Doctor Who "The Magician's Apprentice Season Premiere

The season nine premiere was not a disappointment. It was marvelous, with a shocking twist.

The Doctor tries to rescue a child during one of the wars, but when he asks the kid his name, it turns out to be one of the most mistakable rescues of his time-traveling life. The kid turns out to be Davros, the creator of the Daleks.

Running from the problem and landing in 1158 AD about to battle, the Doctor mistakes the ax battle for the guitar battle, which was the best scene in the episode. To see the Doctor rockin' the guitar on a tank was hilarious and awesome.

With the Doctor hiding, Missy has been looking for him and tried to draw attention to Clara and U.N.I.T. with every plane in the air frozen. I couldn't tell if Missy was as bad as she should be or as good as she could be. It seemed weird to see Clara and Missy working together.

They traveled to find the Doctor and soon went with him to Dravos, but the man that the Doctor was going to fight was not a natural person. He turns out to be a Dalek and took the TARDIS. It turned out that where they were was not in a spaceship, but in the worst place the Doctor ever would want to be in, Skaro. Again, that was another shocking moment in this episode.

Missy and Clara find the TARDIS, but the Daleks are about to destroy it. Missy tries to negotiate a deal with them to take the TARDIS, but that turns out to be a no, and she's gone. Clara talks to them, too, but has no success, too, and is gone just like Missy.

Doctor, who watched them get destroyed, seems upset, but Dravos wants him to say the words of defeat. Of course, Dravos has no power over the Daleks; as he put it, they are just like kids.

The episode ends on a cliffhanger, which sets up next week's episode pretty much at a high point.

I thought that this was an excellent season opener. I might have loved this opener better than last season's opener. But I felt Capaldi was fantastic, and Jenna Coleman worked well with Michelle Gomez.

Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch Doctor Who on Saturdays at 9/8c on BBC America