Episode Review: The Forest of the Dead
No, no, no, no, NO! Just... no!
I really hope this ranting of mine isn’t going to become a series 4 habit. So far, I adored S4. It was, in fact, a match for S2 as far as I was concerned.
Well, that’s certainly not counting the last two episodes. Despite my lack of enthusiasm last week, I was hoping, somehow, that this second part would save the premise for me and make it interesting. I was wrong.
First, I was bored in some parts, and for an episode that’s supposedly fast-paced, that’s no good.
Second, River Song became a major character and Donna lived her own minor and useless and even boring adventure on the side, which is exactly what I’d disliked in Girl in the Fireplace, so I wasn’t about to like that here.
Third, there were some interesting scenes between River Song and the Doctor, yes, but since River Song drove me nuts because of all her teasing in part 1, I didn’t feel as emotionally involved as I should have. How can you feel moved by someone who grates your nerve? Plus it all felt like a big set up to prepare Doctor/Rose shippers like me to move on. Hello, sane mind, here. Don’t need to get *another* Doctor/companion romance stuffed up my nose to get the point! Especially pre-Rose return. Talk about throwing a big bucket of ice-cold water onto the crowd. Not to mention that giving the Doctor *yet* another love-interest is overkill and weakens any feelings he might have had for any of them.
Fourth, the shadows. They bothered me in part 1, and even more so here. Those guys are always stepping into the shadows, especially when they run between aisles of books, and so the idea that they’re supposed to be terrified of shadows just doesn’t work as a result.
Admittedly, I was wrong about the “you just killed someone I liked” line, which referred to Anita and not Donna, thankfully. And there was some stuff I liked, like Donna asking the Doctor if ‘all right’ is some Time Lord equivalent of ‘not all right at all’, or the time-loop with the screwdriver that lets him save River Song to the library’s hard drive.
Then there’s stuff I noticed which is probably leading us up to the rest of the series, like yet another parallel between Donna and Rose as companions: at the end of the episode, Donna tells the Doctor about what River Song said about her (which reminded me of ‘the feral child who will die in battle’ in The Satan Pit) and he offers to check River Song’s diary, probably because he knows Donna won’t let him. Also, there was yet again a mention of the Doctor’s name, which is obviously going to play a part at some point since it’s not the first time we hear about it. On the other hand, I disliked the idea that he’d tell River Song his name. It’s just so wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!
And finally, there’s the big question of River Song and what part she might play in future. I mean, if we go with what Moffat’s set up, she’s going to be Ten’s companion at some point, meaning before the next regeneration, meaning not in the far far far FAR future (no clue how long Tennant’s going to be the Doctor, but I doubt it’s going to be another ten years, though I’d love that *grins*) On the other hand, I can’t see her becoming a companion, because then all of us would already know what’s going to happen to her, and that just sucks the entire suspense out of it. Spoilers. And no, I can’t suspend disbelief and just contemplate the idea that she’s going to be in the far far future until I actually forget about her and we move on. Unless, of course, she’s not a fixed point, but what with the temporal loop with the screwdriver that doesn’t really make sense, does it? Gosh, I have a headache just thinking about it. Adding that to the list of Moffat-complaints: gave me a bleeding headache.
Anyway, in a nutshell, David Tennant is probably the only thing that kept me watching, and trust me, much as I like him, that’s not a good sign, and certainly not enough to keep me watching for episodes on end.
I really hope this ranting of mine isn’t going to become a series 4 habit. So far, I adored S4. It was, in fact, a match for S2 as far as I was concerned.
Well, that’s certainly not counting the last two episodes. Despite my lack of enthusiasm last week, I was hoping, somehow, that this second part would save the premise for me and make it interesting. I was wrong.
First, I was bored in some parts, and for an episode that’s supposedly fast-paced, that’s no good.
Second, River Song became a major character and Donna lived her own minor and useless and even boring adventure on the side, which is exactly what I’d disliked in Girl in the Fireplace, so I wasn’t about to like that here.
Third, there were some interesting scenes between River Song and the Doctor, yes, but since River Song drove me nuts because of all her teasing in part 1, I didn’t feel as emotionally involved as I should have. How can you feel moved by someone who grates your nerve? Plus it all felt like a big set up to prepare Doctor/Rose shippers like me to move on. Hello, sane mind, here. Don’t need to get *another* Doctor/companion romance stuffed up my nose to get the point! Especially pre-Rose return. Talk about throwing a big bucket of ice-cold water onto the crowd. Not to mention that giving the Doctor *yet* another love-interest is overkill and weakens any feelings he might have had for any of them.
Fourth, the shadows. They bothered me in part 1, and even more so here. Those guys are always stepping into the shadows, especially when they run between aisles of books, and so the idea that they’re supposed to be terrified of shadows just doesn’t work as a result.
Admittedly, I was wrong about the “you just killed someone I liked” line, which referred to Anita and not Donna, thankfully. And there was some stuff I liked, like Donna asking the Doctor if ‘all right’ is some Time Lord equivalent of ‘not all right at all’, or the time-loop with the screwdriver that lets him save River Song to the library’s hard drive.
Then there’s stuff I noticed which is probably leading us up to the rest of the series, like yet another parallel between Donna and Rose as companions: at the end of the episode, Donna tells the Doctor about what River Song said about her (which reminded me of ‘the feral child who will die in battle’ in The Satan Pit) and he offers to check River Song’s diary, probably because he knows Donna won’t let him. Also, there was yet again a mention of the Doctor’s name, which is obviously going to play a part at some point since it’s not the first time we hear about it. On the other hand, I disliked the idea that he’d tell River Song his name. It’s just so wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!
And finally, there’s the big question of River Song and what part she might play in future. I mean, if we go with what Moffat’s set up, she’s going to be Ten’s companion at some point, meaning before the next regeneration, meaning not in the far far far FAR future (no clue how long Tennant’s going to be the Doctor, but I doubt it’s going to be another ten years, though I’d love that *grins*) On the other hand, I can’t see her becoming a companion, because then all of us would already know what’s going to happen to her, and that just sucks the entire suspense out of it. Spoilers. And no, I can’t suspend disbelief and just contemplate the idea that she’s going to be in the far far future until I actually forget about her and we move on. Unless, of course, she’s not a fixed point, but what with the temporal loop with the screwdriver that doesn’t really make sense, does it? Gosh, I have a headache just thinking about it. Adding that to the list of Moffat-complaints: gave me a bleeding headache.
Anyway, in a nutshell, David Tennant is probably the only thing that kept me watching, and trust me, much as I like him, that’s not a good sign, and certainly not enough to keep me watching for episodes on end.