The writer of this episode, Rona Munro, is as a playwright and scriptwriter but Doctor Who fans would identify her as the writer of Survival, the final story of Doctor Who’s original 26 year run. Survival was a pretty good story and I was curious to see whether The Eaters of Light would live up to it.
The
Eaters of Light does share a few similarities with Rona’s previous
tale. In Survival the Doctor and his companion met a
group of young people surviving in the wild from monsters. In this story he meets two
different groups of young people surviving in the wild from monsters. One of these groups is
the Pict people, the residents of Scotland. The other group are the survivors
of the Ninth Legion, a group of young male Romans sent to conquer the country. As with Survival, the
fighting of these different factions is causing damage to the greater world at
large and the Doctor also gets a speech where he implores each group to stop
fighting or they will die together.
The monster that the Picts and
the Legion are faced with is an Eater of Light. For many years, a warrior of the Pict tribe would enter a Cairn to fight this monster and keep the rest of the world safe. Since the Romans invaded, the young warrior Kar decided to allow a Eaters of Light into the world to kill the Romans. Kar's actions have had grave consequences as there is now a risk that many
more Eaters of Light will go on. Although the concept of a creature that can eat light is a good one, the realization of the Eater was slightly
disappointing. The CGI dragon looked like something that would come from a PS2 game. It was a fairly
standard threat.
Ultimately, the Ninth Legion
and the Picts decide to sacrifice themselves by throwing themselves into the portal
and fighting the Eaters. As time is different in the Cairn where the portal is,
the Picts and Romans can fight the Eaters for a few minutes and the outside
world will be getting years of peace. Kar’s decision to take the Doctor’s advice
about growing up and fight is necessary to fight evils. It is suitable message
for young people who should take a stand against the problems of the world like
terrorism. It was interesting that the Doctor was initially willing to
sacrifice himself. I thought he would stay and this would lead itno the finale,
but it is a scene for the companions to pull him away.
The supporting cast are decent. Rebecca Benson is good in the role of Kar, alternating between being a fighter and having a vulnerability. A female character who is not too
brave to be unbelievable. She is well-meaning and naïve attitude. The Roman
Legion are well played, but the most we learn about them are their sexualities.
The Celtic music is probably my
favourite pieces of Murray Gold’s music so far this series. It would be great
if we could get a soundtrack of this and his Series 9 scores that Silva Screen
couldn’t be bothered to release. The
direction was nothing special but at least the damp hillside location looked
very atmospheric.
Bill is really good this week.
The episode makes up for Empress of Mars
where she side-lined. She comes into the story already knowing the Ninth Legion
and is able to persuade the Romans to leave their hiding place so they can find
the Doctor. I’m not sure she
demonstrated being a history buff before but this is something the writers are
pushing now. Once again she is chatted up but this time by a bisexual person. This
is also the episode where she finds out the Tardis translation circuits and it’s
nice that she is still learning the different facets of the show as she goes
on.
Nardole is also fantastic in
the episode. He is the only member of the crew to ingratiate himself with the
Pict tribe. He also gets the brilliant joke about Scotland causing death. It is
wonderful seeing him on a proper adventure with the Doctor and Bill. He is a
really fun character. His only downside is that he hates Jazz.
Peter Capaldi is on top form. His Doctor getting some great lines this week
and shares a lot of fun banter with Nardole and Bill. He shows off his ruder
side when he declares the two warrior groups as children and we see him act as
a magician when he outwits the Picts with a bag of popcorn and the warrior who
wants to self-sacrificial side when he offers to be the one who stays over the
rift.
One final similarity between
Survival and Eaters of Light is the appearance by the Master, or rather Missy,
who makes a brief appearance at the end of the episode. Although the Doctor
told Bill and Nardole that he had taken her back to the vault he had actually
kept her on the Tardis to help with the maintenance. She is once again
pretending to be turned good. I still find this difficult to believe as it
feels so rushed. I think the writers should have threaded this redemption story
across a few more episodes in order to make it feel convincing. It still feels
as though she is going to betray him any second. More interesting is the Doctor’s
reaction as he desperately wants Missy to be good even if she was to. If he is
going to be disappointed then it will be interesting to see.
The
Eaters of Light was a solid episode. It was not a game-changing
episode but it had a good location, decent characterisation and some great
dialogue. Once again, the Doctor, Bill and Nardole prove themselves to be the
best Tardis team. Next week’s episode looks like it will shape things up.
8/10
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