate his life before he died.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too unbelievable for me to accept. I have nothing vested in this conflict. Instead, I want to see how the Doctor will answer Davros\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s question: Is compassion wrong? The Doctor did not show compassion centuries ago when he left young Davros in that minefield. And yet, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the Doctor has clung to time and time again: he cares about others. He is\u00c2\u00a0obsessed<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0with compassion. And does Davros deserve compassion after all this time? If the end of this episode is an indication, the Doctor appears to have answered the question. Killing Davros as a child means that sometimes, compassion\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0wrong. It is a fundamental aspect of the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character, so what would this mean for him? Would it unravel time so that he get Clara back? Hell, would it unravel the timeline so much that history becomes unrecognizable?<\/p>\n
These are basic questions present throughout most of time travel fiction, yet I admit that as trope-filled as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Magician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Apprentice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still intrigued by what the Doctor is gonna do. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty cool.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Magician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Apprentice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>. In the first episode of the ninth series of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who, the Doctor makes an impossible choice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c twice. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-5597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-who","tag-mark-watches-doctor-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be Death Note<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/em>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"