Previously: Agatha Christie and a giant space wasp.
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Silence in the Library
Kirsti: Unsurprisingly, this episode which features archaeologists and libraries, is one of my favourites. Because it’s freaking amazing.
Marines: I’m with you on the library and the amazing and the favorite and we’re already squeeing and the episode hasn’t started yet. I’M SO EXCITED.
K: “Close your eyes, and tell me what you see,” says a voice. The tinkly orchestra tinkles as a little girl floats over a huge city and says that she sees the library. When she opens her eyes, she’s in her living room, talking to a psychologist named Doctor Moon. (M: It’s Colin Salmon, who I best know as Walter Steele in Arrow!) He tells her to go to the library now, and it’s beeeeeeeeeeeeautiful and I WANT TO GO TO THERE. She says the library goes on forever, and that it’s different every time she goes there, and that she gets around by wishing. That… sounds like my dream, basically. (M: Even before Ten gets there but especially after…) (K: TRUTH.)
Anyway, she floats down to the ground in a beautiful old reading room with a domed roof. The door starts to shake like there’s someone banging violently on the outside, and she tells Doctor Moon that something’s wrong, that someone’s gotten in. Her father, sitting behind Doctor Moon, says worriedly that she’s never mentioned anyone else before. Back in her mind library, the door bursts open. Donna and the Doctor rush through and wedge the door shut with a book (SACRILEGE). (M: C’mon. Allowances for CHASES and MONSTERS.) The Doctor spots the little girl and is all “OH HI! Can we hang out here for a while?” Her eyes snap open in a panic.
DOO WEE OOO!
After the credits, we’re in the TARDIS just after landing. The Doctor gushes that people never really stop loving books, which is music to a librarian’s ears. (M: And a nice segue from the Agatha Christie episode…) He rushes out the TARDIS and informs Donna that they’re in the 51st century. People have all kinds of technology, but they still love the smell of physical books. They’re in The Library, and it takes up an entire planet. Every book of ever is there.
Donna picks up a book, but the Doctor snatches it out of her hand, claiming that it contains spoilers. “Isn’t travelling with you one big spoiler?” Donna sasses. The Doctor says he tries to keep her away from the big stuff, but he’s terrible at it and also why is the biggest library deserted?
He crosses to a computer-y thing and sonics it. After some checking, he informs Donna that they’re the only two humanoid creatures on the planet. She’s all “Cool story, why the fuck are we here? We were supposed to be going to the beach”. He tells her that if he widens the parameters to any life form, there are millions upon millions of them. Uh, yeah, bud. You’re probably finding bacteria. Or algae. (M: Maybe a large ant hill or two.) He’s baffled by the fact that there can be millions upon millions of lifeforms on the planet but there’s still “silence in the library.” Goodness. That was quick!
Donna’s all “There’s nothing here but books and books can’t be alive, right?”. They both get OH SHIT faces and reach slowly towards a pile of books. “WELCOME!” says a loud voice from back by the TARDIS, and they both nearly crap themselves before heading in that direction.
A creepy looking stone statue with a human face greets them. Donna asks what the fuck is up with the face, but the Doctor tells her not to worry. Creepy Statue plays a message for them from the head librarian, which advises them to run for their lives. There’s an additional message that tells them to count the shadows if they want to live. The Doctor looks thoughtful and advises Donna to stay out of the shadows. And then, instead of getting back in the TARDIS and flying away like SANE PEOPLE, they go exploring.
Mari: I’m really not sure what part of a run for your life message delivered by a creepy face statue they missed.
K: All of it, apparently.
I mean, I don’t entirely blame them because they head into a stack that’s full of floor to twenty-metre-ceiling bookshelves with slidey ladders, and which is therefore basically my dream house. But still.
After some additional questioning, the Doctor reveals that they didn’t just happen to pop by. They were called to The Library by a message on his psychic paper, which reads “The Library. Come as soon as you can x“. He has no idea who it’s from and suggests a distress call. Donna scoffs because it’s sealed with a kiss.
Just then, the lights start clicking off. They start running, and reach a locked door.
Donna yells at the Doctor to sonic it, but he yells back that he can’t because it’s wood. She eyerolls and starts kicking it. It opens in the nick of time, and we’re back to where we started. Except that where the little girl was before, now it’s a big wooden ball hovering in midair. It kind of looks like a quaffle. (M: TRUE.) When the little girl gasps and opens her eyes, the quaffle drops to the floor. The Doctor declares it to be a security camera.
Meanwhile, Little Girl is telling Doctor Moon about the people in her library. She stops to scream and clamp her hands over her ears. Back in the library, the Doctor is sonic-ing the quaffle. The lens snaps open and Little Girl collapses on the floor. “NO PLEASE DON’T” flashes across the quaffle’s screen. The Doctor puts it down apologetically, saying he didn’t realise it was alive. Little Girl says that the library has been breached and “others are coming“.
Donna crosses to a Creepy Statue and asks for more information. Creepy Statue informs her that the face it’s showing her was donated and has been chosen from “our fleshbanks” because they thought she’d like that face. Donna’s all “THE FUCK IS THIS????” and the Doctor tells her that it’s the 51st century of donating a park bench.
Mari: How about just name a wing of the library after me? Kthx.
K: YUP. I’m on board with having buildings named after me. Less so donating my face to a creepy statue bank.
She’s still grossed out and staggers backwards away from Creepy Statue. The Doctor grabs her because she’s about to step into a shadow. Except that there’s nothing there to actually cast a shadow. He spots a flickering light down one of the aisles and says it’s impossible for the power to go out because it comes straight from the sun. Then he has an OMG I’M SO DUMB moment and announces that they need to get back to the TARDIS. Creepy Statue reminds them that others are coming.
Just then, there’s a flash of light and a hole opens up in a wall. Someone in a white spacesuit walks through, followed by four others. The Doctor yells at them to get in their spaceship and get the fuck out. The leader greets the Doctor with a “hello, sweetie“, then removes her helmet. The others do likewise, and a 40-something guy grumbles that they were supposed to be the only expedition.
The Doctor hears the term expedition and groans “Oh, you’re not, are you? Tell me you’re not archaeologists.” The woman introduces herself as Professor River Song, archaeologist. And then the Doctor gives us this gem:
The Doctor informs Donna that basically every species has an irrational fear of the dark, except that it’s not irrational at all. They’re afraid of the Vashta Nerada. We get no further explanation. The Doctor starts issuing orders and River Song tells everyone to go along with what he says. 40-Something gets grumpy, and she basically tells him to put his helmet back on so she doesn’t have to look at his big stupid face. Then she calls the Doctor “pretty boy” and it’s kind of hilarious.
Across the room, River pulls a TARDIS-like notebook from her backpack and thanks the Doctor for coming as always. She flips through the notebook and says it’s time to compare notes. He’s all “The hell are you talking about?” and she thinks it’s hilarious that he’s pretending not to know her. She rattles off a list of events they’ve apparently experienced together and he’s still none the wiser. She studies his face and says in wonder that he’s young. He scoffs a little. She says that he’s younger than she’s ever seen him.
“...you’ve seen me before then?” he says in a questioning tone. Her face falls and she says “Doctor, please tell me you know who I am.” But nope. Just then, they’re interrupted by a ringing phone. The pilot apologises, saying that he was trying to get through to the central data core but all he can get is that. We cut between The Library and Little Girl, sitting in her living room, colouring as the phone rings nearby.
Little Girl wonders why her dad’s not answering the one, and he says in a confused voice that it’s not ringing. It stops ringing just as she’s about to pick up. The screen in The Library reads “Access Denied“. The Doctor takes charge, and somehow appears on Little Girl’s TV screen. She’s all “HOW THE HELL ARE YOU IN THERE??” and he’s all “I…DON’T KNOW??”. They then lose the connection, and Little Girl scrolls frantically through channels trying to find the Doctor again.
Back in The Library, the Doctor tells everyone to keep setting up lights while he tries to get the connection back. He gives River’s TARDIS-y notebook a serious case of side eye, but she grabs it from him and tells him it’s against his own rules for him to see inside it.
Marines: This is the first time we’ll use the “spoilers sweetie” tag on this site actually for River Song. That makes me unreasonably happy.
K: Riiiiiiiiiight there with you.
Little Girl pushes a bunch of random buttons on the remote control, and books start flying off the shelves in The Library. Donna tries to talk to Miss Evangelista and make her feel better about herself, but turns out she actually is stupid because she’s pretty hahahahaha isn’t that just the funniest thing ever fuck you Steven Moffat. The Doctor tries again to access the datacore, and something flashes across the screen about CAL. He demands answers from 40-Something, starting with what happened in The Library one hundred years ago.
Little Girl hits the record button on the remote and a door slides open in The Library. Miss Evangelista is the only one to notice. She walks towards it as River tells the Doctor that there was a message received from The Library about the lights going out, and then the computer locked down the whole planet. Miss Evangelista tries to draw attention to the open door, but everyone ignores her.
River tells the Doctor that there was another message received, and 40-Something snaps that it’s classified. River gives zero fucks. The message reads “4022 saved, no survivors“, which is the exact number of people who were in The Library when it was sealed. Donna’s confused about how people can have been saved but not survive. River grins that they’re there to find out. 40-Something points out that they haven’t found any bodies yet.
Miss Evangelista heads through the door, which is clearly going to end brilliantly. (M: The only way it could be worse was if she was heading into a basement…) She finds herself in a corridor, which leads to a dimly lit reading room with a throne-like chair in the middle.
She walks towards it, then the screen goes black and she screams.
Everyone hears her scream and sprints through the door and into the reading room. There’s a skeleton sitting on the throne-like chair, and it totally wasn’t there when Miss Evangelista walked in. The Doctor tells everyone to stay in the light. River calls Miss Evangelista on her radio, and there’s an echo. The skeleton is Miss Evangelista. Womp womp.
“Hello?” Miss Evangelista’s voice says. River looks sad and says “She’s ghosting” in an apologetic tone. She tells Miss Evangelista to stay calm and that they’ll be with her soon. The Doctor explains to Donna that the communication system has a neural link and it can hold the impression of a person for a little while after they die. Donna’s horrified.
Miss Evangelista asks if “the nice woman” is there. Donna realises she means her. River puts her communication system on… IDK, speaker phone… so that Donna can speak to her. She comforts Miss Evangelista as her thought process loops. Her final thoughts are of ice cream, which isn’t a terrible way to go, really. (M: I’m gonna miss ice cream when I’m gone.) Donna cries and says it’s the most horrible thing she’s ever seen. The Doctor squeezes her shoulder. River snaps that she’d like a word with whatever killed Miss Evangelista. “I’ll introduce you,” the Doctor says coldly.
They head back to the fancy domed room and the Doctor demands that someone fork over their lunch. River pulls hers from her backpack, along with her trusty TARDIS notebook. The Doctor asks what it contains and who she is to him, and the answer to both questions is the same: “Spoilers“. The Doctor grabs her lunch and says that it’s time to meet the Vashta Nerada. The zoomy cameraman earns his pay cheque.
Meanwhile, Little Girl is throwing the remote around the room. Doctor Moon comes up and tells her that just FYI, her nightmares are real and The Library is real, and the people in it need to be saved because the shadows are moving again and she’s the only one who can save them. But like, no pressure kthxbai. She gulps, her eyes wide.
Library. The Doctor is lying on the floor, sonic-ing things. River smiles at him fondly, and Donna gets all snippy and demands to know who the fuck she is. River assures her that she knows the Doctor, it’s just that her message arrived too early for him to know who she is. And now, it’s like dying every time he looks at her without knowing who she is. Donna basically eyerolls until the Doctor tells her to shut up because he’s working.
Mari: Donna has been throwing the best looks around this whole time. Because it’s Donna, it isn’t jealous companions stuff, but honest to goodness appraisal with a touch of protection. I love it.
K: YES. There’s a lot of “You know him but he doesn’t know you and he’s busy doing other things, so I’mma give you mama bear eyes until we sort this out because he’s my BFF and you don’t seem sufficiently sassy to join our group.”
“Donna. You’re Donna. Donna Noble,” River says sadly. Donna’s all “U WOT?”. River insists that she knows the Doctor in his future, and Donna demands to know where she is in the future and why River doesn’t know her. River looks sad some more. They’re interrupted by Doctor Show and Tell Time. He tells the group that the corridors of The Library aren’t full of darkness. They’re full of man-eating swarms of Vashta Nerada. He calls them “piranhas of the air”, and tosses a chicken drumstick into the shadows. It’s bone before it hits the ground.
He tells them that every planet has Vashta Nerada, including Earth. Donna doesn’t believe him, but he says you can see them sometimes. They’re the dust in sunlight. Thanks for that nightmare, Moffat. River asks what they do, and he says the only thing to do is run and that there has to be an exit somewhere. Donna points out that they’re right by the gift shop, which usually means exit. They start to head out, but the Doctor stops the pilot and apologetically informs him that he has two shadows.
Apparently this is how the Vashta Nerada hunt – they latch onto a food source to keep it fresh. Um. Ew? He tells the pilot to stay still, “like there’s a wasp in the room“. Disappointingly, we don’t cut to Donna for a “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OF WASPS AFTER AGATHA CHRISTIE” facial expression. He has someone grab the pilot’s helmet, and insists that they’re not going to leave him.
He asks River if there’s anything they can do to the suits, and she says they can make the mesh tougher to get through, and suggests increasing it 400%. He pulls out his sonic screwdriver and increases it 800%. He offers it to her, but she pulls out her own and gets to work. The Doctor looks almost offended that she’s got a sonic too. He grabs Donna and drags her towards the shop.
He plops Donna onto a teleport panel, and says he can’t send anyone else because the TARDIS won’t recognise them. Also, she doesn’t have a suit so she’s not safe. She insists that he’s not safe either. He flips a switch, and Donna’s teleported away. River calls out to him, and the Doctor sprints back to the fancy domed room. Donna appears in the TARDIS, then vanishes with a scream.
Meanwhile, the pilot is informing the Doctor that his second shadow is gone, so clearly he’s totally safe now. The Doctor’s all “uhhhh, no? Not how this works”. He makes the pilot spin slowly while sonic-ing him. Suddenly, the pilot says “Hey, who turned out the lights?“. Everyone assures him that they’re on, but he says he can’t see anything. Then he starts to repeat himself. They realise with horror that the swarm is inside his suit and he’s dead.
The Doctor steps towards it, and River tells him to be careful. Suddenly, the swarm-in-a-suit grabs him by the throat. A skull slides forward against the glass in the helmet and it’s surprisingly creepy.
River pulls out her sonic and zaps the SiaS, freeing the Doctor. It lurches towards them, the swarm spreading out across the floor. River blasts a hole in the wall, and they all start running, the SiaS following them.
Elsewhere, Little Girl’s father tells her that dinner’s ready. “Donna Noble has been saved,” she says in a mechanical voice. He looks confused. Back in The Library, the gang stop for a breather. The Doctor sonics some lights, trying to make them brighter which will slow down the Vashta Nerada. He takes the opportunity to ask River about her sonic screwdriver. She says that he gave it to her. He’s all “The fuck you say?”, and she insists that it’s true.
She asks what the plan is, and he says that he teleported Donna back to the TARDIS and that if he’s not back in five hours, it’ll activate an emergency protocol that takes her home. Then he realises in horror that she’s not there, because he should have had a signal from the TARDIS when she arrived. River suggests that maybe the coordinates were off, because everything in The Library is ancient.
He turns to a nearby Creepy Statue and asks it to find Donna for him. When it turns around, it’s got Donna’s face. “Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved,” it says. The Doctor and River are horrified. Creepy Donna Statue keeps repeating itself. The Doctor touches her face apologetically. “Hey, who turned out the lights?” says the SiaS. They start running again, River dragging the Doctor away from the Creepy Donna Statue. The two lines – “Donna Noble has been saved” and “Hey, who turned out the lights?” – alternate back and forth as the group find themselves trapped between two shadows.
TO BE CONTINUED.
It’s hard to talk about this episode without having seen the second part of it. Because there’s an awful lot of confusing stuff in here, and a hell of a lot of set up. But at this point, all that I’ll say is that I love the concept of The Library, I like River’s character AT THIS PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME, and the Vashta Nerada are really effing creepy.
Mari: I had surprisingly little to say throughout the recap, but I think it was because I sat back and enjoyed the episode. No pausing to comment or anything, I just watched straight through. Not the best recapping strategy, but I had a good time! I think this is such a good first part. Usually, with these first parts, there seems to be so little substance, but I think this did an excellent job of roping us in. We’ve got a creepy alien of the week, River Song and her entire mystery, that little girl with the library in her mind and finally, Donna, now a creepy face statue that reminds me a bit of the Hall of Faces from Game of Thrones.
I wanted to keep watching straight through to part 2 and then I remembered I have to recap that.
I’ll further add that I really liked River during my first watch through the series, though it’ll be interesting to see what slowing down and looking close will show me. Given Kirsti’s CAPSLOCK CLARIFICATION, I’m going to prepare myself for “not good things.”
K: My problem is more with Moffat’s writing than with River, but let’s cross that bridge when we get to it… For now, let’s just say that this episode is great and I jumped straight into part 2 because I don’t have to recap it mwahahaha.
Next time on Doctor Who: Will Donna be trapped as a creepy statue face forever? Will the Doctor find out who River is? Find out in S04 E09 – Forest of the Dead.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
