Doctor Who: Series 8, Episode 10 – “In the Forest of the Night” (2014)

 

The prevailing thought that comes to mind with this episode, sadly, is “half-baked.”  It has an intriguing premise and great visuals, but it feels like the story didn’t get more than one or two drafts.  With handwavy fairytale logic, inconsistent characterizations, and a half-hearted resolution, the episode doesn’t really work for me.

 

Clara and Danny have just woken up after a museum sleepover trip with a gaggle of kids (all of whom seem way younger than the students we’ve seen Clara with so far – what’s the grade range at Coal Hill?) to discover a forest has grown overnight through the streets of London.  It doesn’t take long to discover the insta-forest is a global event; any and all roads are now littered with trees, and they seem impervious to attempts to clear them.  One troubled girl runs away from the group and finds the TARDIS, and the Doctor realizes she may be the key to learning the truth about the strange phenomenon.

 

I really like the idea of the forest – it gives new meaning to the phrase “urban jungle” – and the imagery of underground station signs and Trafalgar Square lions standing incongruously amongst the trees is really cool.  (Granted, a real forest springing up in a city center would look less like forest and more like trees growing between buildings.  It wouldn’t have the nature-y feel of this episode, but I appreciate that it was easier to film in a forest and add hints of a city than vice versa, and either way, the effect is neat.)  Also, the Doctor is fairly good here.  He can’t be bothered with all the little moppets traipsing after Clara and Danny, but he attacks the problem with relish and has some nice interactions with Maeve, the central little girl.

 

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much where the high points end.  It doesn’t make sense that it’s just the Doctor, Clara, Danny, these kids, and a handful of government workers in the woods.  Where’s everybody else?  There’s no one in the streets freaking out, no hippies trying to commune with the new forest, no tone-deaf workaholics screaming about having to get to the office.  Aside from Maeve, the kids are mostly annoying and don’t behave or react in ways that seem even remotely fitting for the situation.  As for the fear factor, there’s a bit of manufactured danger, but overall, I don’t get much fear or urgency from anyone – there’s no sense of menace. 

 

Clara seems really out of character for much of the episode.  Granted, the glimpses we see of her in the classroom show her to be kind of a terrible teacher (why?) but she’s always been a fairly caring person, especially where kids are concerned.  Here, though, she’s all about the mystery, and Danny literally has to keep reminding her that they’re responsible for ensuring the kids’ safety.  It’s just really off, and since her trips with the Doctor often feel like an afterthought to her “real” life this season, it’s even more inconsistent.  Worst of all, everyone’s actions go haywire in the last third of the episode, and I can’t make sense of any of it.  Seriously – I don’t even know what to make of anything the Doctor and Clara say or do.

 

Lastly, if the show isn’t going to do anything with the Coal Hill/One connection, I wish Clara would teach somewhere else.  I remember how excited and interested I was when we first saw her there in the 50^th anniversary special, but the show treats it like any old school.  It feels to me like the show is just trading on our memories of Coal Hill to make the various school plots more special to us, and I don’t appreciate that.