Doctor Who 8x10: In the Forest of the Night

One of the joys of watching Doctor Who is that the variety of storytelling means you can sometimes get something a little offbeat and strange, like Warriors Gate, Kinda of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. In the Forest of the Night aims for the same kind of thing, although I'd argue it was not quite on the same level as those previous efforts I mentioned.

Danny and Clara have been taking a class to a museum sleepover. When they get outside, they find that trees have grown over the whole world. It turns out that while the human race slept, the trees grew. The immediately problem with this idea is that there would be people awake somewhere in the world to see this. It might have been better for it just being Danny, Clara and the class who woke up to see the trees and have everyone else already know.

One of the children, Maebh, has a strange mental powers and has tracked down the Doctor. She also detected a solar flare above the Earth and can talk to the trees. She is in the role of a shaman character, who needs to lose her medication to see the truth which enables her to speak through the trees.

Fortunately, the trees are growing for a benevolent reason. They deflect the solar flare and the trouble dissolves. The Doctor says that people will forget, but it is genuinely unlikely.

One issue with this episode is that with only the trees as a threat, there is nothing of any danger. We get Nelson's column falling down, a wolf and a tiger, but nothing particularly big. On the one hand, it's great to have a Doctor Who story without a villain, but on the other hand, it derives the story of tension.

The Danny and Clara relationship is on the back burner in this episode. Sparks don't fly. I guess we'll have to wait for the next episode to see about this.

Peter Capaldi is once again brilliant as the Doctor. He's less ethically dubious in this episode, but is still delightfully blunt to the children at times. It looks as if he might be mellowing.

If there's a "proper" way of viewing this episode, I'd say its to view the whole thing as an educational film, with the kids making a "project" to tell the adults not to cut down the trees, like the kind of things I remember my class doing back in the primary school for the rainforest.

7/10

Next Time: A modern remake of The Invasion, which would be more interesting if we didn't already have the original. Clara seems to turn evil, but is it really that straightforward? Missy is finally revealed, which would be nice if I cared about the character. Nice that Kate Stewart and Osgood are returning though.

Doctor Who 8x09: Flatline

This is only the second story that Jamie Matheson has written for Doctor Who and he's already given us another winner. Flatline is a nice contrast to his previous work, as a contemporary Earth story where dimensional troubles cause the Doctor to become trapped in a miniaturised Tardis and two dimensional creatures start to break into our world.

The idea of two dimensional monsters absorbing three dimensional people is nice new idea for Doctor Who, and leads to some pretty creepy imagery such as a human face screaming in the walls and a human nervous system. And you think that's bad, it gets worse when the people emerge from the walls. The aliens or 'Boneless' as the Doctor names them, are delightfully strange and never give away enough information to become too mundane. The gurgling voice when they are reading out a community worker's number is pretty creepy. A successful scary monster then.

People who moan when Clara gets a bit of attention must have been having hissy fit when she got to assume the role of the Doctor in his absence. The scenes where she explores the area with young graffiti artist Riggsy as her companion certainly point towards the fact that that having a woman as the Doctor wouldn't make much difference to the role of the character.

Riggsy was a fairly likeable companion character. He was compassionate enough when he thought that Clara was one of the people grieving and intelligent enough to work out the locked room mystery. I was glad that his supposed self sacrifice didn't happen. I hate when characters get wasted that way.

The Doctor may be on the sidelines in this adventure, but he's still a constant presence throughout as he guides Clara and the other humans to the solution. He gets more humorous moments this time with the "2Dis" and his little victory dance when he thinks he's saved the Tardis. What makes Capaldi's Doctor funny is we're often laughing at him not with him. He also gets the big hero moment at the end as he names the monsters before dispatching them.

The only other significant castmember is Christopher Fairbank as Fenton. He's generally the bad egg of the team, bigoted and annoying. Like Rickson Slade in Voyage of the Damned, he's the survivor you don't want. The others are really just there to get killed.

The story has a very straightforward narrative, with people dodging monsters while the Doctor figures out a solution. It is, nevertheless, extremely well done. The solution that Clara works out to solve the problem of the shrunken Tardis is pretty nifty and the Doctor using the extradimensional nature of the Tardis against the three dimensional nature of the Boneless.


We get another obligatory Missy cameo at the end, but this one is slightly more interesting. What could she be preparing Clara for? I don't think it's too wild a guess to say that she's the woman in the shop, but what is her purpose? We'll find out in two week's time.

There are only two flaw that I can pick at with this episode. One is that the Tardis default setting looks like a Time Lord communication device rather than the model we saw in The Name of the Doctor. The only other flaw, which is nitpicking slightly, is the continuity of Peter Capaldi's hair length. This might have been an issue with filming.

Out of the two stories Mathieson's has written for Doctor Who this year I think I prefer Mummy on the Orient Express. That had a slightly more intense emotional arc for its central characters and a more memorable supporting cast. Having said that,  Flatline is still a very good story and is definately one of my favourite stories of series 8. I would be more than happy for Jamie Matheson to come back to write next year.

9/10

Next: London is overrun with trees, a wolf and a tiger, Danny and children. I really have no idea what to make of this one but it certainly looks interesting.

Doctor Who 8x08: Mummy on the Orient Express

I can't say I came into this story with high expectations, even after last week's dramatic ending. The title of this episode suggested a disposable romp. The Mummy monster and the colonial setting also gave the impression of an old Hinchcliffe era tale. Yet by the time I came away from this tale, It had become a new favourite of mine.

It certainly starts off in a traditional manner, with the Doctor and companion simply materialising on the ship and exploring their new environs. In this case, the space version of the Orient Express.

However, there is a slightly less traditional tone to the relationship between Doctor and companion. Clara is treating this like a last hurrah. It's unusual to have this much tension between Doctor and companion going into the story. It's certainly a change in the Moffat era, where Amy's traumatic experience at Demon's Run was brushed under the carpet.

However, the Doctor and Clara soon find themselves busy with the legend of the Foretold. A mummy appears and kills people in sixty seconds. The Mummy itself is a brilliant looking creation, with rotting flesh, missing teeth, a visible ribcage and ragged bandages.

The curse itself takes the form of a 66 second timer that appears on screen. It is an interesting new narrative device to be employed on Doctor Who, similar to Sherlock's on screen text.

One by one, the crew is being killed off by the Foretold. And one of them is responsible. They're not the deepest of characters, but fairly fun. The Professor is amusing. Captain Quale is alright. Frank Skinner is good as Chief Engineer Perkins. There is also Maisy, whose mother was killed by the mummy. She seems like a fairly distraught woman.

Eventually it is revealed that the whole thing is a ruse to get scientists on board to discover the foretold. The train's Computer, Gus, played in a witty deadpan voice by John Sessions, locks down the train and forces the scientists to work.

The Doctor's investigations soon lead him to discover that it is guilt that draws the foretold. He once again tests Clara by bringing Maisy as a test subject, but this time around, throws it around by solving the mystery of the Mummy.  It is another riff on the malfunctioning machinery of the Moffat era, but I don't mind.

Peter Capaldi has been good since day one, but his Doctor seemed even more engaging this week. As with Deep Breath, this is a story that taunts you with the idea that the Doctor might be willing to allow everyone to die on board. He might be seen as an angry Doctor, yet he still has quirky moments, l like his awkward body language when he is unsure whether to involve Clara in the mystery.

The Doctor's not the only one who is morally ambiguous in this story. Clara admits to finding Tardis travel an addiction and lies to her boyfriend about returning. The characters are not entirely good this season. This is not always the most fun viewing, but it is compelling.

Kill the Moon was the episode that was touted as the big game changer but was this episode that I ended up enjoying more. It may be a romp, but it's a romp that manages to advance the character arc of the season.

10/10

Next: Another new writer and a another interesting looking premise. A shrunken Tardis and creatures that come out of walls.

Doctor Who 8x07: Kill the Moon

We're now over the halfway mark with Series 8, and we finally have the first story to be written by a new writer to the series. So how well did I think Peter Harness fared with his first Who episode? I'd say okay.

I had a hard time deciding how I felt about this story and that's mostly down to the shifts in tone. The story begins with Doctor, Clara and Courtney landing on the moon and where Captain Lundvik, played by Hermoine Norris, and her two crewmembers are trying to destroy the moon.
They soon discover that there are spiders living on the moon and these spiders start killing off Lundvik's crew.  At this point, the story has a hard sci-fi, horror tone to it The Orange Space Suits bring back memories of Waters of Mars. although the supporting space crew were nowhere near as well developed as the crew in that previous tale. Here they're just spider fodder.

As the story progresses we find out that the spiders are simply bacteria. The Doctor goes into the moon and when he emerges, he brings with him the news that the moon itself is an egg housing a living creature about to be born. At this point the story starts to have a more mystical tone. It certainly put this viewer off balance. The story now becomes one of women having to choose the allow a new baby to live or die. If the egg hatches, the creature inside could destroy the world. If it doesn't then the world will be safe. Lundvik gets chooses to be pragmatic where Clara and Courntey choose life. It's an interesting dilemma, and one where themes of abortion can be read into it. The Doctor's decision to leave the three women on the moon to make that decision makes it seem trickier.

In the end, Clara chooses life. The Doctor returns and rescues the three women. The Dragon hatches, and fortunately leaves a new moon behind. The threat was never a threat.

Hermoine Norris was good in the role of Captain Lundvik, playing the role in a very down to Earth way.

Ellis George was good as Courtney Woods. I liked the idea of her taking pictures of the moon and the Doctor and putting them on tumblr. She managed to avoid the trap that the writers fell into with Angie  by not having her complaining all the time.

Clara finally stands up to the Doctor in this episode. Jenna Coleman is getting a lot of good scenes this year.

Some fans on social media have complained about the un-heroic nature of the Doctor this series. Speaking for myself, I think this is a good thing. In the early days, William Hartnell was just as grumpy and it was Ian and Barbara who were the audience viewpoint characters. Over the years, the Doctor has become more heroic and that sometimes pushes the companion into the margins, with little for them to do other than scream or say "what is that Doctor?". This less heroic Doctor has given Clara a chance to shine. Besides, this version of the show will not last forever. I can image the writers responding to negative audience feedback and toning down the new Doctor for the next series. That would be a shame. So I'm enjoying this nastier edge while it lasts.

I don't think this was a classic story by any means, but a fairly decent one.

7/10

Next Week: Time to find out where the Doctor, Amy and Rory were going at the end of The Big Bang.

Doctor Who 8x06: The Caretaker

Gareth Roberts returns to writing Doctor Who with an episode that once again draws on the structure of  The Lodger and Closing Time, where the Doctor goes undercover to sort out an alien threat on Earth. This time around, the Doctor is disguised as a Caretaker and laying a trap for a robot killer known as the Scovox Blitzer. I enjoyed Gareth's previous episodes, and assumed that this one would become one of my favourites. Yet despite knowing that this was a good episode, it didn't really do anything for me.

Perhaps this partly because I was expecting more of a comedy. The first act of the story certainly points that way, with the Doctor making jokes about Jane Austen and getting Clara' boyfriend confused with a Matt Smith lookalike. As in Gareth Roberts' previous stories, the Doctor gets easily confused with aspects of normal human behaviour.

When Danny Pink discovers who the Doctor is, and Clara's secret, the story turns a lot more serious. Danny is understandably annoyed at Clara for keeping this secret from him. It is very much a case of characters talking about their feelings.

The Scovox Blitzer returns for the final act, just in time for Parents evening. Fortunately, with the Doctor's technology, and Danny's assistance, the thing is stopped.

Danny Pink continues to be an impressive character. Unlike Rory he is more of a match for the Doctor, and the Doctor in turn, does not like him initially.

Clara spends the episode trying to keep secrets. She really goes on full control freak in this episode when she tries to convince Danny that the explosions and space monsters were part of the play.

Some commentators have complained that the Doctor's dislike of Danny for being a soldier is out of character. These people have clearly forgotten Doctor Who and the Silurians. There's also his participation in the Time War to consider, and, as Into the Dalek earlier demonstrated, The Doctor's hatred of soldiers may also stem from hatred of the soldier in himself. Let's not forget that he nearly joined the army when he was a child. His means of defeating the Scovox Blitzer involve pretending to be an officer.

The Scovox Blitzer looked cool and I liked the charred death effect. It didn't move particularly well, looking as though it was wobbling around. In the end, though it was just a plot device.


The only other thing I can think to mention is, Courtney Woods, the disruptive young girl who joins the Doctor in the Tardis at the end of the episode. She wasn't in it long enough for me to like or dislike her. This will likely pay off in the next episode, so I wll probably focus on her in that.

It's a strange thing to have an episode that you know is good yet you don't personally enjoy. The character related stuff is interesting, though the Scovox movement is not as well executed. Still, Gareth should still be congratulated for this episode.

8/10

Next Week: Spiders on the Moon. Those orange space suits that never bode well.