The Silence

The unexplained ominous phrase "Silence will fall" recurs throughout the fifth series of Doctor Who, in 2010.

The plot thread is left open in the series finale, "The Big Bang", where the force responsible for the TARDIS' destruction is left unidentified.

The Silence are then introduced—as a species rather than an event—in the two-part premiere for the show's sixth series.

Later in the series, the Silence is revealed to be a religious movement composed of the species of the same name.

The religion takes its name from the prophecy, that when the oldest question in the universe is asked, silence will (or must) fall.

As the Doctor is predestined to answer the question, the Silence made it their goal to make his death a fixed point in time and prevent this.

The species called the Silence is formally introduced in the "The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon" two-parter; one Silent observes the death of a future Doctor (Matt Smith) in Utah.

Soon after, and unaware that companions River Song (Alex Kingston), Amy (Karen Gillan), and Rory (Arthur Darvill) met his future self and witnessed his death, the Doctor takes them to 1969, where they confront the Silence as they manipulate the US government.

By recording a Silent saying, "you should kill us all on sight," on a videophone—which the Doctor broadcasts during the Apollo 11 moonlanding—Earth's populace is conditioned to kill all Silence, though they will not remember doing so.

In the process, the Doctor's group meets a mysterious girl in the same astronaut suit as the assailant who kills his future self.

Later in the series, this girl is revealed to be Amy and Rory's daughter, Melody Pond, who is also a young River Song.

She is kidnapped as a baby, in "A Good Man Goes to War", by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) in order to become a weapon against the Doctor—her Time Lord-like genetic traits make her an ideal candidate to kill the Doctor.

"Let's Kill Hitler" establishes that the apparent "religious order" of the Silence, and its Academy of the Question, has brainwashed her to such an end, though River goes against her programming and saves the Doctor's life.

After biding their time until the conditions were right, Kovarian and the Silence kidnap River in "Closing Time", and force her to enact her role in the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio as seen in "The Impossible Astronaut".

In "The Wedding of River Song", many Silence appear in a parallel universe caused by River not shooting the Doctor.

The eyepatches worn by Madame Kovarian and others are revealed to be "Eye Drives"—external memory units—permitting associates of the Silence to perceive and remember the species.

The Silence reveal, however, that they have the power to remotely kill the devices' wearers—as such, they betray Kovarian by killing her.

The Doctor also learns why they wanted to kill him — to prevent a predestined event where he will be forced to answer the oldest question in the Universe (which turns out to be the show's name itself, "Doctor who?"), a terrible secret he knows.

Though the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio was thought to be a "fixed point" of history, it turns out he faked his death, with River imprisoned for it so that the Silence will believe him dead.

However, the Doctor later learns the predestined event where his actual death will occur: the planet Trenzalore.

The Silence's origins are revealed in "The Time of the Doctor" (2013).

They are genetically modified priests belonging to the Church of the Papal Mainframe; penitents would confess their sins and then forget their confessions immediately after giving them.

During the hundreds of years of stalemate above the planet Trenzalore, where the Doctor refused to give his name lest he unleash the full horrors of a renewed Time War on the universe, the Papal Mainframe became known as the Church of the Silence, making the Doctor's continued silence its primary mission.

During this period, the "Kovarian Chapter" of the Church is said to have split off and attempted to destroy the Doctor before he arrived on Trenzalore, as seen in Series 6.

Their first attempt to stop the Doctor's arrival there is revealed to be the destruction of his TARDIS in Series 5.

Ironically, this action leads to the appearance of the cracks in the universe which brought the Church to Trenzalore in the first place.

When the stalemate ends and Trenzalore is plunged into battle, the remaining Silence (who are loyal to the Papal Mainframe) fight alongside the Doctor to protect the planet's inhabitants from invading Daleks.

Links
Wikipedia> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_%28Doctor_Who%29
Tardis Data Core> tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Silent
Villains Wiki> villains.wikia.com/wiki/The_Silence

Copyright Owner
BBC> www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0103y2x/profiles/the-silence

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