N141 The Eaters of Light - Who Back When | A Doctor Who Podcast

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N142 World Enough and Time »

Doc & Co are happy to leave the fate of humanity in the hands of half a dozen childlike primitives with a very limited musical repertoire

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When Bill challenges The Doctor on his knowledge of Roman Britain, he transports her and Nardole to a desolate Aberdeenshire hillside so that he can establish his credentials on the fate of the famous lost Ninth Legion as a former Roman farmer, governor, juggler, and Vestal Virgin Second Class.

But something is gravely wrong: they’re in Scotland and it’s not raining. No midges either. Either they’ve landed on the one summer day every decade, or a wee embryonic gatekeeping ginge has let a light-eating locust through an inter-dimensional rift, in a classic case of Romanes eunt domus gone wrong.

As our heroes dodge between the spears of the prehistoric Picts and the swords of the cowardly centurions, can they get these two childish factions to stop being scared of each other and grow up, in time to stop the stars from being eaten and finally give Earth’s chatty corvids something to crow about?

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Here's what we think of N141 The Eaters of Light

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

1.7

Drew | @drewbackwhen

2.4

Marie | @hammashandjelly

1.5

Here's what we think of N141 The Eaters of Light

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

1.7

Drew | @drewbackwhen

2.4

Marie | @hammashandjelly

1.5

Here's what you think 2 Responses to “N141 The Eaters of Light”

Kieren Evans | @kjevans2 September 26, 2021

Hi folks
I’d totally forgotten what this one was about. So is it anything special?
Well, it’s not terrible I suppose…It reminds me of last time with Gatiss’s script, it’s just a bit unremarkable really. A fairly generic runaround with a monster of unspeakable horror and two warring groups who end up helping each other fight the beast. Other than some nice scenes with Bill and the Romans, I don’t particularly care much for this one.
“Death by Scotland” lol, Scotland isn’t that bad for sunlight. I’ve gotten sunburnt on many occasions whilst living in Edinburgh. It’s the midges you have to look out for. They’ll strip a man to the bone in 5 mins.
What do I give this? Not terrible, not great 2.7/5
Cheers
Kieren

September 26, 2021 at 2:27 pm

Reply
Michael Ridgway | @bad_movie_club September 26, 2021
Likes:
- ….(tumbleweed)
Beefs:
- Why would you tease a Missy episode but only have her for the last few minutes! Why would you do that?! That being the best bit of the episode just rubbed salt into the gaping bloody wound!
- The monster was Lovecrafty creepy, until it just sat there stationary at the end being poked with sticks. The crowd is booing you, monster!
- What the heck happened at the end? There were millions of those things: how is the brigade not all dead within seconds (i.e. two days on Earth, not hundreds of years).
- What was the pointless crow plotline all about? I thought it was a reference to ‘Face the Raven’. I thought the Doctor would start punching them to avenge Clara. That would have been way better!
- Worst. Opening. Ever. In early New Who, those kids would be goners.
- Why do all the rocks look so plastic? Where is my licence fee going?
Summary: I had completely forgotten this episode first time around, and I hope to completely forget it again.

Rating: 0.4/5 sundried Romans.
September 26, 2021 at 2:27 pm

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