fajrdrako | Doctor Who: Silence in the Library...

I have always loved libraries. Real libraries and fictional libraries. I have a mental list of special, magical libraries that I have read about: the library of Alexandria, the library of all the books never written that Morpheus keeps in The Sandman, the library of Ankh-Morpork with its orangutan librarian, the booby-trapped library in The Name of the Rose, the beautiful library in Checkmate where Lymond and Philippa have a showdown. Does anyone have others to suggest?

Add the Doctor's 51st century library to my list. A whole planet as a library - I have to love it! And it's beautiful. I couldn't disagree more with whoever it was in the Confidential - Phil Collinson, I think - who said that libraries were frightening and intimidating places, especially for children. As long as I can remember, libraries have been places of peace, comfort, refuge and excitement for me.

So... this story. I love the use of silence as a threat, and something to fear. More than darkness.

The most interesting thing to me was the relationship between Professor River Song and the Doctor. She seems to know an awful lot about him - the conversation about their sonic screwdrivers was particularly interesting to me. She calls him 'sweetie', she acts as if their relationship was long-term and intimate - she wasn't just another companion. She even has that book. Definitely a history with him. But she's not a Time Lord, or he'd have known. What is she? Will it remain a mystery to us? Or is she lying, to set him up for something?

I like it that the Doctor meets someone from his future, though. We've seen him meet people from his past, usually in chronological order. This should happen more often.

As for a connection between River Song and Captain Jack Harkness, seems to me the obvious things (like the squareness gun) are probably simply because they are both from the 51st century, and both written by Steven Moffat. The implication of ongoing intimacy and trust might apply to Jack (or so I hope!) but his current relationship with the Doctor is problematic, and his future relationship with him is still unclear - for example, the Doctor doesn't know for sure whether Jack will become the Face of Boe.

I liked the role of River Song in the story, but I didn't like her as much as I thought I was supposed to. But she was interesting. I loved her use of the word 'spoilers' for his future and Donna's.
I liked the names: Doctor Moon, Proper Dave and Other Dave, Evangelista, and the child being nameless.
Doctor Moon was the most interesting character in the story. I see him as Merlin-like, Prospero-like, having a major role of knowledge at the fulcrum of the plot, while the little girl is the active protagonist and the Doctor is the viewpoint. Donna, then, is collateral damage.

I hope Doctor Moon turns out to be a good guy.
Strackman Lux reminded me of Rickston Slade, and various other Doctor Who villains and demi-villains: money-grubbing, bureaucratic, un-humanistic. Loved the dig at 'intellectual property'.
As villains go, I really, really like the Vashta Nerada. No silly prosthetics, no bombastic dialogue, just whoosh clean bones. Scary.
The "Data Ghost" concept reminded me of the death of Astrid - fading away but not really there. Only remnants of her consciousness still alive, manifest in her voice.
Seems to me the "Data Ghost" concept is a clue as to what happened to the "saved" people in a situation with "no survivors". In order to save the people in the library from the Vashta Nerada, the library saved them as data in their near-infinite data banks. And the Doctor will figure this out.
I liked Donna's comment about biographies always ending in death.
I couldn't figure out when the little girl with Doctor Moon was living. The wikipedia article on the episode says she's in the 21st century - did I miss something that said so? On this show, the fact that she seems to have technology rather like ours doesn't indicate anything much about her time.

I nearly started this post by saying I had nothing to say about this episode till I saw the next part, as it's so much set-up for action and revelations still to come. Good thing I didn't embarrass myself by actually saying that.