Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 1: The Magician's Apprentice Recap With Spoilers

The episode opens on a battlefield with an anachronistic mix of weaponry being used. Two men speak to each other. One believes he saw a child running in the fog. The man, Kanzo, catches up to the boy, ignoring his friend's warning of incoming enemies. The ground ripples under the boy. Kanzo tells him to stand still and scans the area with a device. The boy is on a hand mine, and Kanzo tells him to stand still. They look down and there is a hand sticking out of the ground, grabbing Kanzo's ankle. The hand pulls Kanzo into the ground. Several more hands, with eyes in their palm, rise up and look at the boy. He calls for help, and a sonic screwdriver falls on his feet. The Doctor tells him to pick it up. The Doctor asks the boy what war or planet they're in or on, but the boy is just confused. He tells the boy to choose to survive. The boy has one chance in a thousand to survive, and the Doctor tells him to focus on the one. The Doctor asks the boy's name. The boy tells the Doctor his name is Davros.

After the opening credits, we pick up in a seedy establishment full of many alien races. A cloaked figure hovers into the bar looking for the Doctor.

The figure appears at the Shadow Proclamation, asking after the Doctor. The Shadow Architect says she doesn't know, but inquires to know what Davros wants with the Doctor. The figure simply leaves.

The figure (can't quite catch his name) arrives on Karn and asks Ohila about the Doctor. He leaves a message for the Doctor with Ohila, telling her that Davros is dying, Davros knows, Davros remembers, and that the Doctor must face Davros one last time. After the figure leaves, Ohila turns to the Doctor, hiding behind a stone, and asks what he's done.

Davros is barely awake. He tells the figure that he's anticipating. Davros tells the figure that if he seeks the Doctor, he should first seek his friends.

Clara is teaching a class. She looks out a window and something catches her eye. She draws something on the window and tells her students to open their phones. She's noticed a plane frozen in place in the sky. Clara is summoned by UNIT.

Clara is greeted by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. She and another agent fill in Clara on the details. They're unable to contact the pilots of the planes because they're actually frozen in time. Clara pieces together that someone is trying to get their attention. UNIT gets a message on the Doctor's channel, the one he never uses. They receive "hey Missy you so fine" lyrics, and Missy appears. Missy makes the arrangements to have Clara brought to her.

Missy sits at an outdoor café. UNIT snipers are put into place around her. A car with two agents drives up, with Clara in the backseat. Clara joins Missy at her table. Missy brings up Danny Pink. She then shows off that she has control of the planes, allowing one to move just a bit before freezing it again. She presents Clara with a confession dial. She says it's the last will and testament of the Doctor, to be presented on the eve of his final day. Clara tries to take it, but it shocks her. Missy says it was given to her. Missy says he's the Doctor's friend, where Clara is more like a pet. She says she and the Doctor have a friendship going back further than human civilization. Clara asks if she's supposed to believe Missy has turned good. Missy kills two agents at random to show that's not the case. She orders Clara to say something nice or she'll kill everyone in the square. Clara tells her to let the planes go to prove that she actually cares about her "best friend." Missy lets the planes free. Clara asks what the confession says. Missy says it will only open once the Doctor is dead. If the Doctor only has one day left to live, they're sure he'd come to Earth, but the question is "where?" And "when?" They use an algorithm to try to track him down. Clara asks Missy how a Time Lord is supposed to die. Missy says in mediation and contemplation. She figures the Doctor would do just the opposite and tells them to change the algorithm. They pinpoint the Doctor, and Missy teleports her and Clara away.

Clara and Missy arrive in some sort of medieval arena. A burly man on the arena floor challenges a "magician" to face him. The Doctor rolls into the arena on top of a tank and playing an electric guitar. The Doctor makes anachronistic jokes to the crowd and seems to notice Clara and Missy hiding in the parapets. The man with the axe points out that the Doctor has been there for three weeks. The Doctor revels in the ways he's messed with time, including introducing the word "dude" several centuries too early. He reveals that he's going to have to leave today, but he wants to introduce a couple of his friends first. The Doctor seems a bit odd, and hugs Clara. Clara says he's acting odd, but the Doctor says some days he wears a bowtie and others he wears a scarf. He says he's throwing a party and all of him is invited. The man with the axe, Bors, appears to choke. The Doctor pulls a snake off of him, and the cloaked figure appears. He tells the Doctor to come and when he resists, the figure reveals himself as a large snake that's part of a colony of snakes. The Doctor agrees to go with him as long as no one else is harmed. The snake reforms into a humanoid. The Doctor asks why he'd want to talk to his archenemy, and Missy takes some offense. Snake-man says Davros knows and remembers, and tosses a sonic screwdriver at the Doctor's feet. The Doctor says he doesn't have a sonic screwdriver anymore. Missy and Clara both notice shame on the Doctor's face for the first time.

The Doctor remembers the Boy in the field of hand mines. He remembers leaving him there.

The Doctor is ready to leave with the snake-man. He says he knows this is a trap, and says goodbye. The snake man binds the Doctor with a snake. Missy and Clara offer to go with the Doctor, against his protests, and the snake-man takes all three. When they're gone, Bors throws back a curtain to reveal the TARDIS, and a Dalek stalk appears from his head. The Daleks move to procure the TARDIS.

The Doctor explains Davros' history to Clara, calling him a child of war who grew up to create the Daleks. The snake-man's ship brings them to something like a hospital floating in space. The snake-man comes for the Doctor. Before he goes, Clara points out that if the Doctor sent his confession dial to Missy he must have known she wasn't dead. She accuses him of lying. The Doctor starts to apologize, but Clara tells him to make it up to her instead, hoping that guarantees he comes back. Before he leaves, the Doctor says "gravity" to Missy. Missy explains to Clara that the gravity is strangely perfect here, not artificial. Missy breaks free of her snake, jumps around a bit, and implies that she might kill Clara by opening an airlock as she hits the button.

The snake-man brings the Doctor to Davros. Davros approves of the Doctor's new face because it looks like his own. The Doctor is still expecting a trap. Davros replays past encounters between himself and the Doctor. They argue over whether Davros was right or wrong for creating the Dalkes. Davros says it will end tonight. An alert plays, and Davros says the Doctor's friends have gone exploring.

Missy slowly walks out of airlock. It looks like deep space, but there's ground and warmth and atmosphere. They're on a planet, but the planet is invisible. As they stand out there the invisibility effect fades and they can all see they are on Skaro, the planet of the Dalkes.

The Daleks usher Missy and the Doctor into a room with the TARDIS. They intend to destroy the TARDIS. Missy explains the power of a TARDIS and how it could make the Daleks more powerful than ever before. The just need her, a Time Lord, to show them how it works. They kill Missy instead. The Doctor begs for Clara's life, but Davros says he does not control them. Clara runs for the door, but she's shot down. The Doctor wonder why he ever let Davros live. Davros says compassion is The Doctor's weakness. The Daleks destroy the TARDIS.

The Doctor remembers the boy again. This time he has a Dalek's weapon, and yells "exterminate."