I think if Series 8 of Doctor Who has taught us anything, it’s that the Twelfth Doctor isn’t the best with children. In a complete 180 from his previous incarnation, who was positively crackers with them, Capaldi’s Doc is just as prickly with kids as he is with everybody else (with the exception of young Rupert Pink in “Listen.” Interesting, since he’s nothing but a D-hole to him as a grown up). That’s probably why it’s going to be a facepalming field day when he tags along on Danny and Clara’s field trip (haha) with students in this week’s episode, “In the Forest of the Night.”
In yet another example of things trying to destroy the Earth, one day everybody wakes up and finds that forests have overtaken the cities. Overnight, this happened! The Doctor is most distressed while the teachers lead a trip into the very heart of it. I mean, this PROBABLY has something to do with the end of the world, but can anyone really say for sure? The Doctor, yes, the Doctor. I’m hoping this episode is like Jumanji, complete with bad CGI monkeys driving cop cars and kids playing a board game. Although probably I just want to watch Jumanji, but this episode looks like it’ll certainly be different, at any rate.
“In the Forest of the Night” (a title which sounds like a Whitesnake song) was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, a novelist and writer of movies like 24 Hour Party People and The Railway Man, and directed by Sheree Folkson, a veteran TV director of things like Casanova and Ugly Betty. Both are first timers to the show, so that combination should be quite interesting. The guest cast includes a bunch of children.
Enjoy these pictures of the Doctor’s London safari and the trailer for the episode below, and come back here Saturday evening to read my review!
Images: BBC
“In the forest of the night” is a line from Blake – “The Tyger” – cause there’s a tiger in the preview, yeah? – not a reject Whitesnake song title
This Doctor might be an asshole to everybody, but it’s the first series where a lot of characters go in the TARDIS, characters that are not Clara or related to her. The funny thing is that I’m sure everybody want Danny to go on an adventure in the TARDIS but it’s everybody else but him who go there.
The story of “In the Forest of the Night”makes me think about the book-saga Autre-Monde by Maxime Chattam (french author) where we follow a trio of children in a similar setting. Cities have became forests, growing on top of buildings, roads became rivers and every adult on the planet have vanished or became violent people with no memory of what was before.