Doctor Who – Series 9, Episode 1

So, here we are – it’s back on our screens, and with the BBC's marketing machine on full-throttle leading up to tonight to ensure everyone knew it was on – I missed it! Well, I missed it live as we had friends round. So, I’ll be watching courtesy of the Sky Box on Sunday.

Showrunner, Steven Moffat has promised us a few two-parters along the way as well as a re-designed TARDIS and the return of ‘The Master’, alias ‘Missie’.

We’re up to Series 9 now, and this was the first episode of 12 entitled, The Magician’s Apprentice. We even had a prologue on iPlayer to whet our appetite (or confuse us!). All the other episode titles have now been confirmed (see the main pic above).

What was the opener like then? With so much much hype going on, I’ve always felt slightly underwhelmed coming out the other side of a series opener, but this was a good one! It all felt more like a story than an episode, and without giving too much away, there are some dramatic twists in it – well, a number of them actually!

All-in-all, it featured some great acting and it had a big-budget feel about it. Strange that some of the best episodes in modern Who-history don’t feature the Doctor in the opening few scenes! There are a lot of key characters in this episode too, including the Doctor’s nemesis, Davros (or is that the Master/Missie?) and Kate Lethbridge Stewart – fab!

I won’t reveal the plot details here, but it’s a two-parter – and this opening episode ends on possibly the most dramatic cliff-hanger of all. We already know that Clara bows out in this series, so it’ll be interesting to see her exit, and how it’s handled. If the rest of the series’ stories are as good as this one, then us Doctor Who fans are in for a treat.

As a bonus, there’s also a nice short teaser for next week’s episode too at the end of this episode!

Roll on next Saturday…