CREDIT: BBC
The premiere episode for the new season of Doctor Who brought back some familiar foes in this treat of an episode.

Old foes return in the newest season

Warning: Spoilers to follow

“Question. Where did I get the cup of tea? Answer. I’m The Doctor, just accept it.”

Doctor Who kicked off the ninth season of the revived series with The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar, a two-part premiere that represents a stunning return for the historic science-fiction series. Perfectly paced and wonderfully acted, the two episodes combined to tell a tale that is among the best that the new series has offered in the last decade.

Right from the cold opening, I could tell we were in for something special, as The Doctor arrived on an unidentified battlefield to save a child. However, in a very out of character move, he leaves the boy, stopped by hearing the child’s name, Davros.

Debuting in 1975 in Genesis of the Daleks, Davros is one of Doctor Who’s most important villains, the mad scientist who mutated his own race into the Daleks, the program’s most iconic foes.

Originally created to give a voice to the Dalek motivation, the philosophical conversations and dilemmas that Davros puts the Fourth Doctor in during Genesis have lived on to become some of the most iconic moments of the show’s long history.

Last seen in 2008, the mad scientist’s return was kept under wraps before the episode aired.

A quick spin around the universe follows Colony Sarff, a swarm of snakes in one body, who is seeking The Doctor on behalf of a dying Davros, to no avail. His absence is made worse when Missy returns from her death at the end of the last season and stopped all the planes in the sky just to get Clara’s attention.

Turns out she is looking for The Doctor as well, eventually locating him in medieval England, where the trio is apprehended by Sarff and taken to Davros. From that point on, it’s The Doctor and Davros, discussing their history, compassion, and the importance of free will, before the Daleks kill Missy and Clara and destroy the TARDIS in front of a helpless Doctor.

No one was fooled for a second. Missy got herself and Clara to safety with some convenient tech, and they were off to save The Doctor. While they made their way to him, The Doctor managed to get himself free, and then recaptured before inadvertently giving resurrection energy to Davros and the Daleks, renewing the dying man and creating a new hybrid race.

There was so much to this episode that worked and I’m going to try and touch on as many things as possible.

First off is The Doctor himself, as Peter Capaldi has truly grown into the role, seemingly more focused on not being Matt Smith and creating his own spin on the Time Lord. The quiet moments with Davros, including sharing a laugh at a bad joke, was the Twelfth Doctor being more sincere than ever before.

With this in mind, he was still able to call upon that wild, almost dangerous energy that makes this incarnation so intriguing. Even his outfit was more relaxed with the plaid pants harkening back to the eccentrically dressed Second Doctor.

Secondly, his two oldest foes, Davros and The Master (Missy) shared a story for the first time in history, creating some truly epic moments, especially as the morality of the episode became greyer. It also provided some great comedy, especially Missy’s indignation at hearing that Davros is The Doctor’s archenemy, and the brief “nice to finally meet you” toward the end.

That brings me to the dialogue, which was sterling throughout, so a rare hats off to Steven Moffat for the script, as I’m not the biggest fan of his writing.

From Missy’s explanation of her return, “I’m back, big surprise, moving on”, to The Doctor’s admission that his compassion is the cancer that will kill him, the episode ranged from comic to philosophic, with the lion’s share of great conversation happening between Davros and The Doctor.

The moment where Davros plays back all of their prior conversations was especially fantastic, as it is always a pleasure to see the history of the show embraced. Special focus was given to the Fourth Doctor’s monologue from Genesis, regarding having the knowledge of the future, and the morality of killing a dictator before he grows up, as it tied so directly into The Doctor seeing Davros as a young man.

As for gripes, Clara was still given too little to do, flitting between clever and bafflingly stupid at an alarming rate, and the escape plan involving the sewers left me scratching my head.

The Doctor replaced his sonic screwdriver with sonic Ray Bans, which is gloriously stupid and I love it.

Using historic Dalek models was a nice touch and added nice variety. Michelle Gomez is a fantastic Master, and blows the Jon Simms incarnation out of the water.

The Doctor rode into a medieval arena on a tank playing an electric guitar, I just wanted to mention that somewhere.

All in all, this premiere was one of the best that Who fans have been treated to in years, and if this is indicative of what is to come, fans are in for a thrilling season.