When Peter Capaldi’s first full season of Doctor Who aired in 2014, it had only been one year since the series took its victory lap with the beloved 50th anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor.” And so, despite its quality in retrospect, it’s possible that Season 8, the first 12th Doctor season, felt like a comedown from the jubilation of “The Day of the Doctor.” Capaldi’s take on the heroic Time Lord was much darker in Season 8, and the finale of that season not only brought back the Cybermen for the umpteenth time, but also hastily introduced Michelle Gomez’s new version of The Master, now known as “Missy.” In short, for all of its strengths, Season 8 felt rushed, and so, when Doctor Who came back a year later on September 19, 2015, with Season 9, it did something extremely smart. It slowed down.
Instead of trying to match the frenetic pace of the Matt Smith or David Tennant eras, Season 9 is the moment when then-showrunner Steven Moffat figured out how to make Capaldi’s curmudgeonly take the Doctor the new default mode of the series, rather than a novelty that was simply in contrast with the previous incarnations. And the episode that set the tone for this methodical and nuanced storytelling approach was the Season 9 opener, a banger of an episode called “The Magician's Apprentice.” Here’s why, 10 years later, it represents the best opening of modern Doctor Who, ever.
