Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Guest contributor Richard Forbes explores In the Forest of the Night.
Some classic stories like The Green Death (and to a lesser extent, The Silurians and The Sea Devils) explored the deleterious effects of industrialisation, whereas the revival has mostly shied from a debate on environmentalism, barring some passing references to global warming in The End of the World, Doomsday and The Waters of Mars – certainly nothing prolific, however.
Pete: Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They’re saying all this is going to be flooded. That’s not just global warming, is it?
In the Forest of the Night, a story where the trees save the world, was a chance for the revival to show its green thumbs. With much written about the episode already, without wanting to rehash old arguments about whether the episode is a flop or a godsend, I’d like to discuss some ideas that the story presents in greater detail. What do I think about the episode, you ask? I see it as a mixed bag: some good ideas, some great comedy, but ultimately let down by a production team stretched thin and an unsatisfied expectation among fans for a ‘scarier, darker’ series. However, I’d like to explore what the episode has to say about us and the Doctor. While I find the story struggles at times to deliver a coherent message regarding the environment, I think some viewers may have overlooked just how important this story was for the development of our titular hero, the Doctor…
What It Says About Us: Environmental Themes
If In the Forest of the Night was an attempt at retelling The Green Death for modern audiences, it tried but failed in that regard; perhaps the episode never was meant to deliver some relevant message to viewers about our misuse of the environment but that wouldn’t explain the number of times where the episode tried to present something about our Earth as profound and worth some personal reflection. With this in mind, I think it should be said however that the episode presents some themes better than others. More successfully, the episode promotes a notion of ‘global citizenship’ – the idea that we all are residents of the Earth and thus have some mutual responsibilities to do our part to protect the Earth. This has consequences for the Doctor (as we’ll get to later), but it also impacts Ms Oswald’s class and, in particular, Maebh.
When it becomes clear that the trees need to be protected, Maebh asks the Doctor if she can help – reminding us that everyone has a role to play in protecting their planet, including children like Ms Oswald’s ‘Gifted and Talented’ class, plus grumpy, social outsiders like the Doctor and I (I can learn something too, yeah?). A hilarious scene unfolds with a class of children alongside Maebh endeavouring to save the world with a simple phone call and an important message. While we don’t all have a hotline to the rest of humanity, there is something to be said about the role that everyone, including children, can play as activists and as good global citizens to protect our planet and its environmental health.
However, the episode fails to juggle various staples of the wider ‘eco’ movement, like eco-pacifism. It’s one thing to link different movements like environmentalism and pacifism together deeply and convincingly and another thing entirely to start lazily tagging on complaints you have about the world haphazardly and linking it altogether as ‘an alternative lifestyle’ – a distinction which In the Forest of the Night sometimes fails to appreciate. For example, the story made some passing references to past wars fought and a few others towards pharmaceuticals and the psychiatric treatment that Maebh received; but its references to the futility of war seemed out of place, just as its attack on anti-psychotic medication seemed poorly justified and off-the-cuff. I also wondered if the episode’s inclusion of escaped zoo animals was an attempted statement on animal captivity (or just a convenient way to get a tiger from the eponym poem into the episode), but the episode never particularly built on that message if that was its intention.
In the Forest of the Night may have had a more coherent message for its viewers if the threat in the episode had been less incidental (i.e., a freak solar flare) and more systemic (e.g., climate change, industry, ozone depletion). This is where The Green Death succeeded: it courageously presented a clear link between industrial activity and environmental degradation, praising heroes like Cliff Jones who worked on projects for realising sustainable development (e.g., ‘high protein fungus’, renewable energy sources). By using a ‘freak’ event like a solar flare, In the Forest of the Night avoided pinning any issues on industrialisation and in fact the deforestation in the episode is perpetrated by the government as a last resort – industry really never makes much of an appearance.
Bearing this in mind, although In the Forest of the Night may be more lyrical about its presentation of various environmental themes and it encourages us to think more deeply about our planet, I would argue that it lacked focus with what message it wanted to send to viewers and in avoiding a discussion on the human and especially corporate involvement in environmental degradation, the story verged on becoming a ‘greenwash’ at times despite the valuable lessons that it tried to convey to viewers, especially younger viewers, about the importance of our natural world.
What It Says About the Doctor: Moral Themes
This is where the episode excelled, I’d argue. During an earlier piece on the ethics of Kill the Moon (and ‘who’ was ‘right’, the Doctor or Clara?), I found that the events of Kill the Moon suggested a character development; a departure from the Doctor’s past where he, in stories such as The Christmas Invasion, had been criticised for acting as a ‘saviour figure’ for humanity, intervening in the affairs of Earth without their consent. Instead, the Doctor in Kill the Moon avoided making a decision for humanity regarding its own security and wellbeing.
I’d argue this episode is not just a response to Kill the Moon, it’s a satisfying conclusion to the entire moral dialogue which has continued since Series One about the role of the Doctor and his right to intervene with regards to the protection of Earth. Critics of the Doctor’s ethics, from (Prime Minister!) Harriet Jones to Queen Victoria, have all argued a similar, deeply complicating argument against the Doctor’s altruistic defense of Earth: it’s not his ‘place’ (his right) to defend Earth, they argue; he, they say, tries to decide the fate of humanity for humanity and in this sense, imposes himself on Earth as if he were morally superior.
The Doctor comes to the deep, personal conclusion with In the Forest of the Night that he regards the Earth as a home of his – this is perhaps a first for the Doctor. In doing so, he bears some rightful sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of Earth.
It cannot be understated just how significant it is for the character, the Doctor, that he identifies Earth as ‘his world too’. Since the show’s return in 2005 especially, the Doctor’s alienness and Gallifreyan lineage has been strongly emphasised between the ‘Last of the Time Lords’ and the ‘Search for Gallifrey’ storylines, so much so in fact that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the Doctor was never a thoroughbred, loyal Gallifreyan – he never particularly ‘fit in’ on Gallifrey, he stole a TARDIS and ran away, he broke their principal laws and he rarely spoke fondly of the education he received from the Academy. Bearing this in mind, for such a cosmopolitan traveller and a social gadfly as the Doctor, it’s not difficult to see why he might consider multiple places his ‘home’ – after all he only spent a small portion of his life on Gallifrey (from what most canon suggests).
In the Forest of the Night departs from old orthodoxy by suggesting the Doctor isn’t just some outsider deciding the fate of humanity for humanity on a regular basis; nay, he’s one of Earth’s prickliest, seasonal, yet thoroughly dependable citizens – second only to the planet’s own woodland (of course). Frank Cottrell Boyce and Steven Moffat crafted an episode that taught both the Doctor and us something new about the Doctor, meanwhile encouraging us all to take a more holistic look at this strange, magnificent organism we call home. Moffat later defended In the Forest of the Night as a story which would grow in popularity among fans in years to come and I’m inclined to agree with him despite its shortcomings.
