Doctor Who Series 10: 7 Big Questions We're Asking After 'The Eaters Of Light'

7. Isn't This The Empress In New Clothes?

The resemblances to last week’s Ice Warrior’s adventure are uncanny. After the ending of Empress of Mars we might have expected to see Missy join Bill and Nardole as a companion in The Eaters of Light. Instead we are led to believe that the Doctor has dropped her back off in the vault before travelling to 2nd century Scotland. It’s a red herring and the episode closes with the revelation that Missy is in the TARDIS after all, having been forced to stay inside like poor K9 or Kamelion. Missy in the TARDIS has become the new go-to ending after the repeated visits to the vault.

But it’s far more than just the structure of the episode that is rerun here. We might be able to pass over Bill once again falling into a pit – after all, it’s a rather common mishap for the Doctor’s companions. The sentimental, sacrificial ending is another much repeated Doctor Who trope.

It’s not so easy to overlook the fact that in both stories two warring factions are forced to come together to defeat a common threat. Themes of land ownership and Empire abound in both and neither side in the conflict are presented as morally superior. Add to that the single black soldier, and the guilt-ridden deserters and it’s pretty clear that the two stories share much in common.

Whether this is a rare example of poor scheduling, or a deliberate foreshadowing of the coming conflict between the Doctor and the Master, who before his regeneration into John Simm was presented as a Time War deserter (Utopia) remains to be seen.