Comment Policy
Offensive, harrassing or baiting comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted at my discretion.
Comment spam will be deleted.
Please leave a name and either a valid web-site or e-mail address with comments. Comments left without either a valid web-site or e-mail address may be deleted. Atom Feed LiveJournal SyndicationLOLcats feed
Friday, June 27, 2008
Doctor Who: Forest of the Dead
The conclusion of Steven Moffat's latest two-parter takes advantage of the rather dramatic separation of Donna and the Doctor from last week to tell two parallel stories, one of the Doctor and his dwindling band of astronaut's efforts to survive the attacks of the carnivorous shadows, and Donna's experiences in a strange world in which time moves in leaps and bounds. Structurally it's quite a neat trick Moffat pulls, with revelations doled out between the Doctor and Donna so that neither of them alone quite manages to pull together the complete picture, but the audience can, as the audience shares the omniscient perspective of the mysterious girl from the last episode. Some of the more chilling ideas from the last episode don't really get followed up on very strongly here, with the Vashta Nerada becoming something like just another Who monster, though the Doctor's realization of how they came to infect the library is really quite good touch from Moffat. Surprisingly, the great strength of the episode is Donna's sub-plot detailing her experiences in the other world, as Catherine Tate gives an extraordinary dramatic performance that puts to shame what passes for acting and emotive ability in science-fiction dramas.