S9E1: "The Magician's Apprentice"

This episode was the best Doctor Who I've seen in quite some time. mind you, in dealing with some major changes in my personal life (an explanation for my hiatus) it's the only Doctor Who that I've seen since probably the Christmas episode, but the point still stands.

So, why was it so good? The first few ten minutes of the episode brought us to the past of Doctor Who, with visits to The Shadow Proclamation and Karn (and the Sisterhood), glimpses of ood, and I believe one Sycorax, a new, em, creature, Colony Sarff. But before all that, the name of the boy who was not going to die that day: Davros. (It's not a spoiler if it happened before the title sequence, right?)

Classic Who Episodes Found!

Hi there, resident classic-Who quasi-expert Seth here! Yes, yes, I know, I've been a long time gone. I've been busy. Doing what, you ask? Well, I'll get to that in a later article. In the meantime, Who novelist Lance Parkin has been nice enough to break the BBC embargo on the missing episode news that was announced today via his Facebook page. What did we find? What does it mean?

Well, first of all, the nine episodes found today were from the Patrick Troughton era, dropping his count of missing episodes from 62 to 53 and the overall count of missing episodes from 106 to 97, officially dispelling long-held conventional wisdom that we'd never have fewer than 100 missing episode. Good news all around, really, but especially for Troughton fans, who have long suffered not just from missing episodes but from most of those episodes being scattered about different serials, leaving us with very few complete stories.

Hot Pat-on-Pat action!

Thankfully, we now have one more--all five missing episodes of six-parter The Enemy of the World were found, a hallmark for a number of reasons. It was the last story to have series co-creator Sydney Newman directly involved, for one. It was the first serial directed by Barry Letts, who would go on to run the show for all of Jon Pertwee's five years and cast Tom Baker as his successor. And it's the penultimate serial written by the show's original script editor and resident genius-alchemist-madman, David Whitaker. Of course, for all of you who don't care about the behind the scenes nitty-gritty--well, you also get Patrick Troughton's Doctor match wits with ruthless megalomaniac conqueror Salamander, who is also played by Patrick Troughton, and they fight in the last episode via splitscreen. I don't doubt that'll be a lot of fun to watch.

Finally, you can get the Yeti off your loo
and back on your telly!
(Sometimes I'm only amusing myself.)

Not complete, but now only missing a single episode instead of five, is another six-parter called The Web of Fear. It's the first appearance of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT, who would go on to be a lead during Pertwee's era and the show's longest-lasting recurring character (besides the Doctor himself, of course.) It's also the second appearance of the Great Intelligence, and the last one of the classic series. The site's spoiler policy means I can't be too explicit, but those of you who were following the show this past year should be pretty familiar with that guy, and now you'll be able to know first-hand
what that whole "London Underground" speech in the Christmas special was about.

These apparently weren't the only episodes found, with more news due out soon. I'll post more as events warrant.

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"The Poison Sky" 4x5

Original Air Date: 3 May 2008

Are you my mummy?
That awkward moment when you watch yourself die.
Aaaand everything's okay again.
He's so willing to die. If I hadn't been like that, I'd find it disturbing.
Congrats Luke. You got the world into that mess, good for you for getting it out.
If you could go with the doctor, if you really could, would you? I would.
Wot! Wot!? WOT?!

"The Sontaran Stratagem" 4x4

Original Air Date: 26 April 2008

You hug him and you get a paper cut. I say that about my brother all the time. Why can't I have that part of his genetics?
Oh hai, UNIT.
Yes. That's exactly what he did to her. He turned her into a soldier.
I have a cup of tea...a really good cup of tea.
This is a specifically good episode.
Mah leg!
Ermahgeherd we're fighting Mr. Potato Head!
"A hothouse for geniuses. I wouldn't mind going. I get lonely." Can I come?
Advance the conquest. Oh, men and their conquests.
More tea!
The place where Donna lives looks so nice. I would live there!
The whole scene in Rattigan Academy is great-it's kinda all like "talk nerdy to me!"
Intruda window!
The lasts of the Time Lords will not die at the hands of the Sontaran Empire in the ruins of his prescious Earth!
OooOOOhhh battle status one.
Sontar-ha!

New Episode Reaction: The Bells of Saint John SPOILERS

I may be in the US, but I watched the premier with the UK.
And I have to say, I thought it would be a lot better.
The episode gets 2 1/2 stars.
That is not to say that it was bad and you are all not in for a treat, but for a premier episode, it was very lacking. Spoilers below.