Doctor Who 9.01 The Magicians Apprentice
Sep. 20th, 2015 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI'm all conferenced out; yesterday was the last day, and in the evening I had the chance to catch the Doctor Who season premiere on BBC America. Since my head still half crowded with academia and the transatlantic sense of being out of time hasn't abated yet (and won't have a chance to, since I'm flying back today), I'm feeling a bit groggy, so excuse any incoherence or inconclusiveness.
To wit, Davros, which was a Sixth Doctor era story complete with flashbacks and origin story for young Davros that doesn't fit with this one. Amusingly enough, I seem to recall there's a bit in it where Davros basically says "we understand each other, we are each other's arch enemies" and the Doctor is "err, no, that's some else for me", so when Missy said "what, he's your arch enemy now?", I grinned.
More seriously now: postulating a pre-Genesis of the Daleks encounter in which the Doctor by not saving a child!Davros starts him on his path to evil is something I can't decide how I feel about yet, because this episode is just a first part. Also, in case we've missed it, the Genesis of the Daleks clip in which Tom Baker asks the DW version of "would you kill Hitler as a child, if you could?" makes it blatant what the basic idea here is. Incidentally, since Moffat got out of actually doing this story in Let's Kill Hitler by keeping Hitler to a cameo appearance (probably the best choice) in a story that's about River Song mainly, I wonder whether this episode owes itself to him contemplating that ep and thinking "hm, let's do it for real". I'm just not sure whehther the results in the end will be narratively satisfying. For starters: cliffhanger or no cliffhanger, the Doctor won't kill child!Davros, that's as obvious a fake out as the exterminations of Clara and Missy were. At a guess, since the Doctor is already feeling guilty re: deserting the child a time travel earlier, the solution to that one will be him attempting and failing to save child! Davros from becoming the Whoverse's most notorious evil scientist. The Moff is too much a fanboy to either kill off Davros before he becomes Davros or to rewrite the verse so Davros never invents the Daleks. He may end up letting someone else invent them instead, but I doubt that, too.
So basically when the dust settles I suspect Davros and the Daleks will be exactly where they were when we left them. With the main long term point of the episode being to create a situation that narratively justifies the Doctor, Clara and Missy working together. Given a great deal of monsters of the week showed up to narratively justify the Third Doctor and Delgado!Master working together (usually they showed up because Delgado!Master invited them, but hey), that's in fine tradition, and also I can see why especially for Clara the story NEEDS a situation dire enough so she won't poison Missy with aspirin (bad for Time Lords, New Who only watchers!), given Danny's death. And I loved the scenes between them so far. Gomez!Master aka Missy is on her way of upsetting my hitherto clear personal hierarchy of Masters. (Which used to be: Delgado -> Simm -> Ainsley -> Crispy -> We Don't Talk About Roberts.) (Sorry for not ranking Ainsley higher. I wish they'd let him create his own persona instead of trying to make him into a second Delgado.)
You can tell Moffat continues to love writing her dialogue, too. "Traps are my flirting. This is a trap." and, of course: "But you keep trying to kill him!" "He keeps trying to kill me. It's our texting." and: "Dying is for other people."
Speaking of which: I love that Clara is rightfully upset that the Doctor probably knew or at least had reason to guess Missy wasn't dead (when is the Master ever?) but instantly uses the leverage the emotional leverage this offers (or tries to) in order to guilt him into a promise. And that she ended Missy's casual killing demonstration decisively by cutting to the emotional chase as well. Yup, Clara knows how to handle her Time Lords by now.
Lastly: "They rebuild it." And how, pray, do you rebuild a planet? (Skaro was destroyed in the Seventh Doctor era.) Why not just say this is pre destruction Skaro? Ah well. The reveal was a neat acting moment for Michelle Gomez because that's the first time we've seen her version of the Master viscerally disturbed and scared while trying not to let Clara notice, and it's a reminder of what the Master having fought in the Time War, too, until things got so scary that he ran.
To wit, Davros, which was a Sixth Doctor era story complete with flashbacks and origin story for young Davros that doesn't fit with this one. Amusingly enough, I seem to recall there's a bit in it where Davros basically says "we understand each other, we are each other's arch enemies" and the Doctor is "err, no, that's some else for me", so when Missy said "what, he's your arch enemy now?", I grinned.
More seriously now: postulating a pre-Genesis of the Daleks encounter in which the Doctor by not saving a child!Davros starts him on his path to evil is something I can't decide how I feel about yet, because this episode is just a first part. Also, in case we've missed it, the Genesis of the Daleks clip in which Tom Baker asks the DW version of "would you kill Hitler as a child, if you could?" makes it blatant what the basic idea here is. Incidentally, since Moffat got out of actually doing this story in Let's Kill Hitler by keeping Hitler to a cameo appearance (probably the best choice) in a story that's about River Song mainly, I wonder whether this episode owes itself to him contemplating that ep and thinking "hm, let's do it for real". I'm just not sure whehther the results in the end will be narratively satisfying. For starters: cliffhanger or no cliffhanger, the Doctor won't kill child!Davros, that's as obvious a fake out as the exterminations of Clara and Missy were. At a guess, since the Doctor is already feeling guilty re: deserting the child a time travel earlier, the solution to that one will be him attempting and failing to save child! Davros from becoming the Whoverse's most notorious evil scientist. The Moff is too much a fanboy to either kill off Davros before he becomes Davros or to rewrite the verse so Davros never invents the Daleks. He may end up letting someone else invent them instead, but I doubt that, too.
So basically when the dust settles I suspect Davros and the Daleks will be exactly where they were when we left them. With the main long term point of the episode being to create a situation that narratively justifies the Doctor, Clara and Missy working together. Given a great deal of monsters of the week showed up to narratively justify the Third Doctor and Delgado!Master working together (usually they showed up because Delgado!Master invited them, but hey), that's in fine tradition, and also I can see why especially for Clara the story NEEDS a situation dire enough so she won't poison Missy with aspirin (bad for Time Lords, New Who only watchers!), given Danny's death. And I loved the scenes between them so far. Gomez!Master aka Missy is on her way of upsetting my hitherto clear personal hierarchy of Masters. (Which used to be: Delgado -> Simm -> Ainsley -> Crispy -> We Don't Talk About Roberts.) (Sorry for not ranking Ainsley higher. I wish they'd let him create his own persona instead of trying to make him into a second Delgado.)
You can tell Moffat continues to love writing her dialogue, too. "Traps are my flirting. This is a trap." and, of course: "But you keep trying to kill him!" "He keeps trying to kill me. It's our texting." and: "Dying is for other people."
Speaking of which: I love that Clara is rightfully upset that the Doctor probably knew or at least had reason to guess Missy wasn't dead (when is the Master ever?) but instantly uses the leverage the emotional leverage this offers (or tries to) in order to guilt him into a promise. And that she ended Missy's casual killing demonstration decisively by cutting to the emotional chase as well. Yup, Clara knows how to handle her Time Lords by now.
Lastly: "They rebuild it." And how, pray, do you rebuild a planet? (Skaro was destroyed in the Seventh Doctor era.) Why not just say this is pre destruction Skaro? Ah well. The reveal was a neat acting moment for Michelle Gomez because that's the first time we've seen her version of the Master viscerally disturbed and scared while trying not to let Clara notice, and it's a reminder of what the Master having fought in the Time War, too, until things got so scary that he ran.
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Date: 2015-09-20 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-21 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-21 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-20 06:50 pm (UTC)Loved basically all the Missy lines, loved how the Master is equally annoyed at not being the best friend AND the worst foe. Loved that she takes Clara and Clara's anger with her seriously when she comes to them for help. Also the scene with the gravity and so on was wonderful. :D
Not sure how it will all play out, but interested to find out. Also, Kate Stewart again! Yissss. Twelve is distinctly not Three, but I adore the choice to bring back UNIT, led by a Lethbridge-Stewart and opposed by the Master, no less. \o/
(Gomez is also rapidly climbing the ranks of Masters for me, and is the first one in Nu Who that I've actively enjoyed. Also she is, uh. Brain-bendingly hot. On a shallow level.)
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Date: 2015-09-20 07:11 pm (UTC)The Master calling dibs on both the best friend and the worst foe title really sums it up. And is half of her/his issues with most of the Companions in the past, of course. But at least noe of the foes dared to compete before!
ETA: and how about that canon Clara/Jane Austen revelation?
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Date: 2015-09-21 05:40 am (UTC)And yes, that was a moment of "everyone is bisexual (or has at least experimented)," which I tend to like. We already know the Doctor is, or has been, for values of Gallifreyan that include "has a sexuality" at all. All that business with Shakespeare and Jack Harkness at minimum, not to mention Eight.
Really, though, I love that this episode is just an excuse to make the Doctor and Clara and the Master work together. It's so great. And I hadn't remembered the part about the Master having fought in the Time War too until you mentioned it, which absolutely deepens that scene of hers. (Jacobi version, wasn't it? And then ran away to become
YANAYana.)no subject
Date: 2015-09-22 02:43 pm (UTC)And you did write it in a comment to Blank Space. :)
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Date: 2015-09-20 08:50 pm (UTC)Hire Magrathea.
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Date: 2015-09-22 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-22 02:43 pm (UTC)