The Hollow Men

You may be looking for the novel The Hollow Men.

"The Hollow Men" was a poem by T.S. Eliot.

Barbara Wright once quoted the line: "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." She did this after finding London frozen in time. (PROSE: 1963)

Bernice Summerfield met a man who quoted the poem, saying: "Between the conception, and the creation, falls the shadow". (PROSE: Falls the Shadow)

Richard Lazarus quoted the poem to Tish Jones: "Between the idea, and the reality, between the motion, and the act..." With the Tenth Doctor finishing "...falls the shadow".

After Lazarus' death, the Doctor told Martha Jones that Eliot was right, quoting, "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper". (TV: The Lazarus Experiment)

Behind the scenes

 * The title of the Virgin New Adventures book, Falls the Shadow, is a reference to a line from the poem.