“Silence in the Library” quotes from Doctor Who

The Library. So big it doesn't need a name, just a great big "The".

Spoilers!

What?

These books are from your future. If you read ahead, it will spoil all the surprises. Like peeping at the end.

Isn't travelling with you one big spoiler?

I try to keep you away from major plot developments. Which, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at.

Hang on, did you say expedition?

My expedition. I funded it.

Oh, you're not, are you? Tell me you're not archaeologists.

Got a problem with archaeologists?

I'm a time traveller. I point and laugh at archaeologists.

Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark, but they're wrong, because it's not irrational. It's Vashta Nerada.

What's "Vashta Nerada"?

It's what's in the dark. It's what's always in the dark.

That's not darkness down those tunnels. This is not a shadow. It's a swarm, a man-eating swarm. [throws a chicken leg into the shadow, which is immediately reduced to mere bone] The piranhas of the air. The Vashta Nerada. Literally, "the shadows that melt the flesh". Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation on this scale, or this aggressive.

What do you mean, most planets? Not Earth?

[nodding] Mmm, Earth. And a billion other worlds. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust in sunbeams.

[unnerved, in denial] If... they were on Earth, we'd know.

Nah. Normally they live on roadkill. But sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark.

Every shadow?

No. But any shadow.

So what do we do?

Daleks, aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans, back of the neck. Vashta Nerada? Run. Just run.