#In The Forest of the Night

[themastergifs]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICHELLE GOMEZ (November 23, 1966)

[ohmerricat]

the main mistake that people who dislike s8 and put it low in their series rankings make is the belief that, like any other series (apart from s9), it’s a collection of standalone stories tied together by some vague throughline i.e. missy’s ‘heaven’. “oh, this episode’s mid, that episode’s bad” meanwhile it’s not about individual episodes at all. i firmly believe that it should be viewed as a singular long serial.

so grateful that i was extremely late to the party and binged it all in a week instead of watching every episode as they were airing, because sometimes the plots barely matter at all. do you remember what the skovox blitzer actually looks like or what it wanted with coal hill in the first place? hardly. i had to google its name. but what you do remember from the caretaker is twelve acting like an antagonistic prick towards danny, and that’s what matters. almost every villainous entity is some kind of soldier, the contempt twelve shows to everybody but clara becomes the source of their toxicity… in the forest of the night is pretty obviously rubbish scifi, but it demonstrates danny’s fundamental incompatibility with clara, as well as the scene in which clara is ready to sacrifice herself and her students for the doctor’s sake, foreshadowing their reckless, almost suicidal codependency.

point is, but it really does work best as a tightly woven tapestry. sure, some episodes succeed individually, but most of the individual plots are mildly exciting only in a ‘this is fun to watch for kids’ way… UNLESS you approach them from the overarching perspective. i.e. mummy on the orient express has wonderful style, a thrilling mystery, creative concepts and interesting side characters, but its story appeal hinges on the twelveclara failed breakup. listen is frightening enough, but its entire story appeal hinges on just how much clara affects the doctor’s values past and present, and whether or not she has a future with danny (she doesn’t).

what i’m saying is, the narrative in s8 is a non-negotiable package deal. buy one, get them all. and it has no skips. i hate the idiotic pro-life message in kill the moon as much as the next sensible person, but what the episode does well is really hammer home how much of a sanctimonious asshole twelve initially is, which is crucial to his future character evolution.

tldr; the correct way to watch series 8 is all in one go. series 8 is great. more love for series 8

[lord-save-me]

Closest I got to finding a 50 year old cute is when Peter Capaldi went up close to the camera and said "trees! ☺️"

[doctorwhogirlie]

Doctor Who - In the Forest of the Night

[nortism]

doctor who liveblog pt 43

s8 ep10 in the forest of the night

- i deleted my draft again!!! but my thoughts were: that forest was very sunny and that child acting was god awful but i did start to like danny

s8 ep11 dark water

- DANNY FUCKING DIED????!

- omg she actually threw all the keys

- no she didn’t

- this is such a crazy line

- still funny to me that ollie reeder the thick of it is working in heaven

- oh dead people aquarium

- MISSYYYY!!!

- finally they r letting the doctor and the master kiss, david tennant and john simm rolling in their metaphorical graves

- oh she’s a robot?

- oh fuck did he kill that kid

- he’s so funny

- oh she’s so cunty

- oh great cybermen

- ohhh i’m so hyped for the next episode

s8 ep12 death in heaven

- i love that clara will take any opportunity to pretend to be the doctor

- hello unit

- they’re in st paul’s?!

- what are they drugging the doctor for

- oh shit cyberman danny

- now why would they make him the president? he’s not even human

- NO CLARA

- omg danny the cyberman to the rescue?!

- do all the masters have to sing

- killing people is bad but i can’t help but love missy

- hi danny

- SHE GAVE CLARA THE NUMBER

- CLARA DONT DO IT

- yesss the tardis!!

- aww poor clara

- oh yes the mary poppins entrance! ICONIC

- he is an idiot with a box , im glad we’re acknowledging that

- let’s go danny boy, sorry i spent most of your run hating you

- oh shit clara

- pls don’t kill her, she served so much cunt

- hello is she fr dead?

- hello kate

- oh he’s sending back the kid

- oh shit gallifrey

- not gallifrey?

- she does do that, the lying

- no clara tell him about danny!!

- clara what are you doing girl

- YOU SILLY LIARS!! STAY TOGETHER, YOU LOVE EACH OTHER

- i hate them i hate them i hate them

- ffs

- ohh there’s more?!

- SANTA?!

- they got a guy called nick frost to play santa?! oh this is too good

[rapha-reads]

In The Forest Of The Night is fascinating. Clara thinking she's saving the Doctor and all the interpersonal relationships between Clara and the Doctor, Clara and Danny, the Doctor and Maebh, but mostly, the relationship between Earth and its inhabitants. Trees. Trees are important, always have been, always will be. Trees and children's minds.

The forest that was humanity's scariest nightmare, the place of all the horrors, but even then the source of oxygen and food and warmth. The forest becoming throughout the centuries, as it receded in front of humanity's urbanisation, a refuge, a place of relief from the noise and the frenzy... Forests are friends. Don't hurt the forests.

"You hear voices, you want to shut them up. The trees want to save your life, you want to chomp them down."

Humanity in a nutshell.

Also the music in this episode is really good. Somber and slow at first, and once the Doctor and the children start getting that the trees are friends, it gets joyful and cheery. And Missy's theme. Missy's theme is amazing, I had forgotten.

And Danny Pink. Danny Pink deserved better.

[justahumblememefarmer]

Ultimate Doctor Who Poll Round 1 - Matchup 10

Episode Summaries under the cut

114: Aliens of London/World War Three - Season 1, Episodes 4 & 5: The Doctor takes Rose back home, but discovers that he's a year late and Rose was considered missing. While dealing with the fallout, an alien spaceship crashes into Big Ben. While investigating, the Doctor and Rose are taken to Downing Street to consult with alien experts, which is a trap by the alien Slitheen family, who faked the crash to kill the alien experts. They plan to goad the Earth into giving them access to every countries nuclear weapons to fight off an imaginary alien ship, then use the weapons to destroy the Earth and sell the radioactive rubble for money. The Doctor launches a regular missile at Downing Street, with him and Rose surviving in a panic room, while the Slitheen are killed and the Earth saved.

143: In The Forest of the Night - Season 8, Episode 10: The Earth has suddenly been covered entirely in a forest overnight. When the Doctor arrives to pick up Clara he finds one of her students. Clara and Danny are leading a school trip and work with the Doctor to investigate while also keeping their class safe. They discover that the trees are benevolent and have grown to protect the Earth from an incoming solar flare. The flare hits and the trees burn away, leaving the rest of the Earth unharmed.

[w0rldenough]

12th doctor | in the forest of the night icons like if you use

[anteroom-of-death]

"You find yourself in the Forest with a strangely compelling masculine figure" OK, just tell Clara how much you wanna dick her down while Danny watches, preferably sobbing.

[thingsasbarcodes]

Doctor Who 8x10 - In the Forest of the Night

[ohmerricat]

‘maebh arden’ name meaning — she who rules the forest…

why i ever let people tell me this was a bad episode? sure it’s not outstanding, and people dislike it in comparison because it’s surrounded by whoppers, but the premise itself is pretty cool! and i don’t mind children appearing as supporting characters, they’re not even that annoying. plus, there are some fantastic lines of dialogue here!

• “trees don’t communicate” “you don’t need cellphones to communicate — i haven’t texted my mum but i know she’s worried about me!”

• “a tree is a time machine. you plant an acorn in 1796, and in 2014 you’ve got a great big oak tree with a tiny little bit of 1796 tucked away inside” what a brilliant fucking idea and also 100% true

• “you find yourself in the woods with a rather compelling masculine figure” “any minute now we’ll come across a gingerbread house with a cannibal witch inside it” (note how twelve says masculine figure, not ‘man’. that’s because he’s a butch lesbian. slash aitch jay.) (interesting continuation of eleven’s fairytale theme! darker fairytales this time: hansel and gretel face a more serious threat than peter pan and wendy)

• “she’s lost someone — people who’ve lost someone, they’re always looking, always listening, always hoping, so they notice more, they hear more” explains why he’s like that then

• “stars implode, planets go cold. catastrophe is the metabolism of the universe” and “that’s how this planet grows. a series of catastrophes” everything eats and is eaten time is fed, etc. twelve would love adrianne lenker

• “i can save you” “i don’t want you to.” “what, you don’t want to live?” “of course i want to live, i—” “you what?” “don’t make me say it. doctor, i don’t want to be the last of my kind.” “then why did you bring us all here?” “because it’s the only way to get you back to the TARDIS. make you believe you’re saving someone. this time the human race is saving you. make it worthwhile.” “this is my world too. i walk your earth, i breathe your air.” “and on behalf of this world you’re very welcome. now go, save the next one.” SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP????

• “the trees are not your enemy, they’re your shield. they’ve been saving you since forever, protecting you from everything that space can throw at you.” aaaand we have this episode’s doctor foil. it’s the fucking forest itself

• “i am doctor idiot.”

• “you’ll all forget it ever happened” “we are not gonna forget an overnight forest!” “you forgot the last time. you’ll remember the fear, and you’ll put it into fairy stories. the human superpower: forgetting. if you remembered how things felt, you’d have stopped having wars and stopped having babies.”

sure, the sister bit didn’t make any sense. to be honest nothing to do with maebh’s psychic powers made any sense at all. but none of that matters because look at everything else!! also, they put that fucking tiger there just for the william blake reference. commitment to the bit

[goldyapper]

I think I hate kids. Every episode that has Clara dealing with kids is the worst of the season and bad.

[doctorwhogirlie]

Reblog/Like if In The Forest of the Night is your favourite story

[doctorwhobracket]

[lighttrls]

still caught up on that episode of doctor who where the moral is to stop taking your meds and listen to the voices. like. yknow. maybe not the greatest advice. as someone who hears voices. maybe dont

[cheese-rat29]

if in the forest of the night happened in the us, employers would send out emails that said the we still had to show up for work