From MadCap's Couch - "Doctor Who: Silence in the Library"

"It's only a model."
"Shh..."

It's an amazing thing, hindsight. Sure, we didn't know in 2008 all the places that Steven Moffat was going to take us over his seven year tenure on the show...but this was really the start of what we would see, and damn if it isn't engaging as Hell.

Silence in the Library and it's counterpart Forest of the Dead are two episodes that I revisit more often than many others, because they're both honestly just...so damn good. So. Damn. GOOD.

I know I've been a hell of a Russell T. Davies basher and with good reason, and you might think that means that I'm going to lavish Steven Moffat with praise.

While you aren't wrong, I'm not such a fan of him that I want him to take me to the prom. I'll give him grief where it's due and necessary.

These two episodes? They ain't it.

Silence in the Library picks up with...a little girl floating through a massive library. When she closes her eyes, at least. When she opens them, she's back in what appears to be a normal home with her father and with her psychiatrist, Doctor Moon. It's a light and whimsical thing, as the little girl describes a library that goes on forever and that she travels to other parts of it by wishing. When she enters another room, however, there's the clear signs of someone trying to get into the room, something that the little girl insists has never happened.

The doors bust open, and none other than the Doctor and Donna Noble rush in, barricading the door behind them. The Doctor then seems to notice the girl and introduces themselves before asking if she minds them stopping there for a bit. The little girl opens her eyes with a sudden start.

After the credits, we go back a bit in time to the Doctor and Donna arriving on the planet known only as "the Library", because it's a repository of every book ever written. Because of Moffat's 51st century fetish, it's in the 51st century. Going out onto a balcony, they glance over the splendor of several buildings we can see...and the Doctor snatches a book from Donna, telling her that it's from her future and to avoid spoilers. Donna points out that traveling with the Doctor is one big spoiler...and he can't really refute it, despite insisting he tries to keep his companions away from big historical events.

Big emphasis on try.

The Doctor scans the planet and makes an oddly and hilariously prophetic statement about Sundays being boring, considering what day Doctor Who does air on as of this writing. When he scans, he only finds the two lifeforms - the two of them. When he scans for all forms of life - the scanner tops out at a million million.  A million million lifeforms...and Silence in the Library!

Ha! Title drop!

When Donna questions if the books could be alive...she and the Doctor reach slowly toward one as the tense Murray Gold score swells...and a voice welcomes them, getting their attention. They find the voice belongs to a Node, an amorphous statue that has a human face attached to it. Donna questions why it has a human face, and the Doctor sidesteps the question, instead getting the message that the Node carries from the Head Librarian.

"Run. For God's sake, run. Nowhere is safe. The Library has sealed itself. We can't-oh, they're here. Arrgh! Snaargh! Snikt!"

. . .um...okay...

. . .by the way, the three sound effects at the end? They're all spoken exactly as they're spelled, clearly in the place of the sound that was being made.

The fact that the Node does this in a completely monotone, electronic voice makes it all the creepier. The Doctor, unfazed, asks for any other messages from the same date. He gets one.

"Count the shadows. For God's sake, remember: if you want to live, count the shadows."

. . .okay, yep. Yep, gonna need the brown pants.

Walking away, the Doctor tells Donna to not touch any of the shadows. The two step out into a corridor and the Doctor reveals the real reason why they came to the Library - he got a message on the psychic paper, complete with a little "x" for a kiss on it. However, the Doctor has no idea who sent the message. Before Donna can question him, the lights begin going out and they run down to avoid the darkness, eventually breaking into a room where the little girl from before saw them.

So now, we are officially caught up to where we started from.

. . .get used to that phrase, it's gonna come up a lot in the Moffat era.

While on the little girl's end, she is in a house...the Doctor and Donna find a security camera that the Doctor begins to sonic with. In the girl's reality, she begins to convulse and crying for him to stop, the message appearing on the side of the camera much to the Doctor's distress and apologetic nature. Doctor Moon and the Father question the girl, who tells them - "The Library is breached. Others are coming."

Donna decides to question another Node...and we hear something rather disturbing about them, namely that the faces on them...are real human faces. Specifically the real dead human faces. They apparently were donated to the Library, the Doctor likening it to donating a park bench or something of the like. Donna, needless to say, it creeped out by this and starts to back away...only for the Doctor to stop her from crossing a shadow...a shadow that doesn't seem to be cast by anything.

The Doctor suddenly realizes what it is, and suggests that he and Donna get back to the TARDIS pronto. Before they can do so, however, some figures in spacesuits storm in...and one clears up the visor of her helmet to reveal...

Professor River Song.

. . .ooooh boy...

River is fantastic...but there are some issues.
Issues for later, though.

River is a very complicated character within the show's lore. I can't really get into everything here without spoiling future events but I'll go ahead and say if you don't like River here...you have until around 2015 for her to stop showing up (at least as of this writing), so buckle up. I personally do like River...although I acknowledge there are a few problems with her. For my full breakdown of them, come back when I get to A Good Man Goes To War and (much later) The Husbands of River Song. For now, though...let's get back to the plot.

River is apparently working for a man by the name of Strackman Lux (descendent of Feldman Lux, the man who originally built the Library) and there's another group as well - Anita, Proper Dave, Other Dave, and Miss Evangelista. When River introduces herself, we do get one of the best exchanges that Moffat has ever written.

"Oh, tell me you're not archaeologists."

            "You got a problem with that?"

            "I'm a time traveler, I point and laugh at archaeologists."

            "Ah! Professor River Song, archaeologist." 

I just love that.

Despite the Doctor's insistence that everyone leave...they're not having it and particularly Lux isn't having it. However, the group can't get back to their ship...the shadows have taken it over, the Doctor orders the door sealed.

Miss Evangelista tries to get the Doctor and Donna to sign contracts and they proceed to take them and rip them up, much to Lux's exasperation and River's amusement. The Doctor then gets a neat little speech and I swear this is the most writing I've ever drawn direct quotes from.

"Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark, but they're wrong. 'Cos it's not irrational...it's Vashta Nerada."

Vashta Nerada, it's what's in the dark...what's always in the dark.

They form a circle of lights. River takes charge, putting several people to work and telling Lux to put his helmet on before telling the Doctor "pretty boy, you're with me" and it taking him a bit of time to get it through his head.

We also get a bit of the fact that Miss Evangelista is not very bright...her shipmates ribbing her for it and Donna not taking that very well.

If it weren't for the death swarms, I'd
love to live on this planet, no lie.

With River and the Doctor, River pulls out a book that looks suspiciously like the TARDIS and wants to "do diaries". River, it seems, sent the message on the psychic paper. She mentions multiple events such as "the crash of the Byzantium" and a "picnic at Asgard", which the Doctor stares at her blankly for. As the Doctor continues to stare blankly at her, River comes to a realization: he is so far back in his timeline that he has no idea who she is.

Alex Kingston plays the absolute heartbreak that River feels perfectly. Granted, a large part of that is me knowing what comes next...or earlier, in her case...but still, it's so damn good.

Proper Dave hacks into the computer, which causes an alarm to go off and a phone to ring in the little girl's house, a phone that only she seems to be able to hear.

The Doctor then manages to hack the computer...and appears on the girl's television, having a short conversation with her where she recognizes him from before...and then the signal gets cut out, much to the panic of both parties involved. As he works at the terminal, the Doctor spies River's journal and reaches for it, only for her to stop him. According to the rules, his rules, he's not allowed to look in the book.

In the girl's house, she starts playing with her remote and things begin to happen within the Library itself. Books throw themselves off the shelves and the Doctor gets restricted from the Library's computer core by something called "Cal".

After the chaos (mostly) dies down, Donna attempts to comfort Miss Evangelista. She feels as though everyone thinks that she's stupid just because she's pretty, a sort of vapidness that Donna can probably relate a bit too given how she started.

The Doctor attempts to question Lux about Cal, but hits a brick wall because he didn't sign his contract. River also reveals that she didn't sign her contract either. We get exposition on what happened in the Library that caused it to seal up 100 years ago. The last transmission that came out from the place was "The lights are going out." Another message was also there, which River reveals to the Doctor - "4022 people saved, no survivors". No bodies have been found, either.

As they discuss what's going on, the little girl presses a button that opens a secret passage. Miss Evangelista tries to inform everyone, but gets rebuffed. Frustrated, she goes off to investigate on her own. She enters an adjoining chamber...and her scream is heard by the others, who rush to find her. What they find instead is a bleached-white skeleton slumped over a chair...wearing the tattered remains of a spacesuit and the glowing green light that signals her communication device.

She was eaten, stripped down to literally the bones in mere fractions of a second.

. . .and she's still alive. Sort of. The communication device allows for "data ghosting", where the consciousness of a person is stored for a short time after death.

Looks like Miss Evangelista...had to bone up on a few things!
. . .yeah, even I found that to be in bad taste.

Miss Evangelista asks to speak to Donna, who obliges her. Once again, Catherine Tate imbues Donna with an astounding empathy as she talks Miss Evangelista through her last moments, even as her speech degrades into repeating the same sentence...the sentence fragments...and then...nothing by the same two words: "I...I scream...I scream..."

Okay, she's saying "ice cream", and that has been confirmed as such, but that isn't particularly chilling now is it?

. . .heh. Chilling.

The shot is pretty effectively done, though, pulling up and away from the group and emphasizing the terror of their situation, being small people in such a very, very big and dangerous world. Or, as the Doctor calls it, Saturday.

The group returns to the main room and the Doctor questions River about who she is...and she gives the soon oft-used and infamous "Spoilers!" response. With a packed lunch, the Doctor tells everyone to get ready to meet the Vashta Nerada.

Back in the little girl's world, Doctor Moon is about to leave. Before he does, however, he pulls her aside for a quick word. He tells her that there's the real world, and there's the world of nightmares. However, the real world is a lie...and her nightmares are real. The Library is real, the Shadows are moving again, and she is the only one who can save the very real people trapped inside.

Oh, sure, dude! Put all that on a kid! It worked so well for Anakin Skywalker!

River Song's Big Book of Spoilers (For Series 6-9)

Back in the Library, River and Donna talk and River realizes who Donna is...and is absolutely crestfallen. She reveals that she does know the Doctor, but in his future. Donna asks why River doesn't know her...and the Doctor cuts into the conversation, his introduction ready.

Whatever happens to Donna in the future, River knows...and she's terrified of it.

The Doctor uses the chicken leg from a packed lunch, tossing it into a shadow...and the meat is gone from the bone before it hits the floor. Where there's meat, the Doctor says, there's Vashta Nerada...even on Earth, where they can be seen as the dust in sunbeams. The Doctor has yet another good line when describing the Vashta Nerada on Earth: "Not everyone comes back out of the dark".

However, we're in the last five minutes of the episode and it's time to run smack into that cliffhanger.

They make the plan to get out through the little shop...but Proper Dave has a second shadow. The Doctor orders helmets on for everyone as they try to come up with a solution. River reveals her own sonic screwdriver and she and the Doctor use multi-mobile reflection sorting to (hopefully) save the day. Donna also rightly points out that she and the Doctor don't have suits...and the Doctor's lie to get her to shut up is seen right through pretty much straight away.

The Doctor teleports Donna back to the TARDIS despite her refusal...and Catherine Tate gives a soul-wrenching scream as Donna suddenly dissolves into nothingness right there on the TARDIS.

. . .given the eventual explanation for what's going on, I'm kind of confused as to how it happened, but never mind that right now.

The Doctor gets back to the others and Proper Dave's second shadow has disappeared. The Doctor attempts to scan for it, assuring him the the Vashta Nerada never give up once they've latched onto a food source...and Proper Dave is quickly eaten from the inside out, his last words being repeated as his communications device begins to flicker...he's gone.

Unlike Miss Evangelista, however, his voice continues on with the same phrase: "Hey, who turned out the lights?". Proper Dave then attempts to strangle the Doctor, his now-bare skull pressing against the glass of his helmet. He is gone...but the swarm is definitely not. River saves the Doctor and the group bolts as the shadows spreads across the room - River using Captain Jack's Squareness Gun to get rid of a wall.

In the little girl's house, the Father tells her that dinner is ready, and she responds with only eleven words.

"Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved."

Back in the Library, the Doctor is attempting to boost the power to the lights. He questions River about the screwdriver, but it goes nowhere apart from her telling him that he gave her it. The Doctor tells River that if he's not in the TARDIS, Emergency Program One will take Donna home...except she's not there. He runs up to a Node, asking about the location of Donna Noble...and the Node turns to reveal the face of none other than Donna Noble herself, who tells him that...

"Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved."

However, before he can properly mourn, Proper Dave is on the prowl once again...his own cry of "Who turned out the lights?" matched by that of the Donna Node repeating those last eleven words as the shadows close in on the Doctor, River, and the rest of the expedition...leaving us on one Hell of a cliffhanger.

This still gives me shivers to this day.
Not the fun kind, either...

Silence in the Library is what we've come to expect from Steven Moffat over his time as a writer on the show up to this point. He takes an element that is pretty unnerving on its own or incredibly child-like and amps the fear factor up to 11. He did this in Series 1 with gas masks, he did it in Series 2 with ticking clocks, and he did it in Series 3 with statues.

And it all worked, and it works here again with darkness. Literally, not things that are hiding in it, the actual darkness. Casting Magic Missile at this? Yeah, it ain't gonna help ya...

There's an air of mystery around the Library and what exactly happened here 100 years previously, with things getting revealed to us bit by bit. There's also the set up for River, though we didn't necessarily know it at the time. Alex Kingston plays River well here, a woman who has been through quite a bit with the Doctor, even if we aren't privy to it all. Ironically, I had the thought that she'd make a great companion when I first saw the episode.

It's a really good set up and it's nice to get back to the Series 4 strong episodes after The Doctor's Daughter being rather complicated and problematic and The Unicorn and the Wasp being a bit more so-so.

Next time, we get into Forest of the Dead, where we'll get more explanation for what's going on as well as more foreshadowing for things to come for the Doctor and Professor River Song.