History Recap / DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary

* FamousLastWords: "Hey, who turned out the lights?" turn out to be Proper Dave's.

* NonMaliciousMonster: Playing with a trope in this case. The Doctor says that Vashta Nerada are normally benign and live off roadkill. The aggressiveness of this batch is highly unusual. [[FridgeHorror Until you realize that the Vashta Nerada on this particular planet are essentially starving after a century of isolation from regular food sources]].

* WhamLine:

** River's reaction when she discovers Donna's identity.

* NonMaliciousMonster: Playing with a trope in this case. The Doctor says that Vashta Nerada are normally benign and live off roadkill. The aggressiveness of this batch is highly unusual.

River Song turns out to have a sonic screwdriver, much to the Doctor's surprise.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The Universe's largest library, home to every written work ever and over 4,000 sentient consciousnesses... can't count past one million million (or a trillion). A 64-bit integer in a modern computer can exceed that by a factor of about ''18.5 million''. Possibly it's the life-scanner's sensitivity, not the Library's counting ability, which hit its limit at that point.

'''The Doctor:''' Get out. All of you, turn around, get back in your rocket and fly away. Tell your grandchildren you came to the Library and lived. They won't believe you.

* NoodleIncident: While checking her diary, River asks the Doctor if he's done the "picnic at Asgard" or the "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels crash of the]] ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone Byzantium]]''". The latter is now a ResolvedNoodleIncident.

* CuttingTheKnot: The Doctor is trying to figure out how to get a door open with his sonic screwdriver ("It doesn't do wood?!"). Donna just kicks it, knocking it open.

->''"Daleks -- aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans -- back of the neck. Vashta Nerada...'' '''''run'''''''. Just run."''

The one with ''[[Creator/MontyPython Monty Python's Big Red Book]]'', the first appearance of "{{Spoiler}}s", and the one where hiding behind the sofa stops being an effect deterrent.

Somewhere in a very ordinary house, a little girl has schizophrenic visions of a library: huge and beautiful and -- best of all -- just for her. That is, until the Doctor and Donna show up. The little girl's father and her therapist (Dr. Moon) try to make sense of it all.

A team of 52nd century archaeologists show up, one of whom, Professor River Song, knows the Doctor ''very'' well. Though [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone what kind of]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler connection they have]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong is not revealed... yet]]. She greets him with a loving "Hello, sweetie!", then appears a bit miffed when he doesn't return the sentiment. River is mysterious, but definitely not a MysteriousWaif: she's mature, snarky and able to take care of herself.

River pulls the Doctor aside to catch up and compare diaries, to see how their personal time-lines are at the moment. The Doctor just stares at her blankly. Actually, Creator/DavidTennant just stares at her blankly, because Creator/StevenMoffat [[EnforcedMethodActing refused to tell him what was going on]]. River is appropriately horrified when she realises that the Doctor has never met ''her''. To him, this is their very first meeting. To her, he looks too young, too inexperienced, too happy. He's not ''her'' Doctor yet. She also realises that, due to their timelines, the first time the Doctor meets her will be the last time she meets him.

River Song turns out to have a sonic, much to the Doctor's surprise.

The Doctor tries to send Donna back to the TARDIS, using the teleporter in the Library's [[RunningGag little shop]]. But she is yanked out of existence -- screaming and mid-teleport -- to take her place among the Library's robot servants with real people's faces.

* AdventurerArchaeologist: ''Professor'' River Song and her crew are exploring a dangerous place

* CallForward:
** River mentions the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels crash of the]] ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone Byzantium]]'' while checking her diary.
** She also mentions that the Doctor created some rules for their relationship -- one of which is "No peeking in River's diary".
* CharacterDevelopment: River is still in the development she gets from "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]". She knows the Doctor ''does'' love her and that he ''will'' come if she asks -- so when she gets sent to a mysterious and abandoned library she calls for him, knowing he'll come. Only it's the wrong Doctor who turns up; Ten shows up - she's expecting ''Twelve'', who could ''easily'' defuse the matter as he knows to trust River.

** To "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]", despite not even being written yet. River knows the Doctor loves her and that he ''will'' turn up if she asks -- which she does, and which he does. Only the wrong him arrives.

* DontAskJustRun: "Daleks -- aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans -- back of the neck. Vashta Nerada... ''run''. Just run."

** "4022 people ''saved''."

** When comparing diaries, River mentions [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels the crash]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone of the]] ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone Byzantium]]''.

* InterfaceWithAFamiliarFace: A common habit in the 51[[superscript:st]] century, it seems. The Doctor equates it to donating a park bench.

* NoBisexuals: Averted. River openly admits to fancying everyone on the archaeological team save Mr. Lux. Since it's the 52[[superscript:nd]] century, when humans have developed new attitudes towards such things, no one comments on it. That and it'll later be implied to be a genetic trait.

* NothingIsScarier: The Vashta Nerada are ''almost, almost'' invisible. You can't see them - and if you do, you're already dead or something's gone wrong. You can only see the results.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Inverted with River Song, who walks up to the Doctor and begins chatting with him as if they're old friends. The Doctor, however, has never met her before -- turns out that, thanks to the TimeyWimeyBall, he's meeting her out of sequence.

* SingleBiomePlanet: {{Justified|Trope}} -- it's a purpose-built artificial planet, so the biome is "library".

The one with ''[[Creator/MontyPython Monty Python's Big Red Book]]''.

This very scary two-part episode, written by Creator/StevenMoffat, introduces a ''tremendously'' important character to the series: Professor River Song. Moffat wrote the story after being promoted to head writer of ''Series/DoctorWho'' from series 5 onwards. An early version of the Library itself was introduced by Moffat in his 1996 short story "Literature/ContinuityErrors", the first ''Doctor Who'' story he ever wrote.

River Song turns out to have a sonic screwdriver, much to the Doctor's surprise.

* CharacterDevelopment: River is still in the development she gets from "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong Husbands]]". She knows the Doctor ''does'' love her and that he ''will'' come if she asks -- so when she gets sent to a mysterious and abandoned library she calls for him, knowing he'll come. Only it's the wrong Doctor who turns up; Ten shows up - she's expecting ''Twelve'', who could ''easily'' defuse the matter as he knows to trust River.

** To "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]", despite that story not even being written. River knows the Doctor loves her and that he ''will'' turn up if she asks -- which she does, and which he does. Only the wrong him arrives.

* NoBisexuals: Averted. River openly admits to fancying everyone on the archaeological team save Mr. Lux. Since it's the 52[[superscript:nd]] century, when humans have developed new attitudes towards such things, no one comments on it.

'''The Doctor:''' [[LivingShadow It's what's in the dark]]. It's what's ''[[ParanoiaFuel always]]'' in the dark.

* SchmuckBait: The conveniently-opened wall panel in the room where the Doctor's and River's parties first meet. And Miss Evangelista, of course, [[WhatAnIdiot falls for it]].

The one with second shadows skinning souls to spooky, scary skeletons.\\
The one with second shadows skinning souls to spooky, scary skeletons.\\
[[TongueTwister The one with second shadows skinning souls to spooky, scary skeletons.]]\\
And a new [[Creator/AlexKingston character]] [[CallForward from the future.]]

Had you going there, didn't we?\\

* CharacterDevelopment: River is still in the development she gets from "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong Husbands]]". She knows the Doctor ''does'' love her and that he ''will'' come if she asks -- so when she gets sent to a mysterious and abandoned library she calls for him, knowing he'll come. Only it's the wrong Doctor who turns up; Ten shows up - she's expecting ''Twelve'', who could ''easily'' diffuse the matter as he knows to trust River.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The Universe's largest library, home to every written work ever and over 4,000 sentient consciousnesses... can't count past one million million (a "billion" in the UK and a "trillion" in the US). A 64-bit integer in a modern computer can exceed that by a factor of about ''18.5 million''. Possibly it's the life-scanner's sensitivity, not the Library's counting ability, which hit its limit at that point.

* CharacterDevelopment: River is still in the development she gets from "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong Husbands]]". She knows the Doctor ''does'' love her and that he ''will'' come if she asks -- so when she gets sent to a mysterious and abandoned library she calls for him, knowing he'll come. Only it's the wrong Doctor who turns up.

* CuttingTheKnot: The Doctor is trying to figure out how to get a door open with his sonic screwdriver ("It doesn't do wood?!"). Donna just slams into it, knocking it open.

The one with second shadows skinning souls to spooky, scary skeletons.\\