Moffat-Era
Tropes: Child-focused story, particularly one revolving around
some unusually special little girl; fetishization of motherhood;
trees; a thing that appears to be malevolent turning out to be
benign. Little glowing tree-spirit things which are clearly the same
ones seen in “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe”. Happy
ending that makes no damn sense whatsoever. There's a slightly
jarring call-back to the Davies Era in the montage of international
news broadcasts (which suggest that everyplace everywhere is affected
by the forests, a fact which is immediately forgotten).
A
Thing in a Thing: A forest in central London.
The
Doctor is A: Scotsman. But why do none of the kids recognise him
as the school caretaker?
The
Master Is A: TV viewer. Presumably Apple TV.
Clara
Lies About: Calling the Doctor instead of the school. This week
Danny's the one to find out about her Big Lie in “Mummy on the
Orient Express”, and the results are predictable. It also turns out
that she just tells the class they're “Gifted and Talented” to
make them feel better, which speaks volumes about her wanting
Courtney to think she's “special” in “Kill the Moon”.
Reasons
Clara Should Drop Danny Like A Hot Potato: Seriously, he's
offered the chance to see the Earth from space being hit by a solar
flare, no strings attached, and he turns it down like a kid in a
sulk, saying he doesn't want to see anything new because “I was a
soldier” (trust him to bring that
up again)? Unless Clara wants to spend the rest of her life
never going out, she'd better end this now.
Child
Count: 8 (that's a pretty tiny class by anybody's standards, let
alone those of modern hyperinflated student-to-teacher ratios).
Possibly 9 if Mabh's sister counts, but it's hard to tell how old she
is.
The
Thick(et) of It: The Doctor tones the Mr Nasty act
down a bit this week, probably because of the children present.
 |
| Where is Max when you need him? |
It's
Actually About: Something narratively interesting happening, and
then absolutely nothing that follows making sense. Why is central
London entirely deserted except for one school group and a
disappearing security guard? Why was nobody, apparently, awake at the
point at which the forest appeared? Why aren't the children's phones
ringing themselves flat with calls from anxious parents, why is
Mabh's mother the only one concerned enough to take any kind of
initiative to find her daughter, and why doesn't Clara ring the
school (indeed, why doesn't the school ring either Clara or Danny)?
How does Year Eight get from Kensington to Trafalgar Square in next
to no time? What idiot at COBRA thought burning the trees was a good
idea (since it would clearly cause massive damage to very expensive
property if it worked), and why do the emergency crew not react to
the sight of two civilians walking out of the forest with cries of
“bloody hell, stop the burning, we thought the area was deserted,
now then, miss, tell us how many more people are in there?” Why are
international relief efforts not being coordinated? Where, indeed,
are UNIT, Torchwood, and all the other usual suspects? Why do Mabh's
mother and her neighbour react so calmly to the revelation that the
street is covered in trees? How does the Doctor not know how ice ages
work? Why do zoo-habituated wolves and tigers immediately go on the
attack, rather than finding a safe place to hole up till they can get
the lie of the land and investigate? Who left a set of beach chairs
out in central London? How do planes land? Since the sea is now also
covered with vegetation, what's happened to the boats? Why does Clara
think that dying is preferable to being orphaned, and who does she
think she is, making that decision on behalf of the whole class and
Danny? How does a phone call to everyone on Earth from a single
schoolchild result in mass global consensus as to the correct course
of action (why can't we get Mabh to advise on Mideast peace)? Why
does nobody consider that the solar flare would knock out every
single communications satellite, plus kill off everyone on the
international space station? Why the strange anti-medication
message-- yes, there's controversy about diagnosing and medicating
some childhood-onset disorders, but suggesting that every child with
psychotic symptoms is just talking to the tree-fairies is a little
regressive. And was Mabh's sister hiding behind a bush the whole
time? There's a great story to be told about a forest appearing in
London overnight, but this really isn't it.
