'The Eaters of Light' review [Rona Munro]

The Doctor held at spearpoint by the Picts.

Present day - In the ominously named Devil's Cairn in Scotland stands an ancient stone circle where, if you listen carefully, you can hear the music of the ghosts.
2nd century - The Doctor, Bill and Nardole land in Scotland to discover what happened to the lost Ninth Legion of the Roman Army.

Rona Munro is the first Classic Who writer to return to write for the modern series. She previously wrote 1989's 'Survival' starring the Seventh Doctor and Ace, the last episode of Classic Who and arguably McCoy's very best if not one of the best of the show's original run. The script had a decent story, menacing villains and was a great episode for Ace and the Master. Will she work her magic a second time, twenty-eight years later?

Spoiler Zone

The episode

Unfortunately not. The episode is paced like a classic episode but there's ultimately very little threat, so instead of building to a climax it just... coasts along. We're told that the Eater of Light killed an entire Roman army and the Doctor called it the deadliest creature on the planet, but it isn't sufficiently threatening - perhaps we should have seen it do more killing. It doesn't help that neither the Picts nor the Romans are particularly interesting. We know that the creature won't kill the Doctor or his companions so we have to care for the guest characters for there to be any sense of jeopardy. It's visually an impressive enough monster, though.

The story was a bit run-of-the-mill, which doesn't always matter if there's some interesting twists or a new take on mythology or some excellent characterisation. Unfortunately there's none of that. We know the Doctor isn't going to enter the gateway and Peter Capaldi knows it, playing it with little conviction. The scene where Bill is talking to the Roman soldiers about their sexuality seemed forced in and unnecessary. Didn't Pearl Mackie say in an interview that Bill being a lesbian wasn't a big part of her? Then why is it being brought up so often?

The episode wasn't all bad. Bill realising that the TARDIS translates other languages is funny, especially when she calls it "auto-translate" and points out (for the first time) that it includes lip-sync. Nardole is funny whenever he opens his mouth and Missy is sterling as usual in the best scene of the episode. As silly as the crow saying "Kar" was, it was suitably Doctor Who. Unfortunately, the bulk of this episode was boring and familiar, and had a similar feeling to the previous episode 'Empress of Mars' (the Doctor trying to get two sides to team up and all that).

A good quotation

The Doctor: It's as if his bones have disintegrated.

Nardole: Ooo, what could do that?

The Doctor: A complete and total absence of any kind of sunlight.

Nardole: Death by Scotland.

TARDIS crew and co.

• The Doctor: "I've been standing by the gates of your world, keeping you all safe, since you crawled out of the slime. I'm not stopping now." Was this the return of the prickly Twelfth of the eighth season? He was often unlikeable in this episode, particularly in his interactions with Kar, where he's relentlessly patronising and unnecessarily hard on her. He's governed, farmed and juggled in Roman Britain and was once a second-class Vestal virgin.
• Bill Potts: "You don't know more about the Ninth Legion than me. You don't. I read the book. I loved the book. I read everything." We know from 'The Pilot' (and were reminded in 'Empress of Mars') that Bill is a fan of science fiction, and now we learn that she also has a passion for the vanishing of the Ninth Legion. She's not shown much of an interest in history before, but Bill having a great interest for a mystery doesn't seem out of character. She's surprised at how liberal the Romans are with regards to sexual orientation and is told that she's "restricted" for only fancying girls. 
• Nardole: "Don't make me go squeaky-voiced!" Nardole's role is mainly restricted to comic-relief, a job he does fantastically. He doesn't want to be here; he just wants to go back to bed. Again tells the Doctor that he should be guarding the vault, but we're all past caring about that at this point. He claims to know 10% of the Doctor's darkest secrets. 
• Missy: "I don't even know why I'm crying. Why do I keep doing that now?" Missy shows up at the end of the episode for a touching scene between her and the Doctor. She seems to have some sentimentality hearing the music, which she can't understand. She seems truly elated for a moment when the Doctor says that they could be friends again soon. What a jump from calling him her boyfriend in series eight and saying how much he loves her.

Plot holes and continuity

• "Return journeys are easy," the Doctor says about the TARDIS. Does he not remember trying to get Ian and Barbara home? Or Tegan? But then the TARDIS is in better shape now.
• Does Nardole have his facts right? In episode three of 'The Chase', we see the crew of the Mary Celeste jumping overboard after the Daleks arrive chasing the First Doctor. 
• Shall we assume the Picts saw the TARDIS offscreen in order to carve it into the stone?

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