The Silence
The Silence were a mysterious species that forced the Doctor's TARDIS to explode on the date of June 26th 2010, and thus created 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.
Biology
The Silence were tall humanoids with bulbous heads and grey, mouthless faces. Their hands possessed large, elongated fingers with a 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 bats. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Powers and abilities
The Silence were able to remain hidden on Earth for over 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 from a Silent. Anyone looking at the Silence would recover their memories of previous sightings, although not instantaneously.
The Silence could also use an energy discharge from their hands to kill and obliterate a humanoid beings, leaving only a small amount of ashes behind. It appeared that they had to draw this energy from an outside source though, as when performing this act the energy from the lights flew into it. When absorbing the energy and discharging it, a hole appeared where a mouth should have been on its face. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon)
The Silence could also infulence the actions of other species by saying to do something while a person looked at them. Any command said after looking away from a Silent would remain in a person's mind and they would perfom the action they were told to perform without question in a form of post-hypnotic suggestion. If a Silent continously implanted post-hypnotic suggestions into a person's mind, the person in question would eventually lose their sanity. (DW: Day of the Moon)
History
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 such as going to the moon. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon)
The Silence first took control of the Doctor's TARDIS in 102 A.D. They forced it to land outside of Amy Pond's house on June 26th 2010, and it exploded shortly afterward, trapping River Song inside it within a time loop activated by the TARDIS safety protocols until the Doctor rescued her using a Vortex Manipulator..
Although the entity that caused the Doctor's TARDIS to explode was never visible or named, it was heard speaking before the TARDIS began exploding, repeating: "Silence will fall!" (DW: The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang)
In 1580 Venice, Rosanna Calvierri said that through some of the cracks, the Saturnynians saw only silence and the end of all things. This caused them to flee their homeworld to to 1580 Earth through a different crack that acted like a wormhole. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
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) The Silence had taken residence at a disused orphanage the little girl had come from and used post-hypnotic suggestion to control the man that ran it previously into thinking the orphanage was still in use for their own needs. The Silence later kidnapped Amy for unknown purposes when she was investigating an orphanage with Canton and cryptically told her that she would help "bring the silence." In addition, they showed interest in the welfare of the little girl as they put her in the life support astronaut suit to keep her healthy. (DW: Day of the Moon)
The Silence were handed a crushing defeat by the Doctor when he ensured that humanity saw footage of a wounded Silent they held captive via splicing the footage into the moon landing broadcast, in which the Silent said the words "You should kill us all on sight". This footage was viewed by half-a-billion humans at the time, and would be continuously viewed by their descendants. This had sealed the fate of the Silence as humanity will begin to exterminate Silence as they were commanded. The group of Silence holding Amy captive tried to kill the Doctor for causing them to lose control of their empire after the Doctor, River and Rory initiated the Doctor's plan when they arrived to save Amy. However, River killed all the Silence that were present during Amy's rescue in a shot out. Without enough time to implant more post-hypnotic suggestions when humans look at them, the remaining Silence were now at a disadvantage as they possessed no weapons to defend themselves with since they were overconfident in their ability to control humanity. (DW: Day of the Moon)
However, it appears that at least one Silent had survived the decades of massacre set forth by the Doctor and was present at the death of the Eleventh Doctor in Utah in 2011 when an unknown person in the Silence's astronaut suit repeatedly shot the Doctor to prevent him from regenerating into his twelfth incarnation. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
Trivia
- The Silence's lair River discovered is exactly the same console room the would-be TARDIS in (DW: The Lodger). The Doctor even commented it looked just like it in (DW: Day of the Moon).
References
- 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 Venitian 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)
- Several lines of Abigail's Song refered to Silence (e.g. "When you're alone, Silence is all you know". (DW: A Christmas Carol)
Behind the scenes
- Moffat states that he was inspired by Edvard Munch's The Scream when creating the Silence's appearance.[1]
Footnotes
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