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{{Infobox Organisation
{{Infobox Species
|image      = The Silence (The Scream).jpg
|Species name = The Silence
|leader      = [[Tasha Lem]], Madame [[Kovarian]]
|image        = [[File:The Silence 2.jpg|250px]]
|aka         = The Silence and Academy of the Question, The Sentinels of History
|type        = [[Humanoid]]s
|affiliation = [[Kovarian Chapter]], [[Order of the Headless]], [[The Church]], [[Papal Mainframe]], [[Silent]]s
|aka         =  
|bases      = [[Demon's Run]], [[Graystark Hall Orphanage]], [[79B Aickman Road]]
|affiliation =
|members     = [[Melody Pond (Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut)|Melody Pond]], Father [[Gideon Vandaleur]], [[Gantok]], [[The Scream (Remembrance)|The Scream]]
|origin      =
|first mention = The Vampires of Venice (TV story)
|appearances  = [[DW]]: ''[[Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut)]]''<br>[[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'' / ''[[Day of the Moon]]''
|first      = The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)
|mentions     = [[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]''<br>[[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]''<br>[[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'' / ''[[The Big Bang]]''
|appearances = {{appears}}
|individuals =}}
|clip        = Who Are The Silence? - TARDIS Index Files - Doctor Who
'''The Silence''' were a mysterious species that forced [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] to explode on [[26th June|June 26th]] [[2010]], creating [[Time Field|cracks in time]] that would erase various things throughout the [[universe]], and eventually the universe itself. They acted as parasites, using post-hypnotic suggestion to have other races construct things for them.
}}{{you may|Silent}}
The '''Priests of Silencio''', more commonly known as ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)|The Day of the Doctor]]'') '''the Silence''', was a religious order of [[priest]]s created by [[Tasha Lem]]. It was an offshoot of [[the Church]] forces of the [[Papal Mainframe]]. The Priests associated with the [[Kovarian Chapter]] tried to kill the Doctor to prevent the fruition of a specific prophecy, which stated: "On the fields of [[Trenzalore]], at the [[Siege of Trenzalore|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."


==Biology==
This question was "[[The Question|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. This question was later revealed to be a code word intended to allow the [[Time Lord]]s to know that it was safe to return to the [[universe]] from the pocket realm that the Doctor had placed them in to end the [[Last Great Time War|Time War]]. The Silence feared that if the Time Lords and Gallifrey returned, the Time War would begin anew and the only way to stop this from occurring was to prevent the Doctor from giving his true name to the Time Lords through a [[Time field|crack in time]] at Trenzalore.
The Silence were tall humanoids with bulbous heads and grey, mouthless faces. Their hands possessed four large, elongated fingers with one bulbous central finger. They had small eyes in deep recesses in the skull. The eyes lacked sclera and were completely dark. They spoke in low, guttural voices and tended to make growling or clicking noises. They wore black suits and ties. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'') The Silence would also hang upside down from ceilings while they slept, much like Earth [[Bat|bats]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')


==Powers and abilities==
== Creation ==
The Silence were able to remain hidden on Earth for thousands of years, as anyone who saw them - even a photograph or recording of them - would instantly forget about them the moment they looked away. Anyone looking at the Silence would recover their memories of previous sightings, although not instantaneously.
The Silence was founded by Tasha Lem, Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe, when she changed the core tenets of the Papal Mainframe to dedicate it to ensuring that "silence would fall" in response to the First Question, sent by the Time Lords to find the correct universe into which they could return. It was believed that the Time War would begin anew if the Time Lords returned to the universe, and so the Church of the Silence was created to prevent the Doctor from answering the First Question and telling the Time Lords that it was safe for them to return. While the main body of the Silence attempted to prevent the Doctor from speaking his name at the [[Siege of Trenzalore]], the [[Kovarian Chapter]] broke away to try to stop the Doctor through time travel. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|The Time of the Doctor]]'')


The Silence could use an energy discharge from their hands to kill and obliterate humanoid beings, leaving only a little ash. It appeared that they had to draw this energy from an outside source since when Joy was killed by a Silent, the lights in the restroom were flickering on and off. When absorbing energy and discharging it, a hole appeared where a mouth would have been on a human's face. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'' / ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')
==Organisation==
Madame Kovarian and Tasha Lem apparently led the Silence. Some members belonged to a race of genetically engineered priests (known as [[Silent]]s) who used [[Hypnosis|post-hypnotic]] suggestion to manipulate other species into doing their bidding and to make confessions. All memory of the Silents would also be erased from one's memory after an individual looked away from them. The Silents also employed [[human]] or [[humanoid]] agents to carry out specific tasks. These agents were often fitted with [[Eye Drive]]s which allowed them to remember the Silents when they turned away. ([[TV]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]'', ''[[The Wedding of River Song (TV story)|The Wedding of River Song]]'')


The Silence could influence the actions of other species by ordering any person who looked at them. Any command would remain in a person's mind and take the form of post-hypnotic suggestion. People could be driven insane by having too many orders implanted by the Silence. ([[DW]]: ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')
==History==
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. ([[TV]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]'') 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 revived him using the remainder of her [[Regeneration|regenerative]] energy to save his life. ([[TV]]: ''[[Let's Kill Hitler (TV story)|Let's Kill Hitler]]'')
 
The [[Silent]]s were first properly encountered by the Doctor in [[1969]] [[America]] although he had been aware of the existence of the Silence for some time. The Silence had been on Earth since humanity's beginning, secretly manipulating humanity and its development for their own ends.
 
It was implied they were responsible for [[the Moon]] landing because they needed a special spacesuit for Melody Pond for the day when she would kill the Doctor. 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. The footage included a recording that [[Canton Everett Delaware III|Canton Delaware]] had made of a Silent saying that humans should kill the Silents on sight. ([[TV]]: ''[[Day of the Moon (TV story)|Day of the Moon]]'')


==History==
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. ([[TV]]: ''[[Closing Time (TV story)|Closing Time]]'') One Silent was present near [[Lake Silencio]] in [[Utah]] to observe the Doctor, River, [[Amy Pond|Amy]] and [[Rory Williams|Rory]] during the events of the Doctor's death. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)|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 him at a [[fixed point in time]]. The fixed point was actually the Teselecta's destruction and the deception itself. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Wedding of River Song (TV story)|The Wedding of River Song]]'')
[[File:Silence in the TARDIS.jpg|left|thumb|A projection of the Silence in [[the Doctor's TARDIS]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')]]
The Silence had apparently been present on Earth for thousands of years, since the time the wheel and fire were developed, going unnoticed by the [[human]] race. They used their ability of post-hypnotic suggestion to guide humans into unconsciously doing their bidding in such things as going to the moon. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'' / ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')


The Silence first took control of [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] in [[Early human history|102 A.D.]] They forced it to land outside of [[Amy Pond]]'s house on June 26th 2010, and it exploded shortly afterward.
During the [[Siege of Trenzalore]], the event that led to the founding of the Silence, the [[Kovarian Chapter]] broke away from the main body of the Silence to try to prevent the Doctor from reaching [[Trenzalore]] and potentially speaking his name by going back in time and engineering events to kill him in his past. These events, the [[Total Event Collapse|destruction of the TARDIS]], the creation of [[Time Field|the Cracks]], and the kidnapping and manipulation of [[River Song]] ironically ''led'' to the events they were trying to prevent. The Doctor referred to this as the [[destiny trap]]: "you can't change history if you're a part of it." When the Siege turned into all out war, the Doctor allied himself with the Silence to defend Trenzalore for six hundred years. Together they destroyed or forced to retreat all but the [[Dalek]]s before being overrun. After the [[Time Lord]]s [[Alternate timeline|changed the future]] by granting the Doctor a new [[regeneration]] cycle, the Crack closed and the Silence's goal was fulfilled as the Dalek forces were destroyed and the Doctor was unable to restore the Time Lords. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|The Time of the Doctor]]'')


Although the entity that caused the Doctor's TARDIS to explode was never visible or named, a voice was heard speaking before the TARDIS began exploding, saying: "Silence will fall!" ([[DW]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'' / ''[[The Big Bang]]'')
[[Silent (Revolution of the Daleks)|One Silent]] was imprisoned in the [[Judoon]] [[Maximum security facility|prison]], along with the [[Thirteenth Doctor]]. She stated that she forgot it was there, before being interrupted by [[Jack Harkness|Captain Jack Harkness]], forgetting it again. The Silent watched the Doctor and Jack escape through the cell walls, using Jack's [[Temporal-freezing gateway disinhibitor bubble|breakout ball]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Revolution of the Daleks (TV story)|Revolution of the Daleks]]'')


In [[1580]] [[Venice]], [[Rosanna Calvierri]] said that through some of the cracks, the [[Saturnynian]]s saw only silence and the end of all things. This caused them to flee their homeworld to 1580 [[Earth]] through a different crack that acted like a wormhole. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'')
==References==
{{Section stub|[[The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)]]}}
When recaptured, [[Prisoner Zero]] told the Doctor that "silence will fall". ([[TV]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]'')


[[File:Shocker.jpg|thumb|[[Joy]] is killed by a Silent. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'')]]
An entity declared, "Silence will fall" aboard the TARDIS on [[26 June]] [[2010]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')


A Silent spied on the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River in Utah, 2011, briefly being noticed by Amy before Rory distracted her. Another Silent visited the [[White House]] in 1969 and killed [[Joy]] in front of Amy Pond before delivering a post-hypnotic suggestion for her to "tell the Doctor what he must know and what he must never know". ([[DW]]: ''[[The Impossible Astronaut]]'')
When asked by the Doctor why she was in Venice, the Saturnynian [[Rosanna Calvierri]] responded, "We ran from the silence". During Isabella's execution, Rosanna's steward recited the line, "And so in memory of the children lost to the silence, the traitor is delivered to the arms of those she betrayed". 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. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice (TV story)|The Vampires of Venice]]'')


At some point, the Silence had taken up residence at a disused orphanage where the [[River Song|little girl]] had come from and used post-hypnotic suggestion to control the man that had run it previously into thinking the orphanage was still in operation. They showed such interest in the welfare of the little girl, as they put her in the life support astronaut suit to keep her healthy and safe - even going so far as to equip the suit with a built-in weapons system. The Silence later kidnapped Amy for unknown purposes when she was investigating the orphanage with Canton. They took her to their underground lair and cryptically told her that she would help "bring the silence." ([[DW]]: ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')
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. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Big Bang (TV story)|The Big Bang]]'')


The Doctor inflicted a crushing defeat on the Silence when he ensured that humanity saw footage of a wounded Silent they held captive, spliced into the footage of the moon landing broadcast. In it, the Silent said "You should kill us all on sight". This footage was viewed by half-a-billion humans at the time, and would be invariably viewed by their descendants. This sealed the fate of the Silence; humanity began to exterminate Silence as commanded. The group of Silence holding Amy captive tried to kill the Doctor for this. However, River killed all the Silence that were present. Without enough time to implant more post-hypnotic suggestions when humans look at them, the remaining Silence seemed doomed. ([[DW]]: ''[[Day of the Moon]]'')
Several lines of [[Abigail's Song]] referred to silence, such as, "When you're alone, silence is all you know". ([[TV]]: ''[[A Christmas Carol (TV story)|A Christmas Carol]]'')


==References==
When the Eleventh Doctor telepathically connected to a [[Type 1]] [[TARDIS]], it found solace in his memory of the phrase "Silence Will Fall", inspiring it to use [[the Void]] to bring order to its perceived chaos of [[N-Space]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Lost Dimension (comic story)|The Lost Dimension]]'')
*When reimprisoned, [[Prisoner Zero]] told the Eleventh Doctor that "silence will fall". ([[DW]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'')
*Following his defeat of Rosanna, when the Doctor was preparing to leave, a mysterious silence fell over Venice. The Doctor asked [[Rory Williams]] "can you hear that?" and Rory replied "Hear what? All I can hear is silence". There was then a shot of a previously busy Venetian market showing that everybody had mysteriously vanished as if they had been removed from time, space or possibly existence. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Vampires of Venice]]'')
*After attending Amy Pond's wedding, the Doctor discussed the TARDIS blowing up and mentioned that "the Silence is still out there" before being distracted by a phone call. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Big Bang (TV story)|The Big Bang]]'')
*Several lines of Abigail's Song referred to Silence (e.g. "When you're alone, Silence is all you know". ([[DW]]: ''[[A Christmas Carol (TV story)|A Christmas Carol]]'')


==Behind the scenes==
== Behind the scenes ==
<!--Do not add speculation--it will be deleted. This includes adding things like Omega, etc. If you do add material or remove this warning, it will be seen as vandalism-->
===''Doctor Who: Legacy''===
*[[Steven Moffat]] has stated that he was inspired by Edvard Munch's ''[[Wikipedia:The Scream|The Scream]]'' when creating the Silence's appearance.<ref>http://www.tvscoop.tv/2011/04/doctor-whos-the-silence-monster-based-on-the-scream.html</ref>
In the story of ''[[Legacy (video game)|Doctor Who: Legacy]]'', the [[Eleventh Doctor]] and his [[companion]]s find a Silent guarding a [[time paradox]] in [[America]] on [[8 April]] [[1969]]. The Doctor claims that the Silence should not be here but further in his past, which he attributes to damage to [[time]] caused by the [[Sontaran]]s' interference in the [[timeline]].
*Part of the lyrics of the Songs of Captivity and Freedom translate to "While we are silent, we are screaming." Whether this was intentional or not is unknown.
*The Silence also appear similar to both Grey Aliens from popular UFO Conspiracy theories and Slender Man from the popular online Mythos


==Footnotes==
{{TitleSort}}
{{Reflist}}


{{Series 5 aliens}}
[[fr:Le Silence]]
{{series 6 aliens}}
[[he:הדממה]]
[[Category:Silence arc]]
[[ru:Тишина]]
[[Category:Series 6 (Doctor Who) stories]]
[[Category:Religious orders]]
[[Category:Eleventh Doctor enemies]]
[[Category:Criminal organisations]]
[[Category:Humanoid species]]
[[Category:Time-active factions]]
[[Category:Species influential to Earth's past]]
[[Category:Church of the Papal Mainframe]]
[[Category:Total Collapse Event Incident]]
[[Category:The Doctor]]
[[Category:River Song]]
[[Category:Siege of Trenzalore]]
[[Category:River Song's World]]

Latest revision as of 22:08, 4 December 2024

You may be looking for Silent.

The Priests of Silencio, more commonly known as (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) the Silence, was a religious order of priests created by Tasha Lem. It was an offshoot of the Church forces of the Papal Mainframe. The Priests associated with the Kovarian Chapter tried to kill the Doctor to prevent the fruition 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. This question was later revealed to be a code word intended to allow the Time Lords to know that it was safe to return to the universe from the pocket realm that the Doctor had placed them in to end the Time War. The Silence feared that if the Time Lords and Gallifrey returned, the Time War would begin anew and the only way to stop this from occurring was to prevent the Doctor from giving his true name to the Time Lords through a crack in time at Trenzalore.

Creation[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Silence was founded by Tasha Lem, Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe, when she changed the core tenets of the Papal Mainframe to dedicate it to ensuring that "silence would fall" in response to the First Question, sent by the Time Lords to find the correct universe into which they could return. It was believed that the Time War would begin anew if the Time Lords returned to the universe, and so the Church of the Silence was created to prevent the Doctor from answering the First Question and telling the Time Lords that it was safe for them to return. While the main body of the Silence attempted to prevent the Doctor from speaking his name at the Siege of Trenzalore, the Kovarian Chapter broke away to try to stop the Doctor through time travel. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)

Organisation[[edit] | [edit source]]

Madame Kovarian and Tasha Lem apparently led the Silence. Some members belonged to a race of genetically engineered priests (known as Silents) who used post-hypnotic suggestion to manipulate other species into doing their bidding and to make confessions. All memory of the Silents would also be erased from one's memory after an individual looked away from them. 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 when they turned away. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, The Wedding of River Song)

History[[edit] | [edit source]]

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. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) 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 revived him using the remainder of her regenerative energy to save his life. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)

The Silents were first properly encountered by the Doctor in 1969 America although he had been aware of the existence of the Silence for some time. The Silence had been on Earth since humanity's beginning, secretly manipulating humanity and its development for their own ends.

It was implied they were responsible for the Moon landing because they needed a special spacesuit for Melody Pond for the day when she would kill the Doctor. 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. The footage included a recording that Canton Delaware had made of a Silent saying that humans should kill the Silents on sight. (TV: 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. (TV: 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. (TV: 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 him at a fixed point in time. The fixed point was actually the Teselecta's destruction and the deception itself. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)

During the Siege of Trenzalore, the event that led to the founding of the Silence, the Kovarian Chapter broke away from the main body of the Silence to try to prevent the Doctor from reaching Trenzalore and potentially speaking his name by going back in time and engineering events to kill him in his past. These events, the destruction of the TARDIS, the creation of the Cracks, and the kidnapping and manipulation of River Song ironically led to the events they were trying to prevent. The Doctor referred to this as the destiny trap: "you can't change history if you're a part of it." When the Siege turned into all out war, the Doctor allied himself with the Silence to defend Trenzalore for six hundred years. Together they destroyed or forced to retreat all but the Daleks before being overrun. After the Time Lords changed the future by granting the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, the Crack closed and the Silence's goal was fulfilled as the Dalek forces were destroyed and the Doctor was unable to restore the Time Lords. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)

One Silent was imprisoned in the Judoon prison, along with the Thirteenth Doctor. She stated that she forgot it was there, before being interrupted by Captain Jack Harkness, forgetting it again. The Silent watched the Doctor and Jack escape through the cell walls, using Jack's breakout ball. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)

References[[edit] | [edit source]]

When recaptured, Prisoner Zero told the Doctor that "silence will fall". (TV: The Eleventh Hour)

An entity declared, "Silence will fall" aboard the TARDIS on 26 June 2010. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

When asked by the Doctor why she was in Venice, the Saturnynian Rosanna Calvierri responded, "We ran from the silence". During Isabella's execution, Rosanna's steward recited the line, "And so in memory of the children lost to the silence, the traitor is delivered to the arms of those she betrayed". 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. (TV: 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. (TV: The Big Bang)

Several lines of Abigail's Song referred to silence, such as, "When you're alone, silence is all you know". (TV: A Christmas Carol)

When the Eleventh Doctor telepathically connected to a Type 1 TARDIS, it found solace in his memory of the phrase "Silence Will Fall", inspiring it to use the Void to bring order to its perceived chaos of N-Space. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension)

Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Doctor Who: Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]

In the story of Doctor Who: Legacy, the Eleventh Doctor and his companions find a Silent guarding a time paradox in America on 8 April 1969. The Doctor claims that the Silence should not be here but further in his past, which he attributes to damage to time caused by the Sontarans' interference in the timeline.

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