30.08: Silence in the Library

[Lenny]

The Doctor and Donna enter a world of terror inside an abandoned library. They are given only one warning: "Count the shadows".

If you missed it, you can catch it on the BBC iPlayer for a week.

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If Moffat writes like that when he's in charge, then we're in for a treat and a half!

Very good episode, I thought. Bits of humour, tension, and a chilling death scene.

The little girl is interesting - how are her and the library linked, and what role does her shrink play?

No mention of the Medusa Cascade or Shadow Proclamation, but then again, does it have to be so obvious? The theme looks to be planets (breeding planets, dead planets, new planets, invaded planets), and a Library planet on which everything is gone fits in poifectly.

And just to go back to my first point (Moffat in charge) - I wonder if the wman with the diary that looks like a TARDIS is going to play a big role in the 2010+ serieseses?

[thaddeus6th]

Enjoyed this episode a lot. Thought the premise was dull based on the trailer, which shows how powerful my prophetic powers are

Be very interesting to see how this two-parter gets wrapped up. I doubt Donna will be properly dead.

[PTeppic]

Very impressive.

Great theoretical concept. The Doctor is a time traveller; it's about time he encounters more people who've met him later in his personal timeline. We've already seen Queen Elizabeth I (in the Shakespeare episode) on the same basis, so this isn't (strictly speaking) a new idea, just much more thorough and understanding.

I like the idea of spoilers being a plot device, probably. Maybe it's a huge in-joke conclusion that everything we THINK we can guess about the series finale is actually all a set-up by the writers sending us off in the wrong direction...

Edit: they manually labelled 40,000 "books" for this episode, though it's a real (albeit closed and about to be knocked down) library...

[pyan]

Excellent...and so nice to go back to the cliff-hanging end to an episode.
But did anyone else shout "Scooby-Doo" at their TV?

[PTeppic]

And, like Scooby-Doo, the villain is a man in a mask. Well, the manifestation of the villain. But a pretty good skull mask, as shown on Confidential.

[Dave]

I liked this. I liked the premise and the execution and the questions it raised. It was very intelligent and rather more complex than the usual episode. I'm still thinking about it. I did wonder whether young children (who are still meant to be the prime audience are they not?) would have understood it.

I don't think Donna is dead, I'm unsure what has happened to the 'saved' people, but I think they have been "saved" from death from the shadow creatures.

I'm not sure that anything is real - the Doctor Moon telling the girl (Is her name Cal?) "You know that there is the real world and your nightmares?" and then "The real world is a lie and your nightmares are real!"

Other than that I'm at a complete loss...

[Lenny]

Ooooh! Something I forgot to mention... more of an amusing reference than anything - the Doctor on the television screen having a conversation with someone who isn't actually there but rather in a different time. Now, why does that ring a bell?

[Ursa major]

I really enjoyed this episode - give or take the idiot wandering off, but this goes with the territory, I suppose - the action was believable and the dialogue sharp.


I assumed that "saved" but not surviving meant saved as something else (essence, brain patterns, whatever). This would fit in with the "not real" reality experienced by the girl, her father and her doctor.

[Tillane]

Another great Steven Moffat episode - but then I expected nothing less, given that he's done pretty much all the best episodes since Doctor Who came back to our screens.

Loved the idea of the little girl channelling into the Library (though I would like to know from where. Future? Past? Parallel dimension? Southwark?), and especially loved the creepy bit where she turned to her dad and told him "Donna Noble has been saved." Brr.

And I wonder if the Shadow Proclamation was something put in place to keep the...erm, shadows at bay? Certainly the episode chimes nicely with something from the latest series trailer: "The darkness is coming."

[Lenny]

I think one of the strengths of Moffat's episodes is that he takes normal, everyday things and makes them into frightening alien things, whereas other writers take aliens and try to make them evil... though some don't do too badly at it - remember the first of the two-parter episode with the Ood?

"Are you my mummy?", killer statues, shadows. There was a line in this episode that made me think of "Are you my mummy?", but I can't remember what it was... in fact, let's iPlayer it. I'll also take this chance to get out my paper and pen as this old head can't retain more than a few things at once.

[Tillane]

Originally Posted by Lenny

There was a line in this episode that made me think of "Are you my mummy?", but I can't remember what it was... in fact, let's iPlayer it. I'll also take this chance to get out my paper and pen as this old head can't retain more than a few things at once.

I thought that when Miss Evangelista was killed. The whole "is the nice lady there?" line had the same feel to it.

[Lenny]

"Who turned out the lights" - what Mr. Skeleton says. That's the one I'm thinking of. It's usually something you'd hear in a comedy - bucket drops, "Who turned out the lights?", CLATTER as the poor victim tumbles down a flight of stairs.

That death scene is one of the best, and most chilling, that I've seen in a television series (hell, it even tops a number of films). To turn something so simple into such a tense moment... just one of those bits of genius that makes Moffat's episodes stand out I guess.

[Rane Longfox]

It was considerably better than I was expecting And all that stuff with his future companion!! *shock*

[PTeppic]

Just thought, reading these latest comments: could the little girl somehow be Dr Song?

[Foxbat]

Personally, I thought that this is shaping up to be the best of the series so far(as long as part two doesn't let it down). Really enjoyed it.

I think the excellent use of light and shadow in this episode makes this the most aesthetically pleasing of the series so far.