Unrepentant | DOCTOR WHO [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

twenty two | silence in the library

After pushing up the lever, the Doctor said, "Books! People never really stop loving books." After grabbing his trench coat and walking out of the TARDIS with Annabelle and Donna close behind him, he said, "Fifty-first century. By now you've got holovids, direct-to-brain downloads, fiction-mist. But you need the smell. The smell of books, you two. Deep breath."

After pushing open the door and stepping through it, the Doctor said, "The library. So big it doesn't need a name, just a great, big 'the'."

While Annabelle only snorted to herself in response to his words, Donna said, "It's like a city."

The Doctor told her, "It's a world, literally, a world. The whole core of the planet is in the index computer, biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand-new editions, especially printed. We're near the equator, so..." After holding up a finger, he said, "This must be biographies! I love biographies."

Donna replied, "Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end."

In turn, the Doctor said to her, "You need a good death. Without death there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size." After quickly ripping a book out of Donna's hands, he said, "Whay! Spoilers."

Donna said to him, "What?"

The Doctor told her, "These books are from your future. You don't wanna read ahead, spoil all the surprises. It's like peeking at the end."

Donna asked him, "Isn't traveling with you one big spoiler?"

In turn, the Doctor said to her, "I try to keep you away from major plot developments. Which, to be honest, I seem to be very mad at 'cause, you know what, this is the biggest library in the universe. So where is everyone? It's silent."

While the Doctor made his way over towards the closest machine, Donna asked him, "The library?"

With his sonic screwdriver pointed at the machine, the Doctor said, "The planet. The whole planet."

Donna replied, "Well, maybe it's a Sunday."

With a shake of his head, the Doctor told her, "No, I never land on Sundays. Sundays are boring."

With a mere tilt of her head, Donna said to him, "Oh, maybe everyone's really, really quiet."

In turn, the Doctor started to put his sonic screwdriver back into his trench coat as he said to her, "Yeah, maybe. But they'd still show up on the system."

With yet another tilt of her head, Donna asked him, "Doctor, why are we here? Really, why?"

The Doctor said to her, "Oh, you know, just passing."

Donna replied, "No, seriously. It was all, 'Let's hit the beach', then suddenly we're in a library. Why?"

It was then that the Doctor said, "Now that's interesting."