The Doctor and Donna land on the Library, a planetoid that is one gigantic book collection. The Library has come under attack, leaving no apparent survivors. Teaming up with a small crew of archeologists, one of whom seems to know much about The Doctor, the duo hurries to answer several hundred questions at once while staying alive in the process. What are the deadly Vashta Nerada? Who is the mysterious River Song and what is her connection to The Doctor? And, maybe most important of all, how is their current predicament connected to the dreams and nightmares plaguing a small girl back on present day Earth?
After two back to back weeks of somewhat subpar episodes, Doctor Who kicks it back into high gear with a frightful adventure worthy of being part of the saga. This is thanks, in no small part, to returning writer Steven Moffat, who gave us last seasons chilling “Blink”. Moffat knows how to inject any Doctor Who episode he writes with that massive dose of heart pumping adrenaline that drives the show from one point to the next with little time to breathe. It’s no wonder he has been chosen to succeed Russell T. Davies once he exits as head writer at the end of this series.
The story itself works similar to that of “The Sontaran Stratagem” as pulling all of the pieces together slowly in order to set up the massive payoff in part two. As I mentioned in my episode summary above, there are plenty of questions left unanswered at the end of part one of this story. In a way, not knowing those answers is just as frightening as the dreaded Vashta Nerada themselves, something worse than the Daleks apparently, which is something to really worry about.
The new characters introduced in this episode seemed to work off the stereotypical science fiction horror genre such as the “Alien Quadrilogy”. From proper doctors to dimwitted sidekicks, the gangs all here and one just wants to wonder who is going to get killed next and how. I was happy to recognize at least one familiar face in this new crowd. That face is Colin Salmon from the “James Bond” series, who plays the little girls psychologist with some kind of knowledge as to what is going on in the library. I can’t wait to see what kind of role he plays next week.
I loved this episode. It was old fashioned Doctor Who magic and horror all rolled into one 45 minute package. It’s still nice to know that the right combination of writers and actors can still pull things together. This is how you do a Doctor Who episode. Let’s just hope that part two can deliver a proper slam bang finale.
Next Week-The Library is no longer safe…not if The Doctor has anything to say about it.
Rating-10/10
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