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Doctor Who
Silence in the Library
Season Four Episode Eight
Ah, me, I'm so far behind, and here I am going to attempt the next two in tandem...because it's a two parter anyway, so here we go!
A Child is floating along in what, at first listen, appears to be a figment of her imagination.
She tells us that when she closes her eyes she goes to the library, and when she opens them she's back in therapy.
The Doctor (that she is talking to, not THE Doctor) Anyway, he tells her to go back to the library and she does. She's in a different area now, and that's how it always goes, because the library, it goes on forever.
There's some loud banging on the big wooden doors in the area of library she's settled. This causes her some distress, since there's not supposed to be anybody in there with her.
Guess Who! Start the countdown to when the shit hits the fan.
Earlier, the Doctor and Donna have arrived in the TARDIS. He's explainging very important things about the Library that we'll need to know later. Like...the Library is a whole world unto itself, and the core of the planet is the univers's biggest hard drive...and all the books ever written, ever are stored there.
The Doctor is super excited because they're in the Biography section...Donna not so much, but she agree's that it's just like him to be geeked out over it...there's always a death at the end. Ahem.
And Donna get's chastised for picking up a book from her future which might contain spoilers. And, if you've seen Back to the Future 2, you know that spoilers are very bad.
Donna thinks that travelling with the Doctor is one giant spoiler in itself...and it is, but he tells her he tries to steer her away from the REALLY big stuff.
Finally someone notices that there are absolutely no people in this big huge library that is so damn renowned that it doesn't even need a name.
Donna contemplates that maybe it's just a Sunday, or everybody's really quite, and we learn that the Doctor doesn't land on Sundays because they're boring.
Donna's mad because she was promised beaches and the Doctor took her to an empty library instead. She wants to know why.
Nobody shows up on the library scans when the Doctor does a scan for humanoid life...but any kind of life? Off the charts. Now isn't the time he's going to answer Donna's question by the way. That'll come later.
Could it be the books! No! They get startled by a noise, that is not books and head back to where the TARDIS is parked.
They find this wierd little statue with a face...something else that the Doctor isn't going to be telling Donna about right now.
They've got a couple messages:
1. Run for God's sake Run!!! The Library has sealed itself.
2. Count the Shadows if you want to live.
The Doctor has one thing to say about that. Stay out of the shadows, Donna.
So we find out that the Doctor came to the Library because he got a message on the phsycic paper.
Sealed with a Kiss. Donna is so not impressed.
Then the lights start to go out. It's time to run!
They find a dead end. Bad news is that the Sonic screwdriver doesn't work on wooden doors! Egad!
Donna is not impressed again. She kicks the door in instead. Job done! Donna is awesome by the way. Now we've just spent the past few minutes getting back to the begining of the episode.
They spy the little girl.
And she promptly turns into what the Doctor thinks is a security camera.
Meanwhile back in...errr, this other place. Doctor Moon is asking the girl about the people she sees in the library.
She can't explain further because of a loud screeching that suddenly erupts in her head.
Because the Doctor is sonicing the Security device...which is somehow connected to her I suppose.
Donna wants to know if they're safe and what it was that came after them...
He doesn't know what is after them...but Donna can take solace in the fact that they've settled next to a little shop.
He manages to sonic open the camera, which causes the little girl to collapse and scream "No stop it"
The Doctor is So sorry. He puts the ball down in the middle of the floor. He thinks it's an alive camera.
Now that the sonicing has stopped she's able to tell Doctor Moon that Others are coming to the library. And the Camera tells Donna and the Doctor.
Donna meets up with another face to find out who the others are and is duly horrified when she finds out that they do have real faces...that people donated. Like a kidney or a lung or something.
the Doctor tries to smooth things over with Donna...Oh hey, it's the fifty first century after all. A magical time where everybody loves everybody and they donate thier faces like park benches. What a happenin' time it is.
There's some kind of mysterious shadow that isn't being cast by anything and the creepy music tells us we should be frightened.
Then the Doctor screams out in the creepy silence so Donna, who is already on edge about the faces, can have the crackers scared out of her.
He doesn't bother to really explain his revelation, he just wants to get the heck out of there, especially now that the shadow has moved.
Facey, McFace here reminds us all that Others are coming...repetetively.
Then the others arrive in a puff of smoke and space suits.
She unsheilds her eyes and calls the Doctor 'Sweetie'.
Saturday night Fever! The Doctor tells them all to flee or they're dead.
And the lady who seems to be in charge here tells them all to go ahead and ditch the helmets.
She has a minor little argument with this dude about there's supposedly being the only expedition to the Library. She tells him that she's a big fat liar. haha! So there.
Finally! A name I can divulge. This is Miss Evangelista. She has to go find some contracts to consult at the crabby old dude's behest.
Again, the Doctor repeats himself, but as we have learned time and time again, nobody listens to Imortal guys and Time Lords.
He asks for an explanation on the whole 'expedition' thing that these spacesuited people are on. He looks pretty darn disgusted that they could be archeologists.
The Time traveller laughs in the faces of archeologists! Haha!
This is proffessor River Song!
The Doctor tries to kick them out yet again for thier own good, but still nobody is listening to him.
One of the crew almost wanders into a shadow during the Doctor's rant about how they should leave, so he has to go and stop her. Her name is Anita.
He tells them to find a bright spot and just STAND. (Get out of my head R.E.M.!!) And if they understand him they should look very scared.
This is as good as it gets though. It'll have to do.
More intros: This is Other Dave.
And this is Proper Dave.
The Doctor instructs Other Dave to seal off the doorway since the way they came has gone dark.
The Crabby dude's name is Mr. Lux, and Miss Evangelista is his personal Everything She has some contracts for them to sign saying that thier experiences and everything they see in the library is property of the Lux corporation.
Yeah, Right.
Important info alert! Mr. Lux's family built the library!
River asks if the Doctor thinks there is really danger there. He gets super sarcastic about it, and she complains that whatever killed everybody one hundred years ago must be long gone by now.
Bet your life? Asks the Doctor.
She sure does. Heh. She should know better.
So Mr. Lux wants to know why Other Dave is taking orders from the Doctor. Because that is what people do, Mr. Lux. The Doctor is the Doctor after all. The Doctor also snatches away Mr. Lux's flashlight.
The Doctor warns us to be afraid of the dark. I'm already afraid of the Dark. Thanks for that, Doctor. Really appreciated.
It's...something that I will never be able to figure out how to spell. We'll just call it a swarm that lives in the dark and the shadows.
The Doctor has a plan though. They need light! They need light to keep the swarm away.
So River rally's the troops around the Doctor, and advices Lux to put his helmet on just so she doesn't have to look at his whiny face.
The Doctor has a new nickname "Pretty Boy" He has no idea that River is talking to him when she says it.
Bit Donna does, despite her insistance that his boney arse is totally unattractive.
Pretty boy?
Oh, YES! Heh.
So, in other areas of the...area...Miss Evangelista is offering her assistance in the lighting set up.
Anita declines as tactfully as possible.
So does other Dave.
Donna's all, 'What was that about, guys?'
And we learn that Miss Evangelista is dummber than a box of rocks. She can't even tell the difference between an escape pot and a toilet. This either means that she's going to die soon...or save the day, or BOTH.
Donna feels bad for Evangelista, because not only is she a super temp, and a super lady, but she's also super nice.
So, River and Pretty Boy Doctor are confering in the corner and not really doing anything that's actually useful. River is recounting events from her diary and asking the Doctor if they've done them yet.
The Doctor, meanwhile, has no flipping clue what she's talking about.
Then she's totally amazed by his youthful appearance. Obviously...she knows him in some capacity that will never be fully explained but is logically guessable. I will not be throwing out guesses, I'll just leave that up to you.
She gets all up in his personal space and he still has no flipping clue who she is.
Donna is totally not pleased with this situation.
And neither is River when he remains blank faced and impassive towards her and tells her that he doesn't know who she is.
Proper Dave has set off some kind of alarm trying to hack into the system.
It's not really an alarm though. It's a ringtone.
that goes along with a phone that our little girl's dad does not even hear. She hears it though, and she's not amused.
It's the Doctor's turn to try to hack into the system and we'll see if he has any better luck.
She's about to answer the phone when it stops ringing.
She goes back to colouring, only to be confonted by the Doctor's big old face on her TV.
What the heck? The Library has never been on TV before. She talks to the Doctor and asks if he's in her TV.
The Doctor is sort of confused to be confronted by this small child when he's supposed to be calling up the Data core for the library's computer. She offers to fetch her dad.
She recognizes him from the library and wonders what he's done.
The Doctor disappears from the TV then and River wonders who the heck the little girl is. Unfortunately nobody has anymore information than anybody else in this situation.
The Little girl tries to get the Doctor back, and he tries to get her back...but nothing is working.
Well this is just as good a time as any for the Doctor to sneek a peek at River's diary as he shouts orders and dashes to the terminal across the room.
Ooops! Denied! Peeking in the book is strictly against the Doctor's own rules that he hasn't invented yet.
Donna, still not pleased.
Anyway, our favorite enigmatic little girl has gotten frustrated and in true child fashion has started pressing buttons at random.
This causes massive chaos back in the library as books start to fly off the shelves every which way.
Denied again! The Doctor can't catch a break, and who or what is this CAL business?
Miss Evangilista is a bit upset about all this.
And Donna decides to go over and try to make friends while Evangilista explains again how incredibly stupid she is. At least she has some level of self awareness.
In more clever areas of the library, nobody knows what the heck is going on or what a little girl has to do with anything.
And what is CAL? The answer lies with Mr. Lux, but he isn't telling because the Doctor didn't sign a contract. This triggers a whole argument about it.
The Doctor is chalking Lux's reluctance to foolish pride and protecting his families investment in the library. Lux stands his ground even though the Doctor warns that people will die.
And River butts in to ask why the Doctor just doesn't sign the paper, then admits that she didn't either.
The Doctor wants to know what exactly happened. Basically what we already know, there was a message that the lights were going out and the library was sealed.
And the little girl in her little girl world has managed to open up a secret passage way which only Miss Evangilista notices because everybody is too busy yakking at each other.
She tries desperately to interrupt with the news but just get's fobbed off...y'know, because she's an idiot.
And River tells the Doctor about another secret part of the message that came on the day the lights went out: 4,022 saved, no survivors. Hmmm, whatever could that mean?
The expedition is to find out what happened. 4,022 saved, so what happened to them? And where are the bodies?
Since Miss Evangilista is stupid and has a death wish, she's going to go exploring on her own.
Next thing you know, she's a skelleton.
The crew don't believe it at first, and think it's pointless to stay in the light as the Doctor warns them..but tunrs out Not so much.
There she is, and she's "Ghosting". Okay, so...see that Green thingie that was on the side of her space suit? Well, apparently when someone dies that can store thier consciousness for a short amount of time after death. So they can still talk and stuff. It's a freak of technology says River. So the fifty-first century isn't all Orgies and Face Transplants after all?
Donna is totally horrified by this phenomenon.
Miss Evangelista even asks to talk to the 'nice one' which is Donna.
So Donna talks to her as she passes into the great beyond, reliving her last moments as she goes.
Donna thinks this is the most horrible thing she's ever seen.
Right so River is pretty mad at whatever the heck did this to poor old Evangelista. In order to fully illustrate what is going on without use of words that I cannot spell the Doctor is going to need a chicken leg. Convineintly the archeologists have packed a lunch.
Hey!! This is the perfect time for the Doctor to question River about how she knows him. (seriously he should know better, shouldn't he?) She just gives him the vital stats, no spoilers for you, Ten!
The Doctor is such a showman. Anyway, shadow swarm, let us demonstrate.
But first let's check up on the little girl. She's looking pretty sad and distressed and confused.
Which is the perfect time for Doctor Moon to tell her that her world is really a nightmare and she is the only person who can rescue the people trapped in the library. Good times.
Meanwhile the Doctor is down on all fours searching out the swarm with his sonic screwdriver.
Anyway, River is having a heart to heart with good old Donna now, who still doesn't really look pleased with her. Poor River is gutted that this Doctor isn't her Doctor.
Donna thinks River is talking rubbish, and y'know does she know him or doesn't she? For goodness sake people:
Fact the Doctor Travels through Time. Fact: River has met the Doctor at some point.
Fact: This is the first time they meet in the Doctor's timeline.Therefor he does not know her yet but he will in the future. It's really not rocket science.
Of course, I suppose they could just be worried that she's some scheming time-travelling con-woman out to get them with false information she found in a diary that somebody will be leaving in a library at some point in the near future...*shrug* Doesn't seem like it though.
Anyway the Doctor repremands Donna for being loud while he's working and at this point we realize that he never even introduced her to anybody. River is just now having an epiphany that she's talking to THE Donna Nobel who her Doctor recalls fondly.
River explains further that she is from the Doctor's own personal future...Donna wants to know why she doesn't know River then. Where is Donna in the Doctor's future? I'd like to take this moment to remind Donna that she still has the lifespan of a human, and the Doctor has the lifespan of a Time Lord which is much longer. She could never stay with him for the rest of eternity anyway.
The face River pulls at her though when Donna ask her what fate lies in store is not very reassuring though.
Time for some more action! The Doctor demonstrates the swarm by throwing a chicken leg into it which is immediatly devoured by the shadow. That is what happened to Miss Evangelista!
So they're everywhere. Even on Earth. What a lovely thought. The Doctor has never seen a concentration as the one found in the library though. They usually just live on roadkill and the occasional hobo.
River wonder's if they're in every shadow, but they're not. They're in ANY shadow. The uncertainty makes it that much worse.
River wants to know what to do, but the only advice this Doctor has to offer is Run. River is not pleased, she expected more I'm sure.
The Doctor wonders if there isn't an exit teleport they can use to get the heck out of there...Lux has no clue, but Donna points at the little shop. The Little shop is always at the exit and she is right. Super!
Proper Dave is all gung ho and ready to go, but sadly for him he has aquired another shadow. This is how he Swarm hunts.
And the Doctor, he's Sorry. So, so sorry.
The solution for now is to put the helmets on. Everybody.
Donn wonders about her and the Doctor's helmetless heads, and he tells her that they are safe, then instantly takes it back when she questions him. It was just a clever line to shut her up he says. Hah!
River erupts into a stream of Technobabble that I don't understand which causes the Doctor to start sonicing the space suits.
The Doctor is about to pass on the Screwdriver, but River's already got one! Snap! (In the Non-American sense of course. Thanks, Torchwood!)
The Doctor is not pleased. I guess Sonic screwdriver technology hasn't made it past the Doctor's time lordly hands in all this time then.
And it's off to the Little shop and the teleports with Donna because she's not safe. He can't teleport everyone because the TARDIS will spit them back out, so it's Donna only. She's totally worried about his helmetless face though, but he just teleports her away so he doesn't have to hear it.
Donna! Safe. OR is she? She hits the TARDIS momentarily then disappears into thin air, screaming as she goes.
Back in the Library, proper Dave has lost his extra shadow! Yay? Not really, as the Doctor informs him. They never go away and they never give up. Meanwhile, River wants to leave and Mr. Lux wants to ditch Dave right there. No offense.
The Doctor sonics around the suit for a moment and tries to figure out what happened. Dave didn't feel anything, he feels pretty good in fact. Then his helmet goes dark. What's up with that?
River is the first one to notice.
Dave is gone. He's merely a data ghost.
The Doctor gets a little too close when he investigates.
And the swarm has learned how to use the space suit and a skelleton to learn how to walk. I don't think we can call it Dave anymore, so I think I'll call it skeletor.
River sonics the crackers out of him so he releases the Doctor and they all run away.
They're kind of trapped, but River has a handy trick up her sleeve. It's the square gun, like captain Jack's from season one.
They hightail it away, and t he swarm grows.
They're running through the stacks now with a walking skeleton ambling after them repeating "hey, who turned out the lights" River grabs the Doctor's hand as they go.
In imaginary land the little girl is pretty bummed out that she has to save a bunch of people and her life doesn't really exist.
See, she takes her task seriously. She tells her dad that Donna Nobel has been saved.
In the library the Doctor and River are sonicing a bunch of lamps in hopes of more light. River's screwdriver works a heck of a lot better than his.
Even though it is his. It's his future sonic screwdriver, and he gave it to her. This totally freaks him out and he mines her for spoilers again.
River's lips are sealed. She wants to know what the plan is.
At this point the Doctor realizes that Donna never made it to the TARDIS, because his sonic screwdriver hasn't alerted him.
River thinks maybe the coordinates 'slipped'
So the Doctor asks a node where Donna is.
Donna Nobel has left the library. Donna Nobel has been saved says the Node with the Donna face.
Both the Doctor and River look pretty horrified at this turn of events.
Before anybody can prosses what is really going on though, Skeletor shows up.
Hey! Who Turned out the Lights, Donna Nobel has left the library, Donna Nobel has been saved....Skeletor and the Donna face node keep repeting those two phrases, and it's getting awfully claustrophobic in this corner of the library. You know what that means..
Next Time
Spoilers!
Sad little girls.
And ???
