Post by RitaLittlewood on Jun 10, 2008 17:58:19 GMT
Review from The Stage:
Doctor Who 4.9 - Forest of the Dead
By Mark Wright on June 10, 2008 5:27 PM
Much of my thoughts on the second part of Steven Moffat’s most recent Doctor Who tale are mirrored with my scribbblings on part one, Silence in the Library. It’s rich and sumptuous, full of exquisite detail, big ideas and scares aplenty. In fact, it’s a step up from the previous week’s adventure with my misgivings - chiefly over the writing of Donna and some surprisingly flabby direction - all being taken care of. However that just opens up space for me to be a bit flummoxed by a dubious ending that left me a little empty…
This is a big story both for the Doctor and Donna, each facing massive emotional trials throughout. For the Doctor, he’s confronted by his future in the form of River Song and the reality that she will, at some point, become someone very special to him. Quite what the basis of their relationship is isn’t clearly stated, but taking the Time Traveller’s Wife riff and River knowing the Doctor’s real name brings confetti and rings to mind. Well, he’s had a daughter, why not a wife?
David Tennant and Alex Kingston are brilliant together - the calm poise Kingston brings to River Song taking the wind of out Tennant’s usually full sails like never before in the course of the series. It’s great to watch Tennant, at the top of his game, finding new directions to take the Doctor. It makes me hope he’ll be sticking around beyond next year’s specials, especially as he positively sings with Steven Moffat’s writing.
Moffat appears keen on the Doctor as an iconic, legendary figure - the man who fights the monsters - and this is writ large here. Opening TARDIS doors with the click of a finger, making the terrifying Vashta Nerada back away by simply getting then to look up his name in a book… It’s all great stuff and much more satisfying than some of the religious imagery we’ve seen the Doctor assuming previously.
As for Donna, she’s absolutely bang on this week following a shaky start in episode one. After being zapped who knows where last week, our red-headed heroine seems to be in an asylum, under the care of Dr Moon (Colin Salmon), the chap who’s also looking after the mysterious little girl watching events on a TV screen. And then Donna goes through meeting a fella, leaving the asylum, getting hitched, having kids… But something isn’t quite right…
And these are where the big ideas are brought out into the open - the library planet has one massive hard drive at its core, where those who escaped the attack of the Vashta Nerada were sent when they tried to teleport away from danger. And they’ve been there ever since, recently joined by Donna. The CPU (i.e. the little girl) has been keeping them occupied with scenes of spooky domestic bliss.
And here is where things start to trouble me. The climax is typically brilliant - fast, intelligent and poignant as River Song stops the Doctor from sacrificing himself, putting herself in the firing line to save the trapped beings held within the computer. It’s sad, heartbreakingly so, as the Doctor impotently watces a part of his future give her life to save thousands. But this is utterly negated by the Doctor’s realisation that River’s left a bit of herself on a chip bolted into the sonic screwdriver that allows him to download what’s left into the computer…
One of Steven Moffat’s maxims, going right back to The Doctor Dances, is that “everybody lives”. That was a beautiful climax to a great story - just once, everybody did indeed get to live. And here we have it again with the Doctor’s downloading of River Song’s… erm, whatever it is… into the computer. But this feels wrong - one of Doctor Who’s many messages is about taking responsibility, stepping up and making a stand. And sometimes that has consequences.
River’s fate, and that of the rest of her archaeological team, living a disembodied half life within a computer isn’t “everybody lives”, it’s “everybody lives, kind of, well not really, more like everybody turns into The Sims”. And it feels offensive that everybody thinks this is okay - it’s a cop out, and a slap in the face of the intricate relationship built up between the Doctor and River. Yes, we all love a happy ending, but this really isn’t, and an equally valid stance sometimes is “not everybody lives.” And that perhaps is the more important message to reinforce.
For a show - and central character - that advocates living life to the full, sucking the marrow and all that, this climax seems horribly at odds with some of Doctor Who’s core values. A tad dramatic perhaps, but this leaves a bitter aftertaste in an episode that is otherwise practically flawless.
Doctor Who 4.9 - Forest of the Dead
By Mark Wright on June 10, 2008 5:27 PM
Much of my thoughts on the second part of Steven Moffat’s most recent Doctor Who tale are mirrored with my scribbblings on part one, Silence in the Library. It’s rich and sumptuous, full of exquisite detail, big ideas and scares aplenty. In fact, it’s a step up from the previous week’s adventure with my misgivings - chiefly over the writing of Donna and some surprisingly flabby direction - all being taken care of. However that just opens up space for me to be a bit flummoxed by a dubious ending that left me a little empty…
This is a big story both for the Doctor and Donna, each facing massive emotional trials throughout. For the Doctor, he’s confronted by his future in the form of River Song and the reality that she will, at some point, become someone very special to him. Quite what the basis of their relationship is isn’t clearly stated, but taking the Time Traveller’s Wife riff and River knowing the Doctor’s real name brings confetti and rings to mind. Well, he’s had a daughter, why not a wife?
David Tennant and Alex Kingston are brilliant together - the calm poise Kingston brings to River Song taking the wind of out Tennant’s usually full sails like never before in the course of the series. It’s great to watch Tennant, at the top of his game, finding new directions to take the Doctor. It makes me hope he’ll be sticking around beyond next year’s specials, especially as he positively sings with Steven Moffat’s writing.
Moffat appears keen on the Doctor as an iconic, legendary figure - the man who fights the monsters - and this is writ large here. Opening TARDIS doors with the click of a finger, making the terrifying Vashta Nerada back away by simply getting then to look up his name in a book… It’s all great stuff and much more satisfying than some of the religious imagery we’ve seen the Doctor assuming previously.
As for Donna, she’s absolutely bang on this week following a shaky start in episode one. After being zapped who knows where last week, our red-headed heroine seems to be in an asylum, under the care of Dr Moon (Colin Salmon), the chap who’s also looking after the mysterious little girl watching events on a TV screen. And then Donna goes through meeting a fella, leaving the asylum, getting hitched, having kids… But something isn’t quite right…
And these are where the big ideas are brought out into the open - the library planet has one massive hard drive at its core, where those who escaped the attack of the Vashta Nerada were sent when they tried to teleport away from danger. And they’ve been there ever since, recently joined by Donna. The CPU (i.e. the little girl) has been keeping them occupied with scenes of spooky domestic bliss.
And here is where things start to trouble me. The climax is typically brilliant - fast, intelligent and poignant as River Song stops the Doctor from sacrificing himself, putting herself in the firing line to save the trapped beings held within the computer. It’s sad, heartbreakingly so, as the Doctor impotently watces a part of his future give her life to save thousands. But this is utterly negated by the Doctor’s realisation that River’s left a bit of herself on a chip bolted into the sonic screwdriver that allows him to download what’s left into the computer…
One of Steven Moffat’s maxims, going right back to The Doctor Dances, is that “everybody lives”. That was a beautiful climax to a great story - just once, everybody did indeed get to live. And here we have it again with the Doctor’s downloading of River Song’s… erm, whatever it is… into the computer. But this feels wrong - one of Doctor Who’s many messages is about taking responsibility, stepping up and making a stand. And sometimes that has consequences.
River’s fate, and that of the rest of her archaeological team, living a disembodied half life within a computer isn’t “everybody lives”, it’s “everybody lives, kind of, well not really, more like everybody turns into The Sims”. And it feels offensive that everybody thinks this is okay - it’s a cop out, and a slap in the face of the intricate relationship built up between the Doctor and River. Yes, we all love a happy ending, but this really isn’t, and an equally valid stance sometimes is “not everybody lives.” And that perhaps is the more important message to reinforce.
For a show - and central character - that advocates living life to the full, sucking the marrow and all that, this climax seems horribly at odds with some of Doctor Who’s core values. A tad dramatic perhaps, but this leaves a bitter aftertaste in an episode that is otherwise practically flawless.
