(746) Silence in the Libraray

Today’s episode is a notable one because it’s the 37^th episode for David Tennant and he now ties with Sylvester McCoy. He is still some distance away from his father-in-law who is on 69 episodes. This is also notable for being the story which introduces Alex Kingston as River Song into the Doctor Who universe. Little did any of us know in 2008 just how much of an influence that this character would have. This story was written by Steven Moffat and just days before this transmitted on BBC1, it was announced that Moffat would replace RTD as Head Writer on the show in 2010.

This story is highly regarded by most Doctor Who fans and when I watched it in 2008, I failed to see why it was so highly regarded. I liked it but I didn’t love it. I had the same attitude to Human Nature and the Family of Blood and look how things change in that regard.

A library that is a planet is such a wonderful idea. It is just called The Library. I think that the library set is rather good and its nice that its used a lot. The whole planet is visually beautiful and it’s a wonderful world that has been created and this helps the enjoyment of the story.

There are aspects of this story that are typically Moffat. The idea that Shadows can kill is something that is wonderfully dark and yet not too terrifying for kids. Something that kills with darkness is a simple yet cheap way of creating drama. It’s a bit like the weeping angels. The threat of the week (or fortnight) is the Vashta Nerada who are a carnivorous creature living in the shadow. There are a couple of instances where shadows seem to cross over but the beauty of TV is that you can pretty much choose to ignore or at bend the rules.

This is the first time that the Doctor has met River Song but for River there have been many adventures. There is a nice bit where the mystery of River Song starts and the Doctor wants the answers but whenever the Doctor asks any questions he gets the response of SPOILERS. The thing about Alex Kingston’s performance is that she gets perform without having the weight of past knowledge on her shoulders. From now on she will be performing knowing about previous adventures she has been in and the rather complicated timeline will take its toll. Now she is free to play the character as if it’s a one off.

Miss Evangalista is treated as the idiot of the group and so she is the first to meet her demise. It’s good that everyone feels bad that they weren’t nicer to her. The idea that she can carry on talking for a short period of time even when she’s a skeleton.

The revelation that Donna has become one of the info statues is quite a good way to end the episode. This has been a good episode and I have found myself liking it more than I remember. I don’t know whether this will still be the case come the end of the next episode but at the moment I have every reason to believe that I will be like everyone and think that this story is just as good as Human Nature/Family of Blood.