The Doctor , Bill and that bloke from SHOOTING STARS travel to Scotland circa AD 120 and find that the Picts and the 9th Roman Legion are being stalked by an alien monster
Don't come in to this episode if you're your aware of history because unlike the good old days of the William Hartnell era where the themes of history and science were respected but I never go in to a NuWho episode expecting my knowledge of science or history to be expanded and this episode came hyped by the fact that the writer Rona Munro has passed in to legend as being the very last person to have written for DOCTOR WHO 1963-89 with Survival
Ooops. With hindsight the alarm bells should have been ringing because if you're hyping up an upcoming episode due to who wrote it rather than the content and the content is slight to say the very least. A dragon type of monster thingy is roaming the glens of Caledonia eating Picts and Romans alike and instead of developing this angle more the cardboard characters sit around discussing things like sexuality. As I said I'm not expecting accurate history but despite the Roman Empire being very diverse indeed Roman Legions weren't a pick and mix regiment as seen here , it'd be a Spanish regiment in the case of the 9th . The thinking behind this is the Romans would be worried about their Legions joining the other side if rebellions broke out so they'd send a Spanish Legion to Scotland and say send a Hungarian regiment to Spain. Likewise the Picts weren't "An early Celtic race" and what very little is known about them is that they didn't speak an Indo-European language which indicates they're not Celts . Did I say I didn't watch this as a history lesson ? Maybe not but surely it's possible to fuse drama with accurate history ?
As for the drama itself what lets the episode down is that it's pretty obvious the young cast have not long graduated from drama school and you're aware you're watching very inexperienced actors playing parts in a television show . We shouldn't be too hard on them because the material is very light and empty and seems more concerned with The Guardian inspired diversity rather than solid involving drama. It's the scene in the Tardis at the end the episode will be remembered for rather than the scenes in Bonnie Scotland
Don't come in to this episode if you're your aware of history because unlike the good old days of the William Hartnell era where the themes of history and science were respected but I never go in to a NuWho episode expecting my knowledge of science or history to be expanded and this episode came hyped by the fact that the writer Rona Munro has passed in to legend as being the very last person to have written for DOCTOR WHO 1963-89 with Survival
Ooops. With hindsight the alarm bells should have been ringing because if you're hyping up an upcoming episode due to who wrote it rather than the content and the content is slight to say the very least. A dragon type of monster thingy is roaming the glens of Caledonia eating Picts and Romans alike and instead of developing this angle more the cardboard characters sit around discussing things like sexuality. As I said I'm not expecting accurate history but despite the Roman Empire being very diverse indeed Roman Legions weren't a pick and mix regiment as seen here , it'd be a Spanish regiment in the case of the 9th . The thinking behind this is the Romans would be worried about their Legions joining the other side if rebellions broke out so they'd send a Spanish Legion to Scotland and say send a Hungarian regiment to Spain. Likewise the Picts weren't "An early Celtic race" and what very little is known about them is that they didn't speak an Indo-European language which indicates they're not Celts . Did I say I didn't watch this as a history lesson ? Maybe not but surely it's possible to fuse drama with accurate history ?
As for the drama itself what lets the episode down is that it's pretty obvious the young cast have not long graduated from drama school and you're aware you're watching very inexperienced actors playing parts in a television show . We shouldn't be too hard on them because the material is very light and empty and seems more concerned with The Guardian inspired diversity rather than solid involving drama. It's the scene in the Tardis at the end the episode will be remembered for rather than the scenes in Bonnie Scotland