The Magician's Apprentice Trivia Quiz

Answer: Davros

The Doctor finds himself in the position of deciding whether to save Davros, the creator of the Daleks. This Davros is around 10 years old, and is stuck in the middle of a "hand mine" field with 1000 to 1 odds against survival. The Doctor gives him the sonic screwdriver and some encouraging words .... until he discovers the boy's identity.

Davros made his first appearance in "Genesis of the Daleks" (March 1975). He is a scientific genius who was horribly injured in a laboratory accident and is confined to a mobile life support unit. It was Davros who genetically engineered the Daleks to rid them of emotions and make them hostile to all other life forms. Davros has appeared multiple times over the last 40 years of "Doctor Who", and has been repeatedly thwarted by The Doctor.

Answer: Jane Austen

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was one of the foremost authors of the early 19th century. She is best known for the novels "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), "Mansfield Park" (1814) and "Emma" (1815). Her novels remain popular 200 years later, and have frequently been made into film adaptations.

Mary Shelley (1797-1851) created the first modern horror story "Frankenstein". Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) wrote "Jane Eyre". George Eliot (1819-1880) aka Mary Ann Evans, has tortured generations of English students with her novels "Silas Marner" (1861) and "The Mill on the Floss" (1860). Hopefully Clara does not teach about George Eliot in her English class.

Answer: 4165

According to the scientific director of UNIT, there were 4165 planes in the air at the time they stopped moving. The planes were stopped by Missy, who was seeking to get the attention of the authorities. Missy referred to it as "a basic time stop, a parlor trick."

Missy used the planes as leverage to get a meeting with Clara Oswald. She released the planes as a sign of good will, right before the two of them went searching for the Doctor.

Answer: Hey Mickey

"Hey Mickey" was a 1982 hit by Toni Basil. The video is notable for Basil appearing with cheerleaders. The song was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 list in December 1982. It also went #1 in Canada and Australia and was #2 in the UK. Missy's specific message was "Hey Missy You So Fine. You So Fine. You Blow My Mind."

"I'm Too Sexy" was released in 1991 by Right Said Fred. It was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1992.

"99 Luftballoons" was sung by Nena during the height of the Cold War in 1983. It peaked at #2 in the United States, but reached #1 in much of Europe.

"Macarena" by the Spanish group Los del Rio was the biggest song of 1996, spending an amazing 14 weeks at #1 in the summer and fall.

Answer: Electric guitar

The Doctor, who likes to make an entrance, was rocking out on an electric guitar while riding a tank. Missy told Clara to find the Doctor by looking for anachronisms. Along with electric guitars and modern armored tanks, the Doctor introduced the word "Dude" to the lexicon several centuries early.

The Doctor turns out to be quite an excellent guitar player. His intro was a riff on the "Doctor Who" theme. When he spotted Clara, he played "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.

That really was Peter Capaldi playing the guitar. Before he got into acting, Capaldi was a musician with a band called "Dreamboys." He was the lead singer and guitarist, while comedian Craig Ferguson was the drummer. Capaldi said he had joked around with the writers about being a guitarist, and was delighted when Moffat used it in the script.

Answer: Snakes

Colony Sarff was a giant snake surrounded by many smaller snakes. He visited the Shadow Proclamation and Karn in attempting to locate the Doctor. Sarff was played by Jami Reid-Quarrell. It is his first appearance as an actor.

If you are looking for spiders, try "Planet of the Spiders" (1974), a Third Doctor adventure set on Metebelis III. For scorpions, try "The Lazarus Experiment" (2007), a Tenth Doctor story with a mutated scientist. For beetles, try "Turn Left" (2008), where Donna Noble has a large beetle on her back.

Answer: Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)

When the Doctor meets Davros, the scientist plays clips of several conversations from previous episodes. The video comes from "Genesis of the Daleks" as the Fourth Doctor (Baker) is considering blowing up the Dalek incubation chamber and ending the threat of the Daleks permanently.

Davros plays a clip of the Fourth Doctor saying "If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?" In a brilliant nod by Steven Moffat to the show's history, this is precisely the moral dilemma The Doctor faces in "The Magician's Apprentice."

The Fifth Doctor (Davison) confronts Davros in "Resurrection of the Daleks" (1984). The Seventh Doctor (McCoy) battled Davros for the final time during the original series in "Remembrance of the Daleks" (1988). Davros reappeared during the new series in "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" where he was defeated by the Tenth Doctor, Meta-crisis Doctor and the Doctor-Donna. While it appeared that Davros had died several times, you can't keep an evil mad scientist down.

Answer: Skaro

While they appeared to be on a space station, the Doctor and Missy both noted that the gravity was wrong. Missy quickly determined they were on a planet, and was just as horrified as the Doctor to find them on Skaro.

Skaro is the homeworld of the Daleks. After a thousand year war, radiation was mutating the race of the Kaleds into strange creatures. Davros created transport units for the new creatures, weaponized the units and genetically modified his new creatures to be evil and ruthless. Terry Nation, the original creator of the Daleks, based some of the fascist and eugenic aspects of the species on Nazi ideology. It is no coincidence that the uniforms in "Genesis of the Daleks" are similar to Nazi SS uniforms.

Answer: False

Despite her best efforts, Missy is unable to convince the Daleks and they zap her. Although given that this is The Master, the odds that even the Daleks are capable of killing her are rather small.

Missy (The Mistress) was played by Michelle Gomez, who seems to be having enormous fun playing the Doctor's Time Lord nemesis. Gomez has been acting in film and television since 1992. She is probably best known for her television work, in programs such as "The Book Group" (2002-2003), "Green Wing" (2004-2006) and "Bad Education" (2012-2013). Her first appearance on "Doctor Who" was in the season eight opener "Deep Breath".

Answer: Hettie McDonald

Hettie McDonald directed both "The Magician's Apprentice" and "The Witch's Familiar". McDonald and Moffat first worked together on "Blink" (2007) which is widely regarded as the best episode of the new era. While McDonald has worked primarily in television over the last 20 years, she has also done work in London theater and directed the film "Beautiful Thing" (1996).

Steven Moffatt, the show-runner of"Doctor Who" since 2010, wrote "Magician's Apprentice" and "Witch's Familiar". He has written most of the key episodes over the last five years.

Julian Bleach was the actor playing the dying Davros. He first played Davros in "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" back in 2008.

Peter Bennett was the producer for "The Magician's Apprentice" He has been active as a director since 1976. Credits on his resume include "The Princess Bride" (1987), "The Mummy" (1999) and "Syriana" (2005). His work on "Torchwood" led to his current job as a producer on "Doctor Who".

Michelle Gomez makes her return as Missy, the female regeneration of The Master who appeared repeatedly throughout Season Eight.