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The Silence are a fictional race of mysterious beings in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, voiced by Marnix Van Den Broeke. They are not named during the show, but instead are referenced in the credits and the BBC Doctor Who website.

Producer Steven Moffat created the Silence to compete with other creatures in the past in terms of "scariness". The Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, called the Silence "the scariest monsters in the Show's history".

The BBC website reveals that "Silence" is the plural, and an individual monster is called a Silent.

Physical characteristics

The Silence are depicted as tall humanoids with bulbous heads and grey, mouthless, skeletal-like fleshy faces, partly inspired by Edvard Munch's The Scream. Their eyes are sunken deep within their eye sockets and the skin of their cheeks appears to be stretched down to the point of their narrow chins. Their hands consist of a thumb, a long flipper-like finger and a small secondary finger. They speak in low, guttural voices, though it is unknown if they actually speak or if they use telepathy, and are all dressed in black business suits.

If anyone saw one of them properly, they would instantly forget as soon as they looked away. In addition, they seemed to be able to move from place to place very quickly. The Silence could also use an energy discharge from their hands to kill and obliterate someone, leaving only ashes behind. When absorbing the energy and discharging it, a hole appears where the mouth should be.

History

The Silence have apparently been present on Earth for hundreds of years, going largely unnoticed by the human race, as mentioned in the trailer for "Day of the Moon". Their resemblance to Munch's The Scream is not coincidental: according to Steven Moffatt, although humans are not consciously aware of their existence, "subconscious awareness" of the Silence manifests itself in such works.

They were first mentioned in "The Eleventh Hour", when Prisoner Zero stated that "Silence will fall." Later in the season, the TARDIS was hijacked by an external force and made to detonate, destroying reality - before it did so, a disembodied voice was heard in the TARDIS repeating the same phrase.

n "The Impossible Astronaut", the Silence made their first on-screen appearance, shadowing the Doctor and his companions in two time zones. A Silent was present in the White House in 1969, murdering a woman in front of Amy Pond and telling her to inform the Doctor of his upcoming death - something she forgot about after, though she had taken a photo of the Silent. Later, River Song and Rory would discover a network of tunnels, centuries old, running beneath Florida - leading to a timeship control room, and with the tunnels full of Silence.

References

1. BBC - Doctor Who - The Silence - Monsters
2. "Doctor Who, episode 1: The Impossible Astronaut, review". Sunday Telegraph. 24 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-24.
3. "Is Doctor Who's Karen Gillan going to be killed off by show's new scary aliens?". Daily Mail. 11 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
4. "New Doctor Who series 'darkest ever' says Steven Moffatt". The Daily Telegraph (Australia). 6 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
5. "Doctor Who opener watched by 6.5m". BBC News. 24 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-24.
6. Sheldrick, Giles (11 April 2011). "Doctor Who: Who's Scariest Foe ... Aliens in Suits". Daily Express. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
7. Oglethorpe, Tom (15 April 2011). "He's a real scream! Get ready to dive behind the sofa as Doctor Who's new enemy makes the Daleks look like Dusty Bin". Mail Online. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
8. Eberson, Sharon (April 15, 2010). "The Doctor gets in touch with his Whoness". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
9. Blair, Alan Stanley (April 5, 2011). "'Doctor Who' Is Scarier Than Ever". Airlock Alpha. Retrieved 2011-04-25.

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