As "The Time Eater" opens, the Doctor and Jamie are wandering some old sewers. They emerge onto the street and the Time Lord thinks they've landed in London. But we, knowing that the book has "Prague" in the name, realize that it's likely not. Indeed, they have landed in the titular Bohemian city.
As they wander the streets, the city seems to move about in time beneath their feet. They zip back to the early 17th century and are then confronted by a tank during the time when it was behind the Iron Curtain. The Doctor pulls out a book of his that documents history and he finds that its pages are crumbling to dust.
The Doctor then has the revelation that this is all being caused by a Doredsor, a creature that feeds on time itself. They set out and find the Doredsor causing time to go all haywire but it is dying. While the Doctor just wants to leave it to its fate, Jamie insists otherwise and his friend relents.
One inertial stasis-inversion field later and the Doredsor is dangling from the TARDIS next to the sun eating its last supper of quantum phenomena. When its time finally comes, it drops into the sun and the TARDIS takes off for its next destination.
I made the mistake, quite innocently, of reading this a few days after one of my cats passed away and, after finishing it, I felt distinctly gloomy. That scene of watching the Doredsor have its last meal brought back memories of being with my cat, Grabby, shortly before her death last weekend. Just watching her in her carrier awaiting the attention of a vet.
Despite the story hitting a little close to home, I rather liked its version of a happy ending which was simply helping another life, another species meet its end with a modicum of dignity.
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