I came across this just now, looking at the showbiz news on here:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/do...poug28zIXfhPc0

It's strange that they should still be talking about that particular episode, nearly a year after it's first broadcast.

Apparently talk is that it's one of the worst episodes of Modern Who ever. A few hours after the initial broadcast, DS gave it a pitiful 2 out of 5, but Steven Moffat jumped in to say that it was actually one of his favourite stories from Modern Doctor Who so far.

I, myself, didn't like the episode much. I would give it only 3 out of 10 for brilliance.

There weren't many episodes in Series 8 that I DID like, unfortunately. Kill The Moon was one, as was the Forest episode, and Time Heist.

I've only watched it twice. I don't think it's without merit. You can see what FCB was trying to do but it didn't come together at all. It was one of the episodes I was most intrigued about before broadcast and with the calibre of the writer it was something of a let-down. And the 'magical' reappearance of the sister at the end is just woefully handled and felt shoehorned in to give the episode an emotional climax that just didn't feel very well earnt. It did have some lovely imagery and I wouldn't put it up there with the likes of 'Fear Her' etc. I just think it's failings are magnified due to the expectation. I would file it next to 'Nightmares in Silver' in that it's written by an immensely talented writer and could have been so much more but was executed poorly.

I think it's quite right Moffat throws his support behind it though because one would hope FCB will get another go at writing for the show. He could undoubtedly produce something wonderful- look at Tom MacRae who went from the mindnumbing mediocrity of that Cyberman bore-fest to one of the ultimate stand alone Classics of New Who.

Its watchable. Not as bad as its reputation.

It wasn't my favourite episode but I think it is underrated. I mean, it was relaxing and enjoyable 45 minutes of Doctor Who.
Not the best, but definitely not the worst episode, like many people say.

I was so looking forward to seeing Time Heist with Keeley Hawes, as I loved her in Ashes to Ashes and Upstairs, Downstairs, but look how that one turned out. There wasn't much going on tbh.

I thought Time Heist felt like a bad version of Series 4's Midnight episode, which I loved.

It has to be said, that the scripts weren't exactly up to scratch last year.

Let's just hope that Series 9 gets off to a good start on Saturday, and continues that way for another 11 weeks, building up and up to being excellent.

The trees-consciously-save-the-world thing was too much of an elephant in the room for some viewers, in what was otherwise a good buildup in the first three-quarters of the episode. The idea that a ball of flame engulfed the atmosphere of our planet and everything was happy ever after just left me feeling like I'd watched a very expensive adaptation of a children's fairytale.

And by children, I mean the under-8s.

I've only watched it twice. Once on broadcast and once on DVD (solely because I wanted my money's worth). I may revisit it in a couple of years time.

I have time heist down as the worse episode of s8.

I quite enjoyed Time Heist... not to the extent of 'favourite episode' territory but it looked stunning in places (less so in others... the budget felt a bit exhausted towards the end when we saw the same corridor over and over) and had some of the more likeable characters of the series - just a shame there wasn't a bit more substance to the plot. Still it was better than Stephen Thompson's previous efforts in Series 6 and 7 which were to different extents less redeemable.

As for In The Forest of the Night I really enjoyed it on my first viewing (it was a rare case where I had to watch an episode away from home) and was shocked when I came home to see some of the hatred online for it. I recently rewatched it and liked it much less so than before - that's not to say it's by any means the worst of NuWho, or even of Series 8 (some of what Moffat dished out himself was far less appealing to me), but it gets a lot of undue criticism. I think the kids are quite agitating (so soon after they got Courtney more or less written well a few stories earlier), the ending was indeed the most nauseating thing I've ever seen in Doctor Who (I actually cringe at it, in fact I think I'll just cut the episode short in future if I've watched it again), and London should have been busier... but as a concept it was different, it had some decent character moments in there too.

It's one of those Who episodes that falls under the nice idea poorly executed.

It also contains one of my personal toe curling moments. After defeating the tiger with a flash-light (as you do) the kids all walk on screen giving a jubilant 'Yeeeahhh'

The whole fairy lights magic tree stuff looked nice.
The execution of a forest infested London failed to convince and the 'Humans forget' was pretty slapdash.

Oh it wasn't that bad. It makes me cringe a bit but its not the worst episode in my opinion. Its just very very silly.

Way too many "Huh... WHAT???!!!" Moments. The Tigers, all the school kids, the ending, the intelligent trees which will be intelligent for 5 minutes at the end of the episode and then everyone forgets about it by the time the credits rolled. the Linford Christie leaps of faith required by the audience were just too much.

Finding the sister staring into a corner afterwards produced a very loud and outspoken shout of unacceptance from the whole family. Even the 12 year old felt that his license fee had been misspent.

I've never actually seen 'Fear Her', which is supposed to be the worst ep of the modern era. Apart from that, I think this is probably in the bottom 5 of 21st century Who turkeys.

It's definitely my least favourite episode of Series 8 but it's not irredeemable. There's some stuff to like: Capaldi is always a treat to watch, seeing Clara's relationships and personality developing more and there's a lovely little scene between the Doctor and Clara. But Danny's not as likeable as he was previously, the kids are mostly annoying, the tiger is thrown in to cover over the fact that the bulk of this episode is pretty much completely without any real threat whatsoever and not very interesting to watch either, and the science behind the trees being intelligent and the whole human race forgetting what's happened is beyond barmy. Not to mention the little girl's sister magically reappearing because we needed a real happy ending.

Also, personal bugbear is when the Doctor is presented with all the same information as the audience and reaches the conclusion slower. The plot was very, very predictable and the Doctor took way too long to get there.

As for Time Heist, I really, really like it. Psi and Zaibra are excellent characters, the Doctor and Clara are really finding their rhythm and the plot is fun and relatively simple, albeit a bit predictable.

I just found it underwhelming and wasn't really engaged with it watching 'live'. As with all episodes, I gave it another go on iplayer and it was just sort of 'alright'. I liked the contrast between the Eleventh Doctor and the twelfth when it came to reacting to children and Capaldi is always worth watching, but haven't sought it out for another viewing since. It falls into the same category as the likes of 'Planet of the Dead' or 'The Doctor's daughter' for me; not terrible, just rather bland and 'Ah well, some nice ideas, didn't come off....'

As an aside, I like 'Time Heist'...solid, entertaining Who.

It amazes me that this story (along with Kill the Moon) got past their initial pitch and makes me question the judgement of Moffat and other higher-ups for saying yes we want to do that, we want plots that have our moon as a dragon egg and trees that take over the planet then disappear, lets make these ridiculous stories that wilfully ignore the massive consequences and giant plot holes that they create within their narrative, I genuinely find it baffling that these two stories were green-lit and someone somewhere along the line didn't go hang on a minute this isn't whimsical or creative its just plain stupid and shot the idea down (mercifully)

Thankfully around these episodes were Flatline and Mummy on the Orient Express which are great episodes that reinforce why you should love DW and that was really needed when you have ITFOTN and KTM that are so dumb and frankly insulting. Atleast everything else tries to hide whatever plot holes and bad unexplainable implications they create, where as those two episodes have some of the worst offences and shove it right under your nose.

The only thing that would have redeemed In the Forest of the Night in my eyes would have been if it had been revealed to be all someone's dream.
It had all the hallmarks of being a dream, but was unfortunately supposed to be "real"!

Wasn't it supposed to be a dream? Didn't the original draft mean that it was a dream but they changed it because they thought as far as endings went it was too much of a cop out?

I hadn't heard that, but it would have been so much better if they had stuck with that.
Imagine at the end of the episode, Steven Moffat being shown waking up in bed in a cold sweat, exclaiming to his wife "I just had the weirdest dream ever which was a completely surreal and bonkers episode of Doctor Who!"
That would have been absolutely outrageous, and fandom would have never stopped ranting about it, but it would have justified the whole thing!

It was more of a cop out doing the 'and then everyone forgets' ending IMO

Just watched it again. Not quite as bad as I remembered from first viewing but it was an interesting idea that didn't really work as a whole. It did have some nice moments here and there. Definitely the weakest episode of the series for me but not as bad as Fear Her - now that was a dreadful episode!

I think Forest of the Night was a worse ending than Kill the Moon in many respects but at least KTM had some strong scenes throughout until the exceedingly stupid ending. FoTN was lacking in so many areas I too fail to understand how it got approved.

In some ways, I think maybe Kill the Moon is a lot like Love & Monsters in regards to its problem - the premise is okay, there's some decent character work in both (L&M is Jackie at her best, whilst I loved the Doc-Clara argument in KTM), and they're both episodes with a clear and unique identity. The failure is in the pay-off, on which the whole verdict of the episode is hung. In the case of Love & Monsters the pay-off was made to be the Abzorbaloff, and it received heavy criticism as a result - many people will ignore how good everything else might be if the pay-off aspect isn't decent. Kill the Moon is very much the same - the pay-off is in the moon reveal, and it got it monumentally wrong. Again many will overlook any decent stuff the episode did as a result. Of course some people just really don't like the episodes and that's fine too, but they're not the most offensive in their respective series so much as maybe the most controversial.

I'm less sure that In The Forest of the Night has another episode it can be so easily likened to. As much as I'd defend it to some extent, it still feels like one of those episodes that's tonally off in some way - it's not quite how a Doctor Who episode usually feels.

I actually thought that Love and Monsters wasn't as bad as some episodes.A Doctor Who episode with an ELO soundtrack, where a man marries a paving slab can't be that bad, right?

OK, the Absorbaloff was complete crap, but he wasn't 1/80th as bad as some rubber monstrosities in the series' history - or even the Great Vampire from State of Decay, which I remember being a metal Dungeons and Dragons figure waved in front of the camera.

Even someone who had witnessed the Nimon with their own eyes had to cringe and draw a sharp intake of breath on that one.