Doctor Who (reboot) S08E10 -- In the Forest of the Night (boxed spoilers until aired)

Cafe Society
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The Rule: no unboxed spoilers until after this episode airs on the west coast of the USA (i.e., “Pacific Time” [sorry Alaska/Hawaii]. In other words, boxed spoilers until 3:00 AM UTC).

BBC synopsis: The Doctor discovers that the final days of humanity have arrived.
Radio Times blurb: Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who sees the world wake up to find the trees have moved back in overnight, leaving Clara (Jenna Coleman) and Danny (Samuel Anderson) trapped in London with their Year Eight Gifted and Talented Group.
Screenshot from last week’s “Next Time” trailer: http://i.imgur.com/eyNtZ4D.jpg (courtesy of Jragon). Google Maps Street View: Google Maps (you might have to zoom in to see why I’m putting this here :smiley: )
Link to BBC One page with 3 trailers and an “introduction” to the episode that features comments by Capaldi and Moffat: BBC One - Doctor Who, Series 8, In the Forest of the Night - Clips. WATCH THE INTRODUCTION AT YOUR OWN RISK. It contains a significant spoiler for those who wish to go into the episode innocent of the plot.

Link to thread discussing the previous episode: Doctor Who (reboot) S08E09 -- Flatline (boxed spoilers until aired) - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board.

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That was [spoiler]sweet! And just this once, everybody lives! Not only that, someone came back from the dead. Well, sort of. I didn’t think I would like this episode because the previews said the writer was going to making it fairty-tale-ish, but I really liked it.

“…a glass of coke”?!? Someone is going to be hearing from somebody’s solicitors!

Pic of TARDIS on bus…Easter egg? mistake? clue about Missy/Nethersphere/series story arc?

No, children. It is not a given that people in love always shout at each other. The mature ones don’t anyway. :frowning:

Danny tells the kids they’re going to head northeast, first to collect Maebh, who is at Trafalgar Square. Then they’re going south, to the river. Okay, I get the first part. But the second, is this a wilderness survival tactic?

Danny and Clara make the first mistake of moving kids in the wilderness: they need to have an adult at the head of and at the end of the line* of children. (*BTW, is the USA term “Indian file” equivalent to the UK’s “crocodile”?)

Clara: Not everything can be fixed with a screwdriver. It’s not a magic wand. BWAH HA HA HA! XD

Some of the close-ups on Maebh remind me of the close-ups on the hallucinating soldier in The Time of Angels and Elizabeth I in The Day of the Doctor when she comes to after being chased by her Zygon double. Or her Zygon double comes to, etc :wink:

The Doctor (to Clara): You left you’re marking on the TARDIS. Oooops! Let’s hope Danny didn’t noti… oh, looks like he did. :eek:

Those “wolves” looked like coyotes. :dubious:

If this show wants us to believe that Danny Pink maintains his fighting form, then wardrobe need to stop putting knit shirts on Samuel Anderson. :smiley:

Why does Danny keep arguing with Clara about her lying? Why doesn’t he just tell her, “it was nice, but it’s just not working”?

Someone please explain what the deal was with the older sister returning in/through/via the flowering shrub? I couldn’t make out what Maebh was saying.

Also, I read that the writer, Cottrell-Boyce also wrote the script for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympics held in London, UK and that he was going to reference the OC in this story. Did he? [/spoiler]

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Is that the TARDIS over by the post office? No, I guess it’s an aqua box.

Indeed. Kinda surprising since wolves are much easier to train.

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Hmmm. I have mixed feelings on this one. Generally enjoyed it, but had some minor issues here and there.

[spoiler]Specifically, 1) Anabel coming back with no explanation, other than that she sort of materialized out of a fucking tree, in reverse Don Cheadle-as-Captain Planet fashion, 2) the transition between “the TARDIS is a lifeboat” and “nobody else is getting on the TARDIS with you”, 3) how on earth did waggling a flashlight at a tiger get it to go away? and 4) poor Clara, from the teaser for next week, is very much being turned into a plot point again. Ah well; she did get to be more of a proper character this season.

Mind you, #2 gets explained as it goes on, but when it first happens, coming back after commercial, it was quite confusing and I found myself wondering if something fairly important had been edited out for BBC-A.[/spoiler]

Also,

I totally expect everyone to have a hissy cow about the science again.

Still, enjoyed it more than not.

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This sums it up for me. Enjoyable, but not great. I’ll happily take that, though.

I’m still surprised (annoyed?) that

A single person can broadcast to the world, and the world just listens and obeys. Like Clara asking everyone to vote in a previous episode

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[quote=“LawMonkey, post:4, topic:702417”]

Hmmm. I have mixed feelings on this one. Generally enjoyed it, but had some minor issues here and there.

3) how on earth did waggling a flashlight at a tiger get it to go away?

It was established that this was a very bright, high intensity light. The tiger didn’t care for that in his eyes.

I’ve really been enjoying the Capaldi doctor and this is another good one.

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Spoiler embargo is lifted. Have at it!

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I’m not thrilled w/ that explanation, RealityChuck, but I guess I’ll take it–it’s the only reason to establish that at all.

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Eh, pretty farking stupid. Magic talking trees appear from nowhere to produce magic oxygen that ‘burns off’ without somehow destroying everything, to prevent a solar flare from destroying everything?

Just curious as to what kind of drugs it takes to come up with that one. I suspect some combination involving psilocybins and near overdose levels of anti-psychotics, but I could be wrong.

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[QUOTE=Chimera]
{snip} Just curious as to what kind of drugs it takes to come up with that one. {snip}
[/QUOTE]

I blame the TARDIS translation circuits. They were on the fritz and somehow translated the hard science into gibberish. :wink:

11

This episode is clearly hinting at much deeper ramifications for the show itself. It has become abundantly obvious that one other Time Lord escaped other than The Doctor and The Master. I believe this or next season we will have to deal with him.

The Lorax

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This episode was hit with the stupid stick.

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Reminded me of this issue of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run.

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Agreed. The unrealistic science was bad enough (forests covering oceans?), but the unrealistic behavior of people was worse. The sudden appearance of a worldwide forest would trigger a huge response. The army would be mobilized, people would be swarming the streets hacking away with axes and saws, or just gawking. It would be a BIG DEAL. The idea that everyone would just sit around at home while tiny teams of guys with flamethrowers try to burn the forest is stupid. Not to mention that burning a forest in the middle London is a stupid thing to do. If the trees *had *caught fire the entire city would have been destroyed in the resulting conflagration.

I could accept a story about a global tree consciousness saving Earth from a solar flare. That would have been cool. But if you’re going to have a forest appear everywhere on earth overnight, you need to make people’s reactions to it seem believable.

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The ending reminded me of the end of Final Fantasy VII.

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At the risk of giving myself a strain patting myself on the back…

…called it.

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I can’t really find much to say about this one. It’s just… boring. The doctor tries to inject some excitement, but there’s just not much going on. a giant “meh” from me.

(And Danny is the worst teacher ever. You don’t take kids on a field trip, lose one, and then not notice she’s gone until someone points it out to you. for all his “these kids are what’s important” shtick, he didn’t seem to keep a very close eye on the one who’s medicated for mental issues.)

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Let it go, it’s for children it doesn’t have to make sense just be entertaining. Which I thought it was.
Could it have made sense and be entertaining? Of course, but the programme has never made sense so why start now?

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This one was pitched younger, I think. It happens.

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Making the Earth sentient and precognizant isn’t bad science, it’s just dumb. It’s this sort of thing that makes kids grow up into vegan PETAers that go around blowing up sandwich shops.

Not doing headcount on your students is dumb.

Introducing a tree with both flowers and nuts, like it’s a special thing, then forgetting it is just bad writing.

Having people try to burn down a forest that people are living in is dumb.

Having a security system, fitting for a Mission: Impossible film, to get out of a building is dumb.

Having the doctor stand looking at a girl who is batting at the air for 30 seconds, with no particular reaction, is poor editing. Having the doctor continue to not really notice that she’s doing it all the way through a set of wolves, a tiger, and a reunion is stupid.

Basically outside of some good jokes at the expense of special-ed kids, the episode was overall not very good and very very dumb. And it’s mean to pick on special-ed kids, even if it does provide a good setup for a joke.

(And yes, I realize that they were just normal kids. But apparently the writer of this episode can only write really dumb people, so the joke about their being “special” doesn’t really come off as a joke.)