Doctor Who Recap: Legion of Leia contributor Angelique Toshci is recapping and reviewing Doctor Who this season. Follow her on Twitter @AngeliqueToschi!
The forest is a major theme in folklore and fairytales, so the inclusion of it in this episode of Doctor Who is fitting. What is Doctor Who if not a modern day fairytale?
The episode opens with a little girl named Maebh running seemingly disoriented through the forest. She comes across the TARDIS amongst the trees and knocks on the door. The Doctor answers, looking cross as always and finally addresses the girl who says she is lost and insists that Ms. Oswald told her to find him. She then revises her statement to explain maybe Ms. Oswald didn’t tell her, maybe she just thought she did.
Once inside the TARDIS he gives Maebh a short tour which is shown from her point of view. He is surprised that she doesn’t seem to be amazed by the fact that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside. He explains that the TARDIS is malfunctioning and insists that they have already reached their destination, the middle of London. Maebh explains that it is because they ARE in the middle of London, albeit a largely verdant version of the city.
We then see a group of children sleeping in a museum on an overnight field trip that Clara and fellow teacher Danny Pink are chaperoning. When they try to leave the museum they realize the doors are jammed from the forest that has sprung up. Clara’s calls The Doctor, happy that she might finally get one over on him. But in fact it is The Doctor, nonplussed at her news, and surprises Clara with news that he has one of her students. You are never able to surprise The Doctor. When The Doctor explains that the child is Maebh. Clara shows worry, as Maebh is medicated due to the emotional trauma of her sister disappearing the year before.
Ever the solider, Danny takes leadership of the group, calling them a team and showing his determination never to leave a man (or little girl) behind. While Clara focuses on the big picture question of how the trees got there Danny counters by saying that the question is really how they are going to get the kids home, since they are his priority, not solving the mystery of the trees.
On the way to find Clara, The Doctor explains to Maebh that the sonic screwdriver doesn’t work on wood. This is an oft-said-but-never-explained phenomenon that is finally elaborated on when he tells Maebh that the sonic screwdriver uses communication frequencies to work. However, because the trees are wood and don’t communicate using technology, it is unable to pick up any frequencies that can help unravel the mystery. Maebh counters that the trees can communicate because how else would they all know to grow at the same time?
Clara and Danny meet up with The Doctor and they all end up safe in the TARDIS. The Doctor is concerned that the trees are a threat. He is insistent that they have grown up over night to take over the Earth and bring around the “tree age.” In the midst of this he picks up some homework that is on the TARDIS that Clara had left there the week before. He finds that Maebh has drawn an image of a solar flare heading toward Earth and that, unlike the rest of the homework; it is dated for that day. In another humorous scene that is typical of this regeneration of The Doctor, he examines the group of kids one by one, not really knowing which child is which, looking for Maebh to get answers about the solar flare, finally realizing she has run off.
Maebh has heard voices since the disappearance of her sister a year prior, and her parents have been giving her medication to help quiet her mind. The Doctor explains that she hears voices because she is tuned to a different channel and that they should be listening to her, not medicating her. He and Clara set out to find Maebh, using the sonic screwdriver to track her cell phone. Danny also has spotted the homework left on the TARDIS and begins to believe that Clara has continued her adventures with The Doctor, while telling him otherwise.
Maebh has been running through the forest while flailing her hands above her head, like she is trying to weave her way through a maze of cobwebs. Every so often she puts something of hers on the ground to leave a trail for anyone looking for her, which Clara and The Doctor realize when they find her phone on the ground.
After a failed government attempt to control the growth of the tress, they discover that the trees appear to be controlling the amount of oxygen in the air, which is protecting them from the fire. The Doctor and Clara see this before hearing Maebh scream in the distance. They find her cornered by a pack of wolves that have escaped from the London Zoo. They believe they had frightened the wolves off, but instead find that they were really scared away by a large, ferocious tiger. Just before the tiger pounces, Danny appears and scares the tiger off by flashing a bright flashlight in the tiger’s eyes, showing his fearlessness once again and saving the Clara, The Doctor, and the rest of the children, from danger.
With everyone reunited, they follow Maebh to a clearing in the trees. The Doctor asks her why the trees are there. She says that she brought them; that the big forest was a thought and there are a lot of thoughts and they come too fast. He adjusts the sonic screwdriver and is able to turn these thoughts into little bits of light that look like fireflies. He continues to ask what the trees are trying to communicate, and why they are here. They answer through Maebh, saying that they have always been here. They also say that life prevails; they heard the call and came. It becomes evident that Maebh has been able to listen to thoughts that are all around her. That’s how she can hear the trees and how she was able to pick up on Clara’s thoughts about The Doctor. She is listening to the world closely in an attempt to locate her missing sister.
With the knowledge that the solar flare is going to burn the Earth to cinders, Clara explains that The Doctor has a TARDIS, so not everyone has to die. As the group makes their way back to the TARDIS, The Doctor attempts to convince Clara to let him rescue the entire group and then just her and Danny. Clara refuses each time. In a final plea, showing how desperate he is to save Clara, he attempts to
convince her to come with him, but she doesn’t want him to because she doesn’t want to be the last of her people, like The Doctor. She tricked The Doctor into thinking that he could save them in order for her to save him. In this instance, like in the previous episode, the audience sees that Clara is becoming more like The Doctor then he is himself.
Once The Doctor is alone he realizes something, the forest is flame proof. The trees are there to save humanity, not destroy it. He chases after Clara, Danny and the children, calling them back to the TARDIS. The Doctor says he is going to call everyone on Earth to tell them to leave the trees alone. Maebh, still feeling responsible for creating the planet-wide forest, asks if she can make the call.The Doctor has the TARDIS contact every phone and Maebh gives them a message telling them that everything is going to be okay and to not harm the trees. She finishes her message by asking her sister Annabelle to come home.
With danger passing, Clara offers to take the kids up to space to watch, but they just want to go home to be with their families. She asks Danny if he will go with her, but he explains that he doesn’t want to see more things, he just wants to see the things around him move clearly. He knows that one person is more amazing the anything else that can be seen. Danny also says that he wants to know that truth. He says he wants her to fear a little bit less, and trust a little bit more. Despite this, Clara joins The Doctor to watch the Earth protect itself from the solar flare with a “planet sized airbag”.
The next scene cuts to Missy watching this interaction. She says, “Now that was surprising, I love surprises.” Back on Earth the extra foliage begins disappearing into the air. Clara asks The Doctor what they will tell themselves tomorrow. The Doctor explains that they will forget it ever happened and that humans have the simple power to forget pain and hurt. The episode ends with Maebh and her mother walking home and a bush disappearing to reveal her sister who has heard her plea and returned to be with her family.
This episode is almost the opposite of the previous; instead of The Doctor assuming that the trees are there for good, he automatically assumes that they are invading and have ill-will towards humanity. We also start to have further insight on what traveling with The Doctor has done to Clara. When confronted with a mystery she immediately seeks to solve it (and save the world), rather than save the children (which is Danny’s first priority, thanks to his experience as a solider). We are also starting to see the consequences of Clara’s lies to Danny. All of this is leading up to the two-part season finale, which looks to bring back the mystery of who Clara is and brings them head to head with Missy in the Nethersphere.
