For such a prickly, inaccessible incarnation of the Time Lord, Peter Capaldi's first season has been notable for the inclusion of children in his stories. He grilled a young Danny Pink in Listen and the meddlesome Courtney went to the stars in Kill The Moon. Now he has to deal somewhat entertainingly with an entire class of precocious moppets via Frank Cottrell Boyce's high-minded entry. Boyce is one of the few writers selected with bona fide
credentials in kids' entertainment, so the diminutive cast are well-drawn. Arguably a little too articulate to be fully plausible, but this is a tight forty five minutes of TV drama after all. Brilliantly, Boyce creates a nonplussed reaction to the inner-workings of the Doctor's travelling machine.
The concept of the trees being our saviours is one of those ideas that could easily have sunk into sentimentality, and though it threatens to at times this is skilfully-executed stuff. There should be a lot more cars and people around, but overall the freshly-sprouted setting gets handsomely realized. The animal encounters, which appear to be a mixture of live action and CGI, lend a lot to the action.
Danny becomes an official part of the crew with the character proving a vital addition to the mix, boding well for his jumping aboard any future adventures. Another interesting development sees Jenna Coleman send Capaldi away - though much criticism has abounded that the Twelfth lacks pro-activity, that's not the case here. It's a part of his character that he's not barrelling in with his screwdriver out all the time, yet he's still indisputably the Doctor and here comes up with the solution to the situation as well as
saving a few necks in the process. With the season finale imminent, this is a good way to round off a run of thought-provoking ideas featuring strong character development that has been a step up from the rollicking eye candy of previous years.
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