In the Forest of the Night
| 251 – "In the Forest of the Night" | |||
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| Doctor Who episode | |||
| Cast | |||
Guest
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | Sheree Folkson | ||
| Written by | Frank Cottrell Boyce | ||
| Script editor | David P Davis | ||
| Produced by | Paul Frift | ||
| Executive producer(s) | Steven Moffat Brian Minchin | ||
| Music by | Murray Gold | ||
| Series | Series 8 | ||
| Running time | 45 minutes | ||
| First broadcast | 25 October 2014 | ||
| Chronology | |||
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"In the Forest of the Night" is the tenth episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Sheree Folkson. The episode stars Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Samuel Anderson. The title is a quote from William Blake's poem "The Tyger".
Plot
Clara Oswald and Danny Pink, taking a number of Coal Hill students on a overnight stay at a London National History Museum, wake up to find that London, as well as the rest of the globe, has suddenly been covered by forests in a matter of hours. The Doctor learns of this when one of Clara's students, Maebh, finds his TARDIS parked in the forest-covered Trafalgar Square and witnesses the change. The Doctor calls Clara to confirm their situation, causing Danny to react resentfully upon finding out Clara still secretly keeps in contact with him. Clara and Danny lead the group to Trafalgar Square to reunite with the Doctor. As they talk about the trees, the Doctor suspects that the only way the trees could have grown was due to the influence of time. They all board the TARDIS and as the Doctor works with the controls, Danny finds Maebh' notebooks filled with pictures of an angry sun striking down trees. Clara explains that Maebh's sister Annebel had disappeared a year prior leaving Maebh traumatized, and has been on special medication that quieted voices in her head. The Doctor realises that Maebh is central to the appearance of the forest, the condition allowing her to tune to some other communication frequency. When they see Maebh is not with the rest of the children, the Doctor and Clara race out to find her.
They find Maebh has dropped personal items along the path to allow her to be followed. They encounter a government service team trying to burn a path through the forest but the trees are able to control the oxygen nearby to prevent them from being burnt. As they continue along, the Doctor explains to Clara that Maebh's drawings show a giant solar flare, similar to the one that destroyed the Bank of Karabraxos shown in "Time Heist", that he confirmed is occurring presently and is due to strike the Earth that day. The Doctor is curious as to why Maebh knows this.
As they continue after her, they hear sounds of wild animals, which the Doctor believes are from the London Zoo, its cages torn asunder by the trees' growth. They rescue Maebh from several wolves chasing her, realising too late that the wolves themselves were being chased by a tiger. Danny arrives with the rest of the students to help scare off the tiger. As they regroup, Maebh runs off, waving her hands wildly, which the other students say is a tic that she has had since her sister died. Catching up to her, Maebh explains that she thinks she created the forest from a dream she had after her sister's death. The Doctor is able to interpret her ranting and motions, and adjusts the local gravity near her with his sonic screwdriver, revealing a number of glowing bug-like creatures. They speak through Maebh, explaining they have persisted throughout time, and were called to the present by Maebh and created the forest as they had done before, though they did not have Maebh seek out the Doctor. After he lets the beings go and Maebh collapses, the Doctor determines that the Earth is truly doomed by the solar flare, and Clara suggests they save the group of children with the TARDIS. However, when they get to the TARDIS, Clara insists the Doctor leave on his own, refusing to abandon Danny.
The Doctor takes off in the TARDIS and monitors the solar flare, but inspiration hits him and he quickly returns to Earth and catches up with Clara and the others. He explains that the trees have actually saved the earth before in the Tunguska Event and the Curuçá impact by buffering the impacts, events the beings had referred to before. The sudden appearance of the forest now is to prevent damage to the planet from the flare. However, Danny reveals that they saw news that the government plans to use defoliating agents to strip the leaves from the trees to allow them to be burnt, which would affect their ability to stop the flare. The school children prepare a message that Maebh reads over the world's cellular networks with the help of the Doctor to stop anyone from harming the trees, along with a message from Maebh to her sister Annebel. The Doctor offers the group to witness the solar flare's impact from the TARDIS, but Danny says he'll take the children back home; Clara joins him for part of the way during which Danny reveals he has figured Clara lied to him about traveling with the Doctor, but is willing to take her apology for it and continue their relationship. The Doctor and Clara watch the flare harmlessly strike the Earth; this is also watched by Missy on her tablet, calling the result a "surprise". Later, in Clara's flat, the Doctor and Clara watch as the new trees disperse, and the Doctor explains that humanity will forget about this, just as they did after the previous events, but their lingering memory would become part of mankind's fairy tales.
Maebh, having reunited with her mother who had been searching for her, returns home and as one of the bushes disperse, finds Annebel waiting for her there, and the family has a tearful reunion.
Continuity
Clara tells the Doctor that her "gifted and talented" students have traits she says are "all super-powers if you use them properly", the same thing the Doctor tells young Rupert (Danny) Pink: "fear is a super-power, it's your super-power". ("Listen")
When Clara insists that the Doctor escape Earth's coming destruction, she repeats his own words as the War Doctor to "make it worthwile". ("The Day of the Doctor")
The Doctor responds with her words to him in "Kill the Moon": "This is my world, too. I walk your Earth. I breath your air".[1]
To help Clara understand events about the incoming Solar Flare he uses an example of one of their new adventures, the Doctor informs Clara that a Solar Flare is what hit the bank of Karabraxos allowing them to break in to it. ("Time Heist")
Reception
In the Forest of the Night received generally positive reviews. Ben Lawrence of The Telegraph gave it four stars out of five and called it "powerful". He was positive of the Doctor's character development and Capaldi's performance.[2] It was described as "a slightly wooden episode" by Wales Online.[3] It was also said that the story "lacks any real threat or tension for the most part"[4] and was said to be "fable and poetry under a canopy of nonsense" by Radio Times.[5]
References
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4SB4r2MLzJsRZ95qTNCTXmn/in-the-forest-of-the-night-fact-file
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/11186490/doctor-who-review-in-the-forest-of-the-night.html
- ^ In the Night of the Forest is a slightly wooden episode of Doctor Who
- ^ [https://www.the-newshub.com/stories/doctor-who-810-in-the-forest-of-the-night-review Doctor Who 8.10 - In the Forest of the Night Review Rumble in the Jungle? Or a Fairy Tale not worth telling]
- ^ [http://www.radiotimes.com/blog/2014-10-25/in-the-forest-of-the-night In the Forest of the Night ]
