'Doctor Who' | 'The Eaters of Light' S10E10
In Peter Capaldi’s final stand-alone adventure before the two-part season finale, The Doctor, Bill (Pearl Mackie) and Nardole (Matt Lucas) arrive in second-century Aberdeen to settle a debate about the fate of the Ninth Roman legion. As it turns out, an extra-dimensional being destroyed the entire Legion (apart from a few young survivors), and the surviving young Picts are intent on wiping the other out.
SPOILER ALERT!
It seems fitting for one of the final episodes for both Capaldi and the departing showrunner, Steven Moffat, to be set in their homeland of Scotland. Not only that, but the writer for this episode is another Scot, Rona Munro, and the beautiful highland countryside also features heavily.
The supporting cast featured the fierce Rebecca Benson (‘Game of Thrones’ Talla Tarly), plus a host of other young actors who did an admirable job of looking terrified. The Doctor himself was rather rude to them actually, mocking the leader of the Picts, Kar, for her age, calling her an “embryo”. Bill remarks that everyone must look childish to him, and he tries to move them to action by shouting at them to “grow up”. Not your most rousing speech, Doctor.
Eventually though, he realises their worth despite their age, and he reminds them all that human lives are short and that his own will go on and on, and offers himself to guard the portal, in true Doctor fashion. Thankfully, everyone else refuses to let him do it, and the legend of the Ninth Legion is born.
Nardole had a larger part in this episode than he has in others, wandering around in his pyjamas and a dressing down, trying to ingratiate himself with the locals and telling them stories of space adventures. He’s had some cracking lines in this series so far, including this episode’s remark that death from total lack of sunlight must be “death by Scotland”.
The light-eating monster, which sounded terrifying when the Doctor explained its eating habits, didn’t look all that scary when exposed to torchlight. The fact that the inter-dimensional rift was located in a burial mound plays in nicely with Celtic lore about time portals and gates to the Faerie realm, but thankfully the standing stones didn’t carry that little girl off to eighteenth-century Scotland, a la ‘Outlander’.
What exactly is going on with Missy (Michelle Gomez), though? The Doctor allowed her out of the vault to do some TARDIS maintenance, but does he really trust her? And why is she crying while listening to music? Her part in Series 10 has remained a mystery, and hopefully questions will be answered before the end.
Next week’s episode is the first in the two-part season finale, and features Missy going on an adventure of her own.
Watch ‘Doctor Who’ every Saturday night at 7:20pm on BBC One; 9pm on BBC America; and Sundays at 7:30pm on the ABC and iView in Australia.
