Some of the creepiest and most thought-provoking episodes of Doctor Who revolve around creatures that we never actually see.

Here we take a look back at some of the best…

‘Silence in the Library’ / ‘Forest of the Dead’ (2008)

In which we first encounter River Song and learn that Sundays are boring.

Following a psychic message from Professor Song that arrived too early, the Doctor and Donna find themselves in an abandoned library, quarantined 100 years earlier, with one ominous message – count the shadows. Soon, the Doctor discovers that the shadows in question are not shadows at all, but a dense swarm of microscopic carnivores known as the Vashta Nerada.

Described as “Piranhas of the air”, they can strip a fresh source of meat to the bone in seconds, a detail that unfortunate PA Miss Evangelista learnt too late. The genius of these tiny monsters, is that they play on a primal fear, darkness. We’re instinctively wary of it because it can conceal danger, and that’s why making the Vashta Nerada invisible to the naked eye is such a masterstroke.

There’s always a nagging sense of uncertainty, an unshakeable worry that a threat lurks somewhere close by because you never get to see what it is – the tension in these episodes will wreck you.

“Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. Except it’s not irrational. It’s Vashta Nerada.”

The Doctor gave Sally Sparrow only two words to protect herself from the Weeping Angels, “Don’t Blink” and he sums up the Vashta Nerada just as succinctly, “not every shadow … but any shadow”. He’s effectively telling Donna and the others that nowhere is safe and the danger zones are impossible to predict.

The characters in these episodes aren’t just running away from a monster, they’re running from darkness and darkness, as we all know, is inevitable. At some point, day will turn to night and then, there’s nowhere left to hide.

Continued on next page…