The very welcome return of writer Rona Munro to Doctor Who – it’s being a long time since her inadvertent classic era finale, Survival – has brought with it a quieter episode of the show than I was expecting. It was only as the credits rolled at the end, too, that it really struck me it was probably the last standalone Peter Capaldi adventure we get where he doesn’t regenerate at the end, and it seems fitting therefore that it takes place in Scotland. And includes good quality Scottish gags into the bargain. We’re back to the steady pacing of the stories we got earlier in the series here, although there’s not quite as much to stick in the mind this time around. Still, there’s patient build up, and the some of the detective work that shone through earlier in the run. Familiar Doctor Who themes abound in the midst of all, of the futility of battle, a strange monster, and a mystery of two to resolve. What lifts The Eaters Of Light when it hits form are some smashing one-liners from Nardole (Matt Lucas’s laser-targeted delivery is still a very rare skill), and director Charles Palmer making good use of his locations. Rona Munro, meanwhile, blends monsters, locale and one or two things to say, without feeling the need to gallop when the finishing line is in sight. On the flipside, I never really felt particularly on edge by the impending threat of this one, although not every monster’s job is to burrow deep beneath your skin. But I did appreciate it giving its characters good space in the limelight, including one or two of the supporting faces. And I did appreciate some other stuff too, that’d be remiss to talk about here. A solid piece of work, The Eaters Of Light, an episode that’s not at the level of some of the stuff we got in the first half of the series in particular. But it’s still a welcome chance to see people who really know what they’re doing at work.
