Rate and Discuss: The Magician's Apprentice

[MacNimon]

There's actually a decent story in there, despite the padding. I loved the pre-credits sequence, and having stayed (relatively) spoiler-free was surprised by the Davros revelation. I loved the hand-mines too...Moffat can still come up with good ideas when he wants to. Still not so keen on Missy, though, regardless of whether she really is the Master or not.

I'm wondering whether the twist is going to be whether the Doctor actually rescued Davros or not first time round...we're (possibly) all assuming that the Doctor rescued Davros and is now back to kill him; I'm guessing that the opposite will actually be the case, and the Doctor leaving Davros to his fate was what actually created the Davros we all know and hate, and thus the Daleks, in the first case...so he's now trying to change history by saving him.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I went for "8 - Crow". Ah the wonders of now NZ TV only being 12 hours behind the UK!

I liked that it tried to do something different. I was a bit disappointing that Davros really was evil. I kind of liked the idea of a redeemed villain. But I'm guessing the strict stipulations of the Nation estate mean that although we can flirt with the idea of Dalek evolution (as we did in Daleks Take Manhattan), we always have to hit the reset button at the end.

But I really liked how this story built on the ideas from Genesis, but also from Journey's End. Both Davros and the Master trying to manipulate the Doctor to commit "THAT act" which will bring him down to their level.

What was interesting was just after watching, I read this piece on "the dark side of empathy" and how victim empathy can cause many to act more violently ...

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/a...mpathy/407155/

Interesting because of course it's a key theme for the Doctor about him choosing not to be manipulated to behave in that manner, no matter the provocation.