DID IT SUCK? | Doctor Who [SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY / FOREST OF THE DEAD MEGA REVIEW] 

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You didn't notice the foreshadowing. Donna: ''I saw The Doctor.'' Doctor Moon: ''Yes Donna. You saw The Doctor, and then you forgot.'' Series 4 finale: *Donna forgets*

Donna: *being the most comedic companion* Writers: You get tragedy

"not every shadow. But any shadow" Now that is chilling.

Miss Evangelista's death was the most haunting thing in Doctor Who since the empty child. You just felt so gutted how she was treated so badly and then ghosted about Donna saying 'You know what I said before, about being stupid? Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh'. Broke my 12 year old heart. Fuck it, im gonna watch it again for the hundredth time. I miss this old Who so much

I’ll be honest if these stories didn’t get those ratings, there probably would have been a riot in the comments.

No mention of the scene where Lee saw Donna but because of his stutter he couldn't get the words out to get her attention? That scene was so heartbreaking

I was always saddened that Donnas stuttering silent Husband couldn't reconnect after the shows resolution and that it was never followed up.

I miss stories like this. Scary, thought provoking, chilling and emotional. Now we’ve got meh.

*Empathy is Donna's superpower.* I adore that, of everything, the most horrifying thing she ever saw was the death of Miss Evangelista.

Just realised that River is Moffat's Captain Jack

Was surprised you weren’t convinced by Tate’s performance when her children disappear. Always thought the performance was haunting and gut-wrenching. But hey, thank god you praised the rest of the episode or I’d have your head

What I love about rewatching this episode is this idea: When you first watch it you are in the doctors shoes not knowing who River is and what’s to come. But when you rewatch it now knowing what is happened with River, you have switched into her shoes with you knowing everything and the doctor not. I wish there was more of this absolute brilliance from Moffet as show runner

Miss Distortalista's face scared the absolute shit out of me as a kid! Seriously, I'd just run out of the room if I was alone!

I always get choked at the ending scene when River initially awakens in the simulation and she's looking around all confused, only for Cal and Doctor Moon appear and explain everything to her, Cal saying "I thought you'd be lonely, so I brought you some friends." Then River turns to see her colleagues strolling towards her, all with smiles on their face, and she simply says: "Oh for heavens sake. He just can't do it, can he? That man...That impossible man. He just can't give in."

Moffat has cemented our fear of statues and now he moves on to shadows.

whenever my dad would would walk into a dark room he would say “hey who turned off the lights?!” i love it

Basically spazzed it just now when I realised the atrium the doctor and Donna landed in is Brangwyn Hall in Swansea where I did my exams last year. Genuinely sat where the Tardis was 😂

I've got to agree this is one of my favourite stories of the entire show.

In River's narration at the end she says "I do think that all the skies of all the world's might just turn dark if he, for one moment, accepts it". Not only does this speech combined with the music and the Doctor running back provide a rush of hope to the viewer, but I also think it foreshadows Turn Left (it's a stretch, I know, as Moffat didn't write Turn Left, but I wouldn't be surprised if him and Davies worked together on even subtle plot threads like this). In Turn Left the Doctor dies because he loses his will to save and becomes so caught up in drowning the Racnoss. He needed Donna there to snap him back into reality. Him forgetting himself results in his death, which eventually leads to the stars going out in all universes "all the skies of all the world's might just turn dark".

honestly when we saw donna's vr husband but he had his stutter so couldn't shout for her.... thats what got me, donna just shook of the relationship assuming he wasn't real and it was heartbreaking

Random fact: the actress who played miss evangelista ended up marrying and divorcing Elon musk twice

Moffat confirmed recently that River acquired the squareness gun from the TARDIS from when Captain Jack left it there in Series 1

10:33 I genuinely spat laughing. That was so unexpected.

This is the best story river song had Change my mind

can'r believe you forgot to add in one of the most donna lines: "so you're telling me this world is not real? I've been Dieting!"

River's character arc is honestly one of my favorite ones in all of sci-fy because it is very difficult to introduce a character backwards, with her "death" being the first thing we learn about her and then just two seasons (series in the uk I know) we see her birth and the concequences people face when trying to live a normal life while travelling through time and space at the same time and yes I know that not every episode was a masterpiece but the overall character arc is still really well done

“Why do you even have handcuffs?” “Spoilers!” 😏

Everytime the lights turn off and a member of my family wants them back on they’ll say “Hey, who turned out the lights?” repeatedly until they’re back on. That’s the effect Doctor Who has on society.

This is moffats best story leagues ahead of blink

This is still my favourite two parter all these years later. The creepy atmosphere, a great monster that should never return to the show. Likeable side characters die which is refreshing when I look at the latter end end of new who. River song is great and anyone who says she isn't is lying. Donna's dream world is horrifying on so many levels. This 2 parter is just great

I agree, the latter half of this series is the best Doctor Who ever got to be. The rating you gave these episodes was absolutely warranted. I would disagree, however, that Tate's performance was off when the children vanished. When you consider that her entire story arc in the series begins and ends with her wanting to fall in love, get married, and start a life, the gradual realization throughout Forest of the Dead that her reality has been a lie is all the more heartbreaking. In my opinion, the Donna-centered part of the story is the most underrated (and underdeveloped) thing in this episode. The one gripe I would have with this two-parter (if any) is that the writers decided to have Donna's illusion happy marriage be a part of it, and not part of a different episode (say, Turn Left: Donna never meets the Doctor, but does fall in love and has a perfect marriage, only to have to sacrifice it all in order to prevent the Doctor from dying in her past). But I get that the writers needed to give Donna something to DO in these episodes, to have the screen time between River Song and the Tenth Doctor be the focal point. The River-Ten plot overshadowed everything else in these two episodes (as it should have), so unfortunately the Donna stuff just seemed a bit underdeveloped. I also wonder if they had at one point intended to bring back the Lee McAvoy character, as I think that would have been the best send-off for Donna (especially as the Doctor-Donna who had forgotten everything that happened in this entire series).

"how that camera schnurgh" *moves*

As Stubagful (or possibly Nitpix) pointed out, who actually hid literally behind the sofa? Hiding behind a cushion whilst on the sofa makes sense, but are people really getting off the sofa and running behind it? Don't most people have theirs sofas against the wall?

‘Hey who turned out the lights’ haunted my childhood, 2008-2009 were the best doctor who years, the writing, the chemistry between david and catherine, the foreshadowing, the crossovers and the doctor seeming hopeless in journeys end, russel is by far the best writer, he knew how to make viewers emotional

I’m 14 almost 15 and am still shit scared of these episodes, along with blink, midnight, night terrors, the empty child episodes and those milk men clone ones Edit: they’re called gangers lmao

25:30 how he says “look me up”. Mannnnnn, he may as well have just said “bow to me”

This and the waters of mars have gotta be the best episodes that stuck in my memory from my childhood

Tennant: BOOKS! Advert: Audible!

Absolutely adore Rivers introduction and subsequent death in this episode, it is so goddam tragic and I can’t think of a better way to pull together an emotional storyline in a time travel show, it doesn’t even fully pay off until years later too which just makes it better

And the fact the Moffat managed to complete River’s arc beautifully in the Husbands of River Song blew my fucking mind. Moffat *really* knows how to make stori s for the long run!

Can't wait to see the review of Midnight. imo one of if not THE best standalone episode of new who since we are told NOTHING and the doctor who always seems to know something, if only rumours or stories, is completely in the dark for the whole episode.

25:30 that *growl* from David is exceptional. Jodie just hasn't had the chance or just isn't able to show that proper anger in a realistic way.

there are two things i didn’t like about this episode: *1. when river pulls out the diary and asks the doctor if they had done certain things together yet.* it doesn’t make sense because this version of the doctor is younger and different from the version in which she actually did those certain things with... but i let it pass because i just learned david almost did series 5. that scene would have made more sense if he was the doctor in series 5 but oh well! *2. the vashda narada just run away from the doctor.* why would they do that?? because they were scared!? why would they be scared of him?!?! earlier in the episode, the doctor is heard saying he doesn’t know how to defeat these creatures, which i’m sure the vashda narada heard too or are simply aware of that fact. the vashda narada had the upper hand and honestly just could have killed him. it would have made more sense if the doctor had been formulating a plan to defeat them, and threatened to defeat them if they didn’t leave him alone, instead of him using empty threats. (this is a big moff trope and it comes back in episodes like the eleventh hour) ok I lied i have one more issue but it’s minor... 3. the fact that there are a TWO invisible antagonists ( vashda narada and the midnight entity) in this series is a little much but they’re both terrifying and written pretty well that i don’t mind it too much.

These two, and A Good Man Goes to War, will always be my all time favorites.

Got my wife into watching doctor who with me and she just saw this episode for the first time today. This is her second favorite episode so far behind blink.

The fact Moffat set up rivers story arc in this episode, a series before his own, makes him both a very talented writer, and an absolutely cocky bastard. I dont like the *majority* or Moffat's writing but this was an interestingly written story...

This and the Water on Mars episode gave me nightmares when I was young, I loved it but they were just so creepy. Like the part where the character we barely knew dies and the part where they keep repeating, "who turned out the lights?" and omg terror

This two parter was how i found doctor who; Everyone: dont blink Me: count the shadows. Or donna noble has left the library donna noble has been saved

6:12 *Moffat is the master of fear of the unknown, also known as 'cosmic horror.'* Statues which move when you aren't looking, creatures in the dark, slendermen you forget you saw, or entities evolved to never be seen. He writes monsters you can't comprehend, and there's a horror in that.

11:08 It's probably a story telling room judging by the small chairs in front of the big chair.

I wouldnt be surprised if the queen was watching this rn

I would like to point out that the ‘plot hole’ at the end of the first episode isn’t actually a plot hole as in the Doctor dances captain jack says ‘the special features drain the battery’ shortly after replacing the roof after they fall through the floor to escape. This then implies that the replacement feature does not come as standard and thus could explain why river doesn’t replace the wall

This is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. The Vashta Narada are probably the scariest creatures and I always feel spooked when I'm in darkness after watching the episodes again

the part about the statue playing back the last moments reminds me of the burial chamber scene from LOTR when gandarf reads the last writing of the dwarfolas , they are coming! creeptastic

The funny thing is, Vashta Nerada first appeared in the episode love and monsters as the thing that killed Elton's mother

0:50 *is there a Skillshare course on smooth transitions?*

The reason why river didn’t use her blaster to close the wall is because jack said his blaster could only do that by using a special feature

Brilliant review for my favourite David Tennant story. I was also wondering when Miss Evangelista gets killed by the Vashta Nerada and she repeats "Ice Cream" as her last words, was that an intentional dig at her intelligence? Due to ice cream being associated with childish behaviour

23:42 the thing that always scared me about the kids disappearing was that I watched it when I was about their age and had that boy's exact dragon around my bed wtffff

i like as you did how the writing aknowledged that > if someone knows the doctor can time travel > and turns into a different person when they "die" > you NEED to keep certain events away from them so that they don't use the spoilers as a time traveler's almanac/roadmap to tackling events, giving themselves existential dread, causing paradoxes, ruining things for other people, or entering a deathloop where they burn all of their timelord revives in a short period of time KEEPING TIME TRAVELERS AWAY FROM SPOILERS IS HARD AND SO NECESSARY

Harry's pure enjoyment and happiness talking about this amazing story is just what I needed this week. It's been rough.

The Library was actually a real library. The episode was filmed in the old Swansea library. That is Swansea Wales. It was closed at the time and being moved to the new one we have at present, that is due to move at some point so we've been told for the past few years. Anyway, the old Swansea library had a wonderful study room that was circular with a tiled floor and a pretty glass dome, lots of beautiful wooden desks and railings, very Victorian. What a pity it's no more.

20:30 another reason why the computer is skipping a bunch of time is because it is storing the brains of about 5000 people. I think they do mention this later on but CAL was doing everything she could to keeping these people alive, so she was trying to conserve as much processing power as possible, and as such the simulation had to be optimized as much as possible.

The distorted face scene and the scene when the kids disappear fricking broke me and it still does 8 years later

These episodes legitimately freaked me out and are one of the things that helped give me a fear on what's in the dark.

literally just watched this two parter with a friend, very good, they also mentioned how for ages they thought donna's ultimate ending was heartbreaking but upon revisiting this and seeing what donna goes through...maybe it's not a bad thing :/ 💀

if i could, for future re-releases of season 4, when the doctors running to save river i'd make a mashup of the 10th, 11th, and 12ths themes to play, as if all of them are going to save her, but eh, thats just me being cheesy, but with a show like this some cheese is ok

Real doctor who Journeys end is the best ep ever though.

I love these half hour videos. I know they probably take a shit load of time to edit and I appreciate you doing that for us.

Fantastic review! I will say that spoilers was part of the popular vernacular at the time of release (at least in my location). Thanks for pointing out the use of lighting in this episode I never even noticed it!

Your editing was especially on-point here, Harry.

Awesome as always Harry! It's funny, I just rewatched these episodes a couple days ago and checked if you had reviewed them yet. Thanks again!

Damn it, the random Chuckle Brother really took me by surprise. 😂

I still have shivers watching this episode after so many years, even though I almost know it by heart -- while at the same time I have no recollection of what happens in Season 12...

The ending of forest of the dead got way better after watching husbands of river song

That chuckle brothers ‘it’s a hidden door’ insert absolutely gave me the best little laugh I’ve had in AGES. Thanks.

The library gives me big Anor Londo vibes. Giant empty architecture that clearly was once the height of a golden civilization. Spooky yet amazing

I was already watching your doctor who reviews this morning so I was so pleasantly caught off guard when this new review slipped in the queue

Every time I come back to your reviews it just reminds me how good the acting, writing, and music is in this show and makes me want to watch it all over again

"I am the doctor and you are in the biggest library in the universe, look me up!" "it say here he usually just bullshits his enemies into running away without ever actually having a plan....guess we can eat him no problem"

here is an interesting thing: the previous tenth doctor failed to Save River here which is why he added the life support system in her Screwdriver when he became 12

Finally, these two are my absolute favourite episodes. Seen these episodes so many times, and both never get old. The story was simple, and I feel you could have broadcasted it today and it won't feel dated Thank you for reviewing this!

These 2 episodes and Human nature 2 parter are my favorite episodes to rewatch in all of doctor who

Hey who turned out the lights. Shut up Dr mooooooon. Two of the best episodes, creepy and stays with you.

I’m so glad he finally got to Silence in the library, my favourite episode completely.

I loved how they get you curious and sad for both the doctor and river in these episodes

Finally somebody spoke about the music at 27:10. So breathtaking, for such a sad yet inspiring scene. It embodies the entirety of the doctor’s relationship with River, not only during this story, but also as the 11th and 12th Doctors. We all saw this as the doctor saving yet another companion, but after all these years it’s clear how River was so much more. God the fucking music just makes it so breathtakingly beautiful and symbolic, the beginning yet also the end of River Song.

I can't believe this video made me appreciate these episodes even more. Wow. This is truly incredible.

This episode played on the channel W yesterday, and it was just as good as I remeber. Even for my 4th time watching, the fear factor is still there. I just cant wait now for you to review midnight aswell, two cracking stories

"You just killed someone I liked. That is not a safe place to stand" Damn CHILLS every freaking time

This episode gave me nightmares, so I let my younger sister watch it and she got them too xD

There have been many episodes in the Tennant/Smith era that I loved, and a few that rose to the level of a 9 or 9.5, but the three I can't deny are Blink, Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead: They are 10/10 in my book. Just watching this review got me choked up again. I'll never forget that moment when he runs back down and grabs the screwdriver. I was like, "YES! SAVE HER DOCTOR! HOLY CRAP I LOVE THIS SHOW!" Then I watched it again, but this time with my son who was finally old enough to handle the show. He saw that moment and yelled, "YEAAAAH! 'MERICA!" I was so proud.

It's amazing how much Donna looks like a young Sylvia at 20:54

the thing you said about the books extending human life reminded me of the line "stories are where memories go when theyre forgotten" from hell bent (s9e13)

I always liked this episode but I never put so much thought into the way it went; you did an amazing job on exploring it

I love seeing the Doctor on the back foot - it's not something that happens often, that someone knows more about him than he does about them. Especially them knowing his name! I saw a comment on another review that said that Jack left his squareness gun on the Tardis when it took off without him in The Parting of the Ways. This is the same squareness gun that River found on the Tardis; but she didn't know about any advanced settings. The room where Miss Evangalista died was actually a disused Council chamber, which accounts for the shape.

This story is great a love the idea of sinister shadows, and the way it can be any shadow is pretty scary, and the scene at the start when the lights start turning of in the hallway is terrifying, and the line -Hey who turned out the lights is cool

Wow what perfect timing for the audible ad 3:03

I remember when Silence in the Library first came out when I was 12. I was very glad for the making of episode right after because without it I really wouldn’t have been able to sleep that night.