Forest of the Dead

195b – "Forest of the Dead"
Doctor Who episode
The Doctor lies in sadness after River Song's sacrifice, a moment which IGN stated "rivals any of the great emotional beats in this series" noting their plentifulness.[1]
Cast
Doctor David Tennant – Tenth Doctor
Companion Catherine Tate – Donna Noble
Others Alex Kingston – Professor River Song Colin Salmon – Dr Moon Harry Peacock – Proper Dave Steve Pemberton – Strackman Lux Jessika Williams – Anita O. T. Fagbenle – Other Dave Eve Newton – The Girl Mark Dexter – Dad Jason Pitt – Lee Eloise Rakic-Platt – Ella Alex Midwood – Joshua Talulah Riley – Miss Evangelista Jonathan Reuben – Man
Production
Directed by	Euros Lyn
Written by	Steven Moffat
Script editor	Helen Raynor
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Music by	Murray Gold
Production code	4.10
Series	Series 4
Running time	2nd of 2-part story, 45 minutes
First broadcast	7 June 2008 (2008-06-07)
Chronology
← Preceded by "Silence in the Library" Followed by → "Midnight"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"Forest of the Dead" is the ninth episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast by BBC One on 7 June 2008. It is the second of a two-part story; the first part, "Silence in the Library", aired on 31 May; it was Moffat's last written story before replacing Russell T Davies as head writer and showrunner starting from the fifth series in 2010.

In the episode, the time-travelling temp Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) is trapped inside a virtual reality in a planet-sized library's hard drive in the 51st century and has false memories implanted of a married life. At the same time, another time traveller, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), seeks to rescue Donna, and thousands of other humans saved inside the library hard drive while being pursued by the microscopic swarm called Vashta Nerada. The episode also features the death of River Song (Alex Kingston), an archaeologist who has a close relationship with the Doctor, but because of the non-linearity of this partnership, the Doctor in the episode has only just met River.

Forest of the Dead was watched by 7.84 million viewers, a 40% audience share, the highest in Series Four; it received highly positive reviews . This episode, along with "Silence in the Library", was nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category.

The Tenth Doctor, River, Strackman Lux, and the remainder of their team flee the microscopic Vashta Nerada on the planet-sized Library. Other team members are consumed by the Vashta Nerada, their space suits animated by the swarms. During a respite, Lux explains that the Library, and a giant computer constructed at its core, was constructed by his grandfather for Lux's aunt, Charlotte, who was diagnosed with an terminal illness at a young age, to allow her mind to live on among the collected works of humankind. The Doctor realises Charlotte's mind is struggling to cope after "saving" the thousands of patrons by transferring their physical forms to the computer core 100 years ago when the Vashta Nerada attacked.

Within the simulation of a contemporary Earth village, Donna is tended to by Dr Moon (an avatar of the virus checker program) and introduced to Lee, whom she marries. Aware that time is skipping, Donna is alerted by Miss Evangelista, one of River's team members killed by the Vashta Nerada, that she is in a simulation.

In the core, the Doctor learns from the Vashta Nerada their forests were used to create the books of the Library. They now claim the Library as their own. The Vashta Nerada allow the Doctor one day to free the people trapped in the computer core, including Donna, after which the Library will belong to them. The Doctor prepares to hook himself to the computer terminal to provide the extra memory required to download everyone, aware this will likely kill him. River knocks him out and takes his place, insisting that the Doctor's death now would prevent her meeting him in her own past.

The patrons stored inside the computer rematerialise on the Library surface, where they teleport away to safety. Lee is unable to call out to Donna as he leaves. As the Doctor and Donna leave behind River's diary and sonic screwdriver, the Doctor wonders why his future self would give River his screwdriver. He finds a data recorder inside the mechanism which has preserved River's thought pattern. The Doctor saves her pattern to the core. River wakes up in the Earth simulation and is greeted by Charlotte and River's team members who had fallen victim to the Vashta Nerada. Charlotte assures her that the simulation is now a "good place" where she will be safe as the Doctor fixed the data core.

"Forest of the Dead" was initially announced under the title "River's Run",^[2] before its name was changed relatively late in production (Radio Times used the previous title in their column, the change being too late); in the end, the title was chosen by amalgamating two alternate titles.^[3][4] Josh and Ella, Donna's two children in the computer-generated world, were named after Steven Moffat's son and his son's friend, a big fan of Doctor Who.^[5][6]

In early drafts, Lee was supposed to be an overweight women, the male version being how she imagined herself in cyberspace, with her stammer supposed to reveal her identity to the audience; Davies said the idea was subsequently dropped, being "too big a concept" for a brief moment.^[5]

Moffat had all the characters survive in some form, in line with his previous episodes, saying that the characters sort of die, but end up having a nice storyline; he said that he felt that the future Doctor would have thought of something that would resolve the situation, and that if someone, like himself, does not believe that souls exist, the characters are completely themself, with nothing left behind.^[5]

The role of Strackman Lux went to Steve Pemberton, who is best known for his work as a member of The League of Gentlemen. He also appeared in Blackpool with David Tennant.^[7] The roles of the other team members, being minor, went to newcomers, though care was taken to ensure that one could grasp instantly who everyone on the expedition was.^[7]

In addition to the sets for the library, various new locations were also used: the climactic scenes of the episode, in the library core, were filmed in an electrical substation of a disused Alcoa factory in Waunarlwydd, Swansea,^[8] scenes set in CAL's databanks were filmed at Dyffryn Gardens, St Nicholas;^[9] and outside shots were shot across Wales in location such as Palace Road, Victoria Park and Hensol Castle.^[10]

The wedding dress Catherine Tate wears in this episode is the same dress she wore in "The Runaway Bride".^[8]

On 6 June, "Silence in the Library" was re-run on BBC3, and "Forest of the Dead" was broadcast on its usual timeslot on BBC1 on Saturday 7 June, running against coverage of the Canadian Grand Prix and Euro 2008 on ITV1; the episode came out the winner, getting a lot more viewership than the football. The episode was followed as usual by an episode of Doctor Who Confidential.^[11]

Forest of the Dead was watched by 7.84 million viewers,^[12] giving it a 40% audience share; the highest in Series Four and the highest in its timeslot.^[11] The episode received an Appreciation Index score of 89 (considered "Excellent"), one of the highest figures the new series had received to date, alongside "The Parting of the Ways", "Doomsday" and the preceding episode "Silence in the Library".^[11]

Following the two-parter, Davies said that Moffat (who was succeeding him as showrunner from the next series onwards), brings the best attributes to Doctor Who, such as "intelligence and wit and fears and thrills and dynamism".^[11]

The episode received positive reviews from critics. SFX's review on GamesRadar+ found “Forest of the Dead” to be a great contrast: both a continuation and something new, shifting away from the monster plot to focus on the parallel world, and the little girl at the heart of the machine. Praising the moment of River’s self-sacrifice as a beautiful and tragic scene, made both more tragic and hopeful by the fact that we (and the Doctor) don't yet know her, though with the hope we shall meet her again.^[13] Similarly, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times found Professor River Song interesting, as she is someone the Doctor is yet to meet but who already knows a lot about him, including his name.^[14]

IGN's Travis Fickett said that he found his brain searching for new superlatives and characterised the episode as Doctor Who is at its best, while also praising Donna and Tate's chops as a dramatic actress. He also liked Tennant and Kingston's performance, and Murray's music score for the episode.^[15] Ben Rawson-Jones from Digital Spy found that the episode uses psychological fears to brilliantly build upon the thrills of the opening; and praised the stunning twist on the concept of the parallel world, finding that it allowed Tate to deliver her strongest performance. He found the conclusion to be satisfying and cleverly done.^[16]

IGN named the two-parter the fourth best episode of Tennant's tenure, saying that though the story cuts around through its various subplots, the end result is one of the most creative and moving story of the revived series,^[17] as did Sam McPherson of Zap2it, praising the theme of the fear of the shadows the episode is built on.^[18] This episode, along with "Silence in the Library", was nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category, but lost out to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.^[19] The episode won the 2009 Constellation Award for Best Script in Film or Television.^[20]

• Simulated reality

Wikiquote has quotations related to Tenth Doctor.

• Forest of the Dead on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• "Forest of the Dead" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• "Forest of the Dead" at IMDb