Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: bbc, doctor who, entertainment, forest of the night, peter capaldi, tv

Ten Thoughts About Doctor Who – In The Forest Of The Night

1. Wide Eyed And Bushy Tailed

Okay, I confess, I saw a young child in red running through the forest and didn't think Red Riding Hood by Amelia Pond, I am clearly broken. But we are in full blown fairy tales-are-real territory, as literally as Robots Of Sherwood. Note the wide angled lens approach to the TARDIS, seen through new eyes, even bigger on the inside. What big lenses you have, Doctor…

But one of the best things the Doctor does is talk to kids like they are adults. No wonder they love him.

2. It's A Matter Of Time

At the end of my road used to be a petrol station (gas station, Americans…). It closed down, there were lots of planning issues with people who wanted to build on it and it has stood empty for five years, wires off from access. It is now a small forest.  As the little speaky lights told us (and finally the Doctor got to use his sonic screwdriver) this is what will happen. They were here before, they will be here after, The Green will take the Earth back. This is our eventual future.

3. TumbleTARDIS

Talking of which, at the bottom of my garden, we've got Japanese tumbleweed. Every day I have a go at it. Every day it comes back. It's already destroyed one shed, it has its eye on the house, I just know it. I tell you this, that's what's wrapped around the TARDIS. I wouldn't be surprised if some got through the keyhole… maybe it could disable the new SatNav.

This is a The Doctor-didn't-save-a-thing-in-fact-he-almost-buggered -it-all-up. The presence or absence of anyone involved probably wouldn't have made a difference. Even the folk going to drop all those chemicals probably wouldn't have got round to it in time.

4. TumblrTARDIS

CRB Checked – Criminal Records Bureau, anyone working with children has to be checked against this list. Odds are The Doctor is on that list in some way, he did steal a TARDIS after all. Though these days it's a DBS check -Disclosure and Barring Service. Oops. And as for child endangerment…

Oh yes, on that point, now a whole class have been in the TARDIS. What is the point of keeping the Doctor a secret anymore? There must be plenty on Tumblr by now…

5. Where Did The Rest Of London Go?

Not sure about deforestation, what about depopulation. The entire population has been reduced to a class of kids who can walk miles with a teacher across London in dense undergrowth without meeting anyone, two teachers, The Doctor, a mother and her neighbour, and some folk with flamethrowers. Where are the other ten million folk? Stuck on the tube? And where did all the pigeons go come to that? Eaten by tigers and wolves? Or trees?

6. Lyon, Lyon, Burning Bright…

Missed opportunity. We began with a lion statue in Trafalgar Square… could they not get an actual lion later and had to settle for a Bengal Tiger? Okay, okay I know it's for the William Blake poem that titled the episode, and we had to have the wolves for the whole Red Riding Hood thing, but even they were set up with the stuffed wolves in the Natural History Museum. Yeah, I'd have gone with the lion. Also, is this an example of Chekov's Torch? Also of course, Chekov's Missing Sister..

7. Picky, Picky Trees

So where were the trees when the Sontarans were flooding our atmosphere? Or when the Master had the Toclafane ripping it up? What, no help then? Only when an asteroid or solar flare hits us? Why so picky? What about when, I don't now, the moon is increasing in mass and causing earthquakes? That would be a great time as well. Still, at least one seemed to remember the Time Lords in five billion years time….

8. Pink On Parade

So Danny Pink "didn't try too hard to stay alive" when he was a soldier. A man with a death wish? Will we discover what he was crying about way back when? Will the Doctor get over his soldier-phobia before he meets the UNIT folk again next week?

9. Nicey Nice Nice Nice Doctor

Missy didn't expect it. She, the nethersphere and Chris Addison, seem to live outside time, since this event would have happened with or without the TARDIS, how could she not know? Or was it just that she was expecting someone to die? Because, again still a rarity, this week no one did. No one to collect for her sacrificial menagerie?

But is it just me who wants to see a reprise of various Green Wing scenes next week?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqiokzpuwyw[/youtube]

10. The Star Of The Show

No one wanted to be on this show more than this young actress. Everything emphasised with passion, beliefe and verve, she was in the TARDIS and was going to make the most of every second. Oh. and the line "I'm not though, am I? 'Cause I haven't got an imagination. You can ask Ms Oswald" did rather help…

Next week, it all begins to come to an end. The Doctor as an element of change. Oswald as once vascillating in the breeze between two states. Danny Pink, a man who did change. Seeing the omniverse from a different perspective outside of time, both 2D representatives of the 3D world in maps, blackboards and even Boneless, and the lack of connection with humanity that an outside-time perspective brings, with people being turned into weapons because their time has come so what other choice is there?

Here's the trailer for the beginning of the end… with a rather bad Clara?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmWNokDn7ds[/youtube]

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