YMMV / Doctor Who S35 E1 "The Magician's Apprentice"

• Continuity Lockout: If you hadn't seen the online minisode "The Night of the Doctor" you'll probably have no clue who Ohila is.
  • Narrowly Averted With "Did You Miss Our Little Chats?" As Davros shows the receipts (never mind how he got the footage in-universe)
• Fanfic Fuel: With regards to the end of this series, how exactly did the Doctor and Clara go from best friends to something undefinable?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When Missy describes the dynamic between her, the Doctor & Clara, she compares them between a Couple with a Puppy, before telling Clara; "You're The Puppy". Michelle Gomez later provides the Voice for Puppy Obsessed Cruella Devil in the "101 Dalmatian Street" Series.
  • "[I have cared about the Doctor] Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President's wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie. Can you guess which one?" said Missy. After her regeneration, Missy would discover that the Doctor had indeed once been a little girl.
• Ho Yay: A throwaway reference by Clara to Jane Austen being "a phenomenal kisser" led to speculation in fandom that the character was bisexual. The flames of this were fanned further by additional references to Austen and another female character (Ashildr) later in the season that teased this aspect.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Killing Clara, Missy, and the TARDIS in the series' opener? Yeah, the suspense isn't for that, it's for how they'll get out of it and how the Doctor will react (see below for that).
    • Although Jenna Coleman officially announced her departure from the show exactly a week before this episode was set to air, by that point there had been tons of promos, interviews, and episode summaries regarding the remainder of the season confirming that Clara would live to see another day...at least through "Face the Raven", anyway. (The first half of the season finale, on the other hand, won't have anyone but the Doctor...)
  • The Doctor willingly murdering a child, even if it's Davros? Nope. Putting aside the huge paradoxical mess that would be, the Doctor can't stand to see children die, much less be a reason for their death, as the Time War's ultimate resolution proved — and the reason he's ready to die now is because of his guilt over abandoning Davros to begin with and the resultant tragedy of the Daleks. There's also the meta issue of the fate of a multi-million-dollar family-friendly franchise about to appear in LEGO Dimensions: As Blogtor Who put it, "Join us next week, by which time we'll have found out if the Doctor really is about to murder a child in cold blood on primetime BBC1, for more in-depth analysis." Again, the real cliffhanger is how he will remain on the side of good. (Also: He says he's saving a "friend", not "friends". The prequel shorts reveal that he actually regards Davros, at least that scared boy Davros, as such.)
  • The Doctor's having The Last Dance because he believes he's going to die for good. Well, Peter Capaldi hasn't said he's leaving the show, so that ain't gonna happen.
  • Honestly, even if his shriveled-up potato of a body is finally falling apart, does anyone really think Davros's Joker Immunity is being subverted for keeps? At most, something like Brain Uploading seems very likely for the ultimate survival-obsessed narcissist. And even if the Doctor has the chance to eliminate the Daleks, they'll probably come out of all this just fine too, if perhaps altered in some way.
• Narm: Having your hands tied by snakes is just a touch silly, and the Doctor's breakdown over Clara's death is hard to take seriously when it's obvious she'll come back (from our perspective of course; the Doctor couldn't know this having not had access in-universe to Jenna Coleman's contract). Also, the way Colony Sarff glides around led to jokes that he was on roller skates or a segway before him being a snake colony was revealed.
• Narm Charm: The Doctor's breakdown over Clara's death. Given that companions of his have been killed before, and obviously he doesn't have access to Jenna Coleman's contract, there's no reason for him to think that she isn't gone for good.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Hand-Mines.
• Padding: This episode spends up to 35 minutes of getting the characters to the place to see Davros. Scenes such as Colony Sarff going around asking where the Doctor is, Missy stopping the planes & conversation with Clara, and the Doctor playing the guitar in medieval times were seen as drawn out and unnecessary by some viewers.
• Ship Sinking: Missy explicitly says in this episode that she and the Doctor are not, have never been, and will never be lovers. Of course, that still doesn't stop some fans from hoping...
• Shocking Moments: Tons of it. The child tells us his name. Missy's grand return, even if it's not like we didn't know she wouldn't stay dead. Missy casually vaporizing people, still clearly holding all the cards even if eight snipers are trained on her. Davros's return. The reveal of just where they are. The possibility that the Doctor will willingly kill a child. Even the fact the Doctor is now prone to making bad jokes, hugs and flirting with Clara. This has many moments of the calibre of the single moment that puts the wham into most Wham Episodes.
• Stock Footage Failure: A subtle one — People from the West Coast of the US know right off that the shot of La Cienega Blvd (near LAX) as shown in the faux news report segment is from almost a decade ago. The sign in the lower right-hand corner (shared with a Ralph's supermarket) advertises Long's Drugs, a pharmacy chain that was bought by CVS circa 2008.
• Unexpected Character: While Davros appearing as a child was reported by the press several months before the episode aired, there was no indication whatsoever that a present-day version of the character would appear, or that Julian Bleach (the current Davros) had any connection to future episodes.

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