In the Forest of the Night ramblings

[dbskyler]

Okay, so I'm not going to do a full reaction post here, although I will say that I pretty much agree with everyone who thinks the episode was written by someone who has absolutely no idea how oxygen works, or solar flares, or ice ages apparently. Anyway, moving on.

Basically, we start with the "peril" of a magic forest, and a few escaped animals from the zoo. Then, almost nonchalantly, it's mentioned that the entire Earth is about to be destroyed by a solar flare. And then we find out that the Doctor can't do anything to save the Earth.

Wow, what a situation, right? What a great conflict for an episode. Except . . . it wasn't the conflict for the episode. It wasn't even close to being the conflict for the episode. What the hell, guys? I mean, this HUGE THING gets dropped in, and then dealt with in about 5 minutes. And it was HUGE, guys. When have we EVER seen the Doctor faced with not being able to save the Earth before? I'm pretty sure the answer is never. It's a natural disaster that he can't fix -- what does he do? He can't save the whole population. Even with a time machine, that seems unfeasible. So, whom does he save? How does he choose? And where does he take the refugees? Shouldn't all of that have been the point of the episode? But it wasn't. In fact, it was hardly there at all. Instead we spent the episode on trees, and magic fireflies, and mucking about with school children. What a waste.