Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Euros LynCast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Alex Kingston (Professor River Song), Colin Salmon (Dr. Moon), Eve Newton (The Girl), Steve Pemberton (Strackman Lux), Mark Dexter (The Dad), Jessika Williams (Anita), Talulah Riley (Miss Evangelista), Harry Peacock (Proper Dave), O-T Fagbenle (Other Dave), Jason Pit (Lee), Eloise Rakic-Platt (Ella) & Alex Midwood (Joshua)
The Doctor continues to fight the shadows in The Library, as Donna finds herself transported to a strange new reality...Well. It's already a cliché to praise Steven Moffat's work on Doctor Who, but is there anyone else who has the imagination and skill to rival him? "Forest Of The Dead" is a superlative conclusion of last week's "Silence In The Library", with The Doctor (David Tennant) trying to stave off the Vashta Nerada's shadow attacks with the help of Professor River Song (Alex Kingston), while Donna (Catherine Tate) finds herself waking up in a strange reality – where the mysterious Dr. Moon (Colin Salmon) guides her through a dream-like life of marriage and kids...
The best thing about this conclusion was how well it explained relatively minor plot-points from part 1, while developing the concept into more interesting territory. Donna was essentially stuck in a Matrix-like utopia of marital bliss, and the true nature of Dr. Moon and The Girl (Eve Newton) had real punch to it. Even the return of Miss Evangelista (Talulah Riley), as the Morpheus to Donna's Neo, worked very well – and the sight of her warped facial features the kind of jolting horror to make kids turn their heads away. Indeed, Moffat was canny enough to have The Girl's reaction (watching Donna and The Doctor's escapades on her television) echo the real reactions of Who's young audience – as she buried her head in a pillow.
Once again, Catherine Tate did fine work as Donna – making the most of a subplot that remained powerful and emotional despite chronological jumps. Despite not being the focus of the episode, Donna's realization that her children aren't real was still poignantly handled, and the loss of her "husband" Lee (Jason Pitt) also struck a chord. Great call-back to Lee's stammer in the heartbreaking climax, which seemed like a pointless flourish when introduced, but was shown to have some significance.
David Tennant did sterling work, as usual, helped enormously by Alex Kingston as River Song. One of the best aspects of this episode was how it revealed the depth of their relationship – as she knows secret knowledge about him he'd only share with someone very special. So, is she a future companion with even more resonance than Rose? Or, as strongly inferred, a time-traveller's wife? It's all kept a little vague, wisely – but I certainly hope this is something Moffat will return to once he takes over Doctor Who in 2010. It's certainly something that can't be ignored, so I hope Alex Kingston has agreed to make a return (probably for a long time) in some future season of the show. She certainly proved herself in this adventure, so fingers crossed for more River Song some day...
There was an echo of The Doctor's situation in season 3's "Human Nature"/"Family Of Blood", in how Donna's memory loss prevented her from realizing she was living a "fantasy", but everything else was pushing into relatively fresh territory. The central "virtual reality" idea may be in vogue because of The Matrix, but it worked very well and wasn't a straight copy of that idea. The added complexity surrounding River Song and the mystery of what "CAL" was also helped keep things unpredictable, even after you'd quickly worked out what Donna's situation was.
Overall, Steven Moffat really knows how to end a story. The closing 10 minutes were stunning as the emphasis shifted onto The Doctor, as he realized who River Song must be, and the foreshadowing of The Doctor's far-future "spoilers" no doubt made many fans giddy with joy. It really did seem like Steven Moffat used these episodes to give is a taste of the complexity, emotional highs, and resonance he'll hopefully be enforcing in season 5. I still doubt episodes like "Silence In The Library"/"Forest Of The Dead" will become the norm in season 5 (as they fly over the heads of very young audiences), but if the spirit of them can be maintained it's going to be an extraordinary time.
A fantastic episode on every level, and minor complaints (more sonic screwdriver overuse, the Suit Monsters becoming too sympathetic) pale into insignificance when weighed against everything this episode got right. Kudos to the FX team, too -- whose Library cityscapes were twice as impressive here, and reminded me of those inspiring vistas you see on the front cover of pulp sci-fi novels. The shot of The Doctor in a tubular walkthrough, with skscrapers beyond the glass, was superb -- if far too brief.
It was just great to watch a Doctor Who story and be genuinely swept along with the story, as the situation and revelations became increasingly more significant and achingly emotional. And I defy anyone not to feel jazzed about Moffat becoming showrunner when The Doctor snaps his fingers to open his TARDIS door... now that's cool!
7 June 2008
BBC1, 7.00 pm
Incidentally, the podcast commentary for this episode (with current showrunner Russell T.Davies, succeeding showrunner Steven Moffat and star David Tennant) is essential listening. Very amusing.
The podcast is great - more like a general conversation than a commentary.
But I'm not sure that the ending is as upbeat as they seem to think: As both the Doctor and the warped Miss Evangelista note, what survives in that neural relay thing isn't the person but merely an echo of their mental "footprint". So River Song and her team really did die - it's just a copy of them (and not necessarily an accurate one) that exists in the computer.
It'd also be a pretty empty existence as well - no struggles, no challenges, no mysteries...
Yeah, I suppose there is that. But still; an existence in a virtual reality utopia forever, or just death? Which would you prefer? Dr Who doesn't really subscribe to the idea of an afterlife. It worked for me, anyway.
I did wonder why they weren't brought back like the 4000 others, but then I remembered they were all data-ghosts, most with skeletal remains, so that was logical. And I presume The Girl can delete them if they ever do get bored and want to die.
But still; an existence in a virtual reality utopia forever, or just death?
Surely from my POV it would make no difference? I'd still be dead (and therefore either oblivious, in heaven or reincarnated).
Aside from that minor niggle though, it was a great episode. Probably the first since 'The Fires of Pompeii' that I've wanted to watch again. And River's lines about how the Doctor is going to be so much better in the future than he is now definitely made me slightly "giddy with joy".
Let's hope Moffat can live up to his promises.
It's a philosophical question, yes. I'd actually taken it to mean that futuristic technology had now been able to capture a person's spirit (wasn't that actually mentioned in last week's podcast commentary, too?)
So, I didn't view it as a COPY of someone's brainwaves, but the actual person's consciousness being temporarily snared by a nearby bit of hardware.
I'm not entirely sure the episodes had a coherent take on it.
In DW Confidential, Moffat suggests that it's actually the person (although not if you believe in a soul, apparently - couldn't quite follow his argument there). But both the Doctor and Miss Evangelistic refer to data-ghosts as a copy (a "footprint in the sand" as the Doctor calls it) and separate from the real thing.
I'm choosing to view it as a bitter-sweet ending - where they all died, but a copy of their personalities and memories remained in the library computer.
I effing LOVED these two episodes.
Hmm, maybe it was a bit hazy, but emotionally it worked for me. River Song perhaps did "die", but an exact duplicate of her will live on. That's a good enough positive for me (and The Doctor).
It actually opened an interesting can of works the episode didn't have time to debate -- about whether or not an exact clone/copy of someone physically/mentally the same person, especially if the original dies. Maybe that's something the show will tackle from a different angle some day.
But I echo Lucy's sentiment above. Wonderful episodes.