Doctor Who - In the Forest of the Night

One thing I certainly have to hand this series;
it's child actors have been excellent.

"It’s a human super power, forgetting. If you remembered how things felt, you’d have stopped having wars … and stopped having babies."

The Doctor was trying to get to London, and he ended up in a forest. Clearly there is something wrong with the TARDIS navigation system. Apparently there is something wrong with Maebh's navigation system as well, or else how would a little girl from Coal Hill School be in the depths of a forest, and as for the navigation system on Trafalgar Square...

"Essential services have been disrupted due to an unexpected forest. We’d like to reassure you that situation will be rectified very soon."

The Good

• The look of this episode, forested London, is terrific.
• The child actors are all impressive; I wasn't annoyed by any of them, and it was a high risk scenario for that.
• For once I almost got the chemistry between Clara and Danny. They tend to be... cute, but not the Earth-moving one love for all time that they are being built up as.

The Bad

• There comes a point where repeatedly saying that humans forget stuff just isn't cutting it anymore. The series even knows this and used the crack in time as a means to edit a few of the doomsday scenarios to hit modern Earth from collective memory, but it's been piling back up again.
• The wolves were moved to Whipsnade years ago. I'm just saying.
• This was an episode where the entire cast was just there to watch, essentially.
• The Ninth Doctor practically made out with a sexy redwood; why is the Twelfth so shocked that trees might communicate?

  

  Lions and tigers and bears; oh my.

The Ugly

• The evaporation of the forest once its work was done was... Well, together with the magical return of Maebh's sister, the whole thing became a bit too pat. When you go into the woods, wishes can come true, but you get dirt on your hands even if it is happy ever after.

Top Quotes

• Maebh: I just thought it was supposed to be bigger on the inside, so i didn’t say anything.
  Doctor: Well, of course it’s supposed to be bigger. Most people are confused by that.
  Maebh: I find everything confusing, nearly. So, I don’t say anything.
• Doctor: That’s another of the drawbacks of being the last of your species. No-one to ask when you TARDIS won’t start.
• Doctor: What do the voices say?
  Clara: I don’t know. She takes tablets and they stop.
  The Doctor: You people, you never learn. If a child is speaking, listen to it!
• Doctor: Haven’t any of you been struck by the fact that, look, it’s bigger on the inside?
  Ruby: There wasn’t a forest, then there was a forest. Nothing surprises us any more.
• Maebh: Essential services have been disrupted due to an unexpected forest. We’d like to reassure you that situation will be rectified very soon. Please don’t be scared. And please don’t chop, spray or harm the trees. They’re here to help. Be less scared. Be more trusting.

The Twelfth Doctor
This Doctor is still a bit hapless and, sad to say, the question of who frowned him his face has sort of fallen by the wayside in exchange for the alien child bit and Clara's bizarre fluctuation between just a girl in love and some sort of quasi-Doctoral egomaniacal sociopath.

The Verdict
'In the Forest of the Night' is a pretty unique episode and concept, and that is almost its downfall. It has a fantastical, dreamlike quality that is somewhat, if you will, alien to Who. It wasn't a bad story, but I don't think it was a good episode of Doctor Who, so much as a decent episode of something else.

5/10