Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Euros LynCast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Colin Salmon (Dr. Moon), Alex Kingston (Professor River Song), Eve Newton (The Girl), Steve Pemberton (Strackman Lux), Mark Dexter (The Dad), Jessika Williams (Anita), Talulah Riley (Miss Evangelista), Harry Peacock (Proper Dave), O-T Fagbenle (Other Dave), Sarah Niles (Node 1) & Joshua Dallas (Node 2)
The Doctor and Donna visit The Library, a planet-sized depository of every book ever written. But why has it been abandoned for 100 years?Writer Steven Moffat has been the subject of critical acclaim and fan adoration ever since his two-part episode The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances became highlights of season 1. Since then, his imaginative Doctor Who stories have become eagerly awaited affairs, while miraculously managing to avoid disappointing anyone. And I'm relieved to report that Silence In The Library (the first of a two-part serial) is every bit as intelligent, compelling, rich and creative as you could hope for. The only downside is a week's wait to see its conclusion....
Silence In The Library finds The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) arriving in The Library; planet-sized storage for every book ever written. It's a world of futuristic, gleaming skyscrapers and dusty, echoing interiors – now totally devoid of any readers. Mind you, after The Doctor uses a computer terminal to scan for life, he's puzzled to discover a million million life-forms are apparently swarming the planet...
As they try to solve the mystery of this long-abandoned Library, a high-tech "Node" (an automated sculpture with a human face) delivers an ominous warnings to "count the shadows", and an expedition of archaeologists in space suits later arrive – led by Professor River Song (Alex Kingston). Her team have come to investigate why The Library shut itself off from outside contact 100 years ago, and The Doctor is intrigued when it becomes clear River knows him – but he hasn't met her... yet. Oh, the joys of being a time-traveller!
Adding to the intrigue is The Girl (Eve Newton), a youngster who can apparently visit The Library just by closing her eyes, not realizing she has physicality in The Library as a floating orb-like surveillance camera. Her mental state is being assessed by Dr. Moon (Colin Salmon), who is clearly intrigued by her strange connection to this "other world" she visits. The plot thickens when The Doctor manages to communicate with The Girl through her television (shades of his guiding role in Blink), and later discovers that swarm-like critters known as Vashta Nerada, who live in shadows, are closing in on everyone in The Library...
As you can tell from that brief summary, Steven Moffat once again proves he's the most gifted Doctor Who writer when it comes to creating stories and situations that draw an audience in. There's material for adults to chew on here, but while the deeper mysteries will likely go over the heads of younger kids, he caters for them with the spine-tingling "stay out of the shadows" threat and the emergence of a skeletal astronaut -- when the Vashta Nerada manage to strip one of River Song's team of his flesh and animate his corpse. Skeleton spacemen in a spooky library? It's pure Scooby Doo, so the under-10s will lap it up.
With more depth and subtleties to the story, it's clear that everyone involved rises to the challenge and gives it their all. David Tennant looks extremely happy to be guiding us through a sci-fi story with more texture and imagination than usual, while Catherine Tate has totally settled into the role of Donna now. It's a shame this season has continually hinted she'll be gone by episode 13, as River Song – who appears to be one of The Doctor's future companions -- dodges the question of what Donna's up to in the future. Still, a part of me always thought comedian Catherine Tate wouldn't want to spend years filming in Cardiff most of the year. She quite possibly has the same one-season agreement with Russell T. Davies that Christopher Ecclestone secured.
Now that Moffat's been confirmed as Doctor Who's new showrunner for season 5 in 2010, it'll be interesting to see if Alex Kingston does indeed become a companion under his tenure. Is this more evidence (like rumours of Neil Gaiman's involvement in 2010) that Moffat's feathering his nest already? Judging from her performance here, Kingston would make a fine addition to the TARDIS as an intelligent grown woman for The Doctor to travel with.
The fact this story is a two-parter did result in moments where the story was kept in a holding pattern to pad out time, but it wasn't too unnecessary and never boring. You could argue that the addition of "ghosting" into the script (a process where the recently-deceased can continue to speak to the living via their comms, briefly), was little more than an intriguing diversion. But it did result in a few spooky sequences, and might have greater baring on part 2 – who knows?
For now, this is clearly a season 4 highlight and marvellous on every level that matters. It also seems likely that next week's conclusion will trump it, as Silence In The Library was essentially a scene-setting episode. The pay-off should be excellent to see play out – if only to learn the specifics of River Song's relationship with The Doctor. Does she know this Tenth incarnation, or another? Is she a future companion, or a relation? And how does The Girl fits into all this? She seems to be living on contemporary Earth, so why can she psychically connect to a distant-future alien library? Or, as Dr. Moon hints, is The Library the real world and her home the Matrix-like illusion?
Overall, while not as perfect as last year's BAFTA-winning Blink (mainly because it's not self-contained or as well-paced), this was fabulous entertainment that held me rapt for 45-minutes. Any problems were minor ones – like the continuing overuse of the sonic screwdriver (although it was, ironically, able to do everything but open a wooden door this week!) and Moffat's overly-dependent on creepy catchphrases...
He's already given us "are you my mummy?" and "don't blink", but now you can add "stay out of the shadows" and "hey, who turned out the lights?" to the list. Indeed, the cliffhanger becomes a cacophony of catchphrases, which slightly irritated me. But, for sheer ambition, scope and creativity, Silence In The Library is without equal this season. The hope this quality will become the norm once Steven Moffat takes over as head writer is just too exciting for words.
30 May 2008
BBC1, 7.00 pm
