Top 20 Episodes of Doctor Who #19: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

It was inevitable that we would eventually cover an episode spotlighting my personal favorite Doctor, the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant. A phenomenal actor and a life-long fan of Doctor Who, Tennant would carry the mantle of The Doctor for five years, making him the longest running Doctor of the new series. Incredibly likable and charismatic, Tennant's doctor could go from excitable and childlike to cold-hearted and dangerous at the drop of a hat. Tennant has no shortage of great episodes under his belt, but this one is significant for introducing a character who would later become very important during his successors era.

The Doctor and his current companion, the wonderfully sassy Donna Noble played by the equally wonderful Katherine Tate, arrive at the biggest library in the universe. It's so big in fact that it spans the surface area of an entire planet. However, something is wrong. The library is completely deserted save for the Doctor, Donna and a small team of archeologists. Leading the archeologists is Professor River Song, a mysterious woman who seems to know the Doctor almost better than he knows himself, which is odd because the Doctor doesn’t seem to know anything about her. However, there’s no time to worry about that just yet as the Doctor and the gang have bigger problems. The library is infested with the Vashta Nerada, microscopic organisms that live in the shadows and can strip your flesh in a matter of seconds. The Doctor has to uncover the mystery of the library before the Vashta Nerada finish everyone off for good.

This episode is a lot of fun. David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s incredible chemistry is on display as usual. The supporting cast are all very entertaining. The mystery of the library is incredibly compelling, and the Vashta Nerada are an excellent addition to the Doctor Who monster gallery, making it all the more puzzling to me that this is their only appearance. However, the obvious reason that this episode is significant as it is is the introduction of River Song, played by the incredibly lovely Alex Kingston, one of the few actors from Doctor Who whom yours truly has had the pleasure of meeting, and she certainly makes one heck of a debut, despite this being her final appearance chronologically. Even though she would be best known for her chemistry with Matt Smith’s Doctor, the way she and David Tennant play off each other is excellent as well. The seeds of the character we would all come to love are planted here, and from here, they continued to grow up to Kingston's most recent appearance alongside Peter Capaldi's Doctor.

I'm sure we'll be discussing Tennant a few more times as the list goes on, but next time, we step back to old series for the debut episode of David Tennant's own favorite Doctor.