Doctor Who: Forest of the Dead

Editorial Review

With Donna lost in another life, the Doctor relies on the mysterious professor River Song.

Editorial Review

Last time on Doctor Who … (I've always wanted to say that!), Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) had left the biggest library in the Universe, but the Doctor (David Tennant) hadn't, and he was being menaced by shadows, and an animated dead body in a spacesuit.

Lucky then, that Professor River Song (Alex Kingston), a close friend from his future is around to help him out. But there are still more questions and tantalising hints: what exactly does River Song know about Donna's fate, and why is Donna living a quiet, suburban family life, but in jump-cuts? Who is the sinister woman in the black veil? And how does the little girl connect to it all?

The answers are all revealed in this second part, and there are more than a few surprises, and some high-concept sci-fi. It may take a while to digest, but this is Doctor Who at its intelligent, boundary-pushing best. And of course, Tennant and Tate prove their worth yet again. How wonderful to have the emotional depth they bring in a show that could easily be one-dimensional sci-fi fodder.

Doctor Who: Forest of the Dead airs on ABC1 on Sunday, 31 August, at 7.30pm.

Tim Hunter, August 2008

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