TV-Reviewed

The Doctor’s “psychic paper” receives an urgent request for help, which leads The Doctor and Donna to the 51st century where they arrive at a planet-sized book repository known simply as “The Library”. It’s a massive, impressive place to be sure, but one ominous thing The Doctor notices straightaway is that they–he and Donna–are alone. The Library seems completely devoid of human life. And after checking the computer, it confirms that there is no “human” life. Naturally, The Doctor checks for non-humanoid life and learns that there a million “non-humanoid” life forms. A scary thought, indeed.

This new information is probably more disturbing than The Library being empty. What are these non-humanoid life forms? Did they destroy the human life, or did they just simply drive it all off? Perhaps, more importantly, who sent out the distress call? The Doctor and Donna go in search of the answers to these questions. They access a computer and learn that 4200 people were saved but none survived. A strange paradox, it would seem.

However, before things with The Doctor and Donna continue, we get interrupted by a couple of strange scenes that, at first, seem to have no correlation to the story whatsoever. We see a little girl sitting in front of a TV, which shows The Doctor’s face. Suddenly, we are switched back to The Doctor who’s now holding some sort of spherical device in his hands. The sphere has a little red eye in its center, and as he moves it around the girl’s voice can be heard issuing from it. Switching back to the girl, we see she’s suffering motion-sickness from The Doctor’s movements of the sphere, which he then realizes must be some sort of security camera.

Again, The Doctor is interrupted, only this time by a team of explorers that arrive most unexpectedly at The Library. Already, The Doctor knows something isn’t right, and that the place is dangerous. He tells them they shouldn’t be here and to go back, but the leader, a gung-ho archaeologist by the name of River Song, refuses to go–well, her and an obnoxious man by the name of Strackman Lux who says they’ve come to far to go back and that The Library is perfectly safe. It’s clear Strackman knows something he isn’t telling the others.

Strackman Lux

However, the most compelling of the explorers in the knowledge department is the group’s leader, River Song. She claims to know The Doctor in the future, though won’t disclose just how or when for fear of “spoilers”. She even says she’s familiar with Donna, though doesn’t say why she isn’t with The Doctor when they first meet. Definitely interesting.

Now, onto the enemy. It isn’t long before it’s apparent that something very wrong happened at The Library and that they’re all in great danger. The Doctor tries to organize the explorers into a team, but it’s tough-going at first. None of them seem very cooperative save for River; River argues with the rest, urging them to listen to what The Doctor has to say. Of course, the biggest proponent to The Doctor’s handling of the situation is the arrogant Strackman Lux. In truth, the guy’s a jerk to his own party of explorers. He directs his anger mainly at Miss Evangelista, who seems like a nice enough lady.

The Doctor goes on with trying to find clues. The Library’s computer does give up a few hints which leads to the conclusion that the place is infested with Vashta Nerada, an alien species which literally translates as “the shadows the melt the flesh”. Yeah, that sounds good–nice and safe.

In the midst of all the arguing, Evangelista wanders off where she becomes the first victim of the shadow-masquerading Vashta Nerada; this enemy is hardcore as it disguises itself as shadows, amongst shadows, where it hunts its prey, latching onto it, consuming it. This is exactly what happens to Miss Evangelista. As if it weren’t shamefully obvious that that was going to happen.

She’s the first to suffer from the most disturbing fate. When she’s found, there’s simply nothing left of her but her skeleton, or so it seems. It’s not long before we hear Evangelista asking where she is. We learn from River that the suits have a com-link that attaches to the wearer’s nervous system for thought-based communication. When a person dies wearing the suit a remnant of the person’s consciousness is captured at the moment of death. It’s a very disheartening and tense moment in Evangelista’s last moments, only Donna (”the nice-lady”) is able to comfort her before she is completely gone.

The Vashta Nerada, though, isn’t through yet. It claims yet another victim, and threatens to kill a third. The explorers’ pilot, Dave, is consumed, even though The Doctor turned his mask dark–which is what he had done for Anita, the second near-victim. The trick worked for her, but, unfortunately, the Vashta Nerada attached to her transferred over to Dave’s suit. It clearly wasn’t fooled; it knew Anita was still in the suit, even though it couldn’t see her.

Dave isn’t immediately consumed, however. He stays with the team as they continue their investigation. Yet, The Doctor realizes after awhile that Dave has been, indeed, consumed. When he clears Dave’s visor we see that there’s nothing left but his skeleton. We get to hear Dave repeating over and over his last thought, then. Now, his suit is fully taken over and reanimated by the Vashta Nerada. The suit and it’s communicator is definitely a great Muguffin.

In several more scenes the girl is seen struggling with what seems to be nightmares. A child psychologist, Dr. Moon, hired by her father attends her, reassuring her that what she is dreaming is quite real. An odd way to calm down a kid having nightmares, that’s for sure.

The jumping back between The Library and the girl’s house does get distracting after awhile. Silence In The Library is the first of a two-parter. It’s good, but not as good as it’s ending chapter, Forest of the Dead. It’s worth viewing, of course, but the rushed pace of it, and the confusion of the switches between scenes with The Doctor and girl, keep it from truly being great.

Rating: 7.5