The Independent: 'In the Forest of the Night' is a novel concept that starts off well but unravels fairly quickly. Too much time is spent to-ing and fro-ing between the Tardis, while the explanation for why trees have mysteriously taken over the Earth feels a bit muddled. Perhaps it's a generational thing that grown-ups just "don't get".

The Telegraph: Four stars out of five
The animals (a tiger and a pack of leaping wolves) may have been seen too briefly and the story may have lacked the dynamic pace of some earlier episodes, but this was a powerful piece, a fully-realised, meticulously crafted story which proved that Doctor Who can let in an auteur and adapt to his will. Certainly we were told to be kind to the trees but it never felt as if Cottrell Boyce was preaching some eco message. It was too poetic, too subtly drawn for that.

SFX: Four stars out of five
An episode whose fairytale imagery lingers in the mind long after the credits have rolled, like a strange, vivid dream.

Radio Times: three stars
At a stretch, In the Forest of the Night could be interpreted as a modern spin on the original Doctor Who set-up. Capaldi as the tetchy, otherworldly Doctor. Danny and Clara as 21st-century equivalents of Coal Hill School teachers Ian and Barbara. And as for Susan, the original Unearthly Child… well, in Maebh we have, in a phenomenal sense, An Earthly Child. But whereas that first episode in 1963 transported us away from Totters Lane, there’s a gnawing anxiety that 2014 is depositing us in Cobblers Yard.

it gets worse:

Liverpool Echo:

it gets one star for imagery from me. there's precious little else about the episode which deserves any kind of credit.

It had a lot of potential and the resolution was much better thought out than many previous episodes, but it failed on the execution. It could have worked a lot better as a two-parter with Londoners and tourists popping up and experiencing the TARDIS translation matrix. Any explanation as to why Maebh's sister got turned into a plant would have been nice too.

was I entertained yes I was, but i will NEVER watch it again.

An absolute bloody nightmare, more like it.

The best thing about this weeks episode was the trailer for next weeks.

Might have worked as a Christmas standalone episode but not as part of a series. The worst so far, even worse than The Caretaker.

Seriously? That point was driven home with a sledgehammer.

Perhaps Maebh had a squabble with her big sister and wished her gone? The sparkly creatures transformed her into the plant. When Maebh finished her message with a call for her sister to 'come home', the creatures released her again.

London WAS strangely empty.
Okay, commuters wouldn't be able to get in with no buses or trains able to run, but surely there would have been tourists at the hotels? Or were they so terrified they all stayed in their rooms?

I have been watching Doctor Who since it first hit the screen in the sixties(apologies for being that old ) and I see it as Sci Fi escapism tv don't pick holes in the show as I take it for what it is and if others which to dissect every scene so be it but lets not get to carried away as it is what it is, well that's my opinion for what it's worth

She wasn't turned into a plant, she was hidden in a bush! The fairy lights(?) found her and returned her to her family, presumably this was a thank you for stopping the attempts to destroy the forest.

I cannot deny the fact that I enjoyed watching it, myself. It was by no means a perfect episode, the lack of people was jarring and the sister at the end was annoyingly mushy but the rest was no more surreal than the moon being an egg, and the concept certainly more watchable than the embarrassingly disappointing Skovox Blitzer. It also looked stunning, and had some decent character work in there - even from the kids (they might have their annoying moments but compare them to the kids from the penultimate story of Series 7 and they could've been companions!).

It's an episode that I don't need to care too much about but certainly wont mind watching again. It was very fairytale by Doctor Who standards but it was also a stab at something different as much of this series has been, so it doesn't feel particularly out of place for me and... Yeah, I just liked it. Didn't love it, but I liked it.

And the walk from the Natural History Museum to Trafalgar Square would take them right past Buckingham Palace. (Knightsbridge, Hyde Park Corner, Buckingham Palace, the Mall, Trafalgar Square.) The area round the Palace would've been swarming with soldiers, mounted police, etc., stopping everyone, making sure that no terrorists takes advantage of this happening to assassinate the royal family!

Sorry I think the reviews are showing something rather worrying. Even an episode with clear problems gets 4/5 stars? meaning are they scared stiff of actually being honest incase that offends someone on the production team or moffat himself?

Last night was poor I think the DS review is a lot more honest, the acting was woeful Danny is just dragging everything scene down he appears that's something that cant be ignored.

Reading some of these posts....thank God for professional reviewers!

I think it would become incredibly unhealthy for the show if everyone decided they couldn't speak how they felt. A bit like What's happened to Downton abbey this current series isn't good but because the series is big in the US everyone feels compelled to ignored the failures.

I cant remember an episode poll that was so negative before something clearly went wrong for a lot of us last night

Well, I'm one of the Moffat era's biggest defenders (against those who constantly find fault with it), but even I find last night's episode impossible to defend.

It was the least interesting episode of the series so far. I loved last week's episode so it would have been difficult to match up to that. I was puzzled about the missing girl who had turned into a plant. What was the explanation for that?

Ultimately every series of Dr Who has good and not so good episodes and everyone will perceive that differently. It's all a matter of taste.

I read somewhere that she wasn't turned into a plant, she was hidden in a bush! The fairy lights(?) found her and returned her to her family, presumably this was a thank you for stopping the attempts to destroy the forest.

Agreed. The almost slavish crawling of the 'official' reviews is bizarre. Why are they so frightened of saying 'Ugh, that was crap'? The DS review was a nice surprise as Morgan made few bones about saying it was childish drivel.

It was truly awful. I actually fell asleep watching it last night (I watched it on iPlayer a bit later) and I've only just got round to watching what I missed. It was just tripe. I would go so far as to say that it may actually be my least favourite episode since Who returned in 2005. I would rather rewatch 'Love and Monsters' one hundred times over than I would rewatch this once.

What you appear to be saying is that because the official reviews totally disagree with your own assessment - and the assessment of a few people on Digital Spy - then they must be scared of offending the production team.

Nonsense! Is it not simply that they watched last night's episode objectively, enjoyed it for what it was, and then wrote about it?

I've thoroughly enjoyed series 8, it's on track to be the best series since Doctor Who returned in 2005. Last night's episode certainly wasn't the best we've ever had, it was deeply flawed; but neither was it anywhere near as bad as some of the more hysterical reviews on here seem to think!

That Independant review is one of the worst Doctor Who reviews I've ever read. It sapped my willpower to look at any more of them.

I think these reviews are useful for the show creators because they do demonstrate some sample non-fan opinions, but for a fan of the show I find them an annoying read because they always focus totally on the wrong things and often make inane observations ('Danny could do better than Clara'. So? 'Clara's lying to her boyfriend'. So? It's called drama)