30.08: Silence in the Library

[Rufio]

Originally Posted by Rane Longfox

He reminds me of Morpheus, both physically and in his personality - wonder if that parrallel is on purpose?

That hadn't occurred to me even though I'd thought of Matrix similarities! I'm certain the little girl is the library's computer.

• She called it her library.
• The Doctor walking in on her/seeing the camera, and seeing her words through it
• She panicked that people had got in, and said they weren't supposed to, in the dialogue between the Doctor and the others it was mentioned that the planet had been quarantined, or something like that.
• The Doctor trying to get into the system, and getting the girl, first the phone and then the television.

• "The real world is a lie, your nightmares [the library] are real"

I'm sure there are other little hints too, I'm quite confident that this is what's going on. She mentioned "Donna Noble has been saved" as well. Daved to the harddrive, like all the other faces? I'm quite surprised a forum full of sci-fi fans didn't pick up on it...

Fantastic episode anyway.

[PTeppic]

Originally Posted by Rufio

I'm quite surprised a forum full of sci-fi fans didn't pick up on it...

We did... that would be on 1st June at 9:56am:

Originally Posted by PTeppic

Having rewatched it, as my wont on a Sunday morning over breakfast, I've changed my mind. Is the little girl some sort of AI within the library computer? I don't know what that makes Dr Moon - some sort of conscience? CAL - computer aided librarian? That has somehow developed in a hundred years to become self-aware?

[HoopyFrood]

I've only watched about the first...oh, 3 minutes and 44 seconds, but already two things. So does this link on from the previous episode the the Doctor's copy of an Agatha Christie novel? I can't remember the date in that one though...it might have been a lot further into the future than the 51st century...Just a thought that popped up when I heard it though.

And also - I like how when Donna asked "Isn't traveling with you one big spoiler?" and he replies "I try to keep you away from all the big events...although I seem to be failing at that" (paraphrase). Finally caught on, then Everywhere he goes, something's happening ('course it wouldn't be a good programme if things didn't...!)

Also, from the previous comments, the idea that the girl is the library's computer or similar reminds of the computer that controls the Hive in Resident Evil...

Anyway, back I go to watch the rest...

Heh, I liked Donna's reaction to the statue: "It chose a face it thought I would like?!"

And it seems that appearing as a camera is quite supportive of her possibly being a computer. It was cleverly done -- from the beginning you thought they'd seen the girl, but had actually just seen the camera floating...(well, I assume so...I'll have to watch a little more).

Oh, the shadows...scary stuff! A shadow appears on the floor...but what's casting it...dum dum dum...

OK, I'm just putting down entirely random thoughts now, sorry.

Back for one more: River Song sounds like she's someone very important to the Doctor. And he must go on for ages more if when he finally meets her he looks/'feels' much older.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Rufio

• "The real world is a lie, your nightmares [the library] are real"

... I'm quite surprised a forum full of sci-fi fans didn't pick up on it...

Originally Posted by PTeppic

We did... that would be on 1st June at 9:56am:

Also that idea is significantly older than The Matrix:
Allegory of the Cave

I get the idea, just still not sure on the detail i.e. Where are they exactly? If true, that they are inside the hardrive of a computer belonging to a girl called Cally, living in the present day, then some things do not quite fit square.

Doctor Who has done this kind of story before. I see a similarity with the Jon Pertwee era 'Carnival of the Monsters'. Unless the explanation is totally different.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Dave

I get the idea, just still not sure on the detail i.e. Where are they exactly? If true, that they are inside the hardrive of a computer belonging to a girl called Cally, living in the present day, then some things do not quite fit square.

Now I'm really confused...I thought that it was the other way around, that the world inhabited by Cally, and Cally herself, were actually the computer inside the Library....

[PTeppic]

I'm with Pyan - the implication seems to be that the Doctor et al are in the real library, but the girl is somehow fake.

[Dave]

Well, it could be either, or something entirely different, and the more we speculate here, the more wrong we will look next week

When I said some things don't quite square with my idea, I was thinking of how

• The TARDIS arrived in the 51st Century
• The Library is the biggest in the Universe
• The Doctor was able to also appear on the TV and to ring her phone

I think the answers lie with precisely who River Song is, and how she already knows the Doctor, and how she called the TARDIS.

[Lenny]

Well, more left a note for him on his psychic paper than called the TARDIS. He saw the note, and flew his merry way over to the Library - indeed, there's a scene at the start of the episode in which Donna complains that they were going to see some sand and sea, yet ended up in a Library. When she asked, "But why are we really here?", the Doctor held up the note.

[Ursa major]

But the note shows the reader whatever the Doctor wants it to.

[PTeppic]

Presumably it works the other way - a sufficiently strong psychic message, especially one tuned to the Doctor, will LEAVE a message...?

(Or has Steven something clever to reveal on Saturday?)

[Ursa major]

I don't know whether the message was real; all I know is that it may not have been.

(We'll find out on Saturday one way or another.)

[Lenny]

Ah, but did River Song not admit to sendng the message, "but it got there too early"? Which leads one to believe that the message is indeed real.

[Ursa major]

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear - I'm not disputing that there was a message, only that what we (and Donna) saw may not have been it. (By the way, I think it probably was; I'm simply commenting that something that we think is proof positive may not be.)

[Lenny]

Ah, fair enough. Eating pizza and re-designing a website whilst posting in my revision break makes one's mind a bit fuzzy, sometimes.

[Dave]

But River Song might not be real!

She might be just a few Gigabytes within the Library herself, though the fact that they were not supposed to be there would imply the archeologists were actually a virus.