Doctor Who - In The Forest of the Night Review

I'd been looking forward to this one for a long time. Frank Cottrell-Boyce was one of my favourite authors as a child and he did a superb job with the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. When I heard that the idea for the episode was "invasion of the trees" I was even more excited. True to form, Cottrell-Boyce delivered a bold, beautiful piece which still fitted within the framework of Doctor Who.

It's been said before that Cottrell-Boyce is very good at writing for children as he knows how they talk to each other in real life. This was very apparent here with the interaction between the school children. Maebh's character was very well used and portrayed by the actress who played her, doing a very good job at being vulnerable and lovable.

The story this week was extremely poetic, perhaps a little bit too much so at times as the not-so-subtle references to fairy tales at times seemed like they were the main point behind the episode. That said, the lyrical narrative had a very powerful message that was child friendly but that also related to everybody.

A highlight for me was the scene between "Clara" (and if you've seen the next time trailer for next week you'll know why I've written her name in inverted commas) and the Doctor, where, in an inversion of the argument at the end of episode 7, the Doctor accepts responsibility for a crisis even when he is offered the chance to save himself. Cottrell-Boyce even turned some of the dialogue from "Kill the Moon" on its head, with great effect.

However, while the script was indeed strong, it has to be said that the atmosphere created in this episode is what made it so distinctive. The direction was beautiful and the episode looked amazing, but even stronger than this was the episode's soundtrack. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this week's music from Murray Gold is his best ever - as he really added to the overall "fairytale" feel of the episode.

This episode is not without its faults though. I can see the merit in having a lighter episode here, especially as its purpose was to be child friendly. However, at the end, the return of Maebh's sister didn't really make much sense. In fact, neither did the fact that Maebh's thoughts can change her surroundings. There was no actual monster or even well explained alien (just some invisible, unexplained floating blobs) and when it came to the trees being a shield rather than an enemy, it didn't take a genius to work that out from the minute the forest was described as fireproof.

In fact, this episode seemed to defy all logic at times, with none of the children remembering the old caretaker (all it would have taken was one line). And why were just two teachers, who happened to be Miss Oswald and Mr Pink (English and Maths teachers respectively) taking a group of children to a history museum? Moreover, why did the trees just vanish and where was the explanation for us forgetting about them?

That said, the episode was very enjoyable as well as very artistically devised and realised. I hope we see more of Mr Cottrell-Boyce.

8/10

Next week - the finale begins...