Reg hacks see the woods or the trees In the Forest of the Night

Is this Doctor Who episode an enjoyable romp or a namby-pamby feelings fest?

Jennifer says:

In the Forest of the Night was a surprisingly enjoyable episode despite the concentration of kids. Even Pinkie and the Pain (Danny and Clara) were bearable. Best line of the night? "We will if you stop calling us a team." Give that boy a medal.

So far this season we've had silly monsters and scary monsters. The most frightening were under the bed or in the walls. This week's peril was slap, bang in your face and as a result wasn't particularly scary. But the presence of by turns baffled, bewildered and bored Year 8 kept the atmosphere of unease ramped up. Despite the threat from wolves and a clearly photosensitive tiger, the children mostly seemed to be having a fun day out.

Capaldi's Doctor is really rather good at interacting with the small people – mainly because he can't really distinguish them from adults and so doesn't talk down to them like Patronising Pink and Condescending Clara. So this episode was going well and would have got an unmitigated thumbs-up until Clara made the unfathomable decision to let the class, Private Pink and herself burn.

WTF!? She's got a perfectly serviceable Tardis at her disposal but because of some guff about the kids missing their mums she reckons it would be best if they all just died. I love Capaldi, I'm enjoying most of most of the episodes, but the writing around the Impossible Girl is just ... impossible!

I feel sorry for Jenna Louise. She hasn't been given a character to play so much as a weekly moral conundrum. Perhaps this is building up to some sort of story arc related to the Promised Land. But I'll be very surprised if it's worth it. Like Missy, I love surprises, but it's going to have to be one hell of a reveal for me to forgive perfectly decent episodes being ruined by ridiculous decisions.

Time-travelling aliens? Fine. Killing the suspension of disbelief by undermining characters' internal logic? Not so much. ®