“Close your eyes and tell me what you see?” says a soothing, strong, handsome voice. What we and the camera see is ourselves moving through an alleyway of books. We’re outside and floating. There is no road beneath us, and the walls alongside us are bookshelves with a small sidewalk running along their base. Music box music plays on the soundtrack as the camera floats us up, up, up above the alley of shelves. “The Library,” answers a little girl 9 or 10 years of age with big eyes and straight brown hair. She’s floating above a city of bookshelves and it is through her eyes that the camera has been panning.
“Open your eyes again,” commands the soothing, strong handsome voice, and the screen cuts to Little Girl’s face. She is no longer floating, and she blinks open her eyes. (I wonder if that blink was on purpose). “Where are you now?” asks the voice. “My living room, Dr. Moon,” answers Little Girl as the camera pulls away from the close-up of her face to reveal a white, modern looking apartment that could belong in this time period or in a future one. She’s there with Dr. Moon, a suave, impressive black man, whom I recognize from Tomorrow Never Dies, Prime Suspect and Keen Eddie (and Hex, but I hate to admit I watched that drivel). A man sitting in the background appears to be Little Girl’s father, and Little Girl appears to be in the middle of a therapy session.
Dr. Moon exposits that when Little Girl closes her eyes she goes to the library. Dr. Moon asks her to pull the trick again. She does. She’s back in a different part of the library, and she explains to Dr. Moon that every trip is different because the library goes on forever. As she explains, we see her float down through a circular sky light hole into a large round room below. How does she move about the library in this awesome manner? “By wishing.” (So cool!)
Suddenly, Little Girl is startled and scared by the rattling and banging of the double doors behind her. “What’s wrong?” asks Dr. Moon. Little Girl is freaked: “Something’s here. Someone’s got in. No one’s supposed to get in.” Father is concerned: “She’s never mentioned anyone else, she’s always been alone.” Dr. Moon looks even more concerned…and excited…and the way the camera focuses on his face tells me he knows some extra information, we, Father and Little Girl don’t.
Back in the library, the door is rattling harder and harder. Little Girl is begging whatever it is to get out of her library, “it’s not allowed!”
“Listen to me,” soothes Dr. Moon, “the Library is in your mind.” “I know it’s in my mind but something’s got inside,” worries a scared Little Girl.
In the library the doors are still rattling and the music still rising…until the Doctor and Donna force open the door, bang it shut behind them and jam a handy book between the door handles to lock it shut. The pair breath a sigh, turn around and the Doctor politely greets Little Girl: “Oh, hello, sorry to burst in on you like this, okay if we stop here for a bit?” Little Girl gasps and opens her eyes. The library is gone.
Opening titles: Steven Moffat wrote this episode, so if you couldn’t tell by the fantastic, snark-free, detailed cold open this episode is going to be AWESOME!!!! And a bitch to recap, because I want to tell you about every little thing that’s happening.
“Books!” shouts the Doctor. He is inside the TARDIS with Donna telling her about how people will never stop loving books, real books, the kind with paper and ink. The Doctor escorts Donna outside the TARDIS which is parked inside a shadowy hall and flanked by a pair of library book carts. “Welcome to the 51st century,” he tells Donna as he walks her out onto a sunny balcony. He has flown her and the TARDIS into The Library “so big it doesn’t need a name, just a great big “THE.” (like you Doctor?) The Library is literally a world of books. The whole core of the planet is a card catalog (biggest hard drive in the universe), and the planet contains brand new, specially printed editions of every book ever written. (Which makes me sad; I like libraries because they have old, first editions).
The Doctor gets extremely enthusiastic about browsing through the biography section. “Yeah, very you,” grumbles Donna, “always a death at the end.” “You need a good death,” insists the Doctor, “without death there’d only be comedies.” Oh my, the Doctor has come a long way if he can talk so casually about death.
Donna starts to open a nearby book. The Doctor snags it out of her hand. “Oi there. Spoilers! These books are from your future. You don’t want to read ahead and spoil all the surprises. It’s like peeking at the end.” (I feel he is channeling the wrath of all science fiction television showrunners with that line. Is that supposed to make me feel bad Doctor? Because I’m recapping something that won’t air in the
The Doctor finds an information kiosk and starts using his sonic screwdriver to fiddle with it. Donna follows and suggests that “maybe it’s a Sunday?” “No, I never land on Sundays. Sundays are boring.” Like libraries, thinks Donna. “Maybe everyone’s really, really quiet,” she mocks. Yep, Donna’s being a brat. “Doctor, why are we here, really?” she whines. “Just passing through.” Donna recognizes the lie and asks, seriously, why are they in a boring library? (Donna wanted to go to universe’s biggest beach planet before the Doctor took this little side trip).
His lie didn’t work, so the Doctor distracts Donna with what he has found through the kiosk. He did a scan looking for humanoids (“your basic book readers, a few limbs and a face” [hee!]). All the computer recognizes is two: the Doctor and Donna. But if the Doctor searches for all life forms, the computer tells him: 1,000,000,000,000. "A million, million life forms and silence in The Library." (Episode title incorporated into script. Check!). Is it the books, wonders Donna. “Books can’t be alive,” she protests. Donna dear, you’ve seen giant spiders, living sentient fat, stone limbs, hand-held brains, toad-faced aliens, fish-faced aliens, and a giant wasp love child. Surely, by now you realize that travel with the Doctor means ANYTHING is possible. The Doctor and Donna hesitatingly reach for a book to see if it is indeed, alive. Thankfully to them, there is a noise back in the shadowy hall, and they gladly ignore the potentially living book to go investigate. (What if the key to solving this episode’s mystery lies in just opening up and reading a book? They are in a library and no one has bothered to do much reading yet. What if the Doctor’s no spoiler policy is the reason he can’t solve this episode faster? And why wouldn’t you be excited to read a living book?! A living book! That sounds fantastic.)
What’s making noise in the hall? What is disrupting the silence in The Library? It’s a Node. A Node looks like a standard piece of modern art. The base is tall, white and in the vague curvy shape of a human body. A metal pole extends where a “neck” would be and on it rotates a round, white slab with a human face sticking out of it, literally, a human face. (Sadly, it sort of reminds me of the faces sticking out of the Abzorbaloff and concrete slab in season 2, which is a memory I don’t enjoy revisiting).
The “courtesy” Node asks them to “please enjoy The Library and respect the personal access codes of all your fellow readers regardless of species or hygiene taboo.” Donna is completely grossed out that the Node has a moving, talking human face. (Good thing she doesn’t know about Elton and Ursula’s “special” sexual relationship). The Node gives them an additional, urgent message from the head librarian, edited for content by the Feldman-Lux decency filter. (Ooh, censorship. By a hyphenated corporation. That’s BAD). The message: “Run! For God’s sake run! Nowhere is safe. The Library has sealed itself.” (The message also says some stuff that sounds like: ark, slug, snake. I don’t know if I’m hearing it wrong. But since this is a two-parter, I can’t be sure of its significance. So I’m telling you about it). “Any other messages [with the] same date stamp?” the Doctor asks the Node. Yes: “Count the shadows. For God’s sake remember, if you want to live, count the shadows.” The camera pans wide, giving us a full view of the shadowy hall, which is so shadowy I can only count the sunrays, all four of them. “Donna, stay out of the shadows,” instructs the Doctor.
Donna and the Doctor walk from the shadowy hall into a warehouse type room with long aisles of bookshelves reaching at least three stories high. “So, we weren’t just in the neighborhood,” confronts Donna. The Doctor admits he lied. He got a message on his psychic paper. He shows the message to Donna: “The Library. Come as soon as you can. X” Donna focuses on the X, “with a kiss!” she teases, “who’s it from?” The Doctor doesn’t know.
Uh. Oh. The lights are going out. One by one, the track lights are going out above each consecutive section of the bookshelves. Darkness is encroaching. “Run!” yells the Doctor as he goes to grab Donna’s hand. She doesn’t take it, but does run. (Is that crazy significant? The companion always runs away from danger hand-in-hand with the Doctor. It’s their thing.) They find a door. It’s jammed. The wood is warped. The Doctor bangs and pushes on it. “Sonic it,” screams Donna, “use the thingy!” “I can’t it’s wood.” “What? It doesn’t do wood!” Donna and I are both flabbergasted. “Hang on,” the Doctor claims he can “vibrate the molecules,” blah, blah, something “bindings,” blah, blah “separate the interface.” Donna shoves him aside and kicks the door open. Donna, once again = awesome.
Here we are, back to the beginning of the episode in the circular room with the large, round skylight. The Doctor wedges the door shut, turns and gives his greeting, but he doesn’t see Little Girl. He’s talking to a floating basketball shaped security camera that crashes to the ground as soon as Little Girl opens her eyes. The Doctor examines the security camera ball which has switched itself off.
In the apartment, Little Girl is very upset and angry. “How can they be in my Library?” “Who were they?” asks Dr. Moon. A sonic buzzing sound loudly fills the room and Little Girl clutches her head in pain at the noise. Dr. Moon and Father don’t hear the noise.
In The Library, the Doctor is using the sonic screwdriver to fiddle with the security camera. He complements Donna on her “nice door skills.” Donna wants to know what they were running away from, and if they are safe in this room. “Of course it’s safe,” insists the Doctor, “it’s a little shop.” Donna and I look around for the first time and notice that it is indeed The Shop, a gift shop. The Doctor, meanwhile, has managed to get the flap on the security camera to open. He stares into the lens.
As he does that, Little Girl falls to the floor in the apartment, in pain, begging: “No, stop it, stop it, No…”
In The Library, the security ball shows a small screen that scrolls in red letters: STOP IT, STOP IT. “Oooh, I’m sorry…so sorry,” apologizes the Doctor. “It’s alive,” says the Doctor. (My guess: everything in The Library is alive.)
In the apartment a concerned Father and Dr. Moon lean over Little Girl who is still on the floor. She’s not writhing in pain anymore, but she gives a blank stare and says ““The Library is breached. Others are coming.”
The security ball scroll also tells the Doctor and Donna that: “OTHERS ARE COMING.” What others Donna wonders? She asks the nearest Node, and all she learns is that the Nodes have real faces donated by dead Library patrons, and will display a different face depending on the likes and dislikes of the question-asker. (This Node has a different face from the “courtesy” Node as well as an American accent. So the Node thought Donna would be pleased by a bald American?) Donna is, instead, displeased and very disturbed with the face donation revelation. Donna keeps freaking out and nearly backs up into a shadow. The Doctor grabs and stops her. He directs her attention to a pointy triangular shadow cast on the floor underneath the round skylight. “What about it?” asks Donna. “What’s casting it?” asks the Doctor. They look up. Nothing. Nothing is casting it.
The Doctor jumps! He’s had a brilliant thought. He knows what this episode’s big bad is. He stares at a dimming light bulb; he knows what’s dimming it. Now if only he’d tell us what’s dimming it. Donna looks back behind them. The pointy shadow is gone. “We need to get back to the TARDIS,” says the Doctor, “because that shadow hasn’t gone it’s moved.”
Just then, the American Node decides to remind them “The Library has been breached. Others are coming.” And here they come......in a blinding flash that explodes from a newly opened door. Through the door, strides a white space-suited and helmeted Alex Kingston, whom we Americans know best as Dr. Elizabeth Corday from ER. Welcome to Doctor Who, Alex. Ooh, for effect, some needless smoke spills out behind her and her five advancing companions as she struts forth. And you know it’s a she because Ms. Kingston has well toned curves and a fitted space suit. She walks right up to the Doctor and greets him: “Hello Sweetie.” (Moffat, you couldn’t come up with a better endearment than that?)
The Doctor is like: well, that’s weird, and probably important, but if I ignore it, it will go away. So he tells Alex to “Get out,” steps around her and tells the rest of the white space-suited group following her to “turn around, get back in your rocket and fly away. Tell your grandchildren that you came to The Library and lived. They won’t believe you.” Alex ignores him and tells the group to take off their helmets, “we’ve got breathers,” “How do you know they’re not androids?” asks one of the group. “’Cause I’ve dated androids, they’re rubbish,” answers Alex with an implicating smile. The Doctor again ignores the weird vibe Alex is tossing his way. Another member of the group demands to know who the Doctor is. He is upset because this expedition he’s paid for is no longer exclusive. He asks his assistant, Miss Evangelista for a copy of the life experience contracts.
Alex is all business. She turns to the Doctor and asks how much damage he saw on his way in. The Doctor, sill ignoring the weird familiarity, (which is an entertaining role reversal), tells her to “Please just leave, I’m asking you seriously and properly, please just…hang on, did you say expedition?” That’s right, they are archaeologists. Huh. Turns out the Doctor loathes archaeologists: “I’m a time traveler. I point and laugh at archaeologists.” Unless he thinks all archaeologists are tomb robbers or clumsy show-offs like Indiana Jones, I don’t really see what his problem is. You know, now that I think of it, the Doctor has been very not-awesome this episode. Lying to Donna, harming Little Girl, uselessly sonicing wooden doors, and poking fun at archaeologists. Alex introduces her character: “Professor River Song, archaeologist.” “Lovely name,” the Doctor says. Taken name! I say. Fine. I’ll identify the character as River, but it’s under protest.
The Doctor wants River and the expedition to leave and quarantine the whole planet forever, which, to me, is the scariest moment of the episode so far. It means the Doctor knows the problem and doesn’t have a solution. One of the expeditioners, Anita, starts to wander into the shadows. The Doctor stops her and clarifies that everyone is to stay out of the shadows until they are safely back on their ship. “Stay in the light, find a nice bright sunny spot and just stand.” (They are all standing under the round sky light/hole: Donna, the Doctor, River, Anita, Mr. Exclusivity Contract, Miss Evangelista, and two other guys named Dave…we’ll get to them). “If you understand me,” says the Doctor, “look very, very scared.” They don’t, they look like they think he’s nuts. Except for River, she looks amused.
Fine. The Doctor will just have to take action himself. He grabs one of the expeditioners: Dave, well, Other Dave really because the other guy is Proper Dave, he was the pilot and first so….. The Doctor doesn’t care, but I do, because this actor’s line readings are hilarious, like he’s a bit bumbling, a bit high and a bit dopey all at once. The Doctor has Other Dave look down the hallway from which the expedition just came. “Does it look the same as before?” the Doctor asks. “Yeah. Oh. It’s a bit darker.” Again, hilarious line delivery. “Seal up this door,” directs the Doctor, “we’ll find another way out.”
“We’re not looking for another way out,” says Mr. Exclusivity Contract, whose real name is Mr. Lux, of the afore-discovered Feldman-Lux censoring corporation, I presume. He wants the Doctor and Donna to sign contracts assigning their life experiences in The Library to the Feldman-Lux corporation. The Doctor and Donna each take a contract and tear it in half. “My family built this library. I have rights,” insists Mr. Lux. River tells him to shut it, and the Doctor ignores him.
River wants to know more about this danger of which the Doctor speaks. The Library and the people who were in it went silent a hundred years ago. Isn’t whatever got them long dead? The Doctor doubts it. He takes Other Dave’s flashlight and shines it in a dark corner. Donna stands next to him. He explains: “Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But they’re wrong, because it’s not irrational. It’s Vashta Nerada.” (Ooh, good name Seven Moffat). The Doctor, however, doesn’t explain more than that, which, I understand, builds suspense, but is also VERY ANNOYING. Instead, the Doctor tells everyone to form a safety area by moving flashlights and spotlights into a circle under the sky light and shining them outward. River orders her expedition members to obey the Doctor and she gives each one an assignment, lastly telling “Pretty Boy” to come with her.
The Doctor goes over to Proper Dave who is attempting to access the main computer through another kiosk. “Pretty Boy, with me I said,” shouts River. Donna looks with her mouth gaping at the Doctor. “Oh, I’m Pretty Boy,” he realizes. “Yes!” says Donna a little too quickly to her own liking. Me, “pretty?” the Doctor asks. “Meh,” answers Donna. On his way over to River, the Doctor orders the expeditioners to not let their shadows touch, “any of them could be infected.” Infected shadows? Other Dave is confused. He, like me, would for once, appreciate more exposition from the Doctor.
Miss Evangelista, who is young, pretty, earnest and ditsy, asks Anita and Other Dave if she can help hold something. They tell her no in a way that lets us and her know that they think she is useless and hampering. And then they basically call her that to Donna who asks why the pretty girl can’t help. Also, Anita has an annoying American accent. Annoying as in bad. Donna, moral compass of this episode, gives the pair a dirty look and walks away.
The Doctor is with Professor River Song, wearing his glasses (the "brainy specs," he doesn't even need them, he just wants to look a bit clever in front of her!), and awaiting whatever information she has for Pretty Boy. River thanks him for coming when she called. “That was you [on the psychic paper],” realizes the Doctor. “You’re doing a very good job of acting like you don’t know me. I’m assuming there’s a reason.” “A fairly good one actually,” says a confused Doctor. River has pulled out a blue (blue like the TARDIS) book and is flipping through it. “Shall we do diaries then,” she asks, “where are we this time? Going by your face,” she peers at him, “I’d say it’s early days for you. Yeah? So, um…Crash of the
River starts to catch on. “Look at you. You’re young.” “I’m really not, you know,” he ruefully smiles. “You’re younger than I’ve ever seen you,” says River as she reaches up and cups his cheek. Also strokes his ear! “You’ve seen me before then?” “Doctor, please tell me you know who I am,” she begs. The Doctor looks perplexed at the arm she leaves on his shoulder and asks: “Who are you?” It breaks her heart a little. She takes her hand away. (And I think the Doctor is being purposely, defensively cruel.) Also, Donna’s been watching this whole conversation.
The Doctor lets himself get distracted by a ringing sound. (River still looks devastated in the background.) Proper Dave claims he set off the sound while trying to get into the computer system. Donna and the Doctor recognize it as the sound of a....
....Telephone rings in the apartment. Little Girl is drawing pictures in front of a TV blaring a cartoon. She asks Father to answer the phone. Father doesn’t hear it ringing.
In The Library, Proper Dave is at the kiosk trying to pull up the data core, but the only response he can get is that noise. The Doctor walks over and starts his fiddling.
In the apartment, the telephone is still ringing. And it’s a rotary phone. (Like in The Matrix? Hmm.) And only Little Girl can hear it. She gets up to answer, but it stops.
In The Library, the kiosk screen denies the Doctor access. He fiddles some more.
In the apartment, the cartoon on the TV behind Little Girl begins to flicker and the screen fills with the Doctor and entire expedition team behind him. “Hello,” he says. “Hello,” Little Girl answers back. She wants to know how he’s in her television. He’s more confused than she is. He was just trying to access the data core, now he's talking with Little Girl. Eventually, Little Girl recognizes him. “I know you, you’re in my library.” “Your library?” puzzles the Doctor. “The library’s never been on television before. What have you done?” “Um, um, I just re-routed the interface,” he explains. And then the picture of the Doctor cuts out and the cartoon resumes.
In The Library, the kiosk screen again denies access.
In the apartment, Little Girl grabs the remote and starts flipping channels looking for the Doctor.
In The Library, the Doctor starts running about and giving orders. River echoes (heh, I just wrote river and echo together. I love you Joss Whedon!) and enforces the orders like an XO. For no given reason, he starts fiddling with a different kiosk, next to which River’s little blue diary lies. The Doctor is tempted. He picks it up, but River takes it from him. “Sorry, you’re not allowed to see inside the book, it’s against the rules.” “What rules?” “Your rules.”
In the apartment, Little Girl is still flipping channels. She removes part of the remote’s casing and stares at the extra buttons she finds there. She pushes one…
…and a book flies off the shelf in The Library. And another book. And another. Attack of the flying books! The Doctor can’t figure out what’s going on. The kiosk screen only tells him:
Little Girl keeps pushing buttons.
Books still flying off the shelves. The Doctor looks around, completely baffled by the chaos. Miss Evangelista, on the other hand, is distraught by the flying books. Donna goes to comfort her and thank her for offering to help earlier. Miss E says they don’t want her help, “they think I’m stupid because I’m pretty.” “Nobody thinks that,” soothes Donna. “No they’re right I am, I’m a moron me,” Miss E self-pities. Books start flying again and Miss E. starts whimpering again. Donna is a nicer person than I am. This fidgety, ditsy girl is very annoying.
River wonders if Little Girl is causing the flying books. “Who is the Little Girl, what’s she got to do with this place?” ponders the Doctor.
In the apartment, Little Girl stops pushing buttons and contemplates the remote control.
In The Library, the book attack stops. The Doctor gathers everyone for a brainstorming session to figure out how the data core works and what
The camera cuts to a shot of Little Girl. She looks very determined and punches a new button on the remote.
A door opens in The Library unnoticed by everyone except Miss Evangelista. River answers the Doctor’s question. She explains The Library sent one message: “the lights are going out,” and then the computer sealed the planet and there was nothing for a hundred years. Mr. Lux informs them it has taken three generations of his family to decode the seals and get back in. “Excuse me,” interrupts Miss Evangelista. She is ignored. River wants to tell the Doctor about one more thing that came with the message, but Mr. Lux protests the information is confidential. “I trust this man. with my life. with everything,” River affirms. “You’ve only just met him!” accuses Mr. Lux. “Nope. He’s only just met me.”
“Um, this might be important actually,” Miss E interrupts again. Everyone ignores her again, but Miss E moves towards the open door. River shows the Doctor the confidential information using a data extractor, it’s square and palm-sized with a video screen. The Doctor reads it: 4,022 saved no survivors. 4,022 is the exact number of people who were in the library when the planet was sealed, and so far no one has found any bodies.
Cue Miss Evangelista, who gives up on drawing the group’s attention and walks through the door alone. On the other side she follows a hallway into a reading room filled with more books, less sunlight and a lot of shadows. She screams.
Everybody hears and runs towards the scream into the reading room. They find a skeleton coated in white shreds, but no Miss Evangelista. “Stay in the light,” commands the Doctor. “You keep saying that, I don’t see the point,” grumbles Proper Dave. River calls for Miss E on a communicator attached to her white space suit. River’s voice echoes from the skeleton which has a similar communicator attached to a white shred of space suit. Anita wonders what could turn a person into a skeleton in only a few seconds. “It took a lot less than a few seconds,” says the Doctor. “What did?” asks Anita. He STILL doesn’t tell us.
“Hello? Excuse
Donna tells Miss E she hears her. Miss E asks Donna to not tell the others about calling herself stupid. Donna promises she won’t. Miss E asks again. Donna promises again. Miss E keeps repeating her request. “She’s looping,” explains River, and the fading green lights on the communicator correspond to her fading consciousness. “I can’t think. I don’t know. I. I. I,” repeats Miss E’s fading voice. The looping ends with the repetition of the words “I scream, I scream, I scream,” which is creepy, so River offers to turn the communicator off. No one stops her.
“That was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen,” says Donna. Donna, dear, I hope that truly is the worst thing you’ll ever see. River wants a word with whatever did this to Miss E. The Doctor says he’ll introduce it to her. He leads the group back into The Shop and asks for a packed lunch. River digs through a backpack to find him one. She pulls out the blue diary. “What’s in that book?” the Doctor asks as he kneels down by her. “Who are you to me?” he demands. No spoilers, she tells him. She hands him a lunch box full of chicken and salad. He takes it, and she looks sad.
“Right you lot,” the Doctor stands and twirls a flashlight in the air, “let’s all meet the Vashta Nerada.” Finally, Finally, FINE-ally, the Doctor is going to fully explain what’s going on! Took him long enough. I guess that’s what happens in the first episode of a two-parter.
Oh wait. No. First we have to check in with Little Girl and the apartment where she has thrown the remote control at the wall in frustration. Dr. Moon wants a word alone with her. He makes sure Little Girl recognizes there is a difference between the real world and the world of nightmares. Then Dr. Moon says one of the scariest things a child can be told: “The real world is a lie and your nightmares are real.” (Frick, it is The Matrix.) Moreover, “The Library is real. There are people trapped in there. People who need to be saved. The shadows are moving again. Those people are depending on you, only you can save them. Only you.” Little Girl’s eye’s get big and she literally takes a gulp.
In The Library, the Doctor is STILL not telling us about the Vashta Nerada. He’s on the floor messing about with a flashlight and his sonic screwdriver looking for something. He tells Proper Dave to move out of his way. Proper Dave does and goes to sit in the shadows. This won’t end well.
Donna and River are watching the Doctor and end up having a little chat. River identifies Donna as a companion. “What of it?” challenges a defensive Donna, but after a bit Donna voices what she’s slowly realizing, “you know him, don’t you?” Oh, River knows him. They go way back, just not this far back. The Doctor hasn’t met her yet, she explains. She tells Donna she sent him a message to come but it arrived too early. Then River describes her pain: “And he looks at me. He looks right through me, and it shouldn’t kill me, but it does.” “What are you talking about?...DO YOU KNOW HIM OR DON'T YOU?” shouts Donna in a loud, annoying voice that I through she abandoned back in the Runaway Bride episode.
“Donna! You’re Donna, Donna Noble?” says River. And she’s staring at Donna like she’s a glorious, walking, talking miracle. Which makes me sad, I love Donna. River confirms that she knows the Doctor in his personal future. “So why don’t you know me,” asks Donna, “where am I in the future?” It's a heart-wrenching question, and River’s face falls in answer, telegraphing a world of grief at the end of Donna’s journey. Thankfully for Donna, she doesn’t have time to dwell on it.
“Got a live one!” interrupts the Doctor. Finally, finally, finally, FINALLY, for real this time, the Doctor tells us the deal with the Vashta Nerada. “It’s not darkness down those tunnels. This is not a shadow, it’s a swarm. A man-eating swarm.” He picks up the lunch box. To demonstrate he tosses a chicken drumstick from the lunch box into the shadows. The darkness devours it in the air, and it lands on the floor as a dry bone. (I start thinking of a giant swarm of Midges devouring sheep in the Scottish Highlands, which is probably where Scotsman Moffat got the idea.) The Vashta Nerada are “piranhas of the air…literally, the shadows that melt the flesh. Most planets have them but usually in small clusters.” The Doctor’s never seen an infestation on this scale or this aggressive.
They exist on Earth too, assures the Doctor. “You can see them sometimes if you look. [They are] the dust in sunbeams.” (Uh, if they live in the shadows, how can you see them in a sunbeam?) “If they were on Earth we’d know,” claims Donna, the woman who up until Christmas 2006 remained remarkably ignorant of at least two Earth wide alien invasions. “Normally they live on road kill. Sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark,” explains the Doctor.
“Every shadow?” questions River as she warily passes a flashlight beam over the dark corners of the room. “No,” says the Doctor, “but any shadow.” So what’s a frightened humanoid supposed to do? “Run,” says the Doctor. Did we really expect any other answer from him? The Doctor wants to run to the nearest exit teleport. Donna brilliantly points out The Shop will have an exit. “They always make you go through the little shop on the way out so they can sell you stuff.” “That’s why I love a little shop!” agrees the Doctor.
Proper Dave starts to marshal the expeditioners to the exit. The Doctor asks him to stop. Why? Because he’s got two shadows. It’s how the Vashta Nerada hunt, they latch onto a food source and keep it fresh. The Doctor tells Proper Dave to stand still, to not even move for his helmet which he has Anita fetch. The Doctor takes the helmet and places it on Proper Dave while telling everyone else to do likewise and seal their space-suits-up. (Heh. hidden Barneyism…and How I Met Your Mother’s story structure is very reminiscent of Moffat’s manipulation of time/story structure on Coupling…oops. Mind wandering again.) “But Doctor, we haven’t got any helmets,” points out Donna. “Yeah, but we’re safe anyway.” “How are we safe?” “We’re not. That was just a clever line to shut you up.” Doctor, you’ll have to try harder than that to shut up Donna Noble.
The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to increase the density of Proper Dave’s suit, “make it a tougher meal to eat.” He goes to pass it along to River for use on her own suit, but she’s already got one! And it’s sonic, totally sonic. She is soniced up! The Doctor is shocked and freaked.
River gets busy sonicing everyone’s space suits, while the Doctor grabs Donna’s hand and drags her to the exit teleports. Donna sees the souvenirs and wants to take a moment to shop. (Ah, Ms. Noble, The Library’s not so boring after all.) No time for that, chastises the Doctor as he places her in the teleport to send her back to the TARDIS. He can’t send the others. The TARDIS won’t recognize them. And it’s not safe for Donna, she doesn’t have a suit. “You don’t either,” argues Donna, “and I’m not leaving you.” “Donna, let me explain,” he lies as he hits a magic button that teleports her away. That’s how you shut her up, thinks the Doctor. Oh, Doctor, if you only knew! Inside the TARDIS, Donna begins to materialize and then SCREAM IN TORTURED PAIN!!! She never fully materializes and just disappears. No skeleton. But still, things are still not looking good for Donna’s future.
The Doctor runs back to River and the others. He’s looking for Proper Dave’s second shadow. It’s gone. The Doctor doesn’t believe it. They’re never just gone, and they never give up. He does a sonic screwdriver scan of Proper Dave’s remaining shadow. It’s benign. “Who turned out the lights?” asks Proper Dave. No one. The lights are on. Proper Dave’s lights are out. The Vashta Nerada managed to sneak inside his suit before it was sealed. They gobble him up with a few violent jerks and now Proper Dave’s communicator starts ghosting: “I’m fine. I’m okay. I’m fine. I can’t… Why can’t I...” But the suit is still standing, and the communicator still glowing and now ghost looping: “Hey, who turned out the lights?” The Doctor moves toward the suit, asking if Dave can still hear him. Big mistake. The suit grabs his throat, pressing the Doctor to his knees, and Proper Dave’s sucked-dry skeleton face tilts forward in the visor as the swarm possessed suit leans over him. Yeah, it’s scary.
Sonic screwdriver to the rescue! River’s sonic screwdriver. She presses it against Proper Dave’s suit. The suit cowers at the sonic shock and releases the Doctor who stumbles away and gets everyone to move back. The skeletal suit recovers and lunges forward in jerky, deliberate steps. It’s moving slowly but starts casting multiple rapidly expanding shadows. “Where do we go, what do we do?” worries Mr. Lux. River has the answer. She pulls out a sonic blaster, (Hey, a friend of ours used to have one of those) to the Doctor’s amazed delight (he even calls it a squareness gun like Rose used to), and River sonics open a hole in the wall behind Mr. Lux. This lady really is soniced up! River shouts “Run!,” takes the Doctor’s hand and they all run through the opening and along a bookshelf aisle with the skeletal space suit and its shadows following.
In the apartment, Father sets the table and tells Little Girl dinner is ready. Little Girl turns to him and says: “Donna Noble has been saved.” What?! Donna found Jesus?
In The Library, the camera pans past several dark aisles of bookshelves. It stops in one where the Doctor is screwdrivering some overhanging lights. He’s already gotten three to turn back on. The lights won’t stop the Vashata Nerada, but it will slow them. “What’s the plan?” asks River as she holds up her screwdriver. The Doctor notices it looks exactly like his. “Yeah, you gave it to me.” “I don’t give my screwdriver to anyone.” (Technically true. I’ve only ever seen him lend it.) “I’m not anyone,” taunts River. This scene is where I like her best, probably because she’s taunting him. (I wonder how many regenerations of the Doctor she knows. She must know at least one because she kept mentioning how young he looks, and David Tennant isn’t going to stick around and play the Doctor until he’s 50. So I think she might mean “young” as in a younger generation, meaning she knows at least one older generation of him. And considering Steven Moffat is taking over this whole show in a couple years with, likely a new Doctor, I bet River meets up with Number 11 in 2010.)
River asks and the Doctor shares the plan with her. He has sent Donna back to the TARDIS. If the rest of them don’t get there within five hours Emergency Program One will activate, “and take her home, yeah,” adds River. She’s familiar with TARDIS protocol. The Doctor checks his screwdriver and terror spreads across his face. Donna’s not in the TARDIS, else he would have received a signal. “Maybe the coordinates slipped,” offers River, “the equipment is ancient.” The Doctor sprints for the nearest information Node. He asks it to locate Donna’s position in The Library. The Node face turns toward the Doctor…and it’s got Donna Noble’s face plastered onto it. Donna Noble is a dead, Node-faced donation, thinks the Doctor. The Donna Node repeats this message: “Donna Noble has left The Library. Donna Noble has been saved,” continuously for the next minute. The Doctor is crushed. Not quite Rose-is-dead crushed, but it’s close. River looks on in horror. The Doctor strokes Donna Node’s face. And I feel truly bad for Donna that she ended up this way, since she was so particularly skeeved out by the Node faces. Steven Moffat, you are a cruel, cruel man.
“Hey, who turned out the lights,” echoes the voice of skeletal suit. It’s found them. They need to run some more. River pulls the Doctor away from the Donna Node as the entire group runs past. They keep running but a shadow crosses their path boxing them between it and encroaching skeletal suit. “Doctor, what are we going to do?” asks River. The camera pushes in on skeletal suit which keeps repeating: “Hey, who turned out the lights.” The camera pushes in on Dead Donna Node which keeps repeating: “Donna Noble has been saved.” And……the episode ends.
Next Time: Mr. Lux does know who
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