What is the silence? Clearly something about 'the fire at the end of the universe' (whatever the * that means!) and it makes people forget and if things go too close it erases them from time.

Given the whole fairytale/myth/importance of remembering bit in the series so far, I was wondering why it sounded familiar to me, and then I remembered watching the neverending story (come on everyone my age and a bit older you know what I'm talking about) and I wonder if the silence is anything like the nothingness in TNS?

(For those who haven't read/seen TNS 'the nothingness' is a kind of cancer that eats away at a fantasy land called fantasia, causing larger and larger bits of it to cease to exist. I can't remember the intricacies of the plot but it was about a kid called Bastian who had to help save Fantasia from the nothingness by believing in it, in the same way that tinkerbell dies on stage unless the kids in the audience say 'I do believe in faries')

Is the silence destroying everything anything to do with Amy/Amelia, and her memory/lack of belief? The doctor has a hell of a time getting her to trust him in ep 1: "believe for 20 minutes', or is this a subtle plea from the Moffat administration to keep beleiving in the show despite the change or the Whoniverse will die?

Or am I talking bollocks

Either way. What do you think about this silence business?

I think it's pure genius on SM's account.... i love how he takes something so ordinary (cracks, statues, etc) and makes them absolutly terrifying!
And given his track record, i'm sure it will be something really well thought out and clever, and will have many 'blink and you'll hae missed them' clues for use to fnd later on....
As for what the silence may be... i have no idea but cant wait to find out!

If the universe doesn't collapse then current science suggests it will come to a cold death (as shown in Utopia) which I guess would be totally silent.

In "Turn Left" did we ever find out why all the stars were going out in Rose's alternate universe?

Yep, because Davros destroyed everything in all known universes.

It was because of Davros and his reality bomb. It was breaking down the gaps between universes.

As for the silence, if Pandorica is a prison, I don't see the connection between that and the silence. Unless, it is like Utopia where every thing is just dead and there is nothing.

I think the silence is something to do with what the Doctor was saying about time can be re-written in Flesh and Stone, if you re-write everything out of existence you are left with nothing/silence.

I wonder if the "silence" idea could lead to an episode with no dialogue and no sound? (something like the Buffy episode "Hush")

I suspect Moffat could do something very scary with that.

Someone is taken by a creature..yet people only a few feet away cannot hear the screams. Something running towards you but the only warning is the slightest vibration...or the breath on the back of your neck.

That would be awesome