Celebrating Series 9!

Excitement for Peter Capaldi’s second series as the Doctor began building in earnest on 9 July, 2015 when we dropped this trailer… It seems like a lifetime ago, but do you remember watching this for the first time?

It hinted at many of the things that were to come. A more relaxed, ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ Doctor complete with shades and guitar; the Time Lord and Clara plunging into big new adventures with an undisguised relish! And look! The hugs! The two time-travellers’ friendship now stronger than ever. When The Magician’s Apprentice aired on 19 September it was a joy to see all that confirmed…

The Time Lord who questioned whether he was a good man had evolved into a figure whose huge entrance was playing a guitar on top of a tank! Embracing Clara like he never wanted to let go and the two of them hurling themselves headlong into adventure!

The Magician’s Apprentice / The Witch’s Familiar was also crammed with great humour, often courtesy of Michelle Gomez as Missy. “Between us and him is everything the deadliest race in all of history can throw at us,’ she tells Clara at one point. ‘We, on the other hand, have a pointy stick…’

And Davros was back… Seen as both the malevolent monster defeated by the Doctor on so many occasions and as a terrified child, trapped on the battlefields of Skaro. Perhaps only Doctor Who could end an adventure with its hero holding the hand of his deadly enemy whilst leading him to safety and advocating mercy…

The second story – Under the Lake / Before the Flood - saw Clara more impetuous than ever and showed the Doctor’s real concern by her lust for adventure. He talked about his duty of care to his companion but when trapped on a base, surrounded by killer ghosts, there wasn’t much he could offer in terms of safety!

The adventure also introduced the terrifying Fisher King and a bunch of military personal working in the ‘haunted’ base. Many fans instantly took to the sharp, no-nonsense and courageous leader of the group, Cass (played by the brilliant Sophie Stone) whose ability to lip read (the character was deaf) proved pivotal in the story.

And from an underwater base in the future, the TARDIS next took us to a Viking village where we met Ashildr for the first time…

There was some glorious humour with the Doctor on top form as he and Clara arrived at the settlement (‘He hasn’t even got a yo-yo!’) but on a more serious level, his companion’s ability to replicate his moves was becoming more apparent. At one point she virtually talked a warrior race into backing down… Before young Ashildr’s aggression undid her good work!

And of course, when the Doctor fused Mire tech with Ashildr to make her ‘immortal’ he reflected she was a kind of hybrid. After Davros’ reference to the Hybrid, our interest was piqued…

The Woman Who Lived saw the return of Ashildr. At once a helter-skelter romp with highwaymen, chases and high-jinx on the scaffold, it was also a poignant look at why figures like the Doctor and Ashildr need mortals… ‘People like us,’ he tells her, ‘we go on too long. We forget what matters. The last thing we need is each other. We need the mayflies. See, the mayflies, they know more than we do. They know how beautiful and precious life is because it's fleeting.’

But at the end of The Woman Who Lived we glimpsed Ashildr keeping an eye on the Doctor and heard Clara tell him, ‘Don't worry, daft old man. I'm not going anywhere.’ Eek. We always worry when characters say that in the final line of an episode…

The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion saw the return of Kate, UNIT, Osgood and the Zygons! A dark thriller of a two-parter where things were seldom as they seemed, we saw the best and worst of humanity and aliens as the Doctor’s astonishing, impassioned plea against war saved the day… But there was also talk of Osgood being like a hybrid… The creature was clearly weighing heavily on the Doctor’s mind…

But the adventure also offered another reminder of how impossibly attached the Doctor had become to the Impossible Girl. ‘I let Clara Oswald get inside my head,’ he confided to Bonnie. ‘Trust me. She doesn't leave…’

Sleep No More was the kind of episode which reminds us that after over 50 years of adventures, Doctor Who can still do something completely new… Written by the brilliant Mark Gatiss this was a ‘found footage’ episode and although it contained many staples of a ‘base under siege’ story, it was fresh and original in the way the action unfolded and the chilling, masterful twist at the end had many people reaching for the corner of their eye, nervously…

And then… Then it was time to Face the Raven! It was a delight to see the return of Rigsy and an older version of Ashildr, now known as Mayor Me. And the actual basis of the story was terrific – that certain streets are hidden from view and are home to all the strange, strange creatures…

But, of course, Face the Raven will chiefly be remembered for this scene…

Clara’s transformation into someone who was so like the Doctor that she would, in a heartbeat, risk her life for someone else, had played out with tragic consequences and the Time Lord’s cold fury made the wait for Heaven Sent almost unbearable…

The penultimate episode of the series was another slice of brilliance with writer Steven Moffat, director Rachel Talalay and Peter Capaldi all at the top of their game and combining to create something very special. A virtual one-hander it traced the Doctor’s attempt to deal with the loss of Clara and as he punched his way through a wall 400 times harder than diamond, it became clear that her loss had made him unstoppable. Some Time Lord.

During the final scenes we witnessed him emerge into the glare of Gallifrey and give a message to a young lad on the sands. ‘Tell them, I know what they did, and I'm on my way. And if they ask you who I am, tell them, I came the long way round…’

Hell Bent rounded off the series in style… A battle with the Time Lords that was at once epic and personal with the Doctor defeating Rassilon without firing a single shot. And yet he was hell bent on rescuing Clara, of fulfilling his duty of care… This meant the Doctor going further than ever before, even shooting the General who, of course, regenerated. He managed to rescue Clara, plucking her from her timeline on the trap street after she had ‘faced the raven’.

And whatever the rights and wrongs of his actions, it meant she was ultimately free to continue her adventures. The Doctor fled Gallifrey – not for the first time - and for a period had become a traveller without the TARDIS, with no memory of who Clara was and no idea where he might find her…

In the end, Clara Oswald zoomed across the cosmos in a TARDIS with Ashildr, intent on new adventures as she travelled to Gallifrey… the long way round! And the Doctor, inevitably and movingly, was reunited with his time machine… As he gazed around his home and slipped his jacket back on, there was a sense of the Doctor being back. Sonic screwdriver in hand, piloting the TARDIS to brilliant new adventures across all of time and space!

The Doctor returns on Christmas Day in The Husbands of River Song!