This is a nice little story, nothing earth shatteringly enthralling but nothing to really spoil the enjoyment either.
It is about the TARDIS crew going back to Roman times in Scotland looking to see what happened to the 9th Legion and finding a dimensional rift guarded for generations by Pictish warriors but now endangering the world and the worlds beyond.
The monster features bioluminescence (i.e. Glowing body parts) which has already featured in 2 of this seasons monsters so I think Steven Moffatt enjoyed Avatar a bit too much or something but it is a decent monster of the week as it looks pretty good and is providing a fairly convincing threat. It kills people in a nicely gruesome way and the threat of eating the energy from stars and destroying solar systems is suitably perilous, if seemingly hard to believe.
The Romans are quite interesting and have some nice dialogue while the Picts are slightly weaker but serve their purpose OK.
Acting is good from most of the guest cast while the main cast are on usual excellent form. Capaldi is superb and has some nice Scottish moments here, Pearl Mackie continues to make Bill the best companion of the Moffatt era in my opinion and Nardole is a great comedic addition. Michelle Gomez as Missy puts in another marvelous cameo performance with the character finding her perfect balance in series 10 - crazy, dangerous, funny but also showing deeper emotional and thoughtful aspects full of pathos.
The story itself from writer Rona Munro is not a great one but is a reasonable one. I would have preferred if they had travelled to Roman Scotland and discovered these events more by accident rather than Bill specifically asking to find out what happened to the 9th Legion and coincidentally finding monsters from another dimension were involved. I am not a fan of convenient coincidences of that kind.
I quite like the ancient cairn hiding a portal and a host of monsters. It reminds me a little of one of my favourite classic stories The Daemons where an ancient barrow hides a powerful beast that threatens humanity. This is not as good as that though, and the aspect of the crows passing down messages from the past is a bit silly, I think.
A decent filler episode that is far from perfect but doesn't let Series 10's high quality down very much.
My Rating: 7/10.
Series 10 Episode Ranking: 13th out of 14.
It is about the TARDIS crew going back to Roman times in Scotland looking to see what happened to the 9th Legion and finding a dimensional rift guarded for generations by Pictish warriors but now endangering the world and the worlds beyond.
The monster features bioluminescence (i.e. Glowing body parts) which has already featured in 2 of this seasons monsters so I think Steven Moffatt enjoyed Avatar a bit too much or something but it is a decent monster of the week as it looks pretty good and is providing a fairly convincing threat. It kills people in a nicely gruesome way and the threat of eating the energy from stars and destroying solar systems is suitably perilous, if seemingly hard to believe.
The Romans are quite interesting and have some nice dialogue while the Picts are slightly weaker but serve their purpose OK.
Acting is good from most of the guest cast while the main cast are on usual excellent form. Capaldi is superb and has some nice Scottish moments here, Pearl Mackie continues to make Bill the best companion of the Moffatt era in my opinion and Nardole is a great comedic addition. Michelle Gomez as Missy puts in another marvelous cameo performance with the character finding her perfect balance in series 10 - crazy, dangerous, funny but also showing deeper emotional and thoughtful aspects full of pathos.
The story itself from writer Rona Munro is not a great one but is a reasonable one. I would have preferred if they had travelled to Roman Scotland and discovered these events more by accident rather than Bill specifically asking to find out what happened to the 9th Legion and coincidentally finding monsters from another dimension were involved. I am not a fan of convenient coincidences of that kind.
I quite like the ancient cairn hiding a portal and a host of monsters. It reminds me a little of one of my favourite classic stories The Daemons where an ancient barrow hides a powerful beast that threatens humanity. This is not as good as that though, and the aspect of the crows passing down messages from the past is a bit silly, I think.
A decent filler episode that is far from perfect but doesn't let Series 10's high quality down very much.
My Rating: 7/10.
Series 10 Episode Ranking: 13th out of 14.