"Flatline" is first up and it's a bag of good and bad. The good, the special effects. The shrinking of the Tardis and having the Doctor trapped inside looked awesome and having the hand come out of the Tardis was really well done. It's the not the first time the Tardis has been shrunken. In "Logopolis", the Master shrinks the Tardis down to a miniature size trying to kill the Doctor. You know the Master, he loves to shrink things. The other special effect that I thought was great was the 3-D versions of the monsters. They were creepy. I mean very creepy. I mean so creepy that if I saw one of them in person, I would crap my pants.
The thing I didn't enjoy at all was the overall lack of depth to the story. Yes, the creatures had some great moments, but they lacked depth (in more then one way). We know absolutely nothing about these creatures. This is the type of story that needed a more drawn out story. We need to know why they are here and their history. I just feel like after watching this episode, I could have skipped this episode and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. It was rather boring.
This episode makes me wonder what would have happened if they tried making it during the classic years. I think 2 things would have happened. 1) The effects would have been horrendous. Can you imagine them trying to create that episode during the 80's. It would have been so bad that I would have wanted to claw my eyes out. 2) On the other hand, the story would have been much better. It would have been drawn out into at least a 4, 30 minute serial and we would know so much more about these creatures and the story could have been a winner. I guess there's advantages and disadvantages of the battle between classic. Who and current Who.
Overall, I give "Flatline" a 2.5 Tardis's out of 5. Did anyone else think that the Tardis in Siege mode looked awfully a lot like the Pandorica?
Then we have "In the Forest of the Night". So the Trees decide to save humanity from a solar flare. Umm, this episode did nothing for me. It tried to have a cool sci-fi twist like "Kill the Moon", but it just did not deliver. There seemed to be no danger to the Doctor or anyone else besides a solar flare that most of the people on Earth knew nothing about. Even the people that did know about it, didn't take it overly too serious of a threat.
While watching this episode, I was thinking, remember when the Doctor didn't allow strangers into the Tardis? He lets anyone walking by the Tardis nowadays to have a guided tour. He out to put up a sign that reads, "Free Tours". It would be pretty cool for a Halloween maze, though.
Overall, "In the Forest of the Night" gets a 1 Tardis's out of 5. Snooze fest .