Alright, let's talk about Doctor Who again. This one was hard to get a proper hold of, and it's been a polarizing one for various reasons. Let's take it one thing at a time. This was episode 10, and it's our last "business as usual" episode. Our series 8 finale is confirmed to be a two-parter, so there's an immense sense of gravity rushing at us next week. For now, we'll take this as our calm before the storm. Instead of massive game-changing business, here's a story about a magical forest. This was In The Forest Of The Night, and it was... okay.The premise sees massive amounts of trees growing in the middle of London. Not just London, but all over the world. In one night, roads and city streets are overtaken by dense foilage. If you believe the view of the entire planet, there's even trees growing out of the ocean. Imagine a giant tree growing out of the Marianas Trench. That'd be one big tree. We have Clara and Danny discover the forest after a school field trip to a museum in London, and they meet up with the Doctor because one of the kids got separated from the others and ended up in the TARDIS. This little girl, Maebh, will prove important to the resolution of the episode.
I really liked Capaldi in this one. I find myself taking stock of everything that's come before with Capaldi, now that we're on the cusp of the finale. Deep Breath left me with less than good feelings about him, but he's grown on me. The way he interacts with the children in this episode made me smile. Explaining the dimensional transcendence of the TARDIS as "a Coke is this big, but has this much sugar" to Maebh, for instance... or later, panicking right along with the kids when Maebh wanders off. For most of the episode, he spends it pondering the whole tree thing. He comes up with a lot of possible theories, but none of them are really correct. More on that in a bit, but one other thing I liked was near the end, where we had a callback and response to Clara's angry rant from Kill The Moon. The Doctor admits he walks humanity's earth, and breathes their air, and that Earth is his world. What a great thematic tie-in.
Clara and Danny get a lot of time together, and there's more of the lying again. This time, Danny is on the cusp of finding out about Clara's deceit. For the episode, they deal with keeping the kids they're in charge of safe from any dangers that might crop up. Eventually the lie comes out... and Danny doesn't launch into an angry tirade! All he wants to know is the truth. He's supportive and kind of understanding. He just cares about Clara and wants her to be safe. I really like Danny as an "answer" to Clara's wanderlust and need to explore. While she's looking around trying to figure out where the trees came from, all he's concerned with is his job; keeping the kids out of trouble. I have to wonder if Clara's explanation will occur on camera or not; there might not be "time" for it in the finale, but we'll see.The best aspect of this episode, though, is the forest. There's a definite fairy tale vibe here, as well as reference to famed English poet, William Blake. The title is lifted from his poem The Tyger, and what gets loose from the zoo in the episode but an actual tiger? That and some wolves. Maebh runs from a wolf while wearing a red jacket. She drops her things in the forest to leave a trail for the Doctor and Clara to follow. The mood here reminds me of the Matt Smith era, with childlike wonder. There's implication that these forests have grown out of nowhere before, and these events are the secret history behind our love of fairy tales. We forget the truth behind them, but the ideas they leave behind creates the fiction that sparks our imaginations. Beautiful.
Yet there's something holding it back. There are great character moments and the concept is imaginative, but things don't go anywhere. There are a few unfortunate implications and boneheaded decisions that have other critics condemning this episode. Me, personally? I thought it was okay, but it might be the weakest episode we've had in a while. Despite that, "weakest episode of series 8 of Doctor Who" is still a mighty high bar to set. This has been one of the best seasons of the show yet, looking back on it. One hopes the finale will live up to that. Time to do what we did back at the end of August. Time to take a deep breath and dive into the execution of all things.
Next time: Words can't do it justice. Here's the trailer. This is gonna be so cool.
AND NOW WHAT I THINK... NOW
Oh good god. What we've got here is a thing. The least liked episode of Series 8. One of the most criticized episodes of the new series. Quite Possibly One Of The Worst Doctor Who Episodes In The Program's 52 Year History. That's fan consensus, mind. I'm kind of indifferent on it. I found things I liked about it in the old writeup, and there was even a line that Danny said at the end that I loved. Embarrassingly I forgot how it exactly goes, so I have to go back to the episode and check. One second. Ah. "Fear a little bit less, trust a bit more." Well, I guess that was Maebh. Or the Forest Fireflies. Or something like that, but holy shit does that resonate with me in regards to some of my less than happy moments. Which is kind of ironic because that sort of thing is the biggest criticism people have with this episode; the mental illness reading of it. Look, I'll level with you all. I get a little anxious sometimes and that gets me down, but as far as I know I do not have any sort of mental illness. I don't take any sort of medication in order to grapple with anything in my brain that would prevent me from being a functional member of society. I didn't take any mental illness reading from the episode on first transmission, but hearing other people talk about how shitty it is... it makes sense, in a fashion. Here we have the show giving us a terrible sort of message about how hearing voices isn't a mental illness symptom, but rather magical fairy tale forest fireflies trying to communicate with us. That's a really shitty message, I'll concede that. If you took that away from the episode, and hate it for it, I can understand it. I'm not about to raise it up on a pillar with Listen and Flatline or nothing, but I don't think it's the worst episode of Doctor Who ever. At the very least it's not one of the ones that outright killed the show for a long period of time, like Warriors Of The Deep or The Twin Dilemma or the TV movie. That's faint praise, I know, but if a possible anxiety-ridden buffoon like myself can take a positive reading from a line at the end about trusting people, then it can't be all bad.
No mirror symbolism again, not that I saw... apart from an advance with Clara. Here, she turns down the Doctor's offer to save her. He protests by showing what he learned from the Kill The Moon debacle (the other Worst Series 8 Episode Ever) and saying that the Earth is his planet now as well. Clara still refuses. She doesn't want to be the last human being alive. She doesn't want to be like the Doctor. She has courted with darkness, and here and now there is still an attempt to break through that darkness. This is a clear rejection of becoming in full the mirror of the Doctor. Clara Oswald, Last Of The Humans, The Impossible Girl. She refuses. The darkness will creep back next time, out of desperation and grief, as it often does. Clara will darken, and lie about even being good in the first place to survive. The lying will never end, but here and now, she tried to fight it. Good on her.
This whole thing feels like a fairy tale, and that might be key to understanding it. This is Kill The Moon without the space spiders and excellent performances. If the mental illness angle didn't get you, being faithful to science in your Doctor Who probably did. Still, this is a fairy tale through and through. Even the trailers emphasized a girl in red running from wolves. We have a magical forest, a wise old wizard with a magic wand, some Hansel and Gretel-esque tracking, a Blakean Tyger, Forest Fireflies older than man themselves... the magic forest is the Secret History of All Fairy Tales. This is the Genesis Of The Daleks for fairy-stories. Interesting reading, that. Interesting episode, this. Not really my favorite or anything, but trust me when I say I've seen worse Doctor Who. Hell, I love bad Doctor Who in its own special way. Barring The Twin Dilemma, bad Doctor Who is a spectacle, a gawdry exorcism of quality done in an attempt to entertain. Even stuff like Love and Monsters has a redemptive reading for it, and I guess "the secret history of all fairy tales, plus Clara becoming good again, plus a nice message about anxiety and trusting people" is mine. It's not much, but it's what I took from it. What you take from it is your own.
...Shit, I forgot to talk about the ending with Anabelle. It almost doesn't make sense, but I guess the intent is Maebh and her Forest Fireflies brought back the idea of Anabelle and made her real? Like they made the idea of the forest real to protect the Earth? I... guess? Look, I dunno.
Next time: Death is but a doorway. Time is but a window. I'll be back.
The thematic and character elements are so strong here, and I like it for those reasons. In particular, I adore the dialogue given the kids. This is one of the only pieces of TV I've seen in a long time that really nails and articulates how kids look at the world. It doesn't patronize them, and it doesn't just pretend they're little adults. And as you say, the way that Capaldi in particular interacts with the kids is just great.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the relationship. Once again, the depiction of Clara and Danny is so refreshing and honest here. It's not just pushing calculated drama buttons. Danny is written as a compassionate guy who wants to accept her, whatever her deal may be. He's broken, and that has some unfortunate effects, but it also lends him a deep empathy and lets him understand that he doesn't have to get everything on his own terms to accept that it means something to someone else. It's just... fresh air, you know? You don't see characters written this way on TV.
Absolutely agree with everyone you wrote here!
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