Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Hiruma]

A different episode to the episode before it, and a bit of a darker tone mixed with elements of 'shock'.

The opening vista was quite good with the views of the Library World. The bright sunlight of the equator zone is shown in deep contrast with what is to follow. The use of the nodes was quite interesting, esp with the human faces adorning them.

I loved the physical surroundings they were using, it .. looked like a library. Books were opened, left out for reading. It was great to see the amount of effort put into creating some believability.

As for the villain itself. Well its nice to see a menace in Doctor who from which there is very little that can be done to protect yourself from. One that dosnt have a 'face' that you can easily rally against.

River Song was an interesting character and she played off the Doctor wuite well. The rest of the party were very stereotypical, the crew, the flighty assistant, the 'charming' funder of the expedition.

You knew what was going to happen to Mis Evangelista as soon as the wall panel opened. Yes ignore the warnings not to leave the light filled area, yes, go off by yourself to certain doom. I didnt expect the echo of her, that was an interesting touch, certainly quite sad and morbid, but something I have come to expect from the new Dr Who.. those moments where an echo of the past surfaces.

Im still not sure what happened to Donna. Had the creatures got inside the Tardis? Had they hitched a ride in the teleport beam?

Is anyone else expecting the 4022 people saved to mean that there is a way to bring them back to life and it was used as a measure just for that?

What do other people think?

[dave]

Well, it's almost getting tedious, but yet another fantastic story by Steven Moffat; so far, at least. He seems to have a fascination with the 51st century, and there are similarities here with the girl connected somehow to a future computer (?) system and the stalking of Madame De Pompadour by a 51st century spaceship in Girl in the Fireplace. The differences between the two situations is keeping things interesting at the moment, and I'm curious to see where the story of the girl and her doctor/therapist goes from here.

I'm hoping we've just seen a future companion introduced before she actually travels with the Doctor, that's a cool idea; but I'm not sure if that was the nature of their relationship. Seemed to be a very serious relationship, actually, and I'm now wondering how long David Tennant will be staying, as if she is a future companion then it seems Moffat is already laying the groundwork for his own tenure as Exec Producer/Head Writer. I think we got a few more hints as to Donna's fate this episode as well. I hope River continues to drop some more hints throughout the rest of the story.

The Vashta Nerada are an awesome idea, and make for a chilling threat amongst the emptiness of the library. I like the way Moffat ties total fantasy with something real: the Vashta Nerada being dust motes and the statues from Blink being the obvious examples. The data ghosting was a good idea, and awfully sad, but a bit overplayed, I thought. It wouldn't surprise me to see something like that return in a later story this season, though.

[meglos]

Great episode. It left me wondering, which is always a good thing in my book(pardon the pun).

[Sulp Niar]

My reaction to 'Silence in the Library' is purely my fault. I mean, it was a Moffat two-parter that we knew nothing about; there was the Lawrence Miles mini-controversy (um, don't ask if you don't know ); and then Moffat himself was named as the big cheese of Doctor Who, right before this aired. Could it be any more hyped?

So inevitably, I was sorta disappointed. And being as we've obviously got our over-criticial "He's gonna be show-runner? Let's dissect his episodes, then" hats on - or at least, I do - it wasn't hard to pinpoint Moffat's trends. Scary monsters, repeating phrases (though this was very well done; it's just the overfamiliarity that works against it), etc, etc. Even down to it being set in a library - which so far does look a tad pointless - and is also very much part of his "scary places" settings (a hospital, a mansion, a deserted library).

And a lot of it seems pretty obvious; the girl and everyone there are the "saved" people, "saved" meaning like "saved" on a hard drive, River Song is the Doctor's future companion (I was surprised they didn't actually reveal that in the first part!). I'd love to be proven wrong, mind you. But even more strangely, it echoes the NSA 'Wooden Heart', which makes it feel even less original.

Yet, obviously, for all that, this is good. This is... not original, but certainly fresh in a way that the last lot of stories - everything after 'Planet of the Ood', basically - haven't been. That's an achievement in itself, but there's more to it than that. World-building, desolation, creepiness, and some very clever emotional scenes; the death of the assistant worked really bloody well, I thought. There's some moments where Moffat's obviously on fire, slamming in brilliant bits of dialogue with reckless abandon.

Oh, and the acting and production is excellent too. Even if they are in the one room for practically the entire story.

Hmm, I didn't balance that out very well. So I'll make it clear; I thought that this worked, and that it showed a depth and freshness that the previous episodes haven't. I can fully understand why this episode has been called the best episode yet, and applaud that. It's just that personally, subjectively, I couldn't help but be disappointed.

Anyway, there's next week. Bring it on, I say.

[Greg]

I'm with Mr Niar, in that it was a really good episode, but seemed a little too much like we'd seen it all before. (Sounds like being spoiled with too much of a good thing!) However, being part 1 of 2 means that we haven't seen the whole story, and in fact there may be new and groundbreaking things to come, and Mr Moffat's laughing that we thought he was predictable! So maybe I'll be eating my words next week - I'd really like that!

One of the elements of familiarity was Professor River Song. I'm not sure how many of you have read the novel The Time Traveller's Wife, but something of the feeling of a couple of scenes in that come through here. (One of the characters in the novel travels through time - with no control. He meets the woman he is going to marry, and the book includes two scenes where they meet each other for the first time - from one of their perspectives.) Of course, meeting people in an order that is different for each person makes sense with time travel - but Doctor Who oiften shies away from it, at least the TV version.

Good production values, enough mysterious things that may or may not be fully explained, some reasonably developed characters and some genuine scary bits make this a good story. But... come on, Steve. Shake it up a bit. We know you can do it!

[Tegan]

4022 saved but not surviving. Saved as in huge hard drive. That's where Donna is then. That's a relief. I wonder where the backup is?

But most importantly this is really what Doctor Who does best. Edge of the seat for the whole episode. So many pointers and red herrings (I suppose) to the future in it that I don't know where to start. It made the so called "who dunnit" of the Wasp thing look positively sad.

Messing around with time. A proper cliff-hanger. Oh, and Lux. The quantum of light. The Girl is called "sweetie" by her father. The Doctor is called sweetie by River Song.

I like playing this game.

As for having seen it all before Greg, they do say there are only seven stories. It's all in the way they're told. I really love the way Mr Moffat tells 'em.

42

[Panecea]

[Speckled Jim]

Absolute genius. Moffat I worship thee. 'Nuff said.

[Polarity]

Well. Have just finished watching Part One here in Oz. My immediate reaction is - great!

I'm not sure whether this will be sustained on re-viewing, though - even as I was watching I was aware of the visual/cinemaphotogric similarities with Steven Moffatt's prev contributions - the blue lighting to make things look eerie (it works, but it can be overdone), the little girl as a link (what's going on there, Steven?). Of course, the visual aspect is not necessarily down to SM but the director and producer.

While my original response to the new of SM taking over the Exec and Head Writer roles was positive, I sincerely hope that this doesn't mean 'Doctor Who' becomes a spooky, supernatural series rather than science fiction - my favourite type of episode (though not necessarily my favourite episodes) are stories like 'Planet of the Ood', '42' and 'Impossible Planet'

Did anyone else think the first part dragged a little? I wasn't as gripped while watching as I was with 'Blink'; I suspect I may end up feeling that this is a 'part-and-a-half' story rather than one that really deserves two parts. What a shame that television doesn't lend itself to varying length episodes as the story requires, rather than padding the episode/story out to suit programming.

Still, definitely, even on the strength of just the first part, this is definitely one of the best of the series so far - roll on next Sunday!.

(I'll give this three & three quarters out of five ' till I see next week.)

[DrJones]

I really, really liked this one. I tend to like pretty much all Steven Moffat episodes though. He is my favourite British Television writer.

I am really intrigued by Professor River Song and her (future) relationship to The Doctor. I also like how Moffat makes every day things into spooky things like shadows and statues etc. Although I do tend to agree with the comment above about it becoming too spooky over sc-fi, but at the moment, it is working well, so I'll go with the flow on that one. We'll see how it pans out when Moffat becomes head honcho. But this episode has left me thinking all day, and that is a good sign of excellent writing. Complex on reflection. I love all the riddles in the plot, and I just wonder how they are going to get Donna out of this one. Also, how Professor Song knew who she was. So obviously The Doctor has referred to Donna at some point in his future conversations and by the look on Song's face, Donna has a bit more to do with the Doctor's future than they realise.

So much to comment on, I would like to say more, but I am so tired today. But typical Moffat brilliance. I gave it an excellent rating

[Theta Sigma]

The Doctor says that the Library has every book in existence. Interestingly one of the Big Finish stories The Genocide Machine (with the Seventh Doctor and Ace) has a Kar-Charrat Library which also claimed to have every book in existence.
Very cute line about spoilers.
Donna said that books can't be alive. Obviously she has never heard of talking books. (Little joke.)
This episode kept me guessing on what the connection is between the girl and the Library.
Playing Strackman Lux is Steve Pemberton, one of the League of Gentlemen. Fellow League of Gentleman Mark Gatiss has contributed to Doctor Who in various media including writing and appearing in the current Doctor Who TV series. Another League of Gentleman Reece Shearsmith has also done Doctor Who related work by appearing in Doctor Who spinoff videos.
Brilliant casting of Alex Kingston as River Song. Quite amusing when she called the Doctor, "Pretty boy". Also what a surprise that she has her own sonic screwdriver.
Liked the TARDIS diary.
Quite a scene with the books dropping out of the shelves.
Miss Evangelista was the first to be killed off. Just as I thought and was so disappointed that I was right about it. Very emotional scene when she was ghosting.
Colin Salmon plays Doctor Moon and what a surprise when she told the girl about the real world not being real.
Creepy hearing "Donna Noble has been saved".
Excellent cliffhanger to a brilliant episode.
The Next Time trailer for the next episode Forest of the Dead is the best one I have ever seen.

Confidential Cutdown: Shadow Play:
Love Tony's introduction for this episode.
Very good in explaining how scary shadows can be.
Also like it when David said that the best cliffhanger is one where there is no way of getting out of a situation that one is in.
Loved the way this episode got wrapped up.

[Sulp Niar]

[DrJones]

I also liked the characters Proper Dave and Other Dave. That was pretty funny. So true of many work situations and I think that might have been a bit of an 'in joke' on the Doctor Who set as I think many of the crew (and Doctor Who himself) are called David/Dave.

[montypython]

Brilliant episode. Good mystery, good monsters, and a great cliffhanger!

Steven Moffat has an addiction to the 51st century. The Library is set there. The SS Madame de Pompadour is set there. Captain Jack is from there.

I also noticed lots of parallels with Girl in the Fireplace:
Both are set in the 51st century
Both are linked to another world
Both include a woman who knows the Doctor a lot better than he knows her

I liked the way Donna wasn't afraid to voice her opinion as River Song acted all mysterious. Meanwhile, my dad said for the billionth time, "I can't stand her character".

I think that's all I have to say. Can't wait 'til next week!

[mortigitempo]

This story pretty much demonstrates how incredibly shite the first half of the season has been (including the ridiculous ood story), with the only story of quality previously beeing the Sontaran duo.

I found Silence incredible, and am relieved that my beloved Doctor Who is back on it's feet again.. something about the Moffatt stories are really really really really really really good, and if he has a greater involvement I really really really really look forward to future series...

One thing I dislike though, is the Doctor's newly aquired unquestionable identification of every single alien villian that comes on the show... I think it would have been much more chilling if the Doctor hadn't yet identified the baddies in this one, and only found out about them along with Donna and co.

[charlie]

Omg! The Docs daughter, a boring historical and now a rehash of Tomb of the cybermen (my fav story), this is too good to be true. It's like classic who is back. I loved this episode so much I dont even have any complaints. And an interesting cliffhanger which builds the story and adds to the intrigue! What more could you ask for?
I reckon saved is like apple s and not saved as in rescued. I bet there's a line like that somewhere in the next ep.

[mortigitempo]

[charlie]

Yeah a couple of people got out. Toberman saved them by closing the doors.

[montypython]

An interesting line when River Song said how young the Doctor's eyes were, remembering in The Shakespeare Code when Shakespeare said they were old.

[charlie]

Well it's all relative. Maybe she said they were old when she first met him.