Silence in the Library

Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead

This is a two part story which is one of my all time top 10 Doctor Who TV stories. It is absolutely superb in every way. It also introduces a main character, River Song, who would go on to be very important in the whole Doctor Who universe.

Alex Kingston is an excellent actress who portrays River to perfection. The character is a strong, intelligent and interesting female character who adds a lot of quality. In this two parter she is completely mysterious and adds huge interest as a result.

River is a fantastic character for this story and when Steven Moffatt who wrote this wonderful two parter took over as Showrunner he went on to use River in repeated appearances which continued to be in a non-chronological order and maintained the mystery before finally revealing her back story. That back story is hugely problematic for me to be honest but that has no impact thankfully on this two parter and she is just a tremendous guest character here adding great mystery.

The rest of the guest characters are fun and interesting whilst Catherine Tate puts in an awesome performance with Donna at her peak of brilliance as a top companion.

Tennant is also at the peak of his excellence as the Doctor and the whole story with the little girl and the library is clever, entertaining and ultimately logical.

There are exciting thrills, moving scenes of touching drama as well as intelligent dialogue and witty humour. The scenes in Forest of the Dead where Donna faces up to reality and the loss of her 'children' is heartbreaking. This is top notch Doctor Who.

The Vashta Nerada are a fantastically menacing alien threat and the skeletons in space suits are a cool aspect.

Overall this is basically as good as it gets. Russell T. Davies in charge brings the best out of Steven Moffatt. As showrunner I felt Moffatt often let his ideas and enthusiasm go a bit over the top but when assigned a writing job by RTD with boundaries nobody is better than Moffatt.

Euros Lyn directs perfectly and both episodes are utterly iconic Doctor Who classics. Incredibly this amazing standard would continue right through the rest of Series 4, lifting it to be my favourite series of the modern era of the show.

My Rating for both episodes: 10/10.

I'll save my full blown review when the story is complete but as usual Moffat and Doctor Who never disappoints especially with this chiller of an episode providing us with a slew of iconic imagery to go with the already bursting array of memorable moments which this show is notorious for providing.

The first part provides so much beautiful setup for what could be an incredibly striking second part.

We're just gonna have to get used to this when Moffat takes over in 2010.

Bring on Forest of the Dead

Yes, another excellent story from the ever-inventive brain of Steven Moffat - Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead proves that you can have intelligent science fiction that appeals to the whole family AND which makes you think. No dumbing down required, just a great story, great script and some characters who you really care about. What more could you ask for? My only slight disappointment was with the direction - Euros Lyn is a very fine director but I don't feel that his style suited this kind of story - I would have chosen someone like Hettie MacDonald (director of the excellent 'Blink'), Alice Troughton or perhaps Charles Palmer as they all have the ability to direct 'dark and creepy' stories. Okay, so Euros directed the successful 'The Unquiet Dead' series 1 story, but he was helped a lot by it being set in the rather dark and moody Victorian times.

Anyhow, an excellent two parter nonetheless. Here's hoping that we see more like this in series 5 when Steven Moffat takes over as the show runner.

There's not much to say other then this episode is perfect, just that perfect.

The Doctor and Donna land in a library, The Doctor is alarmed that nobody else is there, but life signs are in their millions. They hear a message left which worries them 'run, for god sake run, no where's safe, count the shadows.' A later message warns them that 'Others are coming,' and soon after the shadows start moving. A crew burst through the walls, and we meet the rather fabulous Professor River Song. Members of her crew start to die, and we meet the cause, the Vashda Nerada, the Piranhas of the sky. To save Donna he transports her back to the TARDIS, but something goes wrong she's not there.

I loved how River Song knew the Doctor, it was obvious she was to return in the future, she made a big impact. Her scenes with Tennant were fabulous, big love for River.

So much intrigue with the little girl, who is she? and what's she to do with the Library?

It looks fabulous, the library is particularly wonderful, nice to see Swansea's library used, it adds to the quality and authenticity. The acting is glorious, the story is one of the best, the Tennant/Tate combination continues to impress.

A very definite advert for why I love Catherine Tate's Donna so much, she's totally in character again, very sweet with Miss Evangelista, and very tender when she dies. Donna can do no wrong.

The Vashda Nerada are a fantastic creation, I imagine they gave a few nightmares, especially when he suggested they were on earth and in the shadows.

Silence in the Library is totally fabulous, arguably one of the best episodes in the Shows history. It has one of my all time favourite lines, 'Almost every species universe has an irrational fear of the dark, but they're wrong, it's not irrational, it's Vashda Nerada.' A stunning cliffhanger that leaves you desperate for the conclusion. It's glorious 10/10

I think this series so far has been a bit of a let down. It feels as though nothing big has happened so far and I've been watching, waiting for the real excitement that the last few series have offered.

Tonight's episode though, I thought was absolutely fantastic! Steven Moffat manages to create such brilliant episodes ('Blink', 'The Girl in the Fireplace'...) which rivals some of the original Doctor Who story lines, in terms of depth and imagination.

Finally, we have mystery. Russel T. Davies' opening episode was of great disappointment - as were some of the following episodes. Moffat's script doesn't fail to intrigue. TV worth watching.

Moffat is definitely the best writer - Moffat to take over from Davies...