Doctor Who Recap: The Eaters of Light goes back to Roman times
Credit: BBC
Last week, we were on Mars, this week, we’re in Aberdeen. This week, time and place make no difference in what makes a good, solid episode.
The episode begins with the Doctor and Bill both claiming they know more about what happened to the Ninth Legion of the Roman Centurions. They travel back in time to Scotland during the Roman Empire with two theories: Bill thinks they travelled by the river, and the Doctor thinks they were killed in battle. They both decide to split up and figure out who was right. The deal was to come back with a centurion from the ninth legion. (We still don’t know why Nardole is in his PJs.)
While Bill does find the legion of soldiers, she also finds a beast. It has tentacles and devours their prey in slime, killing them. The soldier dies, and Bill finds the rest of what’s left of the legion but passes out from a bit of the slime.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has found a group of Scottish people who tried fighting against the Romans. They say that someone called the “gatekeeper” killed them all named Karr. The Doctor eventually finds the gate and finds it’s an interdimensional temporal rift. A couple seconds at the gate is two days on Earth. (At this point, Nardole is still in his PJs.)
The Beast
It’s up to the Scottish clan and the Roman legion to work together to defeat the beast. They use tools made to shine lights on the beast and kill it. Now they have to make sure no other beasts get through. The only way is to keep the gate protected at all times. The Doctor volunteers to do this for the rest of his life, through all his regenerations and send Bill home to her life. For once, the others decide it’s not the Doctor’s job.
Three of the Scottish/Roman legion go into the gate and is sealed on the other side to protect the Earth. Earlier in the episode, we learned crows used to talk, but now they only say one thing: “Karr”. The Doctor said crows don’t talk anymore since humans ignored them. Nardole realises that they’re remembering Karr, one of the three who sacrifices herself.
"“They’re not annoyed, they’re remembering.” – Nardole"
The TARDIS and Missy
Getting back in the Tardis, Nardole urges the Doctor to go home and protect the vault where Missy is. The Doctor has another alternative to keeping Missy in the vault. He’s allowing her to do repair work on the TARDIS for free while keeping an eye on her. (Plus, given the TARDIS is an infinite space, it’s also a lot more space.) He’s also trying to teach her a lesson – try to hear the music.
He catches Missy crying, and she admits that she doesn’t know why she does that so much.
"DOCTOR: “The alternative is, it’s real. And it’s time for us to…become friends again.”MISSY: “Do you think so?”DOCTOR: “I don’t know. That’s the problem with hope. It’s hard to resist.”"
Here are tissues for everyone for that scene. I think at this point before all the drama begins, we can all say we just want the Doctor to trust Missy. But Missy is a villain. And she will always be a villain, as much as we hope otherwise.
S10E10. The Eaters of Light. B. . Doctor Who
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