Forest of the Dead

195b – "Forest of the Dead"
Doctor Who episode
The Doctor lies in sadness after River Song's sacrifice, a moment which IGN stated "rivals any of the great emotional beats in this series" noting their plentifulness.[1]
Cast
Doctor David Tennant – Tenth Doctor
Companion Catherine Tate – Donna Noble
Others Alex Kingston – Professor River Song Colin Salmon – Dr Moon Harry Peacock – Proper Dave Steve Pemberton – Strackman Lux Jessika Williams – Anita O. T. Fagbenle – Other Dave Eve Newton – The Girl Mark Dexter – Dad Jason Pitt – Lee Eloise Rakic-Platt – Ella Alex Midwood – Joshua Talulah Riley – Miss Evangelista Jonathan Reuben – Man
Production
Directed by	Euros Lyn
Written by	Steven Moffat
Script editor	Helen Raynor
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Music by	Murray Gold
Production code	4.10
Series	Series 4
Running time	2nd of 2-part story, 45 minutes
First broadcast	7 June 2008 (2008-06-07)
Chronology
← Preceded by "Silence in the Library" Followed by → "Midnight"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"Forest of the Dead" is the ninth episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast by BBC One on 7 June 2008. It is the second of a two-part story; the first part, "Silence in the Library", aired on 31 May; it was Moffat's last written story before replacing Russell T Davies as head writer and showrunner starting from the fifth series in 2010.

In the episode, the time-travelling temp Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) is trapped inside a virtual reality in a planet-sized library's hard drive in the 51st century and has false memories implanted of a married life. At the same time, another time traveller, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), seeks to rescue Donna, and thousands of other humans saved inside the library hard drive while being pursued by the microscopic swarm called Vashta Nerada. The episode also features the death of River Song (Alex Kingston), an archaeologist who has a close relationship with the Doctor, but because of the non-linearity of this partnership, the Doctor in the episode has only just met River.

Forest of the Dead was watched by 7.84 million viewers, a 40% audience share, the highest in Series Four; it received highly positive reviews . This episode, along with "Silence in the Library", was nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category.