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Peter Capaldi
The Eaters of Light
Twelfth Doctor Logo


Synopsis


Scotland, 2nd Century
Scotland, 2nd Century
 A long time ago, the Roman legion of the ninth vanished into the mists of Scotland. Bill has a theory about what happened, and The Doctor has a time machine.

 But when The Doctor, Nardole and Bill arrive in ancient Aberdeenshire, what they find is a far greater threat than any Roman army.

 The hunt for the lost Ninth Roman Legion leads The Doctor, Bill and Nardole into the middle of an ancient battle that could cast humanity into the dark forever.

 In a cairn, on a hillside, is a doorway leading to the end of the world - but how far will they have to go to defeat the terrifying alien Eaters of Light?



General Information

Season: Thirty Six (New Series 10)
Production Code: 10-10
Story Number: 273 (New Series: 117)
Episode Number:837 (New Series: 141)
Number of Episodes: 1
Percentage of Episodes Held:100%
Production Dates: October - December 2016
Broadcast Date: 17 June 2017
Colour Status: HD Colour
Studio: BBC Wales (Roath Lock Studios, Cardiff)
Location: Porth yr Ogof, Ystradfellte, Wales
Writer:Rona Munro
Director:Charles Palmer
Producer:Nikki Wilson
Executive Producers:Brian Minchin and Steven Moffat
Assistant Directors:Lauren Pate and Rhun Llewelyn
Script Executive:Lindsey Alford
Script Supervisor:Nicki Coles
Script Editors:Nick Lambon and Emma Genders (Assistant)
Editors:Will Oswald, Becky Trotman (Assistant) and David Davies (Assistant)
Head of Production:Gordon Ronald
Production Executive:Tracie Simpson
Production Manager:Adam Knopf
Production Assistants:Jamie Shaw and Virginia Bonet
Post Production Supervisor:Samantha Price
Production Designer:Michael Pickwoad
Director of Photography:Mark Waters
Casting Director:Andy Pryor CDG
Line Producer:Steffan Morris
Costume Designer:Hayley Nebauer
Make-Up Designer:Barbara Southcott
Cameramen:Dan Patounas (Assistant), Drew Marsden (Assistant), Gethin Williams (Assistant) and Mark McQuoid (Operator)
Visual Effects:BBC Wales VFX and MILK
Special Effects:Real SFX
Prosthetics:Millennium FX
Special Creature Effects:Millennium FX
Stunt Co-ordinators:Crispin Layfield, Dani Biernat and Gordon Seed
Stunt Performers:Maria Hippolyte and Mens-Sana Tamakloe
Incidental Music:Murray Gold
Special Sounds (SFX Editor):Harry Barnes
Sound Recordist:Deian Llyr Humphreys
Music Orchestrated By:Alastair King
Music Conducted By:Alastair King
Music Performed By:The BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Music Recorded By:Gerry O'Riordan
Music Mixed By:Jake Jackson
Title Sequence:Billy Hanshaw
Title Music:Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Arranged by Murray Gold
Number of Doctors: 1
The Doctor: Peter Capaldi (The Twelfth Doctor)
Number of Companions: 2The Companions: Matt Lucas (Nardole) and Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts) Guest Cast: Michelle Gomez (Missy) Additional Cast: Rebecca Benson (Kar), Daniel Kerr (Ban), Brian Vernel (Lucius), Rohan Nedd (Simon), Ben Hunter (Thracius), Sam Adewumni (Vitus), Billy Matthews (Cornelius), Aaron Phagura (Marcus), Jocelyn Brassington (Judy), Lewis McGowan (Brother)Setting: The Devil's Cairn, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (present day and the 2nd century) Villain:The Eaters of Light

The Episodes

No. Episodes Broadcast
(UK)
Duration Viewers
(Millions)
In Archive
837The Eaters of Light17 June 201742'21"4.7Yes

Total Duration 42 Minutes


Audience Appreciation

Average Viewers (Millions) 4.7
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2017)66.70%  (Position = 10 out of 12)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2023) Position = 30 out of 35


Archives


 This story exists and is held in the BBC's Film and Videotape Library.



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Notes


This story answered the question about what happened to the Ninth Legion of the Roman army whose disappearance in the 2nd Century has long baffled historians. It also shows The Doctor and Missy considering mending their broken friendship.

After a gap of nearly 28 years since her previous Doctor Who script, "Survival" (the 1989 Seventh Doctor and last story of the original series), Rona Monro has returned with her first story since the show was revived in 2005.

Writing this story makes Rona Munro the only writer (to-date) to have contributed to both era’s of the show. The only other writer to have contributed to both eras is Steven Moffat who wrote "The Curse of Fatal Death" that was produced for 1999’s Red Nose Day celebrations.

The read-through for this story took place on the 12th October 2016 (immediately after Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie returned from promoting this season at the 2016 New York Comic Con and in Toronto, Canada). It was recorded at the same time as "Oxygen" as Block Four.

The main recording for this story started on the 2nd November 2016 and finished on the 22nd November 2016 - exactly 27 years after the first episode of Rona Munro’s first story, "Survival", was broadcast! The crow elements in this story were recorded later, on the 13th December 2016.

This story also had a pre-shoot. On the 14th October 2016 the team recorded the scene where Bill goes into the cave, glances back and sees the entity pursuing her. This was filmed at Porth yr Ogof - a cave near the village of Ystradfellte in Wales, close to the boundary of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Much of this story centres on the Roman army’s Ninth Legion and its handful of survivors. The Legion did exist and as Bill and The Doctor discuss, it did mysteriously vanish and no-one can state with 100% certainty what happened to this band of soldiers.

Real-life mysteries have proven fertile ground for Doctor Who stories over the years. For example: The 1975 Fourth Doctor story "The Terror of the Zygons" tackled the Loch Ness Monster, Agatha Christie’s 1926 vanishing was ‘solved’ in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and in the 2011 Eleventh Doctor story "A Good Man Goes to War" we discovered what happened to Jack the Ripper. Queen Nefertiti’s disappearance from historical records is ingeniously explained in the 2012 Eleventh Doctor story "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" whilst the events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs are revealed in the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Earthshock". Even small mysteries are sometimes covered in the show. The 1977 Fourth Doctor story "Image of the Fendahl", for instance, makes clear why throwing salt over your shoulder is said to bring good luck. This is because salt acts as a defence against the Fendahl!

Nardole is heard telling the Picts about one of his adventures involving the enigma of the Mary Celeste as an example of people mysterious disappearing. Before being interrupted by The Doctor’s return he was also going to tell them about the Lusitania.

The Mary Celeste is a famous sailing ship that was found deserted in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872. The question of what happened to its crew has been unanswered since its empty decks and cabins were first investigated, but during the 1965 First Doctor story "The Chase", we saw the Daleks arrive on the Mary Celeste. Fear of the Daleks forced everyone on board to abandon ship but it is conceivable that they swam back to the vessel after the Daleks departed (The Doctor’s old enemies only stayed aboard briefly before they continued their pursuit of The Doctor and his companions) only to encounter the fate that Nardole outlined in this story.

This is the second reference to the Mary Celeste in this season. In "The Pilot", when Bill follows The Doctor and Nardole down to the vault under St Lukes University, we were given a glimpse of a sign bearing the name of this famous ship.

Bill states that she has read the book The Eagle of the Ninth, and loved it. She also claims that she knows more about the Romans than The Doctor.

Bill is not the only companion to have an interest in Roman history. In the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang", when The Doctor starts telling Amy Pond about Roman invasions of Britain, she replies ‘Oh, I know! My favourite topic at school. Invasion of the hot Italians! Yeah, I did get marked down for the title’.

The Doctor has met centurions before (see "The Romans" and "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang").

Bill states that ‘scared is fine’ and is ‘human’. The Doctor previously told Rupert Pink, in the 2014 story "Listen", that ‘scared is a superpower’.

The Doctor is heard to say that the TARDIS can easily take Bill home if she just leaves the settings on. He also tells Bill to hit the TARDIS console with a spanner to get it to take her home.

In the scene where Bill meets a Roman soldier for the first time she thinks the Roman soldier is speaking English, while the Roman Soldier thinks Bill is talking Latin.

Bill figures out that the TARDIS has granted her the ability to understand numerous different languages when she is informed, by a Roman soldier, that she was speaking Latin. This resembles Donna Noble's revelation when supposedly speaking Celtic in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Fires of Pompeii".

The ability of the TARDIS to translate foreign and alien languages was previously investigated in the 1976 Fourth Doctor story "The Masque of Mandragora" when The Doctor said to Sarah Jane SmithWell, I’ve taken you to some strange places before and you've never asked how you understood the local language. It's a Time Lord’s gift I allow you to share’. Later it was clarified that the TARDIS was part of the translation process and when The Doctor was removed from the equation, it would not fully function. This was clarified in the 2005 Christmas special "The Christmas Invasion" when the Tenth Doctor was laid low, due to his recent regeneration, the Sycorax language was incompressible to Rose Tyler and the other humans. When The Doctor recovered the aliens’ words were automatically translated.

Nardole is heard to say he is not Italian, but makes ‘a mean spag bol’.

Nardole has a bag of popcorn, which The Doctor uses as a distraction by throwing it into a fire. When the popcorn explodes The Doctor and Nardole are able to escape from the hostile Picts.

Nardole says he knows 10% of The Doctor's secrets and he is the only one in the TARDIS who knows where the teacakes are kept.

An image of the TARDIS has been engraved into a Pictish stone.

The crow seen on the Pictish stone is heard to say ‘Doctor’.

According to The Doctor, all crows can talk, but human beings stopped having intelligent conversations with them, so by the 21st century they are all in a ‘mass sulk’. Nardole corrects him by saying they are just remembering.

Ban tells the crows to bring Kar's name into the skies, hence their signature call.

This story was originally announced as being the ninth story of this season, but it was swapped in transmission order with Mark Gatiss’ story "Empress of Mars".



First and Last

The Firsts:

 Rona Monro's first story after a gap of nearly 28 years since her previous Doctor Who script, "Survival" (the 1989 Seventh Doctor and last story of the original series).

 The first Doctor Who story to be written by a writer to contribute stories for both eras of the show.


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The Plot

WARNING: May Contain SpoilersHide Text
Judy
Judy

The Doctor and his travelling companion Bill Potts have a disagreement about the fate of the Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman army whose mysterious disappearance has long baffled historians. The Doctor claims that they were all killed in battle but Bill claims to know all about the Romans than The Doctor and that they survived. They therefore travel in the TARDIS, along with Nardole, to the 2nd century in Scotland to prove who is wrong. Bill is convinced that the Legion are camped by the river in a nearby valley and so goes off on her own to bring one of the soldiers back to the TARDIS, while The Doctor and Nardole set off to look for their dead bodies.

Bill soon finds herself being chased through the woods by a young Pict girl called Kar. In her attempt to escape Bill falls down a hole and discovers some of the Legion's soldiers hiding underground. To her initial surprise Bill discovers that the TARDIS' translation circuits help her communicate with the soldiers. She learns from them that they are hiding from a creature they call a ‘Light Eating Locust’ that seems drawn to any light source, killing anyone in its path.

Meanwhile, The Doctor and Nardole discover the boneless corpses of the remaining Legion. They later come across a Pict tribe guarding a cairn and who are waiting for the return of Kar, their leader and the ‘Guardian of the Gate’.

The Argument
The Argument

The Doctor impatiently enters the cairn, passing into an interdimensional portal full of creatures feeding off a light source. When he steps out seconds later, he finds that more than two days have actually passed. Nardole, thinking that The Doctor had gone forever, has integrated himself among the Picts.

Kar explains that once a generation, a warrior of their tribe goes through the cairn to defeat an 'Eater of Light', but with the invading Roman army, she allowed one to escape to fight them. The Doctor warns her that unless they can get the creature back into the portal and close it, more of its kind will escape and consume the sun and all the stars in the universe.

The Doctor
The Doctor

Meanwhile Bill leads the surviving legion away from the creature, that is attacking them, and they end up near the cairn, reuniting with The Doctor and Nardole. The Romans and Picts all agree to end their squabble and to work together to defeat the larger threat.

The Doctor works out a plan to lure the Eater of Light back through the portal during daylight. This though will require someone to stay within the portal until sunset to prevent the creature from escaping. But due to the time dilation of the portal, whoever does will age many years.

When the creature is trapped, The Doctor prepares to enter portal, explaining that as human life spans are too short he is the best candidate since his Time Lord physiology and regenerative abilities will protect him.

Bill Potts
Bill Potts

Bill objects and knocks him down, while Kar and the remaining Ninth Legion instead sacrifice themselves as a group to stop the creatures from escaping, despite The Doctor's objections.

With the portal closed, the remaining Picts honour Kar's memory in monumental stones and by teaching the crows to say her name, which Nardole observes continues into the present day. Back in the TARDIS, Missy awaits their return, to the surprise of Bill and Nardole.

 
Nardole and the Crow
Nardole and the Crow
Kar
Kar
Bill Running Scared
Bill Running Scared
The Ninth Legion
The Ninth Legion
 
Nardole Blending In
Nardole Blending In
The Eater of Light
The Eater of Light
Light Attack
Light Attack
Kar, The Gatekeeper
Kar, The Gatekeeper




Quote of the Story


 'Now you have a choice. You can all keep on slaughtering each other till there's no one left standing, or you can grow the hell up!'

The Doctor



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Release Information

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)Code NumberCover ArtRemarks
Video
DVD
Doctor Who Series 10 Part 2 Box SetJuly 2017BBCDVD 4203Photo-montageDVD boxed set containing 5 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
Doctor Who Series 10 Part 2 Box SetJuly 2017BBCBD 0395Photo-montageBlu-Ray boxed set containing 5 stories
Video
DVD
The Complete Tenth Series Box SetNovember 2017BBCDVD 4224Photo-montageDVD boxed set containing 12 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
The Complete Tenth Series Box SetNovember 2017BBCBD 0406Photo-montageBlu-Ray boxed set containing 12 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
The Complete Tenth Series Box Set (Limited Edition Steelbook)November 2017BBCBD 0421Photo-montageLimited Edition Blu-Ray Steelbook boxed set containing 12 stories
Video
Blu-Ray
The Complete Tenth Series Box Set (Limited Edition UK Exclusive Steelbook)November 2017BBCBD 0421Photo-montageLimited Edition (UK Exclusive) Blu-Ray Steelbook boxed set containing 12 stories


In Print

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)PublisherAuthorCover ArtRemarks
Novel
Novel
The Eaters of LightJuly 2022BBC BooksRona MunroTarget Collection. ISBN: 978-1-78594-793-3
CD
CD
The Eaters of LightJuly 2022BBC AudioRona MonroAudio version of the BBC Books Target Novel read by Rebecca Benson.
Doctor Who Magazine - PreviewIssue 513 (Released: July 2017)
Doctor Who Magazine - ReviewIssue 514 (Released: August 2017)

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Photo Gallery


The Doctor and Companions

 
Peter Capaldi
The Twelfth Doctor

   

Matt Lucas
Nardole
 
Pearl Mackie
Bill Potts
   




On Release

DVD Part 2 Box Set
DVD Part 2 Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Blu-Ray Part 2 Box Set
Blu-Ray Part 2 Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Complete Series DVD Box Set
Complete Series DVD Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
   
Complete Series Blu-Ray Box Set
Complete Series Blu-Ray Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Complete Series Blu-Ray Limited Edition Steelbook Box Set
Complete Series Blu-Ray Limited Edition Steelbook Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
Complete Series Blu-Ray Limited Edition (UK Exclusive) Steelbook Box Set
Complete Series Blu-Ray Limited Edition (UK Exclusive) Steelbook Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
   


In Print

BBC Books Target Collection Cover
BBC Books Target Collection Cover

BBC
NOVEL
 
BBC Audio CD Cover
BBC Audio CD Cover

BBC
CD
   


Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine - Preview: Issue 513
Doctor Who Magazine - Preview: Issue 513

Marvel Comics
 
Doctor Who Magazine - Review: Issue 514
Doctor Who Magazine - Review: Issue 514

Marvel Comics
   

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