The Doctor and what’s left of the exploration team escape into a well-lit room, away from the Vashta Nerada that now inhabits pilot Dave’s space suit–hmm…a skeleton in a space suit, yep, definitely creepy. But, even more creepy and messed up was Dave’s voice repeating over and over again–his consciousness trapped inside his suit’s communicator. It was a relief when the Vashta Nerada finally let him go and his voice faded out.
Now, the biggest question The Doctor had on his mind about now was: can he trust River Song? The woman claims to know him in the future, claims to be important to him; she claims he gave her his screwdriver, but The Doctor knows he never gives his screwdriver to anyone. River must be awfully important to him. Though, it could be that somehow she tricked him, somehow she stole one of his most important tools. Yet, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Then…as Dave’s Vashta Nerada-possessed space suit once again makes its presence known, River whispers a single word into The Doctor’s ear: his name, though we don’t get to hear it. And he never gives out his screwdriver…yet she knows his name too!
This renews The Doctor’s interest in River, and reinvigorates his resolve. Again, The Doctor gets everyone out of harms way. While doing so he realizes that the moon is sending out a powerful electro-magnetic signal that is interfering with his screwdriver. This is when the proud and conceited Strackman Lux pipes up to let The Doctor know that the moon overhead is, in actuality, a gigantic virus scanner for The Library’s computer core.
River Song
Meanwhile, Donna is in an alternate, computer-generated reality, though she doesn’t seem to realize it. She’s in a care home named CAL. How she got there is a mystery to her at first. From the audiences point of view she’s able to jump instantly from place to place. At CAL she meets a stuttering man who she takes to almost immediately. The two of them get married and have two children. It all seems very real, but…
It should be noted that Donna never ages. If she were really married and had had children, she should change to reflect those changes in her life, right? Well, you would think. Which, of course, starts getting the mind going. Where exactly is Donna? Where is the little girl who apparently seems to be controlling everything?
Well, it’s actually Miss Evangelista who provides the ultimate explanation. Donna meets up with her on the playground where she always takes her children to play. However, Miss Evangelista hides herself beneath a cloak. Why? Miss Evangelista explains that when she died her “data ghost” was captured by The Library’s wireless connection, but it had become corrupted as she was transferred over into this computer-created alternate reality that they now both inhabit. The results are shocking to say the least; Miss Evangelista’s face looks half-melted, like that from a wax dummy that had been put to close to a heat source.
But, what about the girl, what’s her role in all this? It turns out that she actually has a name: Charlotte Abigail Lux. She’s actually a relative of Strackman Lux, his grandfather’s daughter to be precise. She was actually wired into the computer as a child; the reason being she had been dying at the time and it seemed a good way of protecting and keeping her alive indefinitely.
The Doctor eventually learns that all 4200 people that had been saved hadn’t been rescued, but they’d been instead transferred into the computer system via The Library’s teleporters. This is how they were saved from the initial attack by the Vashta Nerada. However, all these data signatures have overfilled CAL’s memory banks, which is keeping the computer from operating properly. In order to revive the lost souls, The Doctor must make a deal with the Vashta Nerada. He tells them that they can keep their “forest” as long as they allow him to revive all the stored people. Eventually, after searching for The Doctor’s name, they agree, but in order for The Doctor to restore the data signatures back to living people, he must provide some extra memory.
So, The Doctor opts to use his own brain as extended memory for the computer. However, River Song won’t have it, because the process might cause The Doctor–the one she knows and loves in the future–to be lost forever. Naturally, The Doctor won’t allow her to sacrifice herself in his place; though, River has other forms of persuasion besides her knowing The Doctor’s real name. She simply knocks The Doctor out with one mean hook. Here’s where things get clever.
River Song is, of course, destroyed in her attempt, which is successful, in providing extended memory to the computer. Remember her having the screwdriver? Well, it turns out, The Doctor had given it to her for a reason after all; her data ghost went into it! It’s an all out race at the end as he is just able to get what’s left of her into CAL.
Again, The Doctor saves the day in a very resourceful and creative way. Forest of the Dead is a brilliant piece of storytelling to be sure. In fact, it’s hard to recall the last time a Doctor Who episode had this level of depth and creativity. Though, truthfully, if you place this episode next to the others from this season, it’s obvious that this is just another excellent notch in the series. It’s amazing how Doctor Who continues to outdo itself.
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