Why I like the Vashta Nerada
Darkness is inherently scary. It is the unknown, the invisible. Shadows of something sinister, just out of sight. Or perhaps it is the shadows themselves that are possessed of some lurking malevolence - fleeing before the light, only to return ever stronger. Darkness hides terrors, but what happens when the shadows themselves are hungry?
The Vashta Nerada are darkness. Monsters so small that their swarms appear as nothing more than extraneous shadows. Shadows that can skeletalize a cow in under four seconds, mind. The Vashta Nerada are most often compared to piranhas, for the very good reason that they act exactly like archetypical piranhas: small, numerous, and carnivorous. (Actual piranhas may well be far more cuddly, I really don't know). WE encounter them infesting the Lux Library Planet in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead." Libraries are intrinsically a bit otherworldly - but now the very shadows between the shelves can eat you, faster than you can even cry out.
The Vashta Nerada are, therefore, absolutely terrifying. Completely and utterly. They capitalize off of very visceral fears. The fear of the dark that light cannot dispel because they are the shadows themselves. And shadows are everywhere. When Doctor Who gets scary, the traditional approach is to hide behind the sofa - but there are shadows behind your sofa. You cannot hide from them, you cannot run from them or avoid them, and you cannot defeat them or really even fight them. Perhaps my favorite episode of the X-Files uses the same idea - unstoppable microorganisms inhabiting the darkness. It's incredibly effective. What is more fundamental than the dark? It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. Comes before and follows after, ends life, kills laughter. And apparently now EATS PEOPLE.
The thing I like best about the Vashta Nerada, apart from the fact that they really are freakin terrifying, is that at the end of the day they really are just monsters. Darkness has such profound semiotic weight that it's actually really nice to have a monster that incorporates none of that. There is nothing remotely mystical about the Vashta Nerada. They are creatures, and like all creatures they need to eat. They are terrifying, but they are not evil - merely carnivorous. It's not even a deep insatiable hunger - there's just a heck of a lot of them, and, on the whole, not a lot of available meat sources. If anything, they have the stronger moral position (which...is awesome). It turns out that this is their planet - the Library was built on top of, and largely out of, their native forest habitat. Any edibles that wander in are therefore literally fair game. You may not want to get eaten, but you came into their space, they didn't come into yours. Anything that happens from here on out is therefore your bad. There might be an environmental message in there somewhere. Mostly though I really enjoy the way our expectations and assumptions are tipped on their heads - but crucially without robbing the Vashta Nerada of any of their menace.
The Vashta Nerada are extraordinarily effective as monsters, and their inherent scariness is only heightened by all of the other stuff going on in the episode. They are a one-off monster, as well they should be, and are made of pure paranoia fuel. Perhaps the best take yet on a very old concept.
...count the shadows...
The Vashta Nerada are darkness. Monsters so small that their swarms appear as nothing more than extraneous shadows. Shadows that can skeletalize a cow in under four seconds, mind. The Vashta Nerada are most often compared to piranhas, for the very good reason that they act exactly like archetypical piranhas: small, numerous, and carnivorous. (Actual piranhas may well be far more cuddly, I really don't know). WE encounter them infesting the Lux Library Planet in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead." Libraries are intrinsically a bit otherworldly - but now the very shadows between the shelves can eat you, faster than you can even cry out.
The Vashta Nerada are, therefore, absolutely terrifying. Completely and utterly. They capitalize off of very visceral fears. The fear of the dark that light cannot dispel because they are the shadows themselves. And shadows are everywhere. When Doctor Who gets scary, the traditional approach is to hide behind the sofa - but there are shadows behind your sofa. You cannot hide from them, you cannot run from them or avoid them, and you cannot defeat them or really even fight them. Perhaps my favorite episode of the X-Files uses the same idea - unstoppable microorganisms inhabiting the darkness. It's incredibly effective. What is more fundamental than the dark? It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. Comes before and follows after, ends life, kills laughter. And apparently now EATS PEOPLE.
The thing I like best about the Vashta Nerada, apart from the fact that they really are freakin terrifying, is that at the end of the day they really are just monsters. Darkness has such profound semiotic weight that it's actually really nice to have a monster that incorporates none of that. There is nothing remotely mystical about the Vashta Nerada. They are creatures, and like all creatures they need to eat. They are terrifying, but they are not evil - merely carnivorous. It's not even a deep insatiable hunger - there's just a heck of a lot of them, and, on the whole, not a lot of available meat sources. If anything, they have the stronger moral position (which...is awesome). It turns out that this is their planet - the Library was built on top of, and largely out of, their native forest habitat. Any edibles that wander in are therefore literally fair game. You may not want to get eaten, but you came into their space, they didn't come into yours. Anything that happens from here on out is therefore your bad. There might be an environmental message in there somewhere. Mostly though I really enjoy the way our expectations and assumptions are tipped on their heads - but crucially without robbing the Vashta Nerada of any of their menace.
The Vashta Nerada are extraordinarily effective as monsters, and their inherent scariness is only heightened by all of the other stuff going on in the episode. They are a one-off monster, as well they should be, and are made of pure paranoia fuel. Perhaps the best take yet on a very old concept.
...count the shadows...