In the Forest of the Night
Oct. 25th, 2014 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcWow.
I usually start these off with a line like "that was..." and an adjective. Which is usually "exciting" or "spooky" or "shocking" or "awesome". I think this is the first time I've finished watching an episode of Doctor Who and thought "That was beautiful."
The kids were nicely realised, I don't think any of them were a one-note stereotype of the sort that too often appears when you need to characterise a group of kids in a hurry. I mean, when you think about it, this was mostly done by giving them two traits from different stock kids (he's got anger issues and allergies!) but it worked.
The exception being Maebh, who was "the dreamy one", but since a) that was important and b) was specifically shown as "this is dominating her personality", it worked too. In fact, Maebh was a brilliant character, and I liked the gag of her surname (Forest of Arden). The red coat was maybe a bit much, but I think they got away with it.
I liked the idea of a TARDIS full of kids asking "What does this do", and that Danny is very much the professional teacher while Clara keeps getting distracted by being a companion.
And the world covered in forest was, as I mentioned, beautiful. So beautiful that it would have been absolutely wrong if this had actually been the threat, so I'm glad it wasn't. (If it had been, I'd be saying that this worked precisely because it felt wrong, of course.)
The science was beyond rubber, but again, it gets away with it because of tone; in this case the register is firmly set to "fairy tale". Even then, it felt a bit convenient that the forest just dissolved once it wasn't needed. (I was going to carp that previous forests didn't do that, as illustrated by the big red ring, then I realised that that must have been a tree that was there anyway, since it had rings below that one. Trees that are there already grow a bit more, areas without trees gain temporary ones. That works within the context of the story.)
Next week: "Clara never existed"? After the feint with the Impossible Girl we're actually going there? I hope it's a bluff... (I know, "Fear less, trust more"...)
I usually start these off with a line like "that was..." and an adjective. Which is usually "exciting" or "spooky" or "shocking" or "awesome". I think this is the first time I've finished watching an episode of Doctor Who and thought "That was beautiful."
The kids were nicely realised, I don't think any of them were a one-note stereotype of the sort that too often appears when you need to characterise a group of kids in a hurry. I mean, when you think about it, this was mostly done by giving them two traits from different stock kids (he's got anger issues and allergies!) but it worked.
The exception being Maebh, who was "the dreamy one", but since a) that was important and b) was specifically shown as "this is dominating her personality", it worked too. In fact, Maebh was a brilliant character, and I liked the gag of her surname (Forest of Arden). The red coat was maybe a bit much, but I think they got away with it.
I liked the idea of a TARDIS full of kids asking "What does this do", and that Danny is very much the professional teacher while Clara keeps getting distracted by being a companion.
And the world covered in forest was, as I mentioned, beautiful. So beautiful that it would have been absolutely wrong if this had actually been the threat, so I'm glad it wasn't. (If it had been, I'd be saying that this worked precisely because it felt wrong, of course.)
The science was beyond rubber, but again, it gets away with it because of tone; in this case the register is firmly set to "fairy tale". Even then, it felt a bit convenient that the forest just dissolved once it wasn't needed. (I was going to carp that previous forests didn't do that, as illustrated by the big red ring, then I realised that that must have been a tree that was there anyway, since it had rings below that one. Trees that are there already grow a bit more, areas without trees gain temporary ones. That works within the context of the story.)
Next week: "Clara never existed"? After the feint with the Impossible Girl we're actually going there? I hope it's a bluff... (I know, "Fear less, trust more"...)
