A Critical Look At Forest Of The Night

A Very Literary Episode.

If this story title vaguely reminds you of your high school English literature classes then you're not mistaken. The title is actually a line from the poem Tyger, by William Blake.(1757-1827)

Tyger, Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye,

Could carve thy fearful symmetry?

This isn't the episode's only literary reference, as Maeve, the main child protagonist, runs through the forest, she leaves behind items from her school bags as clues for others to find, a direct reference to Hansel and Gretel which even the Doctor acknowledges. As the reviewer from web site Stranger Views noted, it's a little hard to be terrified of a brightly lit forest and I'd also add that it looks like a place you'd walk your cocker spaniel.

Been There..Done That.

This story isn't a chiller, it's a standard mystery, where did the forest come from? How did it grow overnight? Is it actually an alien? Whilst it's interesting for the viewer to ponder these and other questions there is no tension or even fear of the forest itself. Two wolves and an escaped tiger from the zoo only momentarily lifted the tension (but it barely got my heart rate up). What really lets this episode down is the cliche of the misunderstood child who may or may not be responsible for the predicament they all face themselves in.
Does that seem a little familiar to you? It should do, the concept was explored in the David Tennant Doctor Who episode, Fear Her where a child could bring her drawings to life. In the case of this story, it is young Maeve, who is on medication because she hears voices ever since her elder sister disappeared, and is now on medication.
Maeve's ability to communicate with the 'spirits of nature' which have protected the Earth for millenia hardly comes as either a shock or major revelation, we simply knew she would lead us (and by us read that as the Doctor.) to the truth.

Looking Back On Flatline

The Doctor had never been a shrinking violet...until Flatline.

First Impressions.

The very first thing I thought of when I saw the cubby house (U.K readers that is Australian name for a Wendy House, U.S readers, you know this as a tree house or play house.)sized TARDIS, was the Fourth Doctor's final story, Logopolis. In that story, the TARDIS begins to shrink due to the Master's interference in the block computation transfer, but in that story it is also the internal dimensions of the time vessel shrinking which threaten to squash the Doctor, in Flatline, it is only the outer dimensions of the TARDIS which are shrinking. My question is, were the Boneless shrinking the TARDIS to convert it into a two dimensional article or where they draining the ship's energy to gain entry into this dimension?
 I know this may seem like a picky point but consider this, if the Boneless were using the energy from the TARDIS to enter our dimension then what energy source were they using before the TARDIS arrived? This may be one of those questions that only pedantic Whovians like myself would ask but I believe if a writer is going to introduce a brand new (relatively) alien then these sort of details need to be made clear, especially if these aliens are ever to make a return appearance.

Doctor Clara Oswald.

With the Doctor literally having to sit this one out, having Clara taking on the investigation was very much a make or break situation for the character. I personally didn't like the way Clara parodied how the Doctor solves mysteries, by insulting everyone and telling everyone to trust him because he is the Doctor and he is terribly clever.There are many out there (and I've spoken to a few on Twitter) who dislike Clara and having her sent up the Doctor and his mannerisms may actually alienate them even further. To be fair though, this was a brave attempt to show Clara that it wasn't easy being the Doctor. When she tried to use the psychic paper on someone and it didn't work she was left to momentarily fluster her way through the situation. It is something the Doctor has had hundreds of years to get used to and bounce back from but not so easy for a school teacher.

By and large, having Clara step up to plate for this story did work, thankfully the writer didn't include too much in the way of relationship dynamics with her and Danny Pink or the whole thing may have gotten bogged down focusing on dysfunctional relationships between Clara the Doctor and Danny. The only thing I found mildly annoying was Clara's need for a 'pat on the head' from the Doctor. Her constant, "did good didn't I?" began to sound like a child looking for compliments because she cleaned her room. Other companions never seem to question the part they've played in helping the Doctor, perhaps another one of Clara's characteristics is a lack of self assurance on some level.

Flatline...Trouble In 2D

Community Service worker Rigsey wonders about the mural.

Another Unseen Enemy.

This is the second story in as many weeks by writer Jamie Mathieson and his story, Mummy On The Orient Express seemed to show the type of story he likes to write. The Doctor, Clara and the bystanders facing an unseen, unknown, something. Flatline has us witnessing a similar threat albeit something light years away from a Mummy.

Some Rather Peculiar Readings.

The Doctor is about to drop Clara off at her usual spot when the Doctor notices some very unusual readings on the TARDIS console. Clara notices something even more disturbing, the TARDIS doors have gotten smaller. When they both squeeze themselves outside they discover the TARDIS has begun to shrink (think of the diminishing TARDIS with a trapped Tom Baker in Logopolis and you'll understand.). The Doctor gets back into the TARDIS before it becomes too much smaller and tells Clara to look around for anything unusual. Clara begins walking towards a railway underpass which also names the city they have landed in as Bristol. Clara notices a lot of flowers and condolence cards leaning against an embankment. A group of men performing community service are cleaning up the graffiti around the railway underpass. One of the workers, Rigsey notices Clara and assumes she is one of those people who have who have lost someone in the recent disappearances and that she has come to view the recent wall mural of what appears to be pictures of the missing people. After learning this, Clara returns to report her findings to the Doctor.

Smaller Still.

An ever diminishing TARDIS.

On returning to the TARDIS, Clara discovers it has shrunk even further, down to the size of a model. The Doctor is now effectively trapped inside the TARDIS and must now rely on Clara to do the investigating, making her "Doctor for A Day". The Doctor squeezes his fingers out to hand Clara the sonic screwdriver, psychic paper and a two way earpiece so she can keep in communication with the Doctor. Clara now carries the TARDIS in her handbag whilst the Doctor directs her to the most recent energy source.
Clara tells Rigsey she is "Doctor Oswald" investigating the disappearances. Rigsey says he can get her into the flat of one of the victims. The flat had been locked from the inside and they can't find anything but there is an usual desert looking wallpaper on one of the walls.

The Appearance of the 2D.

Rigsey tells Clara he can get them help from the local constabulary to go inside the flat of the first disappearance.PC Forrest comes into the flat of the first victim where Clara uses the psychic paper to tell her that's she's from MI5. The constable investigates one of the rooms and then screams as the 2D emerge from the walls and begin to dissipate her through the floor. When they enter the room Rigsey and Clara don't see any sign of PC Forrest except for her torch laying on the rug. Clara notices that there is another of those abstract murals on the walls which the Doctor views with the TARDIS scanner. It is then the Doctor realises that the mural is actually PC Forrest's nervous system and the other mural was in fact a close up of human skin.
The 2D creatures have been dissecting humans in an effort to understand three dimensional life forms.
At that moment the 2D creatures begin to emerge from the walls and floors. Rigsey and Clara jump onto retro style chair hanging from the ceiling but their weight begins to pull the fixture out. Using the chair as a pendulum they manage to smash it through the window and escape to safety.

More Than A Mural.

Returning to the group of Community Service workers, Clara and Rigsey see that they are just about to paint over the underpass murals. The Doctor concludes that the 2D have been using the mural images to hide behind, at that instant the creatures shimmer into existence and take one of the work crew. Clara leads the rest into an engine repair room.
the Doctor still isn't convinced that the 2D are hostile and that perhaps they have been dissecting humans in order to discover how to communicate with humans. The Doctor tells Clara how to try and communicate with them using mathematics. When they hear the number 22 through the speakers the worker with that badge number is taken by them.
The survivors then escape through an unused maintenance tunnel.

Mummy On The Orient Express, The Good, The Bad and The Funny.

The Doctor and Clara enjoy the ambience.

One of the kindest things I can say about this series is that the quality of stories have been uneven at best. When a story tends to hit all the right buttons it becomes a joy to watch, Mummy on the Orient Express was one such story.

Finally Peter Capaldi's Doctor was given an opportunity to shine. He did what he did best, solve a mystery. The Doctor has been prone to ranting, insulting those around him and generally blustering his way to a successful conclusion (shut up, shut up, shut up.) but in Mummy we get a glimpse of what the new Doctor is truly capable of and should be like all the time

Nice one centurion...like it.

There is a lovely scene where the Doctor is talking to Professor Emile Moorhouse, expert on the Fortold, better known as the Mummy. In one fluid motion the Doctor whips out an elegant silver cigarette case. Anyone even remotely familiar with Agatha Christie's television and movie adaptations will know that many of her characters smoke. We just know that the Doctor won't offer Moorhouse a ciggie (apart from not being PC, it wouldn't do to show the Doctor even owning a cigarette.).

In one beautiful moment, the Doctor opens the cigarette case to reveal two lines of perfectly arranged jelly babies. This was a nice reference to the Fourth Doctor's favourite snack and a gently humourous moment.

The Doctor points out to Clara that this Orient Express (there have been a few with that name.) is a perfect facsimile of its era (Earth 1930s), that is, until he hears the lounge singer performing her version of a Queen song. I'm sure Freddy Mercury would've approved.

I Don't Do Nice.

I have to admit I'm not a fan of the Clara Oswald character, don't get me wrong, Jenna Coleman is a fine actress, but her character simply does not work well with the new Doctor. Matt Smith's Doctor was demonstrative but Peter Capaldi's Doctor barely shakes hands. This Doctor doesn't do social niceties. When the Mummy is about to kill its victims he doesn't console them over their imminent passing, he asks them to describe exactly what they see. Clara is very much a woman of social etiquette and moral outrages and as such she is almost the polar opposite of the Doctor.

Five minutes more please Mum.

My only real complaint about Mummy was the way it seemed to be compacted to fit the running time. This is one story I felt could've easily been made as a two parter. The first episode could have concentrated on the murders with the second part revolving around the Doctor solving the mystery.
Mummy was certainly not a perfect story (in my opinion there is no such thing everything has flaws no matter how minor if you look hard enough.) but it was a brave attempt to create a tongue in cheek homage to murder mysteries and the queen of crime fiction, Agatha Christie.
Mummy has rightly earned its spot as my second favourite story after the series opener, Deep Breath.

Mummy On The Orient Express OR How Ze Doctuer Used 'Is Leetle Grey Cells.

At the end of Kill The Moon the Doctor said that the year 2049A.D would signify the start of humanity's great leap into space exploration and when you see a space ship designed to look like the classic train the Orient Express, you'd have to say he was right.

Inside one of the compartments, the passengers and staff are all dressed in the styles of the 1930's to add to the illusion. An old woman and her granddaughter, Maisie Pitts, are enjoying a meal. When the lights momentarily flicker the old woman looks up to see the hideous form of a mummy, arms outstretched, coming towards her. In the corner of the screen a timer begins to count down and despite the old woman protesting for the ship's captain to do something, none of the crew or other passengers can see the monstrosity. The mummy places its hands on either side of the old lady's head and she dies. From the time she sees the mummy to the time it actually kills her has only been 66 seconds....

Enter The Doctor.

The TARDIS materialises in the ship's baggage compartment and the Doctor and Clara emerge just after the death of the old woman. For her part, Clara apologises to the Doctor for her outburst at the end of Kill the Moon, explaining that she was angry. The Doctor understands and say he has brought Clara along to experience something luxurious and unique since she has decided to end her travels in the TARDIS. Clara thinks the old woman's death should be investigated but the Doctor counters that people die all the time for all sorts of reasons. They both retire to their respective compartments, the Doctor to talk to himself and formulate an investigation whilst Clara phones Danny. The Doctor decides to investigate the old woman's wheel chair (in reality an Excelsior Life Extender.) and decides against waking Clara.
The Doctor meets Chief engineer Perkins who is also suspicious  of the old lady's death and it becomes apparent that they are now both suspicious of each other. Meanwhile, Maisie Pitt, the victim's granddaughter has smashed a lock with the heel of her shoe to gain access to her gran's body she is joined by Clara and both women find themselves locked in the room with what appears to be something to contain the mummy.

Review: Doctor Who Monster Files: Cybermen.

To be strictly accurate, this isn't a book, it's an app that contains a story but because it features an original Doctor Who story I've included it in this section.
I've always been a huge Cybermen fan, to me, they've always been far more terrifying than the Daleks because they chose to sacrifice their humanity whereas the Kaleds had theirs taken away by the psychopathic Davros.

The 'Monster File' part of the app consists of many Cybermen clips, including their first story, The Tenth Planet. The Matt Smith story, Nightmare In Silver looked awesome on my Kindle Fire.
The information provided is disappointing, a collection of facts that we've already learnt over the course of the show's history. To be fair, kids discovering the show today may not be aware that Mondas is the original home planet of the Cybermen.

It does contain a brief biog of Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler, the creators of the Cybermen as well as pages showing the evolution of the Cybermen, their technology and in which stories they appeared.

The real entertainment comes from the app's original story, Cybermen:Status Update, written by Joseph Lidster and illustrated by Neil Roberts. This app is produced by BBC Worldwide and *SPOILER ALERT!* the story does not feature the Doctor or any of his companions.

The story is set in Capital City, on the Earth Colony planet Tiestus, home of the story's hero, thirteen year old Jacob Sowersby.

Jacob is the proud owner of the latest version of BOB,an electronic diary that can update entries directly to the brain just from the user speaking, it's like Facebook and other social media apps taken to the Nth degree.

Kill The Moon-A Review.

This isn't the first time the Time Lord has visited our nearest celestial neighbour. One of the Doctor's earliest lunar adventures was in the 1967 Troughton story The Moonbase. In that incarnation the Doctor squared off for his second encounter with the Cybermen.

In the 1969 Troughton adventure The Seeds Of Death  the Doctor had to once again  visit a scientific lunar base to thwart the plans of the Ice Warriors, who were sabotaging the T-Mat, a matter transfer device that  the world relied on.

During the Pertwee Era, the third Doctor was sent to a lunar penal colony in the story Frontier In Space but strictly speaking, the Moon was the main focus of this story. Now the point of mentioning these stories was to show how Kill The Moon was molded into that same style of adventure.

The Moon-2049 A.D.

Clara informs the Doctor that Courtney (Ellis George), the disruptive influence school girl previously seen throwing up inside the TARDIS at the end of the last story, The Caretaker, is feeling worthless and insecure and asks the Doctor to tell her she isn't.

After much petty bickering which simply translates as the the Doctor doesn't really do apologies, he asks how she'd like to be the first woman on the moon and then the three travellers are whisked off to the lunar surface. The TARDIS has materialised on board a space shuttle packed with nuclear explosives and are about to land on the moon.
They are discovered on board by astronauts Lundvik (Hermione Norris), Duke (Tony Osaba) and Henry (Phillip Nice).The astronauts are investigating why the  land mass of the moon is breaking up. A simple physics experiment with a yo yo by the Doctor shows the gravity on the moon has dramatically increased.

At a now deserted Mexican mining base the TARDIS crew and astronauts Lundvik and Duke go inside to restore the power while Hery investigates around the outside of the base. Inside the Doctor restores lights and power but Duke is killed by a giant spider. Courtney unwittingly kills it by squirting it with a spray detergent.
Because the detergent kills 99.9% of germs the Doctor realises they aren't spiders but bacteria which live on something enormous.
Outside the base Henry has found a spot where the intruders are entering but he is killed too when he tries to investigate further.

It's at this point in the story the show takes on a sinister tone, very reminiscent of the movie Alien, with close ups of Clara's face and the sounds of the spider scuttling around somewhere in the shadows. It's quite an effective part of the story and builds up the tension nicely.

The Moon Is An Egg.

Piecing things together, from seeing the dead Mexican crew preserved in webs and the screen shots of the deformed lunar land mass, the Doctor decrees that the moon is actually breaking apart. Courtney asks to go back to the TARDIS. Clara argues that the moon can't break apart in 2049 because she's been to the future and it's still there, the Doctor counters that the one she saw could have been a hologram. Meanwhile on Earth, the moon's disintergration is causing severe weather problems so a solution must be found soon.

 Investigating a crevice where  more of the moon has shaken loose they discover Henry's body. The Doctor is attacked by another of the spiders but the sunlight drives it off. The Doctor quickly drops into the crevice to take a sample and informs everyone that what he has in a specimen jar is actually amniotic fluid. The moon is actually an egg and the egg is now hatching.

Humanity's Decision. 

 The Doctor now tells Lundvik and Clara that they must choose what to do, destroy the hatching creature or let it live. Courtney, communicating by phone from the TARDIS insists she should be part of the choice too so the Doctor tells her how to bring the TARDIS to them. Once the TARDIS has arrived he leaves, saying that it's not his moon so he won't decide.

The Doctor has also pointed out to Clara that this point in history is in flux, one of those periods in time where things could go either way...the moon may or may not be destroyed. Clara and Courtney argue that the creature should live, that the destruction of the moon will only result in the Earth's hemispheres having a permanent high tide and low tide. Lundvig points out that the left over "egg" will rain down on Earth and will be worse than the collision that wiped out the Dinosaurs.

Lundvig is setting the bombs detonation countdown timer and contacts Earth control, in order to make the right choice she asks all the lights on Earth to remain on if they want to let the creature live or turn all the lights off if they want them to blow the creature up.
The lights on Earth slowly go out...
Lundvig is about to prime the bomb when both Clara and Courtney stop her, at that moment the Doctor returns and takes them all back to Earth to watch the creature hatch.

The Doctor's Regenerations from 1-13

I thought fans old and new alike would enjoy this great You Tube video by Brian Rimmer which is a montage of all the Doctor's regenerations and is sure to bring back memories and maybe a few tears.
Enjoy!

A Rash Of Robots.

Have there been too many robot villains in Season Eight?

When the Doctor regenerated at the end of last year's Christmas special we all knew we'd be in for a roller coaster ride as viewers when the show returned.

Not only do we have to get used to a new Doctor but a new Doctor who is suffering post regenerative shock, one who is adjusting to a new mindset and also having a brain that's creating new synapses, neural pathways and defining his new personality.

Added to the pressure of having a Doctor not firing on all cylinders we have a threat, the great, unknown thing, a villain or malcontent that could destroy Earth/humanity/Planet X etc and a Time Lord that it is only cognitive sometimes.

In my opinion, Deep Breath was the best story to emerge so far this season. We had Peter Capaldi literally throwing himself into the role (sorting through rubbish yuck!) and a very frightening robotic villain.

 The clockwork man was a lovely homage to the 10th Doctor story, 'The Girl In The Fireplace', featuring a robot, repairing itself with spare parts taken from human beings. I challenge anyone to tell me they weren't even slightly chilled when the clockwork man thanked a bystander for donating his eye, we didn't see him take the eye but we can imagine it.
Similarly, Clara trying to avoid being detected on board the clockwork's spaceship to avoid becoming a collection of spare parts was nerve wracking. I was extremely pleased with the season opener.

Robots Of Sherwood.

Surprisingly, I didn't find the story title a spoiler. Sherwood may have been another planet which is not as strange as it first sounds since the 10th Doctor offered to take Rose to Barcelona, the planet not the city in Spain.

I was trying to work out who the robots may have been, Robin Hood and his merry men seemed a logical choice since they had always be known as fictional characters. It was also possible the the Sheriff of Nottigham was the robot (or one of them.) but when they finally emerged I was very disappointed.

The robots were silent killing machines with no identity as in their planet of origin, what they were designed for etc.

The whole episode reminded me of the Pertwee story, Time Warrior without that story's wonderful characters and contrivances. Perhaps this story would've impressed fans more if it had been shown later in the series (or written for later inclusion in the series.).

Into The Dalek.

Whovians and purists will now be screaming at me "the Daleks aren't robots!" Yes I totally agree and despite the fact that the Dalek machine houses a really cheesed off Kaled mutant, the Daleks are very 

robotic. I've merely included them in this blog to illustrate how the vast proportion of this season's villains have been mechanical.

A Dalek that has the potential to turn away from evil, gee we haven't seen that since the 9th Doctor's first Dalek story. The concept has also been examined in the 1967 Troughton story, The Evil Of The Daleks.
Aside from that it was a blatant rip off from the show's own history. Miniaturised people being sent on a vital mission inside someone/something was the main focus of the Tom Baker story, The Invisible Enemy, not only that but Enemy itself was a shameless rip off of the 1966 movie Fantastic Journey.
This story actually became a clone of a clone and not very engaging or interesting (the inside of the Dalek looked pretty cheap and tacky). So far I haven't spoken to anyone who was on the edge of their seat watching this one.
 

The Caretaker.  

 Ah the Skovok Blitzer, a well designed robot whose on screen time wasn't long enough due to the turgid soap opera element better known as Danny and Clara's relationship.

The opening montage of scenes depicting Clara's struggle to enjoy a normal life without giving up her time with the Doctor was quite funny, but it should have been left there and the focus shifted towards the threat of the Blitzer.
The Blitzer was a well executed design and reminded me of the Terminator. There is also something frightening about a robot who calmly goes through its protocol before killing you, almost like the robot equivalent of "sorry I have to kill you, nothing personal".
That is where the fright level ended, having the Doctor tell us that it's coming isn't quite as frightening as seeing it make it's way to Coal Hill.
Another annoying aspect was the lack of detail, it's a Skovox Blitzer, which planet did it come from? Which race invented it? Why is it on Earth? How did it find it's way back from the future? All these issues conveniently ignored so that we can spend more time seeing how the Doctor and Danny react to each other etc.
This was definitely a missed opportunity.

What's Next?

At the time of writing there are still two stories and the Christmas special to be seen. One story features spiders the other features a mummy whilst it's rumoured the Cybermen will be appearing in the Christmas special. It not unfeasible that the Spiders or the mummy could be mechanical but it does seem doubtful ( although this could be wishful thinking). I love robot villians but their appearance should be tempered with breaks to showcase other threats and menaces. Fans may have enjoyed this series more if the stories had been broken up a little more but I also believe that all the villians were shortchanged due to long scenes and dialogue between Danny and Clara. Shorter scenes and tighter editing wouldn't have given these monsters more time to shine.

What are your thoughts?