 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 Smith ‘Well, 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".
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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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(Position = 10 out of 12)
