Day 746: Silence in the Library

It's become incredibly difficult to experience Silence in the Library, and its follow-up story Forest of the Dead, as they were originally intended. It's not any fault of the story itself, which is otherwise rather fine, if perhaps the weakest of the four stories that Steven Moffat wrote under Russell T Davies. Instead, it's a problem with the way in which the series developed after these episodes aired.

You see, this story features the first appearance of River Song, not just for the Doctor, but for the audience as well. Our reaction to her, as originally written, should be confusion and a sense of unwariness, because we're encountering this person who supposedly knows the Doctor from the future, and yet we've never seen her before in our lives. Moments like her revealing her own sonic screwdriver, or the fact that she's overly familiar with the Doctor are clearly written and directed as if they should be quietly shocking, and yet they aren't.

The reason is, of course, that we've met River Song countless times over the course of the series, it's just that we've met her in episodes after Silence in the Library. And because she's such a prevalent character, all of the mystery that originally surrounded her is now lost. Even the most recently broadcast episode, The Husbands of River Song, explained the presence of her sonic screwdriver in this episode. And whilst this is a necessary thing in terms of the overall structure of the series, I can't help but feel a bit sad that I won't get to experience that original mystery about this character again.

I can't help but miss the joy of fan speculation as to who River Song is, as well as other things like what happened to Donna in the cliffhanger, or the meaning of CAL. I remember going online and delving just a little bit deeper than I normally would into the world of the online Doctor Who fandom, which led to me discovering set reports, and like-minded fans who had their own crazy theories as to what happened. But that time is over now, and we've moved on with a new Doctor, and new stories to speculate about. Funnily enough, whilst writing this blog, I looked up some of those blogs earlier. One has devolved into a shadow of its former self. Another hasn't been updated since 2012. A further one just announced that they're going to be under new management. It's sad to see that they've gone away, it feels like some of that magic of a time gone by has passed on.

But still, time marches on, and other sites popped up to replace the old ones that I moved away from. And I can still speculate on other stuff forthcoming in the next series of Doctor Who. It's just a constant reminder, I suppose, that We've Got Work To Do!