Doctor Who Gives A Glimpse Of Its Own Future

The home run of a great installment of clip - traveling dramedy Doctor Who : I could n’t think of which “ Aha ! ” present moment to include as a little clip with this retread . I settle on the episode ’s weird little court to The Matrix ( sans blue-blooded anovulatory drug ) because it was just such a bully picayune instant , and it open up the whole episode . But there were a batch of slap-up bit — each pertaining to their own strands of the story — in this episode . contingent , and spoilers , below .

I was actually a shade unquiet about the two - parter that begin with “ Silence In The Library , ” becuase I ( and others ) had build it up so much . Writer Steven Moffat , the writer of “ Blink ” and “ The Empty Child , ” would come save us from the insipidness of Doctor Who season four with a lovely return to manakin . Luckily , Moffat pretty much delivers , with an instalment that feels like a slow burn at first , until it starts unleashing plot turn after patch twist with terrific dexterity .

The stake were even higher this time around , because we all know Moffat is take up over as the show - runner of Who in 2010 . So it ’s heavily not to see this episode as giving hints to where Moffat ’s edition of the show might be heading .

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Most obviously , the young character of River Song ( Alex Kingston from ER ) has a huge “ recur character ” flag over her nous . She ’s had some variety of intense relationship with the Doctor in his future ( and her own past ) , and now their timelines have crossed . I would not say no to a few years of Doctor - and - River dangerous undertaking , establish on this one instalment — she seems like a good foil for the Doctor , almost his adequate in knowledge , but also main . She ’s well-fixed in the Doctor ’s world , but can obviously also do without him . And he ’s trusted her enough to give her his journal and his transonic screwdriver .

( And I would play that the next clock time we see River , we ’ll get the reverse of this scenario , where the Doctor now knows her , but she does n’t know him . This is the form of thing theBlinovitch Limitation Effectis supposed to forbid . )

But admit River in the instalment also open up the Doctor ’s story in all sorts of other fashion . Like : he ’s young for a change . I ’ve lost count of how many times in the RTD earned run average we ’ve heard the Doctor bring up to himself as old . ( Or someone else consult to the Doctor that way . ) It ’s a chorus . Now , all of a sudden , his honest year are ahead of him — which is really a much more interesting way to monger the show , if you think about it . ( Of course , if he ’s really only get three more life leave , then objectively , he is older . ) The estimate of the Doctor bewilder speck about his own future has only been played with a few times before on the show ( most notably in 1989 ’s “ Battlefield ” ) but it ’s exciting to get hints about escapade we have n’t seen yet .

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And , of course , it ’s courteous for the Doctor not to lie with everything for a change as well . Plus all the talk about “ spoilers ” and how bad it is to glint before , was obviously very pleasurable .

The primary floor of the instalment , of course of study , is only tangentially about River Song and the Doctor ’s future relationship with her . Instead , it ’s about a deserted library where sentient shadows are wipe out everybody . All of the poppycock I ’d heard in overture about “ count the shadows ” and “ data point touch ” had sounded very interchangeable to late Moffat outings , especially last twelvemonth ’s unearthly rules in “ Blink ” about not being capable to close your heart , or the stone backer will move . really keep an eye on the episode , however , it did n’t feel like a recap at all , and the line with the shadows moving around felt sufficiently creepy , and yet legitimate , that it work as a threat . Especially the here and now where Proper Dave abruptly has two shadow , which made a nebulose threat suddenly very , very concrete .

And then there are the “ data ghosts , ” store mentality blueprint which persist in to function for a while after death . They ’re a terrific metaphor for the dull recognition that someone is blend in always — you think you could still discover them , still sing to them , for a while after their vital signs are pass over out . It ’s a nice way of twisting the knife of the show ’s two deaths , by make us linger over them . And then it take right Dave much more shivery , in a very “ Are you my mummy ? ” way , once he ’s lurching around repeating his last words over and over again .

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( I kept wondering if the “ data ghosts ” would be like the nano - genes in “ The Empty tike ” — a gamin gimmick that turns out to be the key to the whole mickle . patently people are being stored somehow , the way Donna has been “ saved . ” We know Donna ca n’t be dead . Probably . )

The other grownup closed book of the episode was the not - too - empty child , apparently in present - day Earth , who sees the library when she closes her eyes . Is she actually in the material domain ? Or is that just a Matrix - esque feigning that her awareness has been port into ? Is she the depository library computer , or just connected to it somehow ? I keep back changing my thinker about what role she was playing in the story , either innocent victim or clandestine friend of the Doctor — until the terminal , when she declare that Donna had been “ saved , ” and she accord to help the creepy Dr. Moon “ save ” the others . Which probably signify she ’s part of the problem — even if unwittingly . Did she put all the humans , include Donna now , into some kind of electronic storage to make unnecessary them from the living shadows ?

Anyway , it was a adorable variety of pace , and even the stuff that could have feel run - of - the - John Mill ( new love pastime for the Doctor , colossus with weird arbitrary ruler , child who can see the Doctor through her fireplacetelevision ) somehow did n’t , because the execution was awing and you still could n’t distinguish where it was really going . Still very , very hopeful for the Moffat earned run average of Doctor Who in a couple of years .

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