Silence in the Library

I'll save my full blown review when the story is complete but as usual Moffat and Doctor Who never disappoints especially with this chiller of an episode providing us with a slew of iconic imagery to go with the already bursting array of memorable moments which this show is notorious for providing.

The first part provides so much beautiful setup for what could be an incredibly striking second part.

We're just gonna have to get used to this when Moffat takes over in 2010.

Bring on Forest of the Dead

Books full of knowledge and power, with shadows uninvitingly dour, if you enter the larder, of the Vashta Nerada, you're the menu and they will devour.

I'm not sure if there were any Silence in this 51st century library but you would never recall if they were, even if you've not yet come across them, it is still alive with malevolence though, and you're just as unlikely to catch it creeping up on you, but at least your final moments will be recalled.

Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead

This is a two part story which is one of my all time top 10 Doctor Who TV stories. It is absolutely superb in every way. It also introduces a main character, River Song, who would go on to be very important in the whole Doctor Who universe.

Alex Kingston is an excellent actress who portrays River to perfection. The character is a strong, intelligent and interesting female character who adds a lot of quality. In this two parter she is completely mysterious and adds huge interest as a result.

River is a fantastic character for this story and when Steven Moffatt who wrote this wonderful two parter took over as Showrunner he went on to use River in repeated appearances which continued to be in a non-chronological order and maintained the mystery before finally revealing her back story. That back story is hugely problematic for me to be honest but that has no impact thankfully on this two parter and she is just a tremendous guest character here adding great mystery.

The rest of the guest characters are fun and interesting whilst Catherine Tate puts in an awesome performance with Donna at her peak of brilliance as a top companion.

Tennant is also at the peak of his excellence as the Doctor and the whole story with the little girl and the library is clever, entertaining and ultimately logical.

There are exciting thrills, moving scenes of touching drama as well as intelligent dialogue and witty humour. The scenes in Forest of the Dead where Donna faces up to reality and the loss of her 'children' is heartbreaking. This is top notch Doctor Who.

The Vashta Nerada are a fantastically menacing alien threat and the skeletons in space suits are a cool aspect.

Overall this is basically as good as it gets. Russell T. Davies in charge brings the best out of Steven Moffatt. As showrunner I felt Moffatt often let his ideas and enthusiasm go a bit over the top but when assigned a writing job by RTD with boundaries nobody is better than Moffatt.

Euros Lyn directs perfectly and both episodes are utterly iconic Doctor Who classics. Incredibly this amazing standard would continue right through the rest of Series 4, lifting it to be my favourite series of the modern era of the show.

My Rating for both episodes: 10/10.

Just as my interest in this latest series was starting to wain, writer-extraordinaire and future saviour of "Who" Steve Moffat delivers the goods with the two-part "Silence in the Library".

Moffat does creepy very well and although I'd encountered the most terrifying element of this first parter in similar form in an early copy of "Hellblazer", the shocks are original and chilling.

The cast includes the delightful Alex Kingston as the mysterious future-friend of The Doctor and Colin Salmon as the Earth-bound psychologist.

A complex, intriguing episode, I'm waiting with baited breath to see how things conclude next week.

9 out of 10.

Ooo... I knew that this back run on season four was good and so it proves here with another double episode story, one that introduces a seminal Nu-Who character and is more of the chilling horror that Steven Moffat has become synonymous with during his writing only days.

Responding to a message that appears on his physic paper, the Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) head to the largest library in history, a whole planet dedicated to the preservation of books. Though eerily uninhabited, the Doctor discovers a security camera that seems linked to a little girl (Eve Newton) apparently living in 21st century Britain. Then they meet an archaeological team led by the enigmatic River Song (Alex Kingston) who appears to know the Doctor already, though he doesn't know her.

Moffat's penchant for horror comes out again here with the Vashta Nerada, microscopic creatures that will strip the flesh from a person in seconds. But there's also the more esoteric horror of the concept of echoes of dead people being trapped in their mental communicators - already dead, but still trying to make sense of their experience as the signal degrades. The image of the animated space suit, with only a skull inside the helmet repeating "who turned out the lights" as he chases down the others is a memorable one.

The cast of this episode is really strong, even down to tiny cameos from Sarah Niles and Josh Dallas. The archaeological team consists of several recognisable faces, from O-T Fagbenle, Talulah Riley, Harry 'Ray Bloody Purchase' Peacock and, completing the League of Gentlemen collection, Steve Pemberton. It's the first appearance of Alex Kingston's River Song though, that is the key one, as she would feature regularly from here on out during Moffat's time as show runner - which was announced just as this episode was going to air.

Two-part episodes can only really be judged at the conclusion of the second episode, but this is such an inventive start, jam packed with ideas, that it stands as one of Nu-Who's best episodes so far.