“Hello sweetie!” Oh, I do love hearing that, though it sounds far sweeter from a curly blonde woman surrounded by mystery, action, and intrigue than it does from your dad. Professor River Song is Moffat’s second-best creation behind what haunts River’s mum. Though, I’m getting ahead of myself. A few weeks ago (two months now), I said that “Blink” was Moffat’s last episode before taking over the show from Series Five and beyond, which is wrong. He also wrote a two-parter I was never too excited about before.

As I said on Friday while expelling my glee over the Big Finish audios, I love Doctor Who. With that love comes a lot of knowledge of the show. I’ll attest, I do tend to spit out little bits of information with little effort. I can’t hold 60-years fictional of wisdom spread out across books, comics, audios, and otherwise that I don’t know, and that which I do know will get crossed over with other bits from time to time. That aside, I also have never liked the episode too much because it is aimed more towards Moffat’s brand of Who horror.

I’ve never been one for horror, and even as a kid I just found it to be over-acted claptrap. Having something go bump in the dark, only for the camera to turn and see something fly off a shelf just didn’t interest me. As pretentious as it might sound, I could see through that and didn’t really care otherwise. So welcome to an episode where the deadly monster is the dark. It is the shadows cast by nothing in particular, the Vashta Nerada. As an adult, though “There’s no point in being grown-up if you can’t act a little childish sometimes,” I can grasp what was attempted and understand it better.

It was an attempt to tell kids that were my age and younger that the dark is a scary place. There was more than enough time to wonderfully build the tension and the horror of what it is to stand in the darkness, all built to a villain that I don’t think we’ve seen since in the show. It is a brilliant idea by Moffat, but as I said it was undermined by my petulant and childish care for the darker themes over the adventure. I think that is what captivated me the most, the adventure of these strange worlds known only as “Some quarry in Wales” in many strange languages, such as Welsh. “The Silence in the Library” is less about the adventure and more about the mystery, stuck in a few rooms.

Though the library, as I said last week teasing for this week’s review, somewhat sounds similar to that of the library in “The Genocide Machine” from the beginning of Big Finish’s range. A huge library that is away on some planet otherwise abandoned. It has every book known to every living being, and is curated by strange people. Of course, “The Genocide Machine” focused more on the Daleks and their desire for knowledge (I believe, it has been months). However, it nonetheless featured a similar idea, though in research for this two-parter I couldn’t find a reference to either being connected.

They aren’t the same. One is hidden in a rainforest, the other is tucked away on a desolate planet where the darkness whipped out every being in seconds. So that’s two libraries with every book ever. It must be fun to handle the books that only have two existing copies left. Then again, there’s only one of them that has a little blue book with all the secrets you want to know, a little blue book with panels that look like the T.A.R.D.I.S. A diary filled with all the interesting little adventures and secrets of two people. Spoilers!

Shall we talk about the episode instead of my nonsensical rubbish? Yes, there are starring names galore this week again, with Alex Kingston playing River, the brilliant Colin Salmon playing Dr. Moon, and St Trinian‘s actor and ex-wife of that plod you stupidly herald as the Jésus of electric cars or a nuisance on Twitter, Talulah Riley. Most of the cast are brilliant, even Tate when Miss Evangelista wanders into a dark place. It is only let down by some ropey bits and Donna’s stupidly comedic interjections. I said I’d be moaning about her all the time, and here I am again tripping over myself wanting to kick her at every turn. It’s not bad, it is just poor timing in this case.

River is opening up her heart, talking about how she’s known the Doctor for such a long time. She laments that when he looks at her he’s just looking right through her and how much that is breaking her heart. “Are you just talking rubbish?” I get that she’s meant to be more realistic with her “cheeky” and abrasive manner, but read the room love! River is pouring her heart out, giving the role more gravity with every story we know of and those that are yet to come. Donna just gives you whiplash pulling you out of the beautiful moment. That’s a staple of Moffat’s writing, though he’ll do it in future series with someone not there.

Think of that moment from “The Impossible Astronaut,” under the central console of Matt Smith’s first T.A.R.D.I.S. It is River, Amy, and Rory having a deep moment, and the Doctor jumps in to say: “I am being extremely clever up here and there’s no one to stand around looking impressed. What’s the point in having you all?” Tonally, that fits because it is someone without any idea of what is going on, someone outside of the conversation. Donna is already in there, it is emotional whiplash by an idiot.

That very annoying moment aside, it is peak Moffat horror. The something unnatural that devours humans in a similar way to something natural, ultimately grounding it. I don’t hate the two-parter, I just don’t feel as invested here as I do with later stories with River, general episodes, or specials. However, now knowing all the context we have for River, I think the episode grows stronger. That’s where the episode shines the greatest, it is setting up for what is yet to come for us, but has already happened for River. This is where my editor shouts at me for the show being too confusing.

Again, it is a companion pulling an episode together. The Vashta Nerada alone in an episode, in a two-parter no less, would be an alright episode that Tennant would have to pull up from the depths of boredom. However, with the mystery and Donna flung off into Dr Moon’s hospital and appearing on the curator stones that take dead people’s faces, it becomes a much more interesting episode that I just didn’t care about as a kid. Now I see the larger scope, I understand what Moffat was doing, and I get what he does with his ability to throw everything at the wall. Though, I feel like I’m just focusing on one thing the episode isn’t too concerned with.

“Silence in the Library” would have been a fine episode, “Forest of the Dead,” however, is the highlight. The revelation that someone, not just someone but River, knows the Doctor’s name. The man of mystery, the man only referred to “Doctor, Doctor Who?” the question that has reverberated through time, for almost sixty years now, and one woman with just as much mystery knows his name, his actual name. That’s putting aside the reveal that Vashta Nerada is not out of place. They are hunting in their forest, the place of their birth. A forest of dead trees, dead souls, and forgotten memories, the library.

Yes, Miss Evangelista’s face in that 2005-2009 Who CGI, that’s only horrific because of how crap it looks. Though everything else is beautifully designed, the library, the planet, the spacesuits, and so on. I’ll stop rambling and get to my final salient point. It might not be an adventure, it might not be about “The Day of the Doctor,” but it is one of the most important days in the Doctor’s life. The day he argued with River like an old married couple, the day Professor River Song died.

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Dr Who "Silence In The Library" & "Forest Of The Dead"

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• I love River Song.
• Moffat's wonderful multiple series set up.
• Spoilers!

Cons

• Early New Who CGI