Doctor Who: The Eaters of Light (10x10)

This is an episode that I might give a middling score, but it made me think a lot, and it makes me want to write a big long meaty review analyzing some of the pros and cons. In some ways, that makes it better than the average episode of this show nowadays. I'm going to try and restrain myself and make this brief.

Cons:

Apparently, Bill just now figured out about the TARDIS having a universal translator. A little slow on the uptake, there? For some reason, this just really rubbed me the wrong way. I liked the fact that everybody understanding each other led to a deeper conversation, but it felt silly that Bill hadn't put this together before now. Also, that "deeper conversation" involves Scottish natives and the 9th Roman Legion realizing that they are all just scared children and should be on the same side. Oh, good. An end to a violent conflict. Except that it's more complicated than that. I feel like the episode failed to wrestle with the fact that there definitely is a wrong side in this conflict. I'm not blaming the individual young people fighting with the Romans, but I am blaming the Roman Empire... they were invaders and conquerors. They enslaved and murdered innocents. It felt a little strange that the episode's thesis was all about how these two sides can be united, but there was no point in which we really wrestled with the philosophies of the two different sides in this conflict.

Another well-meaning yet ultimately odd moment is when one of the Roman legion guys is flirting with Bill, and she explains that she's only interested in women, saying that she knows it'll be a difficult concept for him to understand. However, the soldier is completely okay with it, saying that she's just like another of the soldiers, a man who only likes men. Meanwhile, most people are "normal" in that they like men and women. My problems with this are a bit difficult to define. I want to celebrate what seems like positive representation of sexuality, and I do like it when Bill talks about her own sexuality. But earlier in the episode, Bill says she'd read all sorts of books about the Romans and found them really fascinating. Surely she would have known about ancient Roman views on sexuality? So why was she surprised? And also, it's not "modern." Men were able to take male lovers, sure, but the sexuality of women, particularly women loving other women, was not normalized. It bothered me that they were acting like the ancient Romans were these great forward thinking people. Not so much.

The big bad monster of this episode was a creature coming through to this world through a portal. The Doctor volunteers to guard the gateway forevermore, protecting Earth. But both the Romans and the Scots decide to stay and fight it themselves, giving up their lives to protect their land. A moving moment, definitely. I was a little insulted by the implication that anybody watching would honestly believe that the Doctor was going to stay. I also felt a little annoyed that the sentience of the "monster" was never addressed. The lesson here was to teach two groups of humans that they have things in common and can get along. But what about this alien creature? I know it was killing people, but usually Doctor Who grapples with the morality of dealing with aliens, and here we didn't even get a token suggestion that this "monster" might be worth communicating with. An odd lapse, especially in an episode with the theme of befriending enemies.

Pros:

I liked the setting and circumstances around this episode. The Doctor, Bill, and Nardole all pop back to ancient Scotland to settle an academic debate between the Doctor and Bill. Nardole insists that they get back to the vault, but to no avail. I also appreciate the fact that the Doctor and Nardole end up with one group of people, while Bill ends up with another. Not only do they spend a good chunk of the episode separated, they also spend that time getting to know two sides of the same conflict. When they are brought together in the end, it feels more satisfying because we've seen how both of these sides feel. (Even if, per my complaint above, they could have touched on the horrific behavior of the Romans a bit more).

This was an episode with a lot of really solid and lovely moments. The moment when Bill learns that the commander of the Roman legion is called "Grandpa" because he's the oldest one of them left... and we then learn that he's eighteen years old. The moment when Kar, the gatekeeper of the Scottish survivors, offers to sacrifice herself for the cause, and her brother promises that the world will always remember her name - he then teaches it to the crows, who say "Kar" forevermore. The moment where Bill tells the Doctor that he can't step in and solve every problem, he can't take on every person's destiny, and the Doctor actually agrees with her and admits he was wrong.

Nardole was freakin' hilarious in this episode. Upon essentially being kidnapped, he immediately ingratiates himself with the Scots, painting symbols on his face and trying to talk in a brogue. Bill was amazing in this episode, but Nardole was the one who kept making me laugh.

We get another sort of tacked-on scene at the end with Missy. The pacing with her plot thread does seem a little off, but I'm enjoying it enough that I don't really mind. In this one, we learn that the Doctor is keeping Missy trapped on the TARDIS instead of in the vault, to Nardole and Bill's horror and concern. Missy continually feels sadness and regret for her past actions, which causes the Doctor to begin the dangerous practice of hoping. He hopes this means that he and Missy can be friends once again, and Missy clearly hopes the same. The tension and longing between these two is palpable. Just knowing that they are the last of their kind (at least the last that can actually hang out together) makes every interaction they have so very laden with meaning and tragedy.

I guess that's all I'm going to say on this one. Ultimately, this was a good episode. It took me a little while to figure out how to feel about it, but... yeah. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

8/10