Silence in the Library was the eighth episode of the fourth series of Doctor Who. It marked the first appearance of River Song, a mysterious person with an important role in the Doctor's personal future.
Synopsis
The Doctor and Donna enter a world of terror inside an abandoned library. They're given only one warning: "Count the shadows".
Plot
A little girl seems to be going through a therapeutic session with psychologist named Doctor Moon. She reveals that she has a Library, a whole world, which she sees whenever she closes her eyes. It is a peaceful place; entirely empty of human life... but suddenly the girl's imaginary world is interrupted by the arrival of two mysterious strangers.
The Doctor and Donna arrive, in the 51st century, on a planet-sized book repository simply called "The Library". The Library is a world, home to every book ever written, powered by the most powerful computer ever. Though the Doctor has received a message for help on his psychic paper, and though the Library's computers claim over "a million million lifeforms" are present, they find the Library deserted. A Node, a statue with a strangely realistic human face, warns them to beware the shadows... just as the lights begin to go out around them. The travellers race through the Library stacks, eventually finding a central room that is well lit. As they try to figure out more about the Node's enigmatic warning, they encounter a team of explorers led by archeologist River Song. Professor Song explains that she and her team are there with Mr. Strackman Lux (whose family had built the Library) to learn why the Library has been sealed for the last one hundred years.
The Doctor quickly organises the team to make sure the area is well lit as he explains that the shadows are occupied by the Vashta Nerada, microscopic carnivorous creatures that use shadows to hunt and latch onto their prey. The team works to find a way out of the library. However, Mr. Lux's assistant, Ms. Evangelista, wanders off and falls prey to the Vashta Nerada, her body eaten away in seconds. The Doctor and Donna learn that the exploration team each wears a communication device which has a glitch called "Data Ghosting" where a copy of a person's consciousness is temporarily held within it for a short time after death, allowing them to communicate briefly with the living.
Professor Song's behaviour throughout is markedly curious. First, she appears to know the Doctor quite well, though from some point in his own personal future. She carries a diary that seems to be about the Doctor's life with a cover that looks like his TARDIS, and she possesses a more rugged version of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, which she claims was a gift from the Doctor himself. Also, when the Doctor mentions Donna's name, she knows her surname and seems shocked that it's her. Donna asks where she is in this future where River knows the Doctor. River goes silent.
The young girl who dreams of the Library, meanwhile, sees the team through the eyes of a security camera when they first break into central room. Later, they appear on her television as the Doctor attempts to hack the Library computers. When she fiddles with the television's remote, she causes events to occur in the Library. The girl is under observation from Dr. Moon, a child psychologist, at the request of her dad. Dr. Moon, however, appears to have significant knowledge of the situation of the Doctor, Donna, and the exploration team. He reveals that her reality is an illusion, that her nightmares are reality, and that only she can save all the people trapped in the Library. The final mystery appears to be the word "CAL" that appears at times on the Library screens, the Doctor wondering who or what that means.
The team's investigation is interrupted when the pilot "proper Dave" acquires an extra shadow. The Vashta Nerada have attached themselves to him. The Doctor attempts to teleport Donna back to the TARDIS while he leads the rest of the team to safety, but something goes wrong in the teleport and Donna fails to materialize properly. The Doctor attempts to save proper Dave, but Dave is quickly eaten away. As proper Dave's data ghost echoes his last thoughts, the organisms take control of his suit and approach the rest of the group. River uses a sonic blaster to make a hole in the wall, and they race away from the possessed suit. They run down a dead-end hallway as the suit approaches. The Doctor is horrified to find a Node with Donna's face on it... which claims that Donna has left the Library and has been "saved"...
Cast
- The Doctor - David Tennant
- Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
- River Song - Alex Kingston
- The Girl - Eve Newton
- Doctor Moon - Colin Salmon
- Strackman Lux - Steve Pemberton
- Proper Dave - Harry Peacock
- Other Dave - O-T Fagbenle
- Anita - Jessika Williams
- Miss Evangelista - Talulah Riley
- Jelivia Lux - Mark Dexter
- 710/aqua - Sarah Niles
- Node - Joshua Dallas
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
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This episode won a prestigious Video Effects Society award for its digital matte paintings by Simon Wicker, Charlie Bennett, 2D artist Arianna Lago and the uncredited Tim Barter. It was the only visual effects award during the RTD era of Doctor Who, despite several nominations. |
References
Cultural references
- When he and Donna arrive at the Library, the Doctor makes reference to author Jeffrey Archer, the Bridget Jones franchise, and Monty Python's Big Red Book.
- A model of Robby the Robot is visible in the young girl's home.
- The relationship between the Doctor and River Song is similar to the novel The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. That story is about a man who travels in time, so that the first time he meets his partner she has already met him before. That meeting also occurs in a library, and, like River Song, she gives him a diary of their time together.
- The girl watches Pedro and Frankensheep on her television. When she changes channels (causing the books to fly around in the library) a brief snippet of dialogue from an episode of Ren and Stimpy can be heard.
- On the little Girl's wall are 2 Drawings: A blond and a wolf.
Locations
- River and the Doctor will/have shared a picnic at Asgard.
Races and species
- Vashta Nerada are said to exist on a billion worlds, including Earth, but mainly feed on road-kill.
Technology
- The Doctor notices (and says so) that River Song has a squareness gun.
- The Doctor receives a message from River Song on his psychic paper.
- The Doctor uses a teleport to attempt to send Donna to the TARDIS, but mentions that he could only do this for Donna as the TARDIS wouldn't recognise the others.
- The sonic screwdriver doesn't work on wood. Some very strong signals and certain types of hairdryers can interfere with it.
Story notes
- Transmission of this episode was delayed by one week due to the Eurovision Song Contest, as was the case with the Series 3 gap between The Lazarus Experiment and 42.
- Russell T Davies feels this episode is more frightening than Steven Moffat's series 3 episode Blink, which rated a 5.5 out of 5 on the official Doctor Who website 'Fear Factor' feature.
- While the Doctor is hacking into The Girl's TV, she is watching the CBBC show Pedro and Frankesheep. Previous real-life kids shows whose clips have been shown on Doctor Who include The Doctor watching Tommy Zoom in The Poison Sky, The Master watching The Teletubbies in The Sound of Drums, and the Master (again) watching The Clangers in The Sea Devils.
- Professor River Song mentions having "been to the End of the Universe" with the Doctor.
- Excluding the Children in Need specials, this is the 50th episode of Doctor Who since the series returned in 2005.
- Steve Pemberton is the second of the League of Gentlemen to appear in Doctor Who, the other being Mark Gatiss who appeared in The Lazarus Experiment as Richard Lazarus.
- When The Girl collapses due to the Doctor's tampering with the security camera, the pattern of the rug she collapses on is the same as the red pattern on the computer screens reading "Access Denied". It also can be briefly seen on the lens cap of the security camera, and repeated in the metalwork in the background of the circular room much of the library scenes take place in.
- Additionally, when Doctor Moon and her father rush to her side when she collapses, a plastic tag reading "CAL" can be briefly seen on Doctor Moon's briefcase.
- The security camera appears to have angel wings carved on its sides.
- Steven Moffat continues his theme of highlighting childhood fears. In Blink it was statues coming to life, in The Girl in the Fireplace it was monsters under the bed, and in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, the fear of war and bombardment.
- Talulah Riley is the second major cast member of the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice to be featured in a Steven Moffat story, the first being Carey Mulligan in Blink.
- The spoilers theme may be an in-joke about DW spoilers (especially online).
- Professor Song says to the Doctor, with astonishment, "you're so young!", which implies that the Doctor will live long enough to make his present age of 900+ years seem young in comparison. In The Time of Angels River Song says she has pictures of all the Doctors. By "young" she may mean an earlier incarnation from what she is used to.
- There is, perhaps, unintentional irony to the Doctor's line, "No, I never land on Sundays. Sundays are boring." Given that Saturdays are "good", according to The Stolen Earth, it could also be a reference to the fact that, to kids, the day after a new episode of Doctor Who is broadcast is comparatively boring. Former companion Ace also once mentioned that she found Sundays boring in Survival.
- This episode begins the Series 5 Story Arc.
- In NSA: Wetworld, the planet that he and Martha visited was called Sunday.
- The Library's front desk looks like a redecorated version of a control console from The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky or the teleport control unit from Voyage of the Damned.
- In the associated Doctor Who Confidential episode, Steven Moffat says that he imagined River found the gun (as left behind by Jack) in the TARDIS during her future travels.
Ratings
- Official BARB - 6.27 million viewers
Myths and rumours
- The mystery of River Song led to much online fan speculation over her identity. Possibilities cited ranged from River being an iteration of Bernice Summerfield (as the two share similar personalities and are both space archeologists) to a disguised Time Lord like Romana. A new hypothesis is that Amy Pond is River Song, but earlier within her own timeline. Additional ideas abound.
- Evangelista's last words have occasionally been misinterpreted as "I scream." On the official BBC subtitling, her final words are, "I... Ice cream. Ice cream." Which is in keeping with her (initially) childlike demeanour.
Filming locations
Studio
- Upper Boat Studios, Trefforest
Location
- Hensol Castle, Hensol
- Victoria Park, Cardiff
- Palace Road, Cardiff
- Crwys Medical Centre, Cardiff
- St Mary's Of Angels, Canton
- Dyffryn Gardens, Vale Of Glamorgan
- Brangwyn Hall, Swansea
- Alcoa Emp Swansea, Swansea
- Swansea Library, Swansea
Production errors
- After the shot where in Proper Dave is seen to have two shadows, there is a short shot from a different camera angle where in the Doctor passes Dave his helmet. In this short shot, Dave is seen to have but one shadow. When the shot returns to the previous camera, Dave has two shadows, as before.
- When the Doctor and group are talking to the little girl on her TV you can see them all standing around the console but when the shot pulls back and they all back away from the console you can see that half of them have changed positions. Mr Lux, Proper Dave, Anita and Miss Evangelista have all changed from their positions seen on the TV to when you cut to the group. Also Donna who is clearly close to the Doctor's right is not shown leaning to look into the console but jumps back like everyone else as if she had been looking into it.
Continuity
- A similar species which could take over the light but weren't hostile were the Cimmerians in the BFA: Embrace the Darkness.
- As shown on the BBC Doctor Who website, there are a number of books in the library that reference previous episodes. Those seen are the operating manual for the TARDIS, Origins of the Universe (DW: Destiny of the Daleks), The French Revolution (DW: An Unearthly Child), the Journal of Impossible Things (DW: Human Nature/The Family of Blood), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (written by Douglas Adams, former Doctor Who writer and script editor), Everest in Easy Stages (DW: The Creature from the Pit) and Black Orchid (a book first seen in the Fifth Doctor serial DW: of the same name).
- The Doctor makes mention of 'Emergency Program One' which would return Donna home, this was first seen and used in DW: The Parting of the Ways.
- The last time the Doctor received a message on his psychic paper was in DW: New Earth.
- This is the second time the Doctor has arrived 'too early' (or rather the TARDIS has brought him too early), this previously occured in DW: The Doctor's Daughter.
- The Doctor once again expresses his affinity for little gift shops of the type found in museums and hospitals, having mentioned them in DW: Smith and Jones and DW: New Earth.
- The previous episode ended with the Doctor showing a traditional paper-bound book dating from the far future, a thematic lead-in to this visit to the library (although dialogue indicates that he and Donna were originally travelling elsewhere).
- River Song, although she never confirms it, appears to know about Donna's memory loss in DW: Journey's End.
- The story also has considerable commonality with a Fifth Doctor illustrated text story, "Catalogue of Events", from the 1983 Doctor Who Magazine Special.
- When River Song goes through her diary to check wherabouts the Doctor is in his timeline, she mentions "The Crash of the Byzantium" (DW: The Time of Angels).
- When River says she went to the End of the Universe with him, it could possibly be when the Pandorica opened and the universe never happened, so, in a way, ended. (DW: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang) Even though it never happened, the others remembered it and it seemed she did too.
Timeline
- (For the Doctor and Donna) This story takes place after DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp
- (For River Song) This story takes place after DW: Flesh and Stone
- This story takes place before DW: Forest of the Dead
Home video releases
- Released in the Series 4 DVD boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
- Released as Series 4 Volume 3 in a vanilla edition alongside Forest of the Dead and Midnight.
See also
to be added