The Christmas adverts have come out in force. After reading Charlie Brooker's excellent piece on the latest awful crop of "seasonal" advertising I've found myself with the theme from the Morrisons advert stuck in my head. I'm blaming you Charlie.

One advert that at least 9 Million people watched last night was on the BBC. Doctor Who had a sixty minute pitch for its apocalyptic Christmas episodes. It was intriguing, somewhat baffling and pretty terrifying. I'm not going to attempt to filter my following comments for spoilers, so go away if you haven't watched and don't want to know what happened. That was your only warning.

Why do I describe the episode as an advert? It certainly wasn't light bright and fluffy. But I wouldn't mind betting that the key word in the preparatory tone meeting for this episode was "Foreboding". We were foreboded in spades. From the early moments when the Doctor says "I shouldn't be here" we were left with a sense that something is coming. In the early moments of the episode we're shown obituaries for all the guest characters to flag up early that things won't end well. Several times throughout the action the Doctor's face is clouded with doubt, as if he's wrestling with his conscience. He wants to save these folk, but knows that he mustn't.

The actual threat faced by the Martian settlers isn't explained. At the end of the episode we have no more idea what it was that the broken water filter let through. All we know is that it turned crew members into zombies and that it was highly infectious. The story wasn't about this particular struggle; it was about the Doctor. He's clearly been travelling alone for some time now with no one to check the god complex that's been bubbling along under the surface since his last regeneration. We saw aspects of it back in The Christmas Invasion when he was clear about his "No second chances" rule. In the same story he brought down Harriet Jones' government with six words: "Don't you think she looks tired?", even though he'd previously described her premiership as a golden age that lasted three terms. In New Earth he declared that there was no higher authority than himself. There are many other examples throughout the tenth Doctor's era.

We need only look to later Christmas specials for more portents of the Doctor's superiority complex. In his first meeting with Donna Noble she begs him to find someone to travel with him because he needs someone to stop him from time to time. On the starship Titanic, Mr Copper sees the Doctor's expression at Rickston Slade's survival and notes that if he could choose who lived and died that would make him a monster. This is a line he crosses in Waters of Mars, and it's terrifying. The nightmare stuff with the water zombies is trivial compared with the prospect of an all powerful Doctor and a pitch perfect delivery by Tennant made the hints at what's to come seem most distressing. The Doctor has crossed a line and there's no going back.

There was an echo of a similar decision made last series when the Doctor discusses his time in Pompeii, when Donna begged him to save someone, anyone to make their time there have some meaning. We're left with the impression that saving Caecilius' family was the right decision, but how that coloured the Doctor's snap decision to save the three remaining crew members of Bowie Base 1 makes me wonder in retrospect. Were we reminded of that episode to show the contrast between saving "some little people" compared to saving Adelaide Brook? Or was it to remind us that the rot set in much earlier?

We're left with no doubt that there will be consequences for the Doctor's actions on Mars, and that these will inevitably lead to the death of the tenth Doctor. Although I'm also left wondering about some of his previous actions too. What about his changing of history to curtail Hariet Jones' government? What about triggering the Cyber invasion of The Next Doctor by sending cybermen and daleks tumbling through the void in Doomsday? His dismissal of the appearance of teh Cyber King in Victorian London with a simple "Funny That", seemed loaded at the time. Have we been witnessing a Doctor out of control for years, making a swiss cheese of time with catastrophic consequences? He said in this episode that his theory of fixed points in time with the rest being flux was "only a theory". What if every change has had repercussions? What if Time has only just been able to absorb the Doctor's actions for so long and now the straw has broken the camel's back? The Christmas double episode bears the weight of some very high expectations indeed.

Casual viewers got a bit of a run around with some water monsters and beautiful martian vistas. Fans were rewarded with a deeper story that challenges the heart of Doctor Who itself: What if the worst monster the Doctor ever came across is himself?

So Peter Capaldi has stepped out of the TARDIS and given his first performance as the Doctor. I quite enjoyed it. We've not yet seen how he'll really handle the role. We've merely had a few pointers as to how his Doctor will develop. It's good to be intrigued and left wanting more.

I was quite impressed with how understated the performance was. We had a lot of comedic scenes that he played completely straight, allowing the comedy to happen around him rather than making it happen. That's not to say that he didn't have some very funny lines like "Don't look in that mirror; it's furious," but that he handled them with style and didn't overplay them. I was less impressed with the whole eyebrow stuff which felt a bit forced and one was inclined to think that Capaldi wasn't overly fond of the lines but that a refusal to play them might come off as vain. It was a nice touch to note that the tramp who worked against most of the Doctor's silliest lines was played by Brian Miller, husband to the late Lis Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith). He was beautifully played.

In fact the cast as a whole performed well and it was good to have a little more time for scenes to breathe and dialogue to develop. There were some lovely visuals but this episode was mainly about the actors and that was a very good thing. The Paternoster gang of Jenny Vastra and Strax provided continuity with the Matt Smith era nicely, but it also feels like it's time for them to fly on their own for a while. They've developed more than enough to warrant their own series of Victorian murder mysteries and I'm left with the impression that they and Doctor Who should part company from here on. The likelihood of the beeb picking up such a series is low, which is a shame because I think it would make an altogether more satisfying spin off than Torchwood ever was.

That said, some of it was beginning to feel a little old within Doctor Who. There are only so many times that Strax can call Clara "boy" and it still be vaguely amusing. Also Jenny and Vastra's relationship seemed a little forced this time round. Did we really need the voice over explaining their kiss to share oxygen? How does that work anyway? I've not seen CPR work on someone who's conscious and standing before. I'm over thinking this of course, but it just felt a lot like we were having the inter species lesbian kiss highlighted to the point of distraction. Doctor Who has done sterling work in helping to normalise relationships of all kinds and I'm sure helped play a part in getting gay marriage a lot higher on the political agenda than it might otherwise have been. I suppose my concern is that by overplaying it, you risk fetishising the relationship. Just as I suppose my discussing it in depth here does. *vanishes in a puff of illogic*

Anyway I like Vastra and Jenny and hope there's more to be seen of them, preferably on their own terms. Talking of relationships, the one that gave me most difficulty was that between the Doctor and Clara. There's been much written about how the role of the companion in Doctor Who was to ask questions to enable the Doctor to explain stuff and to act as the point of identification for the audience. That doesn't comfortably cover all eras of the show because initially there were more companions to carry different strands of the action, sometimes to act as the hero (Ian, Jamie) and sometime to drive the plot. With as wide an audience as Doctor Who has identification comes at different points and the idea of one companion acting as proxy for the whole audience seems a bit silly. Having said this, it's understandable that the makers would choose to any newer members' concerns about regeneration through the companion's reactions.

But with Clara we have a glaring problem. Unlike when Rose witnessed the first regeneration of the returned series, we know that Clara has met several previous doctors. All of them, if you count her tumbling through the Doctor's time line, although we seem to have established some kind of amnesiac effect taking place, given her reactions in Day of the Doctor. However in that anniversary show we saw her interract with the Tennant doctor and show a remarkable empathy with the older portrayal by John Hurt. She could read him by looking into his eyes and had no problem with the Doctor appearing seventy plus. In Time of the Doctor she met and talked to the Matt Smith version that was a thousand years older than the one she knew. She had seen him age and helped him walk. Apart from the strange pre-regeneration scene in the TARDIS, where Smith was briefly rejuvenated again, she had got used to the idea of the Doctor being a very old man. Suddenly we are being asked to believe that this young woman who is remarkably empathetic is actually quite shallow and feels uncomfortable with the Doctor appearing middle aged.

Now I know that there was quite a bit of reaction on social media when Capaldi's casting was announced and much of it was from women who were used to the Doctor being younger and a bit dishy, but this was before the screening of both Day of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor. Surely the events of these would have served as explanation enough? I get the impression that Moffat was rather leant upon by BBC management following the casting to deal with this problem so it's had to be explicitly addressed in the action. The thing is Clara is just the wrong companion to carry this role. It would have far better gone to someone who hadn't been seen on screen to deal with previous Doctors and older versions. Vastra and Jenny have only been seen with young versions of the Smith Doctor before. Couldn't they have dealt with any objections to the Doctor's older appearance rather than being the wise ones? Better still, the series could have had the balls to not excuse or explain the change.

Despite all of this, I rather liked the Vastra and Clara scene and the whole veil metaphor. I would have left it at "When did you stop wearing your veil?" "When you stopped seeing it." rather than continue with the "I don't know who the Doctor is any more" nonsense. I liked seeing Matt Smith pop up briefly although again it smacked of a production altogether not entirely comfortable with the decisions it made. What happened to "Never explain. Never apologise"?
There wasn't a great deal of story beyond the regeneration, but it was fun to see clockwork robots again and to see some hints at a more ruthless Doctor. I'll be very interested to see how the season develops.

In the most recent Doctor Who magazine there's an interview with Capaldi that's quite illuminating and hints at some of the behind the scenes issues. He talks about ideas being discussed for the 2015 series and says that he'd like to continue but that the decision is not up to him. The impression given is that there's little doubt that Doctor Who will be recommissioned, but there is some doubt as to whether he'll be allowed to continue as the Doctor. In 1986 the higher ups decided to fire the incumbent against his wishes and the first time the Doctor was replaced in 1966 it seems the producers took a similar decision. In the sixties it was probably the best thing they could have done for the show. I think it was a damaging decision in the eighties. Today I feel it would suggest cowardice and a lack of confidence in the programme makers' decisions. Choosing an older actor to play the lead was a bold move but honestly, going with someone as strong as Capaldi is hardly terrifying. His talent is proven and he deserves more confidence.

The coming season will be different, but that's a good thing. I think it's going to be exciting and quite thrilling. And thank god we've said goodbye to split seasons and can look forward to an unbroken twelve episodes. As for Deep Breath? A new Doctor, a gorgeous dinosaur, old friends and a slightly familiar enemy. On the whole, it was pretty damn good.

Ten year old me speaks (warning: spoilers; he's not that sensitive to other people's point of view):

Whoa! Space battle! Pow-pow-pow! Explosions! Someone's gonna blow up! But wait! The Doctor totally saves her. Then she pulls a gun on him and and he makes her say please! Then he takes her home and they're gonna kill him unless he'll goes all small and goes inside a dalek! Whoa! Then some stuff with Clara and a boy. Then the Doctor picks up Clara and they get shrunk and put inside the dalek. The dalek wants to be good and kill other daleks but there's something wrong and the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to fix it. Then the dalek's bad after all and we get a big battle with lots of exterminating. But the Doctor and Clara persuade it to go good again and it shoots all the other daleks and there are more awesome explosions and... and... and it's amazing! The end.

Back to older, more considered me:

Part of me surrendered to my inner little boy and just enjoyed the thrill ride that Into the Dalek was. It was an exciting action adventure with a new, gritty Doctor that was perfectly tuned to appeal to little boys. But the audience for Doctor Who is broader and I reacted to the episode on different levels. I don't think it's fair to give it a good or bad review, so let's try the feedback sandwich approach that we're supposed to get at personal appraisals.

Starting with the good stuff, there was lots to like in the episode. It had some breath taking visuals and it rattled along at an exciting pace. The new, spikier Doctor is a real treat. Capaldi's understated and dry performance is delightful and the callous or rude moments call to mind Gregory House as the Doctor. The overall concept of the episode was intriguing and on the whole pretty well realised.

Now the things I didn't like as much. This may seem like a well filled sandwich, but they're all pretty minor points. The plot seemed to have a few dangling threads which I'm reluctant to tug on too hard in case the whole thing falls apart, which would be a shame. The emotional contrast between Danny Pink and the Doctor's view of the military was interesting and is clearly an ongoing thread, but in order to accommodate this we had to have the Doctor pick Clara up from her day's teaching to have the adventure and then deposit her back in the supply cupboard at the end of the episode. The series has been doing this quite a bit of late; towards the end of the Smith/Pond era, the Doctor would drop in and out of Amy and Rory's lives rather than them joining him on his travels. This relies on him piloting the TARDIS with accuracy (most of the time), which means losing the notion of them arriving at random destinations. It also makes it harder to address the problem of "why don't they just get in the TARDIS and leave?", which earlier incarnations of the show took pains to address.

In this case, the Doctor is at gun point, about to be forced to be miniaturised and sent inside a dalek to fix it. Somehow, he gets away, goes to pick up Clara, delivers the coffee that he'd gone to pick up, has a discussion about whether he's a good man or not, then returns with her to continue the adventure, picking up on being at gun point again. His motivation is that he seems to have come across a good dalek, which intrigues him, creates his own identity crisis and, presumably, he decides he needs Clara to act as his carer. Or did he decide that the coffee was getting cold? It's hard to tell.

The problem with having a well functioning TARDIS, and the ability to duck away to it at will, is that the Doctor can duck in and out of his adventures as he sees fit. He could choose anyone he wants to accompany him based on their skills. Why not a previous companion? Jo was very empathetic, wouldn't she be an equally good carer? Of course the reason he chooses Clara is because she's his current companion, but when not following a narrative of a continuing journey, this all gets a little more messy to explain.

My next concern was regarding the "good" dalek. The Doctor is asking whether there's such a thing because the captive dalek is saying that all daleks must die, yet by the end of the episode he's lamenting that the dalek is no good for saying precisely the same thing. Yes, there's the whole mirror of the Doctor's hidden hatred for daleks which horrifies him, but I do wonder about his initial motivation. Once he's escaped gun point and got away in the TARDIS, is there not a better chance that he'd think "broken dalek is probably better off left broken" and just gone back and had his coffee with Clara? I'm over thinking it.

I also wonder a little about the timing of events once the dalek was repaired. Given how destructive daleks can be and that they were on maximum extermination mode, accept no surrender, things seemed to proceed at quite a leisurely pace inside the dalek. Don't get me wrong, the dramatic tension was maintained, I just wonder whether there really was time for the Doctor and Clara to formulate a plan and put it into place before everyone was wiped out.

My other slight niggle which I have with every miniaturisation story was I couldn't work out if the scale maintained was consistent. In the shrinking scene, it looked like the Doctor's party were shrunk to about a centimetre in height, but it's hard to tell if this remained consistent throughout. Incidentally, I liked the  whole "don't hold your breath" notion, as it had me concentrating on my breathing, but it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. If the air in your lungs for some reason doesn't shrink along with you, what about the urine in your bladder? You can't compress a liquid, so does the process actually shrink each atom of your being? In which case the molecules of air would shrink alongside you, wouldn't they? I'm definitely over thinking this.

Let's get back to the stuff I liked. Little-boy-me loved the full scale space battle at the start. He loved all the explosions and the proper dalek battle the like of which we hadn't really seen since Parting of the Ways. I thought the setting of the inside of the dalek was well done. Despite my reservations about jumping between Coal Hill School and the adventure proper, I like the contrast between fantastic and mundane, it's something Doctor Who does well. I liked the emotional beats of the episode and I loved Danny Pink. He's a likeable character and I look forward to seeing more of him. Capaldi's Doctor is a tour de force and he's already fantastic, to coin a ninth Doctorism.

On the production side, I really like the new credits. They're beautiful and I love that they picked up on a fan's work. I'm less keen on the current version of the theme. The bass and rhythm work well but the "woo-woo's" seem a little thin and synth-y. If these credits were married up with the orchestral triumphant theme used in the Tennant years they would be spectacular.

Nick Brigg's dalek voices continue to be excellent, but I wonder if the production is missing a trick by using just one voice artist on them. In the classic era there was usually at least two or more of Peter Hawkins, David Graham and Roy Skelton (among others) working at one time. I think the result, while sometimes patchy, gave a broader range of voices. Daleks are not meant to be clones and while Briggs is versatile, I'd very much like to see what another actor could do with them too.

I've not yet touched on Missy. Her appearance here seemed a little forced and crowbarred in. She's intriguing though and her high tea looks lovely. She can certainly put on a good spread. And that's what Into the Dalek was. A damn good spread put with confidence by a highly competent team. I can't wait for next week.

Another one watch review.

Well that was quite something! There was so much to enjoy. It was high time the daleks had a decent two parter. This one felt satisfying. It was scary. It challenged many conceptions. It had fun moments. There were moments of horror, some new developments and plenty of excitement. Let's take a few of the elements and examine them.

Missy
Not since 1973's Frontier in Space has the Master appeared alongside the daleks and even then it was only briefly. Both were in The Five Doctors, but the dalek was only really a stand alone cameo in that adventure. This time Missy had lots of screen time with the daleks and she was wonderful. In turns charming, irreverent, devious and just plain bonkers, her every moment on screen was a delight to watch. Michelle Gomez has breathed new life into the character. I didn't feel that the revived series ever quite got the Master right, but that's all changed now. She fits the role perfectly and there's no doubt in my mind that this is the same character that Roger Delgado first brought to the screen.

Missy had some wonderful moments: throwing Clara into a hole to find out how deep it was; turning her back to call Clara's bluff about killing her; poking Davros in his eye, to name but three. She also had the most deliciously devious and downright evil moment, but I'll avoid spoilering the whole episode.

Davros
Julian Bleach's portrayal is brilliant. My only complaint is that he isn't Terry Molloy, although he's every bit as good. He had me believing in Davros' remorse and his manipulation of the Doctor. He was chilling and very watchable. The moment when his real eyes opened for the first time was compelling. This was like the moment a dalek was first shown going upstairs. The shock and awe was punctured somewhat later in the evening when I read Sid Trotter's tweet:
Sid Trotter @sidtrotter
 

Davros being able to open his eyes means he'll get his benefits cut. Trust me.

Clara
Clara had her work cut out dealing with Missy in this episode. She started tied up and suspended from a rope and frankly things didn't get much better for her. When hiding inside a dalek casing we learn for the first time that the casing doesn't let its occupant express certain feelings. This is different to the experience Ian had in the first dalek story when he was able to talk without software restraints. Perhaps the casings have changed since then? Had Clara found herself in one of the sixties dalek cases, would this have been the case. too? Again, Twitter provided a plausible explanation:

chiller @chiller
"Say 'you are different from me.'" "EXTERMINATE!" OMG the Daleks are #DailyMail readers. #DoctorWho

The daleks themselves, while looking wonderful, had little to do but watch the story between the Doctor and Davros unfold. This wasn't a huge issue in the time alloted, but had it gone on much longer we might have fallen into the problems that some of the eighties dalek stories displayed; that the daleks were diminished by their creator. This story was more about Davros than his creations, but they still manage to appear in the series without him, which I think was the major problem the series ran into back in the eighties. 
 
The Doctor using Davros' chair was a delight. In fact Capaldi's performance was sparkling. He gave little away, but we saw more light and shade than I felt he showed during all the last season. He's settled into the role and it shows. The longer hair suits his doctor as do the variations in his costume. 
 
I enjoyed the theme of the fine line between being a friend and an enemy. Missy, Clara and Davros are all important to the Doctor and they go back a long way. While there was a little bit of timey-wimeyness in the plot it wasn't simply being clever for the sake of it, which is a criticism that I'd level at some of Steven Moffat's work. This plot had plenty of heart and it was based on character. It was nearly perfect.
 
OK, just to show that I can find something to pick at, I didn't like the episode titles. They didn't seem to relate to the story on anything more than a tangential level. But as they came attached to the best dalek story since Dalek, I'll live with them.

This is a one watch review. I may have missed bits. It's based on my first impression as a viewer and so I've not analysed any scenes or shots in detail. In my view too much dissection makes Doctor Who lose its appeal.

This was an ambitious cinematic time and space opera that was designed to dazzle the viewer with its breadth and scope. The central conceit was based upon a single line in 1975's Genesis of the Daleks and pretty much everything else was window dressing, although it was very pretty and very clever window dressing.

The idea of jumping about time and space gave us a somewhat breathless sense of urgency without taking us into much emotional depth, but the speed with which the story bounced about the cosmos and through time gave the sense of a simple joy ride. I felt the stand out performances came from the female regulars. Both Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez knocked it out of the park. They're a fascinating pairing and I'd love to see more of them. How about a spin off with Clara unwillingly exploring the universe with Missy? It seems like such delicious fun.

We got more of an insight into the Doctor's relationship with Missy/The Master. When directly challenged about it being love, Missy protests that friendship goes so much deeper than that. I loved her suggestion that setting traps was her form of flirting. Yet, just to ensure we don't think of her as too warm and cuddly she callously despatched two UNIT operatives as if she were swatting flies. That she and the Doctor appeared to be teamed up against the surprise antagonist had her protesting about who really makes the better mortal enemy, which was a beautiful demonstration of the relationship between love and hate and how the two have a lot in common.

The man made of snakes* was an interesting diversion. Despite reading his name in DWM it utterly escapes me now and in the spirit of a one watch review I'm not going to look it up. He had a Darth Maul vibe about him. It brought menace but no real sense of danger. He was an underling without much substance, but the effect where he dissolved into snakes was very nice. I hope we find out a bit more about him and how he appears to be some kind of gestalt democracy.

The daleks were wonderful. After Asylum promised a multitude of dalek types and failed to deliver it was great to see the 1960's daleks front and centre alongside the new series ones. It's touches like this that suggest to me the Steven Moffat does listen to fans and acts when he thinks it will benefit the series. It was pleasing to see that the hump backed daleks of Victory were nowhere to be seen. They were an unsuccessful design within a long line of well designed daleks. Seeing so many other types side by side demonstrated how much of a misstep that had been. It was also lovely to see elements of design and sound effects that really harked back to the creature's first appearance back in 1963.

I was disappointed to see a dalekized human used however. Since the appearance of human agents who suddenly sprout an eyestalk in Asylum of the Daleks I feel they haven't really worked. Apart from a neat visual effect what's the point of that eyestalk anyway? It looks silly.

That's a minor niggle really though as we had a very enjoyable romp through concepts that have been touched upon throughout the old and new series. Moffat has left enough narrative gaps for the regular viewer to be able to guess how the multiple cliff hangar could be resolved. I hope it's a little different to my own predictions which suggest a little time tampering or simply filling in a few gaps in the story to resolve the Doctor's dilemma.

Which brings me to the final cliff hangar. Did it not seem somewhat suddenly sprung upon us? How did it come about? There seemed to be a big jump in the narrative which jarred with me. I guess all will be revealed next week.

In all The Magician's Apprentice was an enjoyable watch and breath taking in several ways. We've been dazzled with a cinematic delight, but I hope the rest of the series will bring some smaller scale story telling and some more character based stuff. There was plenty of characterisation here, but it wasn't the main focus of the story, which was more about grabbing our attention visually and intellectually. I hope we'll see a little more heart in the coming episodes.

* Colony Sarf, of course! Twitter came to my rescue with the name.