Series 8 will mark the first time that we've had an episode of New Who air in or around late October (November 2009's The Waters of Mars was a special rather than a regular episode so we won't count that one).

So have the Doctor Who team made the effort to make In the Forest of the Night a spooky outing? Possibly even set on or around Halloween itself? Are you (like me) hoping that this will turn out to be the case when the episode airs?

I wondered that the other day.

Checking out the dates, Dark Water is closer. If it is a horror story they should show it at midnight on Friday

Could it be something to do with William Blake's poem, "The Tiger"?

Tiger Tiger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

I doubt they'd do it intentionally for Halloween. Would guess when the stories were written they would have only had a rough idea, if any at all, of when the series would be shown so for all they knew when planning it could have started a month earlier/later than it did.

They knew exactly when The Big Bang would broadcast - and, by proxy, Flesh & Stone. They had a fairly good idea about The Waters of Mars, too. So it's not beyond the realm of possibility at all.

The running order is prone to switching, though, so I doubt they'd go too Hallowe'eny.

You really think that when Moffat or whoever picks up their pen to write the episode they've already got confirmation from the bbc about exactly what day it will be broadcast? I highly doubt that. They're probably given a good estimation at best.

The episode title "Dark Water" immediately made me think of this.
If it's even half as terrifying as that, then we're in for a treat.

Hey - who turned out the lights?

They know way in advance, and they know enough to go, "Oh, yeah, we'll be straddling Halloween this year, so let's make this one Halloweeny." There's not actually that much variation - if the run doesn't start on Easter Saturday it starts around the late Summer bank holiday, give or take a week or so.

There's unforeseen circumstances, there was a risk that Gridlock would be delayed a week if the football overran, but yeah, they'd be able to write a Halloween one if they wanted. Not that I expect Forest of the Night will be seasonal, but they have a fair sense of what goes where relatively early in the planning stages. Again, The Waters of Mars - it got shunted around a little bit... but it was within six days, and they had enough notice to abort Red Christmas and shift the plot to mid-November.

Yes. I thought of that myself.

I am sure Moffat and Gatiss remember that. In fact, I have seen interviews with Gatiss where he has mentioned it and how terrifying it was.