Doctor Who: In The Forest Of The Night

'In The Forest Of The Night' starts out wonderfully as we see a little girl running through a forest in a trademark red coat. Unfazed by any of this she stumbles upon a blue telephone box and decides to knock on the door. The grumpy old man inside is surprised to find a schoolgirl alone in the middle of nowhere. He tries to take her back home but it appears they're already there: the TARDIS is not in a remote forest at all, but in the middle of Trafalgar square in London! It's a great reveal that capitalises on strong fairytale imagery, like other fairytales though you have to take things at face value, if you start questioning to yourself why the wolf in 'Red Riding Hood' can talk and walk then the only answer you're going to get is 'because fairytales, duh'. Frank Cottrell Boyce's 'Forest Of The Night' is a lot like that, if you start questioning the events of this story then it falls apart completely. 'Kill The Moon' had some extremely flimsy science going on but at least it attempted to make events appear plausible, here it's outright magic with little to no explanation given. So yes, suspension of disbelief is extremely necessary to enjoy this episode. 

The best thing about 'Forest Of The Night' is it's set-up. A forest consuming the entire earth overnight is a super intriguing idea that gives the episode a unique visual flare that the previous episode 'Flatline' didn't have. The production team did a fantastic job of conveying a lush landscape peppered with London landmarks: the image of Nelsons column surrounded by green is an iconic image (aided by Murray Golds whimsical score) that once again shows how Doctor Who can separate itself from the rest of the TV landscape by being just plain bonkers when it comes to out-there ideas. The direction from Sheree Folkson, DW's first female director in a LOOOONG time, is inventive and adds a lot of personality to proceedings. I particularly adore how massive she made the TARDIS look using wide angle lens to replicate how the TARDIS would have appeared to young Maebh. It's another gorgeous looking episode. 

Aiding the fairytale-esque theme is the drove of schoolkids featured in this episode. It's a shame we didn't see Courtney again, but Abigail Eames is endearing as Maebh, the super-powered girl who can hear the trees and looking for her lost sister. The other kids are hit and miss but they're given believable/funny dialogue and aren't as intrusive as I thought they would be. Maebh aside they're mainly used as a tool to demonstrate the differences between Clara and Danny. Samuel Anderson continues to be really likeable and surprisingly parental compared to Clara, who cares more for the excitement of adventure than doing her job. I was shocked at how he brushed her lies aside, despite building up to a confrontation of some sort he wasn't really that bothered with it. Huh, ok. I like his explanation for not wanting to travel onboard the TARDIS (he doesn't want to see more, he wants to see what's in front of him more clearly). Again Doctor Who seems obsessed with flipping the script and turning established tropes on their head. Who wouldn't want to travel in the TARDIS? Well Danny apparently. It's a shame we didn't see more of him exploring the forest with the kids, the bits we did see was rather entertaining and it would have been fun to see him adventuring on his own. Maybe we'll see more of Samuel Anderson in the finale? 

That beach chair feels out of place, it's never that sunny in London!

As for Clara, 'Forest Of The Night' feels intentionally like the opposite of 'Kill The Moon' in a lot of ways. In that story Clara is furious with the Doctor for abandoning her and putting her in an impossible situation, but here she coyly manipulates him into leaving before the earth is once again struck by a natural event that could wipe us all out. Clara opts to die with the rest of her species than escape in the TARDIS, and she lied to the Doctor about leaving specifically so he would go back to the TARDIS. The Doctor refuses to leave though, and repeats word for word what Clara said at the end of 'Kill The Moon', a nice indication of how much he's changed since then: 'This is my world, too. I walk your Earth. I breathe your air'. It's a powerful moment and a great concept: the Doctor forced into abandoning the earth by his companion because he can't save us. I love that the tables have turned now, Clara is the one manipulating the Doctor whereas before it was the reverse. She's even predicting his thought patterns which is slightly concerning. Is this the control freak Clara 'Deep Breath' was going on about? She seems to be proficient at manipulating the Doctor into doing things he doesn't want to do at any rate. 

And just like 'Kill The Moon' the earth is saved by the Doctor....doing nothing whatsoever! The problem solved itself, good thing the Doctor came to this realisation in the nick of time, we'd be doomed otherwise! Not. The lack of threat is interesting, aside from a decent chase scene involving escaped zoo animals there isn't really any sense of danger present in this story at all. I can't really say the story needed a threat, the mystery of the forest was enough to keep the viewer hooked. Until we were shown what was causing the forest to grow at an alarming rate...

So those....Fairies? Pixies? Magical firefly thingies? What was up with them?! Apparently all trees have an eternal 'lifeforce' linking them together that in times of crisis can miraculously cause forests to pop out of nowhere and save the day. Erm...okay. These magical trees are going to save us from a solar flare by acting as an oxygen blanket or something (SCIENCE!) to negate the effects of the radiation/heat. In what fantastical alternate reality am I going to buy something like that? A solar flare of that magnitude wouldn't just require an excess of vegetation to brush it off surely? It's radiation, we'd all burn to death! Then at the end Maebh's lost sister shows up out of nowhere hiding under a magical bush. Did the trees magic her back somehow or has the sister literally been hiding in that bush the entire time? Either way I didn't feel anything for that scene at all, only puzzlement. Oh and Danny getting rid of the tiger thanks to shining a flashlight in it's eyes? Sure, that'll work...

Don't you just love Capaldi's facial expressions?

Despite everything 'Forest Of The Night' has going for it I couldn't fall in love with it: there's too much BS here to simply brush it to one side. Having said that I like the visuals, I thought the supporting cast was a ton of fun and there were a lot great interactions between Clara, Danny and the Doctor. This episode is unconventional and different in a lot of ways, so it's a shame everything was resolved by magic in the end.

Positives:

+ Strong visuals
+ The leads are still consistently great
+ Fairytale vibe
+ Interesting, unconventional story      
+ Continues to build the Doctor/Clara relationship dynamic 

Negatives:

- The kids are a mixed bag
- No semblance of 'science' whatsoever, completely fantastical
- Ending scene makes little sense

Overall Score: 8/10