Doctor Who: Forest Of The Dead Review
Okely doke dudes lets start with a quick and as short as I can make it version of the story. At the end of last episode we left the Doctor being chased by a skeleton in a suit and Donna Nobles head on a stick. All of which is happening on a planted sized library where one hundred years ago four thousand and something or other people poof, vanish with no explanation and in their place there are the Vashta Nerada, evil shadow dwelling flesh eating monsters. For a full recap and review of last weeks episode click here and for the review and my ramblings about this weeks just follow after the post break.
And if you havent managed to catch it just yet click here and be whisked away to iplayer land (for UK eyes only, sorry dudes.)
In last weeks Doctor Who Confidential, David Tennant dared the audience to guess how next weeks episode would begin and so we did, well we tried and apart from the smartest of the group who said it would begin with a montage of last weeks episode we were completely wrong and what did occur was pure genius. After quickly getting the Doctor out of danger with the squareness gun (which we did guess, that’s how smart we are*slides glassses up nose*) we were transported to Donnas story. Donna is now in idyllic modern day England where her life is lived like a tv programme, Donna wants to go to bed, cut to the bedroom, Donna wants to go to the river, cut to the river etc. Which leads to Donna living seven years, getting married and having two kids in a matter of seconds. This is an awesome plot device which allows Donna to have her own story line and lets us see the range of Catherine Tate. Tears were shed when her children eventually disapear.
Grrrr hate it when my brain gets stuck, the story is so rich I don’t know which part to talk about next.
The episode picks up the pace of last week which I wasn’t overly impressed about and becomes one of the greatest episodes of new Who. The unconventional story telling keeps the audience thinking and guessing about what is coming next and each moment is a surprise. The best moments coming from River Song and the way she talks and looks at the Doctor, you just want to reach into the screen and grab her, shake her and demand she tell you what she knows and what she has seen. But after trying and failing…twice, I would not reccomend it.
A little touch I also loved was Cal watching what was happening through her tv like the audience at home, I thought it was such a niffty touch, she screamed when we were meant to and shouted at the tv at the same time we were at home. Its one of those simple devices that made me wish I had thought of it (and had a tv programme I could write for so it could be shown and then every one would worship me.) If I wanted to get metephorical or it was almost as though the she was not breaking the fourth wall in the traditional sense, infact she was alot closer to being the insulation between the walls, oh yeah try those socks on for size!
Then there is the new sonic screwdriver and it eventually sort of saves River Songs life, I hope we will be seeing that again. And we don’t know what happened to the diary ooooooooooooo.
The Doctors name? What does it all mean? In confidential Russel says they will never reveal the importance of his name, but this is the man that said we would never see Rose again or that we would never visit Gallifrey. I don’t trust him, what do you guys think?
There is so much more to talk about but I feel my ramble has gone on too long now and it will only be brave souls that have come all this way with me which actually care. Please talk about everything I have missed out.
