By Will Barber – Taylor

One morning, in every city and town in the world, the human race wakes up to face the most surprising invasion yet.  Everywhere, in every land, a forest has grown overnight and taken back the Earth. It doesn’t take the Doctor long to discover that the final days of humanity have arrived…

In The Forest of The Night is an interesting attempt to try and get an environmental message into Doctor Who with the aid of child actors and some pretty messy CGI. Almost from the off In The Forest of The Night fails in its attempt to try and give an interesting and funny look at our eco system.

The main problem is a mixture of two things:  the lack of tangible plot and the over reliance on child actors. This cocktail of problems makes what is essentially a good idea a bit of a train wreck because some of the most vital dialogue is delivered by child actors who at times mumble their lines and this probably wasn’t the best move. Add to this the fact that the plot doesn’t really start until ten minutes before the end and you have a swampy mess of an episode that doesn’t really know what it is about or what it is trying to say.

In The Forest of The Night does however have some good moments. We get some nice scenes with Capaldi interacting with the children involved with Clara and Danny’s trip (why an English Literature teacher and a Maths teacher are taking a bunch of kids to sleepover in the Natural History Museum is never explained) and a nice scene in which The Doctor and Clara discuss how to survive the possible destruction of Earth. Frank Cottrell Boyce manages to create some nice little scenes in the episode but overall the episode lacks both story and drive.

In The Forest of The Night is a good attempt at a Doctor Who story but like Flatline fails in delivering on what would otherwise have been a great idea. Hopefully, if both Maitheson and Cottrell Boyce return to the show they can use their great imaginations to create even better stories.

NEXT TIME

DARK WATER