Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 9 - Forest of the Dead

When I first watched this episode, I was disappointed. But I always make a point of watching an episode at least twice and you know what? I wasn’t that disappointed, in fact I loved it, well sort of!

We picked up from where we left off, as the ‘Space Ghosts’ run riot all over The Library and Donna is trapped inside a massive computer. I was disappointed to see that River was quite possibly a love interest for the Doctor. We really need to move away from that stuff for a while. It can only get more confusing when Rose returns.

I was also annoyed that The Doctor’s real name is now a sticking point. Questions will be asked and people will want them answered. A subject that as been glossed over in the past, with a “John Smith” or “Just Doctor”, will become the main talking point for all fickle Doctor Who fans.

However I was impressed in how the episode came together in the end. Steven Moffat’s attention to detail is incredible, even though he has had a dig at Bernice Summerfield and ripped off the Space Ghost from Scooby Doo!

Tennant has come into his own this series, hopefully one of Moffat’s first tasks will be to keep David on for at least another year, which is something I think will happen. I’m hoping we’ll see River again, if only to give Alex Kingston some work! On a similar note, I was really disappointed that Steve Pemberton wasn’t given a bigger role. Although I’m glad he turned out to be a good guy.

I’m sure we all suspected that River would ‘die’ in this concluding part. And she did! But we had some old Doctor Who magic sprinkled on it, as The Doctor ‘saved’ her by putting her into the computer, so she could live with all her friends. That particular part was just superb.

I feel I must write a stern letter to a newspaper, who had previewed the episode by saying, “Donna is trapped in a Matrix-style world”, obviously the writer hadn’t taken into account that some of the story behind The Matrix is basically a rip-off of the Tom Baker episode ‘The Deadly Assassin. Ah, never mind!

Here’s looking forward to next week, from the trailer I’m not sure though!

9/10

Next Week: Lesley Sharp gets confused as she finds out that Christopher Eccelston isn’t The Doctor anymore!

'Midnight' Trailer