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Silence in the Library Format Reviewed: TV Review Silence in the Library is the start of a two part story written by Steven Moffat who, as came out in the run up to this episode, has accepted the job of taking over from Russell T Davies as general Who god at the BBC. I have been a big fan of Steven's work, from the excellently witty and very intelligent Coupling series to his work on Doctor Who, which is some of the most often praised stories in all of 'New Who'. Blink was brilliant, The Empty Child was exceptional, and it seems as though Moffat has really captured the essence of what the show is all about, and how it can fit in context with todays televisual preferences. Maybe, it could be argued, he has a more balanced view on this that current supremo Russell T Davies? A girl is seemingly having vivid dreams about a library, and the problems in it, when The Doctor and Donna crash through a door and ask to stay a while. They then see a security camera rather than a girl, and try to work out why there are no people in the library, only billions of life forms. There are then further visitors to the library in the form of a salvage team containing Professor River Song who appears to know The Doctor very well from his own personal future, and has a future version of The Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The Doctor then discovers that their enemy is the Vashta Nerada, a microscopic species that inhabit shadows. The Girl meanwhile, sat in her living room after having been seen by psychologist Dr. Moon, is pressing buttons on her TV remote control, and the effects are felt in the library. Miss Evangelista goes off through a door that has opened, and is eaten by the Vashta Nerada. The others run to investigate, find her dead, and discover that the communication system can keep an imprint of the person after their death, meaning some ghostly words are spoken by the dead. They go back to the control room, where one of the Dave's in the crew is spotted to have 2 shadows, meaning he is about to die at the hands of the Vashta Nerada. The Doctor then teleports Donna back to the TARDIS, but it goes wrong and she screams and disappears. Dave is then noticed to have died, but his body is taken over and he attacks The Doctor, and pursues them out of the control room. They escape, and The Doctor turns to a librarian node to ask about Donna, and her face looks back saying that Donna has been saved. Dave then catches up with them, and their path is blocked by the Vashta Nerada. Silence in the Library has the air of the great about it, it feels right. There is suspense, it is dark in tone and the characters really do seem to fit in well with the overall scheme. The biggest character here though is River Song, who it would appear is a future companion of The Doctor. There is a considerable amount of intrigue surrounding the character interaction, and this leads to a very engrossing plot. The other great and different element to the story is that the enemy is not a big rubber alien, but it preys on the mind of the viewer. Moffat has done this with some of his previous stories, and this is really in the best traditions of television, and especially Doctor Who. Chosing shadows as a malevolent force is a master stroke. The cast is as always this season headed by David Tennant and Catherine Tate as The Doctor and Donna respectively. Tate is very much in the background for most of the story though, and is temporarily written out at the end with her being 'saved'. In what she has to do, Tate is fine, and Tennant is better as he he is calmer in this episode. The leading light in the guest cast is Alex Kingston as Professor River Song, who is great and gives real depth to her character. The mysterious girl is played by Eve Newton, and she does well, but Colin Salmon as Dr Moon is a little wooden. Of the rest, Taluhla Riley as Miss Evangelista is not great here, but Steve Pemberton is Strackman Lux. Both Other Dave and Proper Dave, played by O-T Fagbenle and Harry Peacock respectively are a bit wooden, but in general none of the cast performances let the show down too much. The big stories by Steven Moffat can be identified by a few key similarities, firstly in the use of what are essentially catchphrases. In The Empty Child we had the chilling 'are you my mummy?', and now we have the equally disturbing 'who turned out the lights?'. One can therefore safely conclude that Moffat has in his head that he wants the children of today to be wandering around the playgrounds uttering these lines, much like the children of the 1960's are reported to have done with cries of 'Exterminate!'. You can also see a patern of trying to affect you by thought rather than the more obvious big monsters jumping out. There is also not a lot of death. Death inevitably follows The Doctor's adventures, but in other stories the horror is in the deaths rather than the actions. This makes the stories more akin to Doctor Who in the 1970's, often attributed to be a period of gothic horror. These similarities are not a criticism though, as the stories have played out very well. Moffat should however be careful not to be too formulaic in the future. Overall, Silence in the Library is a great start to a two part story but will inevitably be judged more on the success of the concluding part rather than itself. The now customary Moffat psychological storylines go a long way to setting this story apart from many others in the series. Rest assured though that if the concluding episode is as good as this it will make the whole two part story into a classic. Rating:  |