The Doctor's Companion Blog

“So big it doesn’t need a name. Just a great big ‘the’.”

Part 1 – Silence in the library

I love Silence in the Library. I love the way it starts, zooming in on the library planet, with the little girl, the wonderful images, and the creepy music. I also, like the Doctor, love books, my house is full of them, and I spent half my childhood reading books and going to the library to get more. I suspect Steve Moffat may have a shelf or two as well.

The two library episodes are two of my all time favourites, and Steve Moffat, the writer, is probably my favourite Doctor Who writer. He is also a very clever writer. Not only are these episodes wonderfully atmospheric, they are also tightly plotted and there are many clues scattered throughout episode one, pre shadowing what is to be revealed in episode two. The little girl traveling in her head ‘through wishing’, the fact that she appears to be inside the security camera, and the fact the her father and Dr Moon can’t hear the telephone. And of course Donna answers the question of where the Vashta Nerada came from right at the start, when she suggests that the “million, million” life forms could be the books … (“Its not the books is it, tell me its not the books”)

The first part of episode one is also a quiet homage to the Arc In Space (a fourth Doctor episode, apparently one of Moffats favourites) where Sarah, Harry and the Doctor spend a whole episode alone in the Arc spaceship. Here Moffat can’t use a whole episode, but Donna and the Doctor have a fair amount of time alone before ‘the Library is breached’ and River Song bursts through the door in a cloud of smoke. A dramatic moment, although one can’t help wondering why she couldn’t have opened it normally – maybe her ‘door skills’ weren’t as good as Donna’s.

We then have a gradual reveal of the circumstances of the empty library, the introduction of the various characters, and the deaths first (after her dim intelligence had been clearly demonstrated) of Miss Evangelista, and then ‘proper Dave’, who promptly turns into a scary monster ‘a swarm in a suit’, who is then available to turn up when things are getting a bit slow, and liven things up by chasing the rest of the company into the shadows.

The Doctor Who production team were very lucky to have had such fantastic venues to film in. Swansea Library (where apparently Euros Lyn, the Director, studied for his A Levels) and Brangwyn Hall, also in Swansea. The venues, and the lighting are a huge part of what makes the atmosphere in the Library. And how brilliant is Stephen Moffat to make a monster out of shadows? Part of every child’s nightmares – “not every shadow, but any shadow”. It also gives the lighting department a chance to show of what they can do (not that they don’t do brilliantly anyway).

The other major component of the atmosphere is Murray Gold’s music. I love Murray Golds music! The beautiful haunting lilting quality of it as the girl floats through her library and the camera sweeps across the halls and down the corridors, is just perfect, and merges seamlessly with the action. And the actors are all wonderful, particularly Alex Kingston and the little girl.

I suppose the thing I like least about Silence in the Library is the overlong section dealing with the death of Miss Evangilista and the introduction of the ‘data ghosts’. I realise they are important to the plot but tend to get a restless watching this section. Also I have a question – if it took less than a few seconds to kill her, how did Mis Evangalista have time to scream? But nice touch to have this section preceded by Strackman Lux saying that they had not found any bodies.

Steve Moffat is shameless in racking up the tension in the last part of the episode. The little girl being told by ‘Doctor Moon’ that her nightmares are real, and that “the shadows are moving again”. The Doctor saying to Donna that “not everyone comes back out of the dark”. And what is going to happen to Donna? River Song obviously doesn’t want to say.

The finale has everything. Corridor running, being chased by a monster, the mystery of River Song’s screwdriver, the squareness gun (good to see it back again), and Donna as a node. What will episode two bring?

Part 2 – The Forest of the Dead

The Forest of the Dead takes us in a different direction. Why is Donna in hospital (sign marked ‘Cal’), and who is the creepy yet curiously reassuring Dr Moon? And why does time keep jumping around, rather like the cuts in a movie or television program? And does Donna really care, after meeting Lee who’s gorgeous but can’t say a word? But then she sees the Doctor …

Back in the library, the Doctor and River Song start squabbling like an old married couple, until River Song shocks the Doctor into temporary silence by whispering his name in his ear. 

We then learn a bit more about the moon. It’s just a ‘Doctor Moon’ apparently, built as part of the system as a virus checker, and supports and maintains the computer at the heart of the planet. Interesting. As just now its talking to Donna …

The episode continues. Anita gets infected. Miss Evangalista delivers her message to Donna. The Doctor discovers why the Vashta Nerada hatched in the library, and the little girl shrieks as Donna rips the veil off Miss Evangalista’s face. Then RIver Song talks to Anita and we find that the best is yet to come, her Doctor is the ‘real’ Doctor, in the face of whom, whole armies turn and run away, while he just swaggers off and opens the Taridis with a click of his fingers. “Spoilers” says the Doctor, but are the spoilers for the Steve Moffat era that is to come?

When I first watched this, I knew that River Song had to die. It was artistically correct. The last time she meets him, is the first time he meets her. So throughout the whole of their future relationship, he knows what is before her. The library. Pity the Doctor for that.

But to the story. The Doctor and Donna find out the truth at the same time, but the little girl reacts strongly at the mention of Cal, putting the whole planet at risk. A pause here to point out a few inconsistencies. Why should the planet ‘crack like an egg’ just because the little girl throws the control on the ground in a hissy fit, particularly as she picks it up later to zap Doctor Moon? And could, practically, anyone actually go to the centre of the earth, wouldn’t they be crushed by gravity?

But the writing is wonderful. “Mummy” says Ella, “Joshua and me, we’re not real are we?”. “Its like when your not here, we’re not here” chips in Joshua. “Even when you close your eyes” says Ella “We just, stop”. How creepy is that?

The Doctor works out how to save them all, but will the Vashta Nerada, getting a taste for meat having just digested Anita, let him? “You just killed someone I liked” though, says the Doctor “that is not a safe place to stand. I’m the Doctor and you are in the biggest library in the Universe. Look me up,” Wow! The shadows retreat. Is this a presage of future Doctor, as described by River Song?

I love the final scene with River Song, beautifully acted by Alex Kingson and David Tennant, and wonderfully enhanced by Murray Golds music. But this post is too long already and you will have to see it yourself.

There are also a few niggling questions:

• Why was it necessary (other than to create a dramatic climax and kill off RIver Song) for a humans mind to be added to the (presumably enormous) computer memory into order to download the 4,022 people saved to the hard drive?
• How will they re-act when they learn that three generations have passed?
• How did the Doctor get out of the hand cuffs?
• Why did Lee get sucked off into the distance, why could he not have downloaded together with Donna? Poor Donna.

The ending has had mixed reviews. Its sort of nice in that, rather than remembering River Song as being a mangled lump of burnt flesh (although we are never actually shown her dead), we see her start a new life in a pleasant place, with the rest of the expedition, Cal, and Dr Moon to keep her company. Presumably it will also be forever. Steve Moffat is on record as saying that he thinks it will be a sort of heaven, particularly as they have lots of books to read. I have heard others say that it could be the reverse, bearing in mind the life she has probably been used to leading with the Doctor. But maybe those people don’t read. 

This is a great two parter. Although I love Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who episodes, and all the other writers (more or less), somehow Steven Moffat captures the essence of what I feel Doctor Who should be. And particularly in this episode. If you stop and think about it, its bonkers. But it succeeds because of the power of the writing and the acting, not forgetting of course the music, the lighting, the special effects, and no doubt a number of other things so perfectly done that we don’t notice them.

Luckily for us Steven Moffat is now in charge of Doctor Who, so we should get more of the same. I can’t wait!

Silence in the Library and the Forest of the Dead are part of Doctor Who : Complete BBC Series 4 [2008] [DVD], or you can just get Volume 3 (which is cheaper).