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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Production Code

4.10

Written by

Steven Moffat

Directed by

Euros Lyn

Runtime

45 minutes

Story Type

Two-Parter

Time Travel

Future

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

River Song Timeline

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

River Song's Diary, Handcuffs, Squareness gun, Sonic Screwdriver

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

The Library

UK Viewers

7.84 million

Appreciation Index

89

Synopsis

Donna is gone, the Vashta Nerada are out for fresh meat and the Tenth Doctor is running out of options. Can he trust the mysterious Professor River Song, a woman who claims to be from his future? Why would his future self have given her his sonic screwdriver, or tell her his real name? Even if they do work together, can anyone stop the shadows from claiming them all as their next meal?

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Reviews

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4 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

Great conclusion, but I don’t know- relegating River Song to domestic bliss? It just doesn’t feel right, especially with everything we know about her now. She should be in some orgy simulation with all the doctors.


Forest of the Dead is a great conclusion to this two-parter, in my opinion better than the part proceeding it. The plot with Donna is really good in my opinion. It felt genuinely creepy and sad. The main plot also continues to be very solid from the previous episode, and the threads were wrapped up neatly.


I WOULD HAVE CREATED SO MANY TIME PARADOXES WITH YOU, AND KEPT YOU ALIVE FOREVER


This review contains spoilers!

This one is better than I remembered!

Silence in the Library is stuffed with enough sci-fi concepts to nourish several other stories: a planet sized library; invisible monsters in the shadows; data ghosts; Donna's fictional children; Donna tragically not crossing paths with her real husband. But the two best concepts of all are The Doctor having a wife from the future who he hasn't crossed paths with, but knows him better than anyone in the world; and a there being child who is a computer in her own world watching the real world unfold on her TV.

Catherine Tate plays her part incredibly well here, from the two hander with David up top, to caring for the bullied member of the crew to her disorientating journey through the dream world. Alex Kingston also smashes her introduction as the infamous River Song - the concept of her story is so deep and broad that it feels impossible at this point that they would even manage to bring her back. Props should also go to Steve Pemberton who (as also seen in Happy Valley) can twist from malicious to sympathetic in an instance, giving his character an enjoyably multi-layered performance.

This is Moffat at the height of his powers, not serving up needlessly complicated plot in order to wow the audience, but instead carefully introducing thread after thread of different concepts, gently crafting them into a satisfying whole that totally adds up.


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Statistics

AVG. Rating640 members
4.50 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating1,325 votes
4.43 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating188 votes
4.60 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

1312

Favourited

246

Reviewed

4

Saved

2

Skipped

0

Owned

9

Quotes

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RIVER: Listen, all you need to know is this. I'd trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been.

— River Song, Forest of the Dead

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Transcript

(Cold Open)

[Stacks]

DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights? Hey, who turned out the lights?

(River uses the squareness gun on the wall.)

RIVER: This way, quickly. Move!
DAVE: Hey, who turned out the lights?


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