Who Reviews Forest of the Dead by DJ Forrest

Written by Steven Moffat

Broadcast 7^th June 2008

As you would expect from a Steven Moffat script, and let’s face it, from 2005 onwards when Moffat turned out some damned good Who stories, we were once again terrified. This time by the creatures that lived in the books in the library, that added extra shadows to the unsuspected victim in the space suit and that had a voracious appetite for chicken!

The second part of Silence in the Library saw a lot more action than in the first – the first episode establishing the cast, such as the little girl watching the goings on in her library from her own television screen. The apparent sinister behaviour of Dr Moon, and the secrets of CAL, along with the disappearance of Donna Noble that left the Doctor running out of clues on how to bring her back and Save the library, and of course, SPOILERS.

Professor River Song back in 2008 was a new character with a hell of a back story which unravelled during the tenure of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor. She demanded a return visit if only to uncover the Spoilers in her diary. Perhaps that had been Moffat’s idea from the start.

What was dramatically sad was that being the first ever story of River Song, it was sadly her last visit with the 10^th. The interesting part about Time Travel means that as far forward through the Time Lords that River went, who knows when she may appear in another 12^th story, or perhaps a 13^th Doctor???

The two-part story was a great two parter, it was impossible to condense it into only one episode. It gave some scary ass characters such as the dippy brunette who wandered off into the shadows only to be consumed in the first episode, but to come back in the second as the woman in black to scare the living daylights out of a dream state Donna Noble.

The scary slow walking space suited skeletons, (try saying that with a mouth full of marbles) now they were exceptionally creepy. Something from every child’s nightmares, and indeed a few of mine. The key phrases that would find themselves readily available whenever there was a powercut, or the regular check of shadows whilst standing in a library with ceiling lights. Oh come on, it can’t be just me that says – ‘count the shadows’ ‘hey, who turned out the lights?’ ‘Vashta Nerada’.

There are many stories involving creatures that you can see, that can scare the begees out of you, just by looking or lurching towards you, but the equally as scary creatures are the ones you cannot see. The Vashta Nerada are these. Tiny spores trapped in the pages of books stored in a library, that hatch out and attack without notice.

Imagine reading a book one minute and are completely consumed the next, without even noticing. *shudders* Ice…ice cream….ice cream….

An interesting piece of information for the end of the story meant that as River Song HAD travelled with the Doctor, she knew the TARDIS exceptionally well, and so, when the Doctor clicked his fingers right at the very end of the episode, something magical happened. What would that be?

Ahh, Spoilers!