Deep Breath 10/10
Into the Dalek 10
Robots of Sherwood 7
Listen 10
Time Heist 8
The Caretaker 9/10
Kill the Moon 9/10
Mummy On the Orient Express 10/10
Flatline 8/10
In the Forest of the Night 6/10
Deep Breath - 8.5
Into The Dalek - 8
Robot of Sherwood - 5.5
Listen - 10
Time Heist - 4.5
The Caretaker - 8
Kill The Moon - 6.5
Mummy On The Orient Express - 9
Flatline - 8
Deep Breath - 8.5
Into The Dalek - 8
Robot of Sherwood - 5.5
Listen - 10
Time Heist - 4.5
The Caretaker - 8
Kill The Moon - 6.5
Mummy On The Orient Express - 9
Flatline - 8
In The Forest Of The Night - 7 - For 35 minutes I found the episode intriguing...and then the overly sentimental bits of schmaltz (the sister reappearing?) towards the end became too much. Still, nowhere near as bad as the (majority) cynics are making out.
Deep Breath 9/10.
Into the Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10.
Listen 9.5/10
Time Heist 7/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Kill the Moon 8.5/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10.
Flatline 7.5/10
Deep Breath 7/10.
Into The Dalek. 7/10
Robots of Sherwood 2/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist. 5/10
The Caretaker 7/8
Kill The Moon. 5/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express 8/10.
Flatline 9/10
In the Forest of the Night. 3/10
Deep Breath - 7/10
Into the Dalek - 5/10
Robot of Sherwood - 2/10
Listen - 9/10
Time Heist - 7.5/10
The Caretaker - 8/10
Kill the Moon - 6.5/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9.5/10
Flatline - 9.5/10
In the Forest of the Night - 1/10
That was shockingly bad. I don't quite know where to start with the negatives, but the only positives were a couple of decent scenes between Clara & Danny and Clara & the Doctor. The rest was just a waste of an episode and of 45 minutes of my time!
The CGI was laughably bad, particularly for Nelson's Column, the kids were annoying and wooden, the 'plot' (what little there was) was ludicrous, and there were so many plot holes (last I checked millions of people lived in London, not just about a dozen, so where were they all?) and cringeworthy bits of dialogue that it was a bit embarrassing to watch.
But above all I was just really, really bored! Not good at all.
Next week looks intriguing, but I'll be considering scoring in the minus numbers if something bad happens to Clara!
Series 8
Deep Breath - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 7/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7/10
Listen - 8/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 6/10 (-1)
Kill the Moon - 7/10 (-1)
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9/10
Flatline - 7/10 In The Forest of the Night - 8/10
Like Kill the Moon before it, In the Forest of the Night comes across as the kind of episode that to a certain extent is doomed by the hype that came before it. For any strengths or weaknesses it might have, people were intrigued by the flashy visuals and the prospect of the writer behind hits like Millions and the impressive Olympic Opening Ceremony. The difference was that Kill the Moon seemed to deliver the kind of episode that everyone was expecting - one with an interesting concept and then a massively divisive twist. In the Forest of the Night was a bit more of a wildcard, and one that off the back of those flashy visuals and notable writer wasn't acceptable enough for many. It is understandably very divisive, but a definitely admirable attempt at something different...a definitely positive trend from these new writers in the back half of Series 8.
First and foremost, this episode delivered a concept that Doctor Who should have explored a long time ago. The prospect of a global threat that the human race is fully aware of, but where the Doctor doesn't come into contact with those at the top of the game - namely UNIT, Torchwood, Harriet Jones or anyone else with some kind of authority. This was an epic-scale story, but told from a smaller and more intimate perspective. For the most part this worked, and it served to make the few shots of an overgrown city and planet all the more successful - speaking of which, the attention to small details was rather impressive here to from the very realistic sense of a London beneath all those trees, right down to the authentic signs for the Natural History Museum. It was perhaps a bit weak (okay very weak) in selling the awe-inspiring nature of what was happening - too many sensational events were simply taken for granted by the characters, and there was a distinct lack of wonder about what was going on. This seemed down to a mixture of the episode having to cram a fair few ideas in, and also more of a focus on trying to make the threat underwhelming for some reason - it was the key weakness of the story, that combined with the poor explanation for how humanity would simply forget the incident served to lessen the impact of the story being told. It did also delve far too much into sentiment when it came to bringing back the lost sister at the end - a poor resolution to that element of the story, the kind of resolution I came to expect from Series 7. It was an unfortunately low and sore point to end an otherwise very, very competent episode on.
Outside of the sister issue though, the characters were a definite asset here. Capaldi continues to impress as his Doctor shows more and more sides to his persona - he's definitely now balancing out that blend of hostility and friendliness he has. He works brilliantly against Clara, who Jenna Coleman has completely owned now and is absolutely fantastic. In fact the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman only goes to highlight the weaker chemistry between Coleman and Anderson as Danny - he was at his least offensive here and his character was actually rather enjoyable once the episode got going. But he's not on the same level as Clara or The Doctor, he's not been substantially fleshed out. Regardless of whether that's an oversight or whether it's going to serve the plot in the series finale, it's a poor choice - Clara was an enigma before she was a character in Series 7 and it caused a lot of damage to the character (and the series). The same can be said of Danny really, who is not particularly engaging and will not have built up an interesting character for me to care as much as I could have done in regards to whatever becomes of him in the finale.
Away from the main cast, the children were also relatively fine. Aside from the odd frustratingly delivered line from them, they were generally not as annoying as kids in Doctor Who can be - they were even somewhat likeable to a degree, and the scene of the TARDIS being taken over by an entire group of children was inexplicably hilarious. There was a distinct mixture of fun and drama going on, even if the story didn't always balance the two particularly well. It succeeded in starting off lighter and then getting a bit darker as it went along, but again that lack of wonder about proceedings was somewhat jarring - everyone just accepted a global forest far too easily.
Perhaps most divisive was the lack of threat in the story. Some will criticise the episode for its lack of an actual villain or antagonist, but on the opposing hand it can be argued that story variety only comes by thinking outside the box. Not every story can have an out-and-out villain, and sometimes we face threats we cannot put a face to. Sometimes a conflict concerns all good guys, who look at things from different perspectives. It's the same argument I would use for Series 4's Partners in Crime - that not every alien you see is going to be out doing evil deeds, or having massive fangs, claws or robot armies at its disposal. Sometimes you'll encounter the cute, or the innocent, or the mundane...it doesn't mean a decent story isn't still lurking in there and In the Forest of the Night delivered just about enough character driven drama to pull off a decent story free of an obvious enemy - and even then the tiger and the wolves were very well implemented (compared at least to awful models of such animals in other shows). The Doctor played only a small part in the resolution, but sometimes that's how it should be. The episode can take credit for trying something different this series, and allowing character to triumph alongside plot.
In the Forest of the Night wasn't a perfect episode. It got a few things wrong, which is something that can be said for almost every episode of Series 8 to varying degrees. The good thing is that what is gotten wrong is easier to forgive, because they've got far more important and obvious things right this series. A slight overdose of sentiment, and a jarring lack of character response near the start are relatively minor issues when you've got a story offering variety and something distinctly different to all thats come before it this year. It's blend of a large-scale story told through small-scale eyes was well achieved and long anticipated, and perhaps most crucially for an episode in this point in the series it didn't feel like needless filler that was bridging the gap to the finale - there was a worthy episode of merit here that didn't quite fall into the 'calm before the storm' trap that other penultimate stories often fall into, even the good ones. It's an episode that stood well on its own two feet to deliver something refreshingly original again, looked beautiful whilst it did it and has a very distinct identity which has been a major asset of Series 8.
PROS AND CONS
+ Episode is distinctive, beautifully shot and doesn't feel excessively like 'filler'.
+ The story was innovative, its lack of a threat refreshing.
+ The blend of a large scale story told through a more intimate perspective was inspired.
- Despite being at his best yet, Danny is still bland and lacking in character.
- The lack of wonder at the events from the characters was overly jarring.
- The resolution to the missing sister was nonsensical and overly sentimental.
IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT COMPARED TO OTHER EPISODE 10's
The Doctor Dances - 9/10
Love & Monsters - 6/10
Blink - 8/10
Midnight - 9/10
Vincent and the Doctor - 8/10
The Girl Who Waited - 9/10
Journey to the Centre of the Tardis - 7/10 In The Forest of the Night - 8/10
SERIES TOTALS BY EPISODE 10
Series 1 - 78/100 (2nd)
Series 2 - 75/100 (4th)
Series 3 - 71/100 (7th)
Series 4 - 80/100 (1st)
Series 5 - 71/100 (6th)
Series 6 - 75/100 (3rd)
Series 7 - 69/100 (8th)
Series 8 - 73/100 (5th)
I've never scored an episode 10/10. Where two series totalled the same, the series with the most 9/10's is considered more successful. If the number of 9/10's is equal, then the series with the most 8/10's and so on.
That list quite surprises me given that without the statistics I would probably rank Series 8 a firm third favourite behind Series 4 and Series 1. I think the strength of the second and sixth series comes from both having a number of strong standalone stories between less impressive episodes, whilst Series 7 has been of a slightly lower but still high-quality that is simply more consistent.
I'm not surprised to see Series 7 in last place, nor Series 3 just behind it - the seventh series was lacking on a lot of fronts, whilst Series 3 only picked up regularly for its second half and still had a mediocre conclusion.
Deep Breath: 8/10
Into The Dalek: 8/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8/10 (revised -0.5)
Listen: 10/10
Time Heist: 7/10
The Caretaker: 7/10
Kill the Moon: 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 9/10
Flatline: 9/10
In the Forest of the Night: 4.5/10 (+1.5)
Always Be Rewatching. Taking it for what it was, I enjoyed it a bit more. But in relation to the rest of the series, it can't go higher.
Deep Breath 9/10
Into the Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist 10/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Kill the Moon 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 8/10
Flatline 8/10 In the Forest of the Night 6/10
Ambitious and cleverly conceived storyline, adequate visual effects, very poor execution. Are there only 20 people living in London? Where were all the tourists? How are people meant to have forgotten about these events in the internet age? Why was Maebh special? What on Earth was the missing sister storyline about? Despite these unforgivable omissions, I must say the tree invasion resolution ranks among this series' best thought out.
I don't review my previous scorings before writing each post, which allows me to score from memory of the episodes alone.
Deep Breath 7/10
Into the Dalek 4/10
Robot of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 9/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Kill the Moon 6/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10
Flatline 9/10 In the Forest of the Night - 4/10
Average Series Score So Far: 7.2/10
This episode was a massive let down, apart from some nice moments between Clara-Danny-Doctor, the plot was virtually non-existant, and the threat was... well, there wasn't really one was there. If the Doctor hadn't been there, nothing different would have happened.
Questions:
- If they were normal trees, why did they magically become flame proof?
- Bugger to what the Doctor said, if trees had magically appeared before... we'd know. We would have documented it. Why wasn't this addressed?
The reason I gave it 4 and not 0 is simple, the child actors were for the most part brilliant, I really cared about Mave. Clara and the Doctor were a joy as usual, and I continue to enjoy Danny Pink's character.
It surprises me how offended some people seem to become at the prospect of an episode without a clearly identifiable threat. Sometimes the lack of a threat can become the story itself, but many Who fans seem to dislike that.
Partners in Crime might have been a daft little episode, but I enjoyed the refreshingly different moral dilemma that replaced a monster out doing evil deeds. Not every alien is going to be sinister and hideous - chucking in some cute, relatively innocent Adipose and trees that are on our side is fine now and again by me as a means to take some stories in a different direction. The amount of people who felt compelled to identify the threats in Midnight and Listen is similarly surprising - sometimes you just don't get obvious answers and that is all part of the unsettling resolution.
Of course sometimes a story just isn't engaging enough without a clear antagonist, but I enjoy the odd episode that presents a plot without fanged monsters and scheming villains.
Deep breath - 97/100
Into the Dalek - 90/100
Robot of Sherwood - 88/100
Listen - 95/100
Time heist - 92/100
The caretaker - 88/100
Kill the Moon - 93/100
Mummy on the Orient Express - 93/100
Flatline - 92/100
In the Forest of the Night - 91/100
Deep Breath 8/10
Into The Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 8/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Kill The Moon 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10
Flatline 10/10
In the Forest of the Night 4/10
best to worst....
KILL THE MOON
LISTEN
INTO THE DALEK
FLATLINE
IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT
MUMMY ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
DEEP BREATH
ROBOTS OF SHERWOOD
THE CARETAKER
TIME HEIST
Time Heist really has been the only clunker, sad as had an interesting premise. Probably seen Gareth Roberts' best script and one of Gatiss' best too. And the finale looks like a corker
Deep Breath: 7/10
Into The Dalek: 8/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8.5/10
Listen: 10/10
Time Heist: 7/10
The Caretaker: 8/10
Kill the Moon: 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 9/10
Flatline: 8/10
In the Forest of the Night 6/10
Deep Breath 3/10
Into The Dalek 4/10
Robot Of Sherwood 2/10
Listen 6/10
Time Heist - 2/10
The Caretaker - 5/10
Kill the Moon - 4/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9/10
Flatline - 7/10
-- Fear Her, but better
In the Forest of the Night 1/10
-- Makes Fear Her look like a masterpiece. Garbage!
Deep Breath - 9.5/10
Into the Dalek - 8.5/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7.95/10
Listen - 11/10
Time Heist - 7.8/10
The Caretaker - 8.5/10
Kill the Moon - 9.1/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9.11/10
Flatline - 9/10
In the Forest of the Night - 6/10
Deep Breath - 8/10
Into the Dalek - 3/10
Robot of Sherwood - 6/10
Listen - 9/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 9/10
Kill the Moon - 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 8.5/10
Flatline - 9/10
In the Forest of the Night - 8/10
Deep Breath 9.5/10
Into the Dalek 9.5/10
Robot of Sherwood 8.5/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 7.5/10
The Caretaker 8/10
Kill The Moon 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Flatline 9/10
In The Forest of the Night 7/10
I found it a sweet, thoughtful episode, not quite as good as the others in Series 8 but still decent, and I thought the visuals were beautiful. Some very nice dialogue, and the kids were (mostly) fine in it. I don't know where the millions of people in London went for the duration of the episode *confused face* but anyway... I really can't wait for 'Dark Water/Death in Heaven'.
Other 10th episodes since 2005:
The Doctor Dances 10/10
Love & Monsters 8/10
Blink 8/10
Midnight 10/10
Vincent and the Doctor 5/10
The Girl Who Waited 7.5/10
Journey to the Centre of the Tardis 3/10
Deep Breath 9.5/10
Into the Dalek 9.5/10
Robot of Sherwood 8.5/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 7.5/10
The Caretaker 8/10
Kill The Moon 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Flatline 9/10
In The Forest of the Night 7/10
I found it a sweet, thoughtful episode, not quite as good as the others in Series 8 but still decent, and I thought the visuals were beautiful. Some very nice dialogue, and the kids were (mostly) fine in it. I don't know where the millions of people in London went for the duration of the episode *confused face* but anyway... I really can't wait for 'Dark Water/Death in Heaven'.
Other 10th episodes since 2005:
The Doctor Dances 10/10
Love & Monsters 8/10
Blink 8/10
Midnight 10/10
Vincent and the Doctor 5/10
The Girl Who Waited 7.5/10
Journey to the Centre of the Tardis 3/10
Interesting....you're one of the few posters on here who, like me, has anything nice to say about Forest, and you also give Love & Monsters 8/10. I think these 2 stories are possibly the 2 most incomprehensibly underrated stories in the show's history! I've been a massive fan of the show for half a century but honestly, sometimes I read this forum and think I must be watching another show!!
Deep Breath: 3/10
Into the Dalek: 6/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8/10
Listen: 10/10.
Time Heist: 9/10.
The Caretaker: 6/10
Kill the Moon: 6/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express: 7/10
Flatline: 6/10
In The Forest Of The Night: 8/10
A flawed episode but one I thoroughly enjoyed nontheless.:)
Deep Breath: 4/10
Into the Dalek: 7/10
Robot of Sherwood: 6/10
Listen: 9/10.
Time Heist: 9/10.
The Caretaker: 6/10
Kill the Moon: 5/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express: 10/10
Flatline: 10/10
In The Forest Of The Night: 2/10
Deep Breath 8/10.
Into The Dalek. 7/10
Robots of Sherwood 9/10
Listen 7/10
Time Heist 9/10
Caretaker 8/10
Kill the Moon 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Flatline 10/10 Forest of the Night 6/10
Definitely worst of the series for me. I'm usually pretty open-minded about plotholes but the entire concept here was almost jump-the-shark ludicrous. From the trees magically appearing overnight to them magically disappearing and magically repairing all the streets and buildings that would have inevitably have been trashed in the meantime.
Introducing all these weird and wonderful organism that we're sharing this world with was ok when they did it with the Silents but it's beginning to get silly, what with the moon being an egg, and now these intelligent motes that have existed here all along defending the planet with magic powers. Plus, if they are so powerful as to create these trees and get them to manipulate the oxygen levels around them, why couldn't they have just created the oxygen in the first place? Why need the trees?
The ability of trees to remove oxygen to retard flame while also generating enough oxygen in less than a day to affect the atmosphere sufficiently to absorb a devestating solar flare (but not enough to cause serious health issues due to too much oxygen and not enough Carbon Dioxide in our air).
Plus I don't see how making the atmosphere more oxygen rich would reduce the devestation caused by a destructive flame? I've always assumed an oxygen rich environment is likely to cause more devestation from an open flame, not less
Then there was the re-introduction of the two cop-outs that annoy me at the best of times but particularly annoyed me here. 1) How humanity forgets things like this and 2) How the Doctor now seems to think that the future is not fixed. That you can't, as Clara said, assume that everything is going to turn out alriight just because you've been to the future. This seems to go against the basic premise of the show for decades and, even though the Doctor says it (as in this and Kill the Moon) events still seem to show that it's wrong so why does the Doctor now believe it? It makes no sense for the future to be in flux unless the events in question are the result of time travel.
On the face of it, it wasn't awful. I still enjoyed the visuals and the dialogue. I enjoyed the humour. It wasn't a chore to watch!
I didn't enjoy them rubbing our faces in Clara's lying ways but at least that sub-plot seems to have been resolved amicably (although Danny's indifference to the incredible does seem hard to credit).
But the biggest problem was that I just found the suspension of disbelief too hard on this one. My bar is pretty low when it comes to that sort of thing but this one is way under even my threshold for absurdity.
Interesting....you're one of the few posters on here who, like me, has anything nice to say about Forest, and you also give Love & Monsters 8/10. I think these 2 stories are possibly the 2 most incomprehensibly underrated stories in the show's history! I've been a massive fan of the show for half a century but honestly, sometimes I read this forum and think I must be watching another show!!
I think Love & Monsters, like Forest, is a story that seems to divide opinion a great deal. I think L&M is a very strong, funny and ultimately tragic-but-hopeful story about the effect the Doctor has on the people around him, without him ever intending it.
Back to Series 8, I think it's a very, very high-quality and consistent series.
Deep Breath: 8/10
Into the Dalek: 7/10
Robot of Sherwood: 6/10
Listen: 9/10.
Time Heist: 9/10.
The Caretaker: 5/10
Kill the Moon: 6/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express: 9/10
Flatline: 8/10
In The Forest Of The Night: 6/10
Deep Breath: 9/10
Into the Dalek: 7.5/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8/10
Listen: 9.5/10
Time Heist: 8/10
The Caretaker: 8/10
Kill The Moon: 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 10/10
Flatline: 9/10
In the Forest of the Night: 5.5/10
Comments
Into the Dalek 10
Robots of Sherwood 7
Listen 10
Time Heist 8
The Caretaker 9/10
Kill the Moon 9/10
Mummy On the Orient Express 10/10
Flatline 8/10
In the Forest of the Night 6/10
Deep Breath - 8.5
Into The Dalek - 8
Robot of Sherwood - 5.5
Listen - 10
Time Heist - 4.5
The Caretaker - 8
Kill The Moon - 6.5
Mummy On The Orient Express - 9
Flatline - 8
In The Forest Of The Night - 7 - For 35 minutes I found the episode intriguing...and then the overly sentimental bits of schmaltz (the sister reappearing?) towards the end became too much. Still, nowhere near as bad as the (majority) cynics are making out.
In the Forest of the Night 5.5/10
Into The Dalek. 7/10
Robots of Sherwood 2/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist. 5/10
The Caretaker 7/8
Kill The Moon. 5/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express 8/10.
Flatline 9/10
In the Forest of the Night. 3/10
Into the Dalek - 5/10
Robot of Sherwood - 2/10
Listen - 9/10
Time Heist - 7.5/10
The Caretaker - 8/10
Kill the Moon - 6.5/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9.5/10
Flatline - 9.5/10
In the Forest of the Night - 1/10
That was shockingly bad. I don't quite know where to start with the negatives, but the only positives were a couple of decent scenes between Clara & Danny and Clara & the Doctor. The rest was just a waste of an episode and of 45 minutes of my time!
The CGI was laughably bad, particularly for Nelson's Column, the kids were annoying and wooden, the 'plot' (what little there was) was ludicrous, and there were so many plot holes (last I checked millions of people lived in London, not just about a dozen, so where were they all?) and cringeworthy bits of dialogue that it was a bit embarrassing to watch.
But above all I was just really, really bored! Not good at all.
Next week looks intriguing, but I'll be considering scoring in the minus numbers if something bad happens to Clara!
Deep Breath - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 7/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7/10
Listen - 8/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 6/10 (-1)
Kill the Moon - 7/10 (-1)
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9/10
Flatline - 7/10
In The Forest of the Night - 8/10
Like Kill the Moon before it, In the Forest of the Night comes across as the kind of episode that to a certain extent is doomed by the hype that came before it. For any strengths or weaknesses it might have, people were intrigued by the flashy visuals and the prospect of the writer behind hits like Millions and the impressive Olympic Opening Ceremony. The difference was that Kill the Moon seemed to deliver the kind of episode that everyone was expecting - one with an interesting concept and then a massively divisive twist. In the Forest of the Night was a bit more of a wildcard, and one that off the back of those flashy visuals and notable writer wasn't acceptable enough for many. It is understandably very divisive, but a definitely admirable attempt at something different...a definitely positive trend from these new writers in the back half of Series 8.
First and foremost, this episode delivered a concept that Doctor Who should have explored a long time ago. The prospect of a global threat that the human race is fully aware of, but where the Doctor doesn't come into contact with those at the top of the game - namely UNIT, Torchwood, Harriet Jones or anyone else with some kind of authority. This was an epic-scale story, but told from a smaller and more intimate perspective. For the most part this worked, and it served to make the few shots of an overgrown city and planet all the more successful - speaking of which, the attention to small details was rather impressive here to from the very realistic sense of a London beneath all those trees, right down to the authentic signs for the Natural History Museum. It was perhaps a bit weak (okay very weak) in selling the awe-inspiring nature of what was happening - too many sensational events were simply taken for granted by the characters, and there was a distinct lack of wonder about what was going on. This seemed down to a mixture of the episode having to cram a fair few ideas in, and also more of a focus on trying to make the threat underwhelming for some reason - it was the key weakness of the story, that combined with the poor explanation for how humanity would simply forget the incident served to lessen the impact of the story being told. It did also delve far too much into sentiment when it came to bringing back the lost sister at the end - a poor resolution to that element of the story, the kind of resolution I came to expect from Series 7. It was an unfortunately low and sore point to end an otherwise very, very competent episode on.
Outside of the sister issue though, the characters were a definite asset here. Capaldi continues to impress as his Doctor shows more and more sides to his persona - he's definitely now balancing out that blend of hostility and friendliness he has. He works brilliantly against Clara, who Jenna Coleman has completely owned now and is absolutely fantastic. In fact the chemistry between Capaldi and Coleman only goes to highlight the weaker chemistry between Coleman and Anderson as Danny - he was at his least offensive here and his character was actually rather enjoyable once the episode got going. But he's not on the same level as Clara or The Doctor, he's not been substantially fleshed out. Regardless of whether that's an oversight or whether it's going to serve the plot in the series finale, it's a poor choice - Clara was an enigma before she was a character in Series 7 and it caused a lot of damage to the character (and the series). The same can be said of Danny really, who is not particularly engaging and will not have built up an interesting character for me to care as much as I could have done in regards to whatever becomes of him in the finale.
Away from the main cast, the children were also relatively fine. Aside from the odd frustratingly delivered line from them, they were generally not as annoying as kids in Doctor Who can be - they were even somewhat likeable to a degree, and the scene of the TARDIS being taken over by an entire group of children was inexplicably hilarious. There was a distinct mixture of fun and drama going on, even if the story didn't always balance the two particularly well. It succeeded in starting off lighter and then getting a bit darker as it went along, but again that lack of wonder about proceedings was somewhat jarring - everyone just accepted a global forest far too easily.
Perhaps most divisive was the lack of threat in the story. Some will criticise the episode for its lack of an actual villain or antagonist, but on the opposing hand it can be argued that story variety only comes by thinking outside the box. Not every story can have an out-and-out villain, and sometimes we face threats we cannot put a face to. Sometimes a conflict concerns all good guys, who look at things from different perspectives. It's the same argument I would use for Series 4's Partners in Crime - that not every alien you see is going to be out doing evil deeds, or having massive fangs, claws or robot armies at its disposal. Sometimes you'll encounter the cute, or the innocent, or the mundane...it doesn't mean a decent story isn't still lurking in there and In the Forest of the Night delivered just about enough character driven drama to pull off a decent story free of an obvious enemy - and even then the tiger and the wolves were very well implemented (compared at least to awful models of such animals in other shows). The Doctor played only a small part in the resolution, but sometimes that's how it should be. The episode can take credit for trying something different this series, and allowing character to triumph alongside plot.
In the Forest of the Night wasn't a perfect episode. It got a few things wrong, which is something that can be said for almost every episode of Series 8 to varying degrees. The good thing is that what is gotten wrong is easier to forgive, because they've got far more important and obvious things right this series. A slight overdose of sentiment, and a jarring lack of character response near the start are relatively minor issues when you've got a story offering variety and something distinctly different to all thats come before it this year. It's blend of a large-scale story told through small-scale eyes was well achieved and long anticipated, and perhaps most crucially for an episode in this point in the series it didn't feel like needless filler that was bridging the gap to the finale - there was a worthy episode of merit here that didn't quite fall into the 'calm before the storm' trap that other penultimate stories often fall into, even the good ones. It's an episode that stood well on its own two feet to deliver something refreshingly original again, looked beautiful whilst it did it and has a very distinct identity which has been a major asset of Series 8.
PROS AND CONS
+ Episode is distinctive, beautifully shot and doesn't feel excessively like 'filler'.
+ The story was innovative, its lack of a threat refreshing.
+ The blend of a large scale story told through a more intimate perspective was inspired.
- Despite being at his best yet, Danny is still bland and lacking in character.
- The lack of wonder at the events from the characters was overly jarring.
- The resolution to the missing sister was nonsensical and overly sentimental.
IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT COMPARED TO OTHER EPISODE 10's
The Doctor Dances - 9/10
Love & Monsters - 6/10
Blink - 8/10
Midnight - 9/10
Vincent and the Doctor - 8/10
The Girl Who Waited - 9/10
Journey to the Centre of the Tardis - 7/10
In The Forest of the Night - 8/10
SERIES TOTALS BY EPISODE 10
Series 1 - 78/100 (2nd)
Series 2 - 75/100 (4th)
Series 3 - 71/100 (7th)
Series 4 - 80/100 (1st)
Series 5 - 71/100 (6th)
Series 6 - 75/100 (3rd)
Series 7 - 69/100 (8th)
Series 8 - 73/100 (5th)
I've never scored an episode 10/10. Where two series totalled the same, the series with the most 9/10's is considered more successful. If the number of 9/10's is equal, then the series with the most 8/10's and so on.
That list quite surprises me given that without the statistics I would probably rank Series 8 a firm third favourite behind Series 4 and Series 1. I think the strength of the second and sixth series comes from both having a number of strong standalone stories between less impressive episodes, whilst Series 7 has been of a slightly lower but still high-quality that is simply more consistent.
I'm not surprised to see Series 7 in last place, nor Series 3 just behind it - the seventh series was lacking on a lot of fronts, whilst Series 3 only picked up regularly for its second half and still had a mediocre conclusion.
Into The Dalek: 8/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8/10 (revised -0.5)
Listen: 10/10
Time Heist: 7/10
The Caretaker: 7/10
Kill the Moon: 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 9/10
Flatline: 9/10
In the Forest of the Night: 4.5/10 (+1.5)
Always Be Rewatching. Taking it for what it was, I enjoyed it a bit more. But in relation to the rest of the series, it can't go higher.
Into the Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 9/10
Time Heist 10/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Kill the Moon 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 8/10
Flatline 8/10
In the Forest of the Night 6/10
Ambitious and cleverly conceived storyline, adequate visual effects, very poor execution. Are there only 20 people living in London? Where were all the tourists? How are people meant to have forgotten about these events in the internet age? Why was Maebh special? What on Earth was the missing sister storyline about? Despite these unforgivable omissions, I must say the tree invasion resolution ranks among this series' best thought out.
Deep Breath 7/10
Into the Dalek 4/10
Robot of Sherwood 6/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 9/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Kill the Moon 6/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10
Flatline 9/10
In the Forest of the Night - 4/10
Average Series Score So Far: 7.2/10
This episode was a massive let down, apart from some nice moments between Clara-Danny-Doctor, the plot was virtually non-existant, and the threat was... well, there wasn't really one was there. If the Doctor hadn't been there, nothing different would have happened.
Questions:
- If they were normal trees, why did they magically become flame proof?
- Bugger to what the Doctor said, if trees had magically appeared before... we'd know. We would have documented it. Why wasn't this addressed?
The reason I gave it 4 and not 0 is simple, the child actors were for the most part brilliant, I really cared about Mave. Clara and the Doctor were a joy as usual, and I continue to enjoy Danny Pink's character.
Next week, on the other hand, looks amazing.
Partners in Crime might have been a daft little episode, but I enjoyed the refreshingly different moral dilemma that replaced a monster out doing evil deeds. Not every alien is going to be sinister and hideous - chucking in some cute, relatively innocent Adipose and trees that are on our side is fine now and again by me as a means to take some stories in a different direction. The amount of people who felt compelled to identify the threats in Midnight and Listen is similarly surprising - sometimes you just don't get obvious answers and that is all part of the unsettling resolution.
Of course sometimes a story just isn't engaging enough without a clear antagonist, but I enjoy the odd episode that presents a plot without fanged monsters and scheming villains.
Into the Dalek - 90/100
Robot of Sherwood - 88/100
Listen - 95/100
Time heist - 92/100
The caretaker - 88/100
Kill the Moon - 93/100
Mummy on the Orient Express - 93/100
Flatline - 92/100
In the Forest of the Night - 91/100
Into The Dalek 8/10
Robot of Sherwood 8/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 8/10
The Caretaker 7/10
Kill The Moon 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 10/10
Flatline 10/10
In the Forest of the Night 4/10
KILL THE MOON
LISTEN
INTO THE DALEK
FLATLINE
IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT
MUMMY ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
DEEP BREATH
ROBOTS OF SHERWOOD
THE CARETAKER
TIME HEIST
Time Heist really has been the only clunker, sad as had an interesting premise. Probably seen Gareth Roberts' best script and one of Gatiss' best too. And the finale looks like a corker
Into The Dalek: 8/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8.5/10
Listen: 10/10
Time Heist: 7/10
The Caretaker: 8/10
Kill the Moon: 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 9/10
Flatline: 8/10
In the Forest of the Night 6/10
Into The Dalek 4/10
Robot Of Sherwood 2/10
Listen 6/10
Time Heist - 2/10
The Caretaker - 5/10
Kill the Moon - 4/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9/10
Flatline - 7/10
-- Fear Her, but better
In the Forest of the Night 1/10
-- Makes Fear Her look like a masterpiece. Garbage!
Into the Dalek - 8.5/10
Robot of Sherwood - 7.95/10
Listen - 11/10
Time Heist - 7.8/10
The Caretaker - 8.5/10
Kill the Moon - 9.1/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 9.11/10
Flatline - 9/10
In the Forest of the Night - 6/10
Into the Dalek - 3/10
Robot of Sherwood - 6/10
Listen - 9/10
Time Heist - 8/10
The Caretaker - 9/10
Kill the Moon - 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express - 8.5/10
Flatline - 9/10
In the Forest of the Night - 8/10
Into the Dalek 9.5/10
Robot of Sherwood 8.5/10
Listen 10/10
Time Heist 7.5/10
The Caretaker 8/10
Kill The Moon 8/10
Mummy on the Orient Express 9/10
Flatline 9/10
In The Forest of the Night 7/10
I found it a sweet, thoughtful episode, not quite as good as the others in Series 8 but still decent, and I thought the visuals were beautiful. Some very nice dialogue, and the kids were (mostly) fine in it. I don't know where the millions of people in London went for the duration of the episode *confused face* but anyway... I really can't wait for 'Dark Water/Death in Heaven'.
Other 10th episodes since 2005:
The Doctor Dances 10/10
Love & Monsters 8/10
Blink 8/10
Midnight 10/10
Vincent and the Doctor 5/10
The Girl Who Waited 7.5/10
Journey to the Centre of the Tardis 3/10
Into the Dalek: 6/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8/10
Listen: 10/10.
Time Heist: 9/10.
The Caretaker: 6/10
Kill the Moon: 6/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express: 7/10
Flatline: 6/10
In The Forest Of The Night: 8/10
A flawed episode but one I thoroughly enjoyed nontheless.:)
Into the Dalek: 7/10
Robot of Sherwood: 6/10
Listen: 9/10.
Time Heist: 9/10.
The Caretaker: 6/10
Kill the Moon: 5/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express: 10/10
Flatline: 10/10
In The Forest Of The Night: 2/10
I think Love & Monsters, like Forest, is a story that seems to divide opinion a great deal. I think L&M is a very strong, funny and ultimately tragic-but-hopeful story about the effect the Doctor has on the people around him, without him ever intending it.
Back to Series 8, I think it's a very, very high-quality and consistent series.
Into the Dalek: 7/10
Robot of Sherwood: 6/10
Listen: 9/10.
Time Heist: 9/10.
The Caretaker: 5/10
Kill the Moon: 6/10.
Mummy on the Orient Express: 9/10
Flatline: 8/10
In The Forest Of The Night: 6/10
Into the Dalek: 7.5/10
Robot of Sherwood: 8/10
Listen: 9.5/10
Time Heist: 8/10
The Caretaker: 8/10
Kill The Moon: 7/10
Mummy on the Orient Express: 10/10
Flatline: 9/10
In the Forest of the Night: 5.5/10
Current Series Average: 81.5%