For the species identified as the leaders of "The Silence", see Silent.

The Silence was a religious order who considered themselves the “Sentinels of History”. They tried to kill the Doctor because of a specific prophecy, which stated: “On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a Question will be asked, a question that must never, ever be answered.”

This question was “The First Question, the oldest question in the Universe, that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight.” Dorium Maldovar told the Eleventh Doctor that the question was: “Doctor Who?”, which was a question the Doctor had been apparently running from his entire life/lives.

Contents 1 Organisation 2 History 3 References 4 Behind the scenes

Organisation Edit

The Silence was led by a race of memory-proof aliens (known also as the Silence) who used post-hypnotic suggestion to manipulate other species into doing their bidding. The Silents also employed human or humanoid agents to carry out specific tasks. These agents were often fitted with Eye Drives which allowed them to remember the Silents.

History Edit

The Silence allied with Madame Kovarian, the Church and the Order of the Headless. They were behind the Battle of Demon's Run and the kidnapping and brainwashing of the infant River Song, then known as Melody Pond. She later made several attempts on the Eleventh Doctor's life. Ultimately, she kissed him with poisoned lipstick. She later broke free of her conditioning and offered him the total of her regenerative energy, saving him. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler).

The alien leaders of the Silence were encountered by the Doctor in 1969 America. The Silence had been on Earth since the Stone Age, secretly manipulating humanity for their own ends. (DW: Day of the Moon)

It was implied they were responsible for the Moon landing because they needed a special spacesuit for Melody Pond. The Silence's occupation of Earth was broken when the Doctor issued a post-hypnotic command via the Apollo 11 footage to the entire human race, instructing them to kill the Silents on sight. (DW: Day of the Moon)

The Silence tracked down River Song to the Luna University, where they kidnapped her and forced her into an astronaut suit as part of their plan to kill the Doctor. (DW: Closing Time). One Silent was present near Lake Silencio in Utah to observe the Doctor, River, Amy and Rory during the events of the Doctor's death. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) Their plan was foiled when the Doctor convinced the crew of the Teselecta to disguise their ship as him and take his place, tricking the Silence into believing they had killed the Doctor at a fixed point in time. The fixed point was rather, the Teselecta's destruction and the deception itself. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)

References Edit

• When recaptured, Prisoner Zero told the Doctor that "silence will fall". (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
• An unknown entity was heard declaring "Silence will fall" aboard the TARDIS on 26 June 2010. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
• Following his defeat of Rosanna, when the Doctor was preparing to leave, a mysterious silence fell over Venice. All the people had vanished from a previously busy Venetian market. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
• After attending Amy Pond and Rory Williams' wedding, the Doctor discussed the TARDIS blowing up and warned that "the Silence is still out there" before being distracted by a phone call. (DW: The Big Bang)
• Several lines of Abigail's Song referred to silence, such as, "When you're alone, silence is all you know". It is unclear whether this was a reference to the order, the species, the Doctor's death (his "silence") or simply an ordinary use of the common noun. (DW: A Christmas Carol)

Behind the scenes Edit

According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a non-canonical REF book; River Song, Rory Williams and Amy Pond would theorise that the Silence may also be responsible for the Philadelphia Experiment and had encouraged wars as a form of population control, as well as creating the tribal belief that cameras would steal one's soul and causing the repeated thefts of Edvard Munch's The Scream to suppress imagery of them. Rory thought the rise of 1950s alien invasion films and 1940s-60s UFO sightings might have been a subconscious reaction to the Silence.

v • e Aliens and Enemies of Series 5 The Eleventh Hour Prisoner Zero  • Atraxi The Beast Below Smilers  • Winders  • Hawthorne  • Star whale Victory of the Daleks Daleks (Ironside  • Supreme  • Eternal  • Drone  • Strategist  • Scientist)  • Edwin Bracewell The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone Weeping Angels (Angel Bob) The Vampires of Venice Saturnyns (Rosanna Calvierri  • Francesco) Amy's Choice Dream Lord (Psychic Pollen)  • Eknodine (Poggit  • Hamil  • Nainby) The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood Silurians (Restac  • Alaya  • Eldane  • Malohkeh) Vincent and the Doctor Krafayis The Lodger 79B Aickman Road The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang The Silence  • The Alliance  • Dorium  • Stone Dalek  • Nestene Consciousness

v • e Aliens and Enemies of Series 6 A Christmas Carol Kazran Sardick  • Sky shark  • Sky fish The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon The Silence (Silents)  • Kovarian  • Teselecta The Curse of the Black Spot Siren  • Unnamed alien  • Kovarian The Doctor's Wife House  • Ood (Nephew)  • Uncle  • Auntie The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People Gangers (Jennifer  • Jimmy  • Miranda Cleaves  • Dicken  • Buzzer  • The Doctor  • Jennifer 2)  • Kovarian A Good Man Goes to War Kovarian  • The Church (Colonel Manton)  • Headless monks  • Sontarans (Strax)  • Silurians (Vastra)  • Dorium  • Cybermen (Cyber-Leader • Twelfth Cyber Legion)  • Judoon  • Ganger (Melody Pond) Let's Kill Hitler Adolf Hitler  • Melody Pond  • Teselecta  • Teselecta Antibodies Night Terrors Tenza (George)  • Peg Dolls The Girl Who Waited Handbots (Rory) The God Complex Minotaur (Minotaur)  • Weeping Angels  • Gibbis Closing Time Cybermen  • Cybermats  • Kovarian  • The Silence (Silents) The Wedding of River Song Kovarian  • The Silence (Silents  • Gantok)  • Silurians (Malohkeh)  • Supreme Dalek (cameo)  • Dorium  • Teselecta  • Headless monks (Skulls)  • Pterodactyls Death is the Only Answer Ood The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe Wooden King • Wooden Queen