Doctor Who: The Forest of Fear

Major spoilers for the episode

The Story:

The Doctor and his companions escape the cave only to be pursued by a caveman who they then have to help when he gets injured but the Doctor thinks the better solution is to murder him so they can leave.

Thoughts:

I like that the titles of the episodes are so straight forward and descriptive of the episodes. The forest is scary because it’s dark and there’s lots of animals. The cavemen fear the dark which is why the guy who can create fire gets to be in charge.

There’s not a complex plot here with lots of twists that are meant to be clever but really you’ve figured them out half way through the episode. Nobody’s trying to trick you and feel clever in process. You’re just meant to enjoy the episode.

One of the cavemen chase the doctor and his companions into the forest and he gets mauled by an animal. Then Barbara has a little break down. I’ll accept that it’s the woman having the panic attack because they are from the 1960’s. Ian probably wouldn’t show his fear but women are seen as weak so that’s the way the writers are going to write her.

And really if you’ve just been captured and put in a cave full of the evidence of past victims and are now fleeing through a forest in the dark then you’re going to be scared.

I like that they aren’t enjoying themselves. Unlike modern companions who travel with the doctor for the fun and the wonder of seeing the universe (at least until Steven Moffatt took over and the companions became plot devices.). These companions are terrified.

They don’t want to be there and being in danger is not fun to them. Later companions acknowledge the danger but also ignore it. Rose ends up stranded in a parallel universe, Martha and her family are tortured and Donna forgets everything.

The doctor at this point is completely opposite to what the later doctor is. Here he doesn’t care about someone suffering and even wants to bash the guy’s head in with a rock. All he wants to do is run. Which is I suppose is a very doctorish thing to do. After all his instinct for flight is what gets them into this situation.

It’s strange to watch the doctor be made a better person by his companions. In the newer series they do stop him from doing some horrible stuff. For example Donna and the Racknoss, that’s the only one I can think of at the moment. But those sort of acts are all against creatures that are a threat, have murdered a lot of people or have the potential to do a lot of damage.

Here the doctor just wants this man dead so he can escape more quickly. If he kills this man then there will be no argument with the others about staying to help because there will be no one for them to help.

The doctor wants to kill out of convenience. Nothing more than that. I love it. It’s such a different doctor than I’m used to and it gives the character somewhere to go.

And really leaving is the logical decision. He’s got his granddaughter to think about and as he later describes them, these people are very unpredictable.

They’re not quite human yet, still only animals with only base level reasoning skills. This danger is proved later when the man they save refuses to let them go even after they save his life.

I like that the doctor is this selfish and only cares about results. He doesn’t care what his companions will think of him if kills the cave man.

It gives him room to change. I don’t know how soon this change happens. If it happens with William Hartnell’s doctor or if we have to wait for the second doctor to see more compassion or even less of a willingness to kill. Either way I’ll enjoy watching a doctor that is so different from the one I know.

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