8x10 In the Forest of the Night (Grading/Discussion) SPOILERS!

[Cutter John]

I'd really like to hear from the production team on this one. Was it a bad story rushed into production at the last minute? A big-name writer who doesn't understand Who? Or a good story ruined by editorial interference?

I've been one to defend Moffat against all the fan complaining. But really I have to wonder what was going through his head to allow this mess to even get past the script stage.

 

[intrinsical]

This is the first episode of nuWho that's made me fall asleep.

By the way, what sane British government agency would call themselves COBRA?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

And we're back to weak episodes. Aside for the fun interactions between The Doctor and the kids, particularly Maebh, this episode really didn't have much going for it beyond the visuals of London overgrown by forests.

I did like the small commentary about medicating children.

 

[DarthPipes]

Some odd moments in this one, some funny moments in this one. The plot was a bit silly, since at no time does the threat feel real.

Capaldi shows again that he has a great sense of humor. Jenna..... I liked Jenna's acting in a lot of episodes this season, but here, everything felt dialed in.

Danny Pink. What I thought could be a very interesting character, has turned into a dull ornament really. His entire reaction about wanting the truth is normal, but his reaction to being lied to for so long, just feels..... odd. I would be a lot more upset if someone I appereantly care for a lot lies to me so much.

The kids were funnier than I expected, a lot less annoying than I had feared.

So, overall...... a Meh.

Danny Pink, the Anti-Companion. He turned down a chance to see the solar flare because "he was a soldier." Really? I'm glad he wants to see what's ahead of him more clearly but him and Clara should do it on another show. I want to see companions who actually want to travel with the Doctor and not ones who want to use it as a distraction from their boring lives and Clara's life is BORING.

 

[John Clark]

This is the first episode of nuWho that's made me fall asleep.

By the way, what sane British government agency would call themselves COBRA?

It's just the Cabinet Office Briefing Room. It's mentioned in the (UK) news some times.

As for the episode, well it passed the time but it's just a meh for me.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

The people's motivations here made as much sense as the rest of the plausibility issues. I am not sure that the writer has ever met real people, and I am saying this as someone who hasn't. Everyone, including the Doctor, was syncopatic in this. First, why worry about the potential world-scale disaster brewing or fierce creatures in the forest, when we have children to get home? Then, why be impressed by a TARDIS when there are trees? And don't forget to kill all the children because they'd spend the rest of their lives crying for their parents. And look, I have been a soldier, I don't need to see solar flares. Wow.

Besides, Clara suggested that the TARDIS – which like a big brother of Rhode Island, could easily fit all of humanity inside of itself – could serve as a life boat. It can also time travel so it can collect all of humanity in a jiffy. It has previously moved an entire planet – Gallifrey – to a different reality, and the Doctor cares for Earth just as much (if not more). Clara happens to know all of that. There's no way to explain the whole let us burn, go save yourself, we have to get the children home. What?! WHAAT!? Seriously, WHAT?

And the Doctor seemed to be equally "why bother, you can't do anything, I have bigger problems on my mind – my pants are too tight and I need to pee" in this. But I guess such attitude from him is normal, which I would like if it wasn't everyone else doing it all the time.

Those trees might have contained one hell of a drug.

But I don't care, it was oddly engaging, and forests covering metropolitan areas are cool. Great story, if you removed the people from it, it would be even better.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Torchwood is what three or four people? I don't see why they can't still be out there somewhere.

Well, two people (Jack and Gwen). Three if Rex Matheson wants to stay with them. But that's assuming Jack and Gwen are still working together, which I didn't see any indication would be the case after Miracle Day.

Okay, so filling the atmosphere with oxygen would insilate the Earth from a solar flare? Sorry, but wouldn't it make the flames more intense?

Upper atmosphere. My understanding is it's a big flash fire that never reaches the ground.

 

[Jax]

Average, though would of been below average if not for some good humor. I hated the kids for the most part, they way they acted and the dialogue given was cringe worthy even by WHO standards. I also deeply dislike the Danny Pink character for his attitude towards the Doctor. The final scene with the kid coming back, what she walked off for a weeks did she? The story felt like it was written by a child.

WHO THE FUCK IS MISSY need to know.

Also "The Doctor" seem to indicate he couldn't stop a Solar Flare with the Tardis? "He has moved the Earth with it and flew circles around a Black Hole.

 

[diankra]

This is the first episode of nuWho that's made me fall asleep.

By the way, what sane British government agency would call themselves COBRA?

It's just the Cabinet Office Briefing Room. It's mentioned in the (UK) news some times.

More specifically, Cabinet Office Briefing Room A; it's the UK Prime Minister's equivalent of the US Presidential Situation Room (I think that's the name? Long time since I watched West Wing). Presumably there's a COBR-B somewhere, maybe in the emergency evacuation building...

 

[Photoman15]

Yeah. All he had to do was move the Earth for a short time and put it back (or just move it further in its natural orbit. It may effect the seasons a bit, but so what.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The people's motivations here made as much sense as the rest of the plausibility issues. I am not sure that the writer has ever met real people, and I am saying this as someone who hasn't. Everyone, including the Doctor, was syncopatic in this. First, why worry about the potential world-scale disaster brewing or fierce creatures in the forest, when we have children to get home? Then, why be impressed by a TARDIS when there are trees? And don't forget to kill all the children because they'd spend the rest of their lives crying for their parents. And look, I have been a soldier, I don't need to see solar flares. Wow.

Besides, Clara suggested that the TARDIS – which like a big brother of Rhode Island, could easily fit all of humanity inside of itself – could serve as a life boat. It can also time travel so it can collect all of humanity in a jiffy. It has previously moved an entire planet – Gallifrey – to a different reality, and the Doctor cares for Earth just as much (if not more). Clara happens to know all of that. There's no way to explain the whole let us burn, go save yourself, we have to get the children home. What?! WHAAT!? Seriously, WHAT?

I couldn't quite put into words what bothered me about this episode (so I just hand waved it as "meh") but you nailed it right here. Everything that's wrong with this episode.

 

[tomalak301]

I thought the kids were adorable and they and Capaldi saved the episode. I'm done with Danny Pink, and I think I might be done with Clara too, even though based on the preview for next week I'm really fearful of what we might be getting.

Also, they couldn't get extras for this episode to create kind of the citywide wonderment or panic? London looked like a barren wasteland with a lot of green trees in this episode. You'd thing having an entire city become a forest would cause some alarm with people.

 

[Saul]

Nice episode but like everyone else I was ahead of the Doctor in terms of knowing what the trees were up to. Not much of a threat and a bit too much Pink and Clara drama. Kids were good. Capaldi great.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Anyone know if this was one of the unused scripts for Sarah Jane Adventures maybe?
Cause it sure felt like it.

 

[JoeZhang]

I did like the small commentary about medicating children.

that's it is bad for people with no medical experience and no idea of case-history to tell people on medication to stop taking it*.



* I jest but surely someone has done a "you should stop taking your meds and reveal your true self" story where stopping taking the meds has terrible rather than wonderful outcomes?

 

[Cutter John]

I did like the small commentary about medicating children.

that's it is bad for people with no medical experience and no idea of case-history to tell people on medication to stop taking it*.

* I jest but surely someone has done a "you should stop taking your meds and reveal your true self" story where stopping taking the meds has terrible rather than wonderful outcomes?

With a competent storyteller, the episode could have made a powerful point about the over-reliance on meds to "fix" problem kids. But I guess at this point thats just too subtle a message for the show to pull off.

 

[davejames]

Surprised to see all the hate for this one. It may not have been the most gripping episode ever, but I still thought it was charming as hell and had a great storybook feel about it. And there was a really nice idea at the heart of it as well, with the trees all rising up to protect us despite all the harm we continue to cause them (I was glad it wasn't something as simple as the trees getting their "revenge" on us or something, and that the writer actually kept the environmental message fairly subtle).

And sure there are plenty of plot holes (as there are in any DW episode), but the fairy tale nature of the story made a lot of that easy to forgive, I thought. Especially when you got a girl running around the woods in a red jacket being chased by wolves! Clearly this just wasn't an episode where you were meant to over-analyze everything to the nth degree (something which I think people do WAAAAY too much with this show to begin with).

There were also some really nice moments between the Doctor and Clara at the end as well, with Clara thanking him on behalf of humanity for all he's done, and him saying that he considers Earth his planet now too. So what if it contradicts his attitude in Kill the Moon? It was still a great line and moment. And plus I never really bought all his "this isn't my planet" stuff from that episode anyway.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I don't think that "Wait, why are we letting all the kids die again?" is over-analysing.

 

[Cutter John]

It had its good moments. There was just way too much that didn't make sense for me to enjoy it. If Doctor Who were meant as a fairy story, or if it were Harry Potter:The Series, I could let it pass. But its a sci-fi program.

Not to mention the way everyone was totally out of character here. Is the rather bland Clara who was perfectly happy with trotting off home and meekly dying with the rest of humanity we saw yesterday really the same person we saw last week fighting to survive and playing the action hero?
The person who wrote this got it backwards. You're supposed to write a story around existing character. Not twist existing characters to fit your story.

I haven't even touched on how implausible havign the trees just fade away into pixie dust once the crisis is over was. And shouldn't the streets and sidewalks be torn up as well?

 

[Mr Light]

^

Don't worry about it. Everyone is going to magically forget it ever happened remember?