Skip to content
TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Directed by

Sheree Folkson

Runtime

45 minutes

Time Travel

Present

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Environmental Message

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, England, London

UK Viewers

6.92 million

Appreciation Index

83

Synopsis

One morning, in every city and town in the world, the human race wakes up to face the most surprising invasion yet.

Everywhere, in every land, a forest has grown overnight and taken back the Earth. It doesn't take the Doctor long to discover that the final days of humanity have arrived...

Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat

Characters

How to watch In the Forest of the Night:

Reviews

Add Review Edit Review

3 reviews

Yeah, wasn't a massive fan. Would definitely say it's the worst episode so far. Expected more from Cottrell Boyce but it wasn't very engaging. The children were annoying, there was very little going on and it was just all a bit too mawkish for my tastes.


W.W.W.B.D.: What Would William Blake Do? .... Probably something less forgettable.


This review contains spoilers!

This one is a bit of a mess and poorly regarded for a reason.

From sloppy child actors to equally egregiously written adults, this episode is kind of firing on all cylinders with regards to where Moffat and this era of Who can get annoying. The nonsensical plots, the Danny drill sergeant, the meandering character work - it's all a bit of a recipe for disaster. Danny in particular is so bad here. It almost makes me think the Doctor is right to dismiss him as a soldier, because he seems to project so much of his own crap onto everyone else. It does not hold up well at all.

The tree stuff is just awful. There's Doctor Who sometimes suspending credulity here and there, they basically do that in every story, but this is way too far to be acceptable as a story for anyone but the very young. Moffat ought to have avoided forests as a setting for his story because they seem to break his interest in telling something coherent.

Not to mention this episode's pretty troubled relationship to mental health, which I'm hardly okay with just brushing aside like a minor quibble. It's an outright harmful message.

Sure, there's enough earmarks of quality here and there and attempts at interesting material to keep this from going full Chibnall, but only just barely so.


Open in new window

Statistics

AVG. Rating563 members
2.43 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating1,547 votes
3.71 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating161 votes
2.65 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

1214

Favourited

24

Reviewed

3

Saved

1

Skipped

0

Owned

8

Quotes

Add Quote

Submit a Quote

Transcript Needs checking

[Forest]

(A schoolgirl runs through the dappled light of a forest until she finds an incongruous blue Police Box. She knocks on the door and it is opened by a tall man who has to look down to see her.)

MAEBH: I'm lost. Please, can you help me?
DOCTOR: It's that way.

(He shuts the door then opens it again and stares at the forest.)

DOCTOR: Are those trees?
MAEBH: I need the Doctor. Are you the Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes. Do you have an appointment? You need an appointment to see the Doctor.
MAEBH: Please. Something's chasing me.


Open in new window