In The Forest Of The Night
Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Director:Sheree Folkson
Producer: Paul Frift
Executive Producer(s) Steven Moffat/Brian Minchin
Length:45 minutes
Original Broadcast:25th October 2014
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| Earth, covered in lots of green stuff. |
Synopsis
An invasion of trees have sprung up overnight, covering the globe with flora...er...that's about it. Oh and there's a bunch of schoolkids from Coal Hill who get to go inside the TARDIS. And some firefly type thingies that have been around since the dawn of time.
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| The City Of London , covered in lots of green stuff. |
Plotline...what, there was a plotline??
Will contain spoilers.
See above. What? You want more?
Okay. Around the world, trees have mysteriously sprung up overnight. At first, the Doctor suspects it to be some sort of alien invasion, but how wrong could he be? Well as it turns out, very wrong.
You see, somewhere back in the days of yore, and yes, I did use the word 'yore', such an occurrence had happened before in history. But as the Doctor soon explained, we humans have the uncanny knack of forgetting events such as wars and the pain of childbirth, hence why they continue to happen.
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| Trafalgar Square, covered in lots of...well I think you all know where I'm going with this... |
So, back to the trees. It turns out that a huge solar flare is about to reign down and pulverize planet earth, thereby, leaving all in it's wake, which is what usually happens when things are pulverized. Now here's where the trees come in. The trees are there to act as a natural barrier to prevent the solar flare from destroying the earth, thus saving mankind from a fate worse than death...and if anyone knows what is worse than death, then please let me know. And there you have it.
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| Danny and the Coal Hill students, not doing a very good job of mimicking the Thriller video. |
Review
Well the Doctor is still grumpy. Clara is still looking for his approval and Danny still looks like he's about to burst into tears at the drop of a hat. The storyline, such as it was, left a lot to be desired. Now I don't expect every episode of Doctor Who to contain monsters/aliens/enemies, but trees?!
In truth, I feel somewhat let down by this chapter in the series. Visually and thanks to director Sheree Folkson, the scenery looked stunning with London being submerged in flora. But where were the people lining the streets to gawp at such a spectacle? Apart from one lone parent, the streets of London was strangely deserted.
This installment contained no possible threat, or even some mild peril from which Clara and the Doctor would save the day and the and tiger and wolves, which were a focal point of the trailers, came and went with little or no effect.
The nonchalant way in which the children treated being inside the TARDIS as if it were an everyday occurrence, made me want to throw something heavy at the TV screen. But luckily for mater, she was just out of reach.
And the ending, where one of the main characters Maebh's sister suddenly turns up after having gone missing for months, hidden behind some foliage, is definitely a what the hell moment. Where had she been all these months? And why did she go missing in the first place?
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| "Trees!! Is that it? Where's the mild peril? |
The nonchalant way in which the children treated being inside the TARDIS as if it were an everyday occurrence, made me want to throw something heavy at the TV screen. But luckily for mater, she was just out of reach.
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| Maebh running away from the ridiculous storyline. |
In saying that, I did think that the cast of children, especially Abigail Eames who played Maebh. ran rings around the adult characters, with Danny being his usual wooden self. Perhaps he should take a leaf out of their book, but I could be barking up the wrong tree with that suggestion. Anyway, they flowered in this episode and each one of them, should take a bough for their performances. Okay, enough of the foliage similes.
At least we got to see the wonderful Missy, who seemed very surprised at the turn of events. Do you know that they have tablets in the Nethersphere? Well it is heaven after all. You can't expect them not to have the latest in modern gadgetry. How else is Missy suppose to keep up on all the current affairs going on in planet earth?
So as the current series almost draws to a close, what do we know about Missy so far?
Well, we know that she dresses like Mary Poppins.
The she called the Doctor her boyfriend and Clara, "My Clara" That she has chosen Miss Oswald well.That she likes the new Doctor's accent and that she drinks tea.
With all the current theories flying around, from Missy being the Rani or the Master, the most popular seems to be that she is in fact the TARDIS. Indeed, when the Doctor asked Maebh who had sent her, she answered "Miss sent me." Did she mean Missy? The look on the Timelord's face, would suggest that he knew exactly who she was talking about and it wasn't Clara.
Whatever the case may be, all will soon be revealed.
Cast
Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Samuel Anderson, Abigail Eames, Jayden Harris Wallace, Ashley Foster, Harley Bird, Siwan Morris, Harry Dickman, Jenny Hill, James Weber Brown, Michelle Asante, Curtis Flowers, Kate Tydman, Nana Amoo-Gottfried, William Wright Neblett, Eloise Barnes,
At least we got to see the wonderful Missy, who seemed very surprised at the turn of events. Do you know that they have tablets in the Nethersphere? Well it is heaven after all. You can't expect them not to have the latest in modern gadgetry. How else is Missy suppose to keep up on all the current affairs going on in planet earth?
So as the current series almost draws to a close, what do we know about Missy so far?
Well, we know that she dresses like Mary Poppins.
The she called the Doctor her boyfriend and Clara, "My Clara" That she has chosen Miss Oswald well.That she likes the new Doctor's accent and that she drinks tea.
With all the current theories flying around, from Missy being the Rani or the Master, the most popular seems to be that she is in fact the TARDIS. Indeed, when the Doctor asked Maebh who had sent her, she answered "Miss sent me." Did she mean Missy? The look on the Timelord's face, would suggest that he knew exactly who she was talking about and it wasn't Clara.
Whatever the case may be, all will soon be revealed.
Cast
Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Samuel Anderson, Abigail Eames, Jayden Harris Wallace, Ashley Foster, Harley Bird, Siwan Morris, Harry Dickman, Jenny Hill, James Weber Brown, Michelle Asante, Curtis Flowers, Kate Tydman, Nana Amoo-Gottfried, William Wright Neblett, Eloise Barnes,
Heehee, love it! Your best review yet.
ReplyDeleteAs you already know, I quite liked this episode. Nothing much happened, but it doesn't all have to be about running down corridors and defeating aliens.
Yeah, but you also like 2 Broke Girls, so what do you know?
DeleteThe perfect review and pretty much summed up how I felt about it. (nice to see some tree puns for good measure! that's what I was ROOTING for... hahahahah geddit? roots!)
ReplyDeleteWhat really wound me up was that the trees were spewing out lots and lots of oxygen in order to put out a huge fire fart from the sun.... Now I'm no scientist but even I know that oxygen is not the gas to use when trying to put out flames.
It all seemed very wishy washy and had all the worst parts of Dr Who in one episode.
The kids were good at acting though, which makes a change.
I am looking forward to the finale - it's a two parter isn't it?
This is a very serious matter Bumferry, so it's best to leaf the jokes out of it.
DeleteWe thought the same thing about oxygen, trees and a huge ball of fire equalling mass destruction. But then a giant wing like creature hatched from the moon, which as we all know is really an egg, so maybe the laws of physics have changed.
Affirmative, it's the penultimate episode next week. Lets's hope it doesn't go on for 2 years like the Bad Wolf storyline, or Moffat might find himself having to live in a cave to avoid the baying crowds.
I lived in a town where the trees moved about in the night. They were in huge plastic pots and weighed at least a ton but it was common to wake up go outside and find they had moved yet again. Its a long story but it is very true and it annoyed folk because there is nothing worse than waking up and looking out the window to see a huge tree in the way of the view. I like trees and the ones here stay put in one spot (so far).
ReplyDeleteAs it happens the trees would not save the Earth from a huge Solar Flare, they need to sort out their science a bit on Sci-fi shows at times.
Well done on the review.
Rob I am intrigued by the walking trees.It's like The Lord Of The Rings all over again. Was the mystery behind their walkabout ever solved?
DeleteI know that science fiction stretches the bounds of reality, but there should at least be a little bit of proper science on Doctor Who. I'm not sure if the writer thought through the whole solar flare plus gas, equals extinction thing.
Thank you.
I am Groot.
ReplyDeleteNot my favourite story of the season. The only takeaway is that the beginning of the two part finale is next week.
Only Vin Diesel could look better as a tree, rather than a man.
DeleteI thought that Robots Of Sherwood was my low point. How wrong could I be? After all the build up to Missy, Moffat better deliver.