WATCH ALONG | DOCTOR WHO | 4x9 | Forest of the Dead
Added 2022-10-21 14:00:12 +0000 UTCA Few Notes:
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Comments
This two-parter is a masterpiece, not just for the immediate story being told but for the way in which the show's future seems to suddenly be reaching out to touch its present. Indeed, it could be argued that the latter is the more important -- the Vashta Nerada threat ends up going away well before the end (albeit by giving the Doctor his badass "Look me up!" moment). We know from interviews at the time that when Steven Moffat was writing "Silence in the Library" he didn't know who River Song was, beyond the basic idea of someone who knew the Doctor in his own future. But before he started writing the second half, he had accepted the offer to take over Russell T Davies' position as Doctor Who showrunner from the start of Series 5. It was only then that he worked out what River's actual deal is, hence all the wonderfully teasing hints in this episode. As he said, given that he now had a stake in the future of the show, it was fun to have a character effectively saying, "You like what you've seen so far? Well, you ain't seen nothing yet..." :-) Regarding the ending: River chose to sacrifice her physical self, after which all that was left of her was her mind (or the copy of it) in the neural relay. As a data ghost, she couldn't be restored to the real world any more than Miss Evangelista could. That left only the choice of storing her mind within the computer, or complete oblivion. And once there, she has access to all the resources of the Library for as long as she wishes. It's the best the Doctor could do for her -- and as Moffat said at the time, "Given the absolute straight choice between oblivion and the run of all human history and all human literature, I'll take the run of all human history and all human literature. I think that sounds like quite a good retirement plan..." Incidentally, Moffat also pointed out that, as far as he's concerned, River's "squareness gun" is not just similar to Captain Jack's (which we saw in Season 1), it is in fact the same one. Jack's gun was left behind in the TARDIS in "The Parting of the Ways", and it's obvious from this story that River has been in the TARDIS at some point, so clearly she picked it up from there. A lovely little easter egg for long-term viewers.
Steven Cooper
2022-10-22 01:40:56 +0000 UTCI really love this two-parter. David Tennant and Alex Kingston both nailed that relationship. And I liked the idea of someone who encounters the Doctor "in the wrong order", in the same way he does to others. "You've only just met him." "No, he's only just met me." The score is amazing, hat's off to Murray Gold again. I'm really looking forward to seeing you react to the rest of Series 4!
David Blau
2022-10-21 20:38:12 +0000 UTC
