[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\\
'''Tenth Doctor Era'''\\
'''Series 4:''' [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned CS]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime 1]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii 2]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod 3]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem 4]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky 5]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter 6]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp 7]] | '''8''' | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead 9]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight 10]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft 11]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth 12]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd 13]]\\
'''[[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride <<< Series 3]]''' | '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E14TheNextDoctor 2009 Specials >>>]]''']]-]]]
!Silence in the Library
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SilenceInTheLibrary_1161.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Wouldn't be the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan first time]] the Doctor [[BreakingTheFourthWall broke that wall]]...]]
->Written by Creator/StevenMoffat\\
Directed by Euros Lyn\\
'''Production code:''' 4.9\\
'''Air date:''' 31 May 2008\\
'''Part 1 of 2'''

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

JustForFun/TheOneWith ''[[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 effective deterrent.

Creator/StevenMoffat 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.

True to Moffat form, the episodes were nominated for a UsefulNotes/HugoAward, but they lost out to [[WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog a certain sing-along blog]].

[[NightmareFuel "Silence in the Library" was broadcast with a special warning to parents: don't let your kids watch it late at night.]]
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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.

The Doctor's psychic paper has brought him to the biggest library in the universe, the size of a planet, and it's unsettlingly empty. Also, there's a little -x- kiss in the psychic message. But bio-scans claim that the Library is not actually empty at all, so where ''is'' everyone? And where's the little girl? And why is a robot with a human face telling them to count the shadows?

The Doctor spots a security camera and uses his sonic screwdriver to scan it. The little girl screams in agony at the sound. The Doctor realises that the camera is sentient, and he and the girl have a rudimentary conversation through its display. Both are quite confused at this.

A team of 52[-[[superscript:nd]]-] 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.

The little girl has watched much of that on her TV, even briefly talking with River and the Doctor through her screen.

River pulls the Doctor aside to catch up and compare diaries, to see how their personal timelines 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.[[invoked]]

No time to dwell on that, though, as the Library is infested with flesh-eating shadows: Vashta Nerada. They're not every shadow... [[PrimalFear but they could be any shadow]]. They live on any planet that provides meat. Yes, [[ParanoiaFuel including Earth]].

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

River finds out who Donna is, and gives her a look of utmost pity. Donna's future doesn't look too happy. But River knows that she shouldn't spoil the ending.

The shadows kill one of the party, Miss Evangelista, stripping her flesh and leaving only a skeleton. The sound system in her protective suit is linked to her neural pathways and echoes her voice long after she's died, which is appropriately terrifying. Another is killed, with the Vashta Nerada animating his suit and chasing everyone else through the blacked-out hallways.

Dr. Moon asks the little girl's dad if he can talk to her alone for a moment. Because he needs to tell her something very important:

->'''Dr. Moon:''' The real world is a ''lie'', and your nightmares are '''real'''.

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.

The Doctor then gets a better look at River's screwdriver, and discovers it looks an awful lot like his own. Then he realizes that the TARDIS didn't signal him that someone teleported aboard, and when attempting to find Donna discovers that she's become one of the robots with human faces, to his horror, as the shadows close in...

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!!Tropes:

* ActionPrologue: The little girl apparently experiences one through her dreams, as the Doctor and Donna board themselves up in some kind of library room. Also InMediasRes, as we see the same scene again from the Doctor and Donna's point of view later in the episode.
* AdventurerArchaeologist: ''Professor'' River Song and her crew are exploring a very dangerous place.
* ApocalypseHow: An interesting case in that the Library is a planet which is technically an entirely-artificial futuristic building, and all 4,022 of its immediate (and obviously non-native) visitors disappeared off its surface in a sort-of ApocalypseHow/Class3A absolute DepopulationBomb, leaving only the swarms of Vashta Nerada while the planet was sealed off. The next episode explains how and why the Depopulation Bomb happened.
* ApocalypticLog: The messages on the computer at the beginning record the last moments before the shadows arrived.
* BigBad: The Vashta Narada.
* BrainlessBeauty: Miss Evangelista is well aware that she's stupid and also pretty.
-->"My dad told me I had the IQ of plankton and I was pleased."
* BrokenRecord:
** "Reminder: The Library has been breached. Others are coming. Reminder: The Library has been breached. Others are coming. Reminder: The Library has breached. Others are coming."
** "Hey, who turned out the lights?"
** "Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved."
* CommLinks: They happen to be capable of catching the last thoughts of their users, though they quickly turn into a BrokenRecord.
* ContinuityNod:
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild Squareness]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances gun]]!" Creator/StevenMoffat has confirmed that it's Jack's gun, left in the TARDIS at the end of Series 1.
** The Little Shop in the Library, which the Doctor is delighted over, is a call back to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth New Earth]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E1SmithAndJones Smith and Jones]]".
** A [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tardis/images/e/e6/Silence_books_promo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210613175814 promotional image]] reveals that the Library has copies of ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature A Journal of]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood Impossible Things]]'', ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild The French Revolution]]'', ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks Origins of the Universe]]'' by Oolun Colluphid, ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E3TheCreatureFromThePit Everest in Easy Stages]]'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon the TARDIS instruction manual]], ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E5BlackOrchid Black Orchid]]'', and ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Understanding Telebiogenesis]]''.
** The Doctor says that if he doesn't get back to the TARDIS after five hours, Emergency Program One will activate and send Donna back home for her safety. This is the same TARDIS feature that the Ninth Doctor used to send Rose back home to protect her from the incoming Dalek fleet in Satellite Five in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays The Parting of the Ways]]".
* ConversationalTroping: The Doctor and Donna discuss how TimeTravel can lead to {{Spoiler}}s about life.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Lux seems to be one of these, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead at least until the next episode]].
* CreepyMonotone: "[[ApocalypticLog Run. For god's sake, run. The Library has sealed itself. We can't. Oh. They're here. Agh. Slaugh. Snik. Message ends.]] [[NoTalkingOrPhonesWarning Please switch off your mobile comm units]] [[DissonantSerenity for the comfort of other readers.]]"
* 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 open.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Nice door skills, Donna.\\
'''Donna:''' Yeah, well, you know. Boyfriends. Sometimes you need the element of surprise.
* DarknessEqualsDeath: Quite literally; stand in the darkness, in the shadows, and you will be eaten.
* DidISayThatOutLoud: Donna is visibly bothered when she realizes it sounds like she thinks the Doctor is attractive.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Oh, ''I'm'' PrettyBoy!\\
'''Donna:''' YES! Oh... that came out a bit quick...\\
'''The Doctor:''' Pretty?\\
'''Donna:''' Eh. ''[shrugs]''
* DistressCall: Sent out a hundred years ago, but the defences around the planet were so good they only just were able to get through.
* TheDitz: Miss Evangelista. On the ship to the Library, she mistook an escape pod for the bathroom. ''Twice''.
* DontAskJustRun: "Daleks — aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans — back of the neck. Vashta Nerada... ''run''. Just run."
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: One hundred years before the episode begins, everyone on the library world mysteriously disappeared, and the planet was sealed off.
* EscapePod: On the voyage to the Library, Miss Evangelista mistook one of the ship's escape pods for the bathroom ''twice'', requiring them to turn back for her both times.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The Doctor makes a point of mentioning that the books are all new editions printed specially for the Library.
** 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".
** "4022 people ''saved''."
** Proper Dave flinches visibly when the Doctor describes the Vashta Nerada's feeding habits. Guess who's next on the menu.
** River's reaction when she discovers Donna's identity, and Donna's sense of alarm that River is from the Doctor's future but hadn't met ''her''.
** River's controlled anger when she says she'd like to meet the thing that killed Miss Evangelista, hinting that she is a GoodIsNotSoft ActionGirl.
* TheGadfly:
** River, starting as she means to go on, tells her boss to put his helmet on because she doesn't fancy him.
** The Doctor points and laughs at archaeologists.
* GetOut:
-->'''River:''' Hello, sweetie.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Get out.\\
'''Donna:''' Doctor...\\
'''The Doctor:''' 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.
* GhostPlanet: Ghost planet-sized library.
* GreatBigLibraryOfEverything: Well, it's the size of a ''planet'' and has copies of every book ever printed, so yes.
* HaveWeMetYet: River appears to know the Doctor very well, but the Doctor himself doesn't know who she is (yet).
* HeelRealization: When the remnants of Miss Evangelista's consciousness request to talk to Donna because she was the only one who showed her any kindness, her fellow crewmates are clearly reflecting on their bullying treatment of her when she was alive and guiltily coming to this uncomfortable realization.
* HypocriticalHumour: The Doctor berates Lux that he doesn't want one man's pride to kill everyone in the room. River says [[DoubleStandard "Then why don't you sign his contract?"]] Then she admits she hadn't signed hers either.
* ILied:
** River. "I lied. I'm always lying."
** And this gem from the Doctor:
--->'''Donna:''' Doctor, we haven't got any helmets.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Yeah, but we're safe anyway.\\
'''Donna:''' How are we safe?\\
'''The Doctor:''' We're not. That was a clever lie to shut you up.
* {{Irony}}: A family named "light" in Latin[[note]]by some accounts, the name is related to "Lucas", meaning "bringer of light". Which makes it more ironic.[[/note]] accidentally created the most dangerous concentration of ''darkness'' in the universe.
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Creator/DavidTennant and Steve Pemberton had previously co-starred in ''Series/{{Blackpool}}''.
* InterfaceWithAFamiliarFace: A common habit in the 51[-[[superscript:st]]-] century, it seems. The Doctor equates it to donating a park bench.
* InvincibleBoogeymen: The Vashta Nerada. They seem only marginally Weakened by the Light, as it slows them down rather than actually harming or stopping them. When asked how to deal with the Vashta Nerada, the Doctor lampshades this trope by listing off weaknesses of various monsters, before adding "Vashta Nerada... run. Just run."
* {{Jerkass}}: Mr. Lux is rude, unhelpful and self-centred.
* LateToTheTragedy: Played both straight and inverted. The Doctor arrives 100 years too late to the Library, but also arrives too early, since River had expected a later incarnation of the Doctor to show up.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Spoilers!
* LivingShadow: The Vashta Nerada are the things in the dark and any shadow.
* MadnessMantra:
** "Hey, who turned out the lights?"
** "Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved."
* MindScrew: The whole girl in therapy[=/=]the Doctor in the Library flip-flopping.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "Vashta Nerada" sounds threatening even before it's translated as "The Shadows That Melt the Flesh".
* NightmareFace: Although extremely pretty in person, Miss Evangelista hides her face behind a veil after she is uploaded upon her death. In a moment of anger Donna tears off the veil, and Evangelista has a hideously warped face looks like a visual glitch, causing Donna to scream.
* 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.
* NoNameGiven: "The girl" and "Dad".
* NonMaliciousMonster: PlayedWith 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]].
* NoodleIncident:
** Donna's explanation for her skills in kicking in doors make you wonder what kind of ex-boyfriends she's had to require the "element of surprise".
** 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.
* NoTalkingOrPhonesWarning: The terminal that tells the Doctor and Donna the messages from before the Library was sealed ends with an emotionless request to switch off their mobile comm units for the comfort of other readers.
* 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.
* NotNowKiddo: Miss Evangelista getting blown off when the panel opens up.
* OhCrap:
** "[[CharacterCatchphrase I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry.]] But you've got two shadows."
** "Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
** "The real world is a lie, and your nightmares are real."
** River gets one when she finally realizes the Doctor has no idea who she is.
** The Doctor gets one when River pulls out her own sonic screwdriver.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Proper Dave and Other Dave.
* PrettyBoy: Yes, you, Doctor.
* PrimalFear: Discussed by the Doctor.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But they're wrong: it's not irrational. It's Vashta Nerada.\\
'''Donna:''' What's Vashta Nerada?\\
'''The Doctor:''' [[LivingShadow It's what's in the dark]]. It's what's ''always'' in the dark.
* 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.
* RockBeatsLaser: The sonic screwdriver "doesn't do wood", to Donna's incredulousness.
* SanDimasTime: You could usually count on everyone the Doctor meets remembering events in the same order; this is one of the first episodes to play with that.
* SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud: The computer terminal that recites the ApocalypticLog in the Library's computers dispassionately reads the onomatopoeia as well.
* SchmuckBait: The conveniently-opened wall panel in the room where the Doctor's and River's parties first meet. And Miss Evangelista, of course, falls for it.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The Universe's largest library, home to every written work ever and run by a powerful computer... can't count past one million million (ie a US and increasingly UK-adopted trillion or traditional UK billion (bi-million), which is probably why the episode phrases it unambiguously). 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.
* SelfPlagiarism: The idea of the Doctor in the biggest library in the universe first appeared in Moffat's short story "Continuity Errors".
* SerialEscalation: Scaring viewers into hiding behind the sofa was no longer enough. This is the episode that decides to ''scare them out''.
* SingleBiomePlanet: {{Justified|Trope}} — it's a purpose-built artificial planet, so the biome is "library".
* SpellMyNameWithAThe:
-->'''The Doctor:''' The Library. So big it doesn't need a name, just a great big ''the''.
* {{Spoiler}}:
** River Song discusses how time travel to and from the future can create spoilers for ''reality'', which is why it would be a very bad idea for the Doctor to read her journal containing "spoilers" about his future self.
** Also played with in a LeaningOnTheFourthWall kind of way in the "Next Time" trailer at the end of the episode: the clips combine the Doctor asking about CAL, River and the Doctor both saying "Spoilers", and the little girl screaming "[[QuotesFitForATrailer No! Don't tell! You mustn't tell!]]"
* SpookySilentLibrary: Murders by living shadows makes for "Silence in the Library". There was some catastrophe earlier and now the place is eerie.
* StableTimeLoop: The Doctor only knows about the rule against diary-peeking because River told him about it.
* StrippedToTheBone: The Vashta Nerada don't eat bones, so the skeletons of their victims are all that's left behind.
* SundayIsBoring: The Doctor says, "I never land [the TARDIS] on Sundays. Sundays are boring."
* SuperSpeed: The Vashta Nerada feed fast. Blink of an eye fast.
* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: River has a bit of this talking about her history with the Doctor because she refers to past events that are his future. It gets confusing.
* TitleDrop: "A million million lifeforms... and silence in the Library..."
* VisibleBoomMic: In the house, when CAL is telling her Dad that the phone is ringing while he's talking to Doctor Moon, a boom mic can be seen at the top centre of the shot where both Doctor Moon and Cal's Dad are talking.
* WhamLine: Keep in mind this is a child psychologist talking to his patient:
-->'''Dr. Moon:''' The real world is a ''lie'', and your nightmares are ''real.''
* WhatTheHellHero: River delivers an understated but stinging one to the Doctor when he's quibbling about signing Mr. Lux's "personal experience contract":
-->'''Mr. Lux:''' I'm protecting my family's pride.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Well, funny thing, Mr. Lux. I don't wanna see everyone in this room ''dead'' because some idiot thinks his pride is more important.\\
'''River:''' Then why don't you sign his contract?
** Of course, she then says she also didn't sign it. ("I'm getting worse than you.")
* WholePlotReference: Moffat is a big fan of ''Literature/TheTimeTravelersWife''. River meeting the Doctor in the library ''very'' much echoes Clare meeting Henry in a library in said novel.
* TheWormThatWalks: The Vashta Nerada, with the aid of a spacesuit and a skeleton, are able to walk around like a person, albeit awkwardly.
* ZombieGait: Suits possessed by a swarm have a clumsy walk.

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->"Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved."\\
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

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