First off - I really want the Silence to be themselves - a completely new foe unconnected to any other because I want the DW universe to expand rather than constantly referencing itself and past events.
With that in mind, treat this as a bit of fun - an excercise in lateral thinking and interpretation - nothing here is meant to be taken seriously but I will try to make the case logically(ish).
It pulls together events seen in series 5 and 6 and even clues planted on the BBC website. It covers the child, the tunnels, the moon landing, the age and origins of the Silence, the crack, Pandorica etc. It does not try to explain every single event so please don't ask where the Doctor got his "extra fizz" straw
Firstly...
"Silence" is mentioned several times in series 5 but it is not described in a way that suggests a race - more like an event.
In Vampires of Venice, the countess says...
There were cracks. Some were tiny... some where as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people and through others we saw silence and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours and the crack snapped shut behind us. Saturnine was lost.
Her home planet is Saturnine - at least that's how it sounded when pronounced.
Note that her people travelled through space - maybe also time - by entering the crack - which "snapped shut behind us"
When she is about to sacrifice herself, the Doctor tells her that she can't go back and change time - to which she replies...
Tell me Doctor; can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race. Remember us - dream of us
There's no suggestion that her species has time travel - they arrived via the crack.
This sets up an idea - that the crack wasn't just the universe sucking anomaly that it has been assumed to be. It was - at least in part or at some point in it's existence - a portal - a gateway through which travel was possible.
Next, consider the location of the cracks and which - if any - had a major impact on the characters and events that followed.
The crack in Amy's wall obviously raises questions about her - but the only major effect it has is to erase her parents from history and - maybe - attract the Tardis to that location - she does take the Doctor where he needs to be.
Other cracks have no obvious effect on the main characters - except for one.
The crack in the Silurian's caves that erased Rory from history after he died.
The Silurians are Earth's orignal evolved species - dinosaurs that evolved into a senient, advanced race and placed themselves in suspended animation in underground cities to avoid a cataclysmic event. In 2020 they were awakened by drilling that they believed was an attack by humans and after some strife, returned to sleep another thousand years to give the human race time to prepare for their return and face it without fear or hatred - except for an unknown number of warriors who wanted to fight a war and refused to return to sleep. Those warriors would be killed by the decontamination process instigated by the wiser leader. The leader of the warriors was wounded but stayed alive long enough to enter the cave with the Tardis and the crack and kill Rory - then she too died. Before the "good" Silurians hibernated, the Doctor advised everyone to "spread the word" about Silurians - using religion or anything else just as long as it got everyone ready for both species to meet in peace and co-exist 1,000 years in the future.
This sets up another idea - that Rory wasn't the only "person" taken by the crack that day - there was also a dead Silurian warrior chief there and a load of Silurian warriors with a grudge against humans.
We also learned a number of important things about Silurians in those episodes...
[LIST][*]Some of them stayed awake - generations of them - to watch and study humans.
[*]They had a particular interest in human children - as the Silurian scientist said...
I took samples of the young. Slowed their life cycles to a millionth of their normal rate so I could study how they grew, what they needed; how they lived on the surface.
[*]They live underground and have a maze of tunnels.
[*]There are tribes of Silurians spread across the Earth and different castes within the species.[/LIST]
Which brings us to a logical connection...
A species that has existed "since before the dawn of man", has tunnels cross the Earth, has been watching mankind for centuries and has run biological studies on human children.
Sound familar?
We also have a crack through which the warriors could have escaped - travelled through space and time taking the body of their leader with them - a warrior Queen who would have been resurrected at the same time as Rory - because she died at the same time in the same place.
Now take a clue from the BBC "Fourth Dimension"...
Message interrupted
What if that isn't some automated warning - like "server down" - but part of something actually spoken? What if the "message" that was interrupted was the message given to Silurians that they could form an alliance with humans?
With the presence of the crack in the Welsh tunnels, the "message" could have actually passed back through time and either been "interrupted" - scrambled - in the process or deliberately interrupted and scrambled by the warriors.
Try this...
Silurians and Humans will forge an alliance
Now interrupt that message - erase these parts of it...
urians and Hum ge an aliance
...and what are you left with?
Say it out loud so the spelling doesn't matter and you have
SIL ANS WILL FOR L
The Silurians - under the the leadership of a genetic line of Warrior Queens have had their own history rewritten. She knew of the late-stage existence of the crack and realised how to exploit it when it was less dangerous. She used it to look for new worlds - to conquer and expand the Silurian race throughout the Galaxy. It was she that sent Silurians to what is now our moon - causing it to align with the Earth and forcing the non-aggresive Silurians - the artists, doctors and other "weaklings" she despised but needed in the early days for breeding purposes and menial labour - to hibernate. For centuries, Silurian warriors based themselves on the moon using the crack to travel back and forth but she realised that the the age of the crack would eventually break that link so she began a plan to make humans build a moon rocket without ever realising that the Silurians were behind it - because most of the Silurians scientists were in hibernation with the other pacifists and because they'd never needed to evlove such technology having relied on the crack.
To do that, she used the few warrior scientist and the vast research done on humans to create a hybrid - a human/siliurian clone that became known as Silans. They controlled the polticians and generals to advance techonology rapidly throughout the 20th century - manned flight, rockets, satellites and finally manned-missions all resulting from research and developments during two World wars.
With that link in place, the Silurians - via the Silans - would push humans further and faster towards creating faster than light, intergalactic travel. However, something else came along that offered a far more attactive prospect and almost unlimited power...
...the Tardis - forgotten by everyone but instantly remembered as soon as they saw it appear in Utah - where the Silans are most populous, around Area 51.
In short - the Silans are the result of genetic engineering by Silurians as part of a long-term plan to conquer the universe.
Having seen the Tardis and remembered the Doctor, the Silurians mistakenly thought Amy was his mate and that her unborn baby was therefore, part Time Lord. As they feared facing a full Time Lord, they kidnapped Amy to extract DNA from the foetus to create an even more poweful and dangerous hybrid - a Silord. In order to do this they used Silurian technology to "<slow the foetus'> life cycles to a millionth of <its> normal rate" - which results in the Tardis being unable to propely detect it as life. Amy is now incubating that hybrid - when it's ready, it will be "harvested" by the Silurians.
Lastly - how does River song fit into this?
I'm glad you asked. I do River Song theories now - River Song theories are cool
River Song is totally unique. In the entire Universe, she is the only being to have passed through Big Bang 2 with her memory completely intact - remember that it was River Song who gave the empty diary to Amy - which she needed to remember the Doctor back into existence. That means River already remembered him - which isn't possible because he never existed unless...
River is not from this universe and was therefore not affected by the crack or the reboot - she doesn't start or end with our universe because she is not and never was part of it.
Just as Time Lords - the Doctor in particular - view humans as inferior but interesting - seeing us as entertaining savages but also admiring us for our strengths and seeing great potential for us in the future - but also fearing what we may become, so River Song's race veiw Time Lords. She sees the Doctor as he sees a companion - someone to share his adventures with but also someone to watch and learn more about the Time Lord race.
Compared to the Doctor, she is vastly superior but also very different - as the Doctor is to us - so much so that she doesn't even understand the concept of time beyond what she has learned from the Doctor. She is not tied by the same rules and laws as a Time Lord so even something totally impossible to a Time Lord - like being a the same place and time as herself is completely safe and normal. This allows her to remain in prison whilst also escaping.
Unfortunately, that lack of awareness of the importance of time and the order of events within it means that she doesn't even see the possibility of forestalling events- she simply goes back and changes them if the urge takes her with no notion of right or wrong in doing so and no thought of consequences. The effect of this - normal in her universe but not in ours - was that she caused a crack in the fabric of our universe which ultimately cost the life of the best man she'd ever known - the Doctor. She was easily able to bring him back by tapping into Amy's memory and toughts placed there by the Doctor before he disappeared but River's lack of understanding of time means she still killed him even though he is alive - that makes perfect sense to her. On the beach in Utah, she knew that the Silans was going to capture or kill the Doctor - so she instantly pulled him out of time but the Doctor told her that was not possible in this universe - events must play out in order - and they hatched spacesuit - which was something she knew she had because she knew she needed it but didn't know why because she lacks a sense of the flow of time - and with all of this happening outside of time, there was no break and the Doctor was safe. The River on the beach simply didn't know or understand what had happened because to her, there is no cause and effect.
She's been his guardian angel for all of his life - except that she - with her complete lack of sense of our universe's laws - is following that life in reverse. When she finally leaves him, she will breath life into his newly created Tardis - so she can be with him forever. That's what her race has always done.
I rest my case
With that in mind, treat this as a bit of fun - an excercise in lateral thinking and interpretation - nothing here is meant to be taken seriously but I will try to make the case logically(ish).
It pulls together events seen in series 5 and 6 and even clues planted on the BBC website. It covers the child, the tunnels, the moon landing, the age and origins of the Silence, the crack, Pandorica etc. It does not try to explain every single event so please don't ask where the Doctor got his "extra fizz" straw
Firstly...
"Silence" is mentioned several times in series 5 but it is not described in a way that suggests a race - more like an event.
In Vampires of Venice, the countess says...
There were cracks. Some were tiny... some where as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people and through others we saw silence and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours and the crack snapped shut behind us. Saturnine was lost.
Her home planet is Saturnine - at least that's how it sounded when pronounced.
Note that her people travelled through space - maybe also time - by entering the crack - which "snapped shut behind us"
When she is about to sacrifice herself, the Doctor tells her that she can't go back and change time - to which she replies...
Tell me Doctor; can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race. Remember us - dream of us
There's no suggestion that her species has time travel - they arrived via the crack.
This sets up an idea - that the crack wasn't just the universe sucking anomaly that it has been assumed to be. It was - at least in part or at some point in it's existence - a portal - a gateway through which travel was possible.
Next, consider the location of the cracks and which - if any - had a major impact on the characters and events that followed.
The crack in Amy's wall obviously raises questions about her - but the only major effect it has is to erase her parents from history and - maybe - attract the Tardis to that location - she does take the Doctor where he needs to be.
Other cracks have no obvious effect on the main characters - except for one.
The crack in the Silurian's caves that erased Rory from history after he died.
The Silurians are Earth's orignal evolved species - dinosaurs that evolved into a senient, advanced race and placed themselves in suspended animation in underground cities to avoid a cataclysmic event. In 2020 they were awakened by drilling that they believed was an attack by humans and after some strife, returned to sleep another thousand years to give the human race time to prepare for their return and face it without fear or hatred - except for an unknown number of warriors who wanted to fight a war and refused to return to sleep. Those warriors would be killed by the decontamination process instigated by the wiser leader. The leader of the warriors was wounded but stayed alive long enough to enter the cave with the Tardis and the crack and kill Rory - then she too died. Before the "good" Silurians hibernated, the Doctor advised everyone to "spread the word" about Silurians - using religion or anything else just as long as it got everyone ready for both species to meet in peace and co-exist 1,000 years in the future.
This sets up another idea - that Rory wasn't the only "person" taken by the crack that day - there was also a dead Silurian warrior chief there and a load of Silurian warriors with a grudge against humans.
We also learned a number of important things about Silurians in those episodes...
[LIST][*]Some of them stayed awake - generations of them - to watch and study humans.
[*]They had a particular interest in human children - as the Silurian scientist said...
I took samples of the young. Slowed their life cycles to a millionth of their normal rate so I could study how they grew, what they needed; how they lived on the surface.
[*]They live underground and have a maze of tunnels.
[*]There are tribes of Silurians spread across the Earth and different castes within the species.[/LIST]
Which brings us to a logical connection...
A species that has existed "since before the dawn of man", has tunnels cross the Earth, has been watching mankind for centuries and has run biological studies on human children.
Sound familar?
We also have a crack through which the warriors could have escaped - travelled through space and time taking the body of their leader with them - a warrior Queen who would have been resurrected at the same time as Rory - because she died at the same time in the same place.
Now take a clue from the BBC "Fourth Dimension"...
Message interrupted
What if that isn't some automated warning - like "server down" - but part of something actually spoken? What if the "message" that was interrupted was the message given to Silurians that they could form an alliance with humans?
With the presence of the crack in the Welsh tunnels, the "message" could have actually passed back through time and either been "interrupted" - scrambled - in the process or deliberately interrupted and scrambled by the warriors.
Try this...
Silurians and Humans will forge an alliance
Now interrupt that message - erase these parts of it...
urians and Hum ge an aliance
...and what are you left with?
Say it out loud so the spelling doesn't matter and you have
SIL ANS WILL FOR L
The Silurians - under the the leadership of a genetic line of Warrior Queens have had their own history rewritten. She knew of the late-stage existence of the crack and realised how to exploit it when it was less dangerous. She used it to look for new worlds - to conquer and expand the Silurian race throughout the Galaxy. It was she that sent Silurians to what is now our moon - causing it to align with the Earth and forcing the non-aggresive Silurians - the artists, doctors and other "weaklings" she despised but needed in the early days for breeding purposes and menial labour - to hibernate. For centuries, Silurian warriors based themselves on the moon using the crack to travel back and forth but she realised that the the age of the crack would eventually break that link so she began a plan to make humans build a moon rocket without ever realising that the Silurians were behind it - because most of the Silurians scientists were in hibernation with the other pacifists and because they'd never needed to evlove such technology having relied on the crack.
To do that, she used the few warrior scientist and the vast research done on humans to create a hybrid - a human/siliurian clone that became known as Silans. They controlled the polticians and generals to advance techonology rapidly throughout the 20th century - manned flight, rockets, satellites and finally manned-missions all resulting from research and developments during two World wars.
With that link in place, the Silurians - via the Silans - would push humans further and faster towards creating faster than light, intergalactic travel. However, something else came along that offered a far more attactive prospect and almost unlimited power...
...the Tardis - forgotten by everyone but instantly remembered as soon as they saw it appear in Utah - where the Silans are most populous, around Area 51.
In short - the Silans are the result of genetic engineering by Silurians as part of a long-term plan to conquer the universe.
Having seen the Tardis and remembered the Doctor, the Silurians mistakenly thought Amy was his mate and that her unborn baby was therefore, part Time Lord. As they feared facing a full Time Lord, they kidnapped Amy to extract DNA from the foetus to create an even more poweful and dangerous hybrid - a Silord. In order to do this they used Silurian technology to "<slow the foetus'> life cycles to a millionth of <its> normal rate" - which results in the Tardis being unable to propely detect it as life. Amy is now incubating that hybrid - when it's ready, it will be "harvested" by the Silurians.
Lastly - how does River song fit into this?
I'm glad you asked. I do River Song theories now - River Song theories are cool
River Song is totally unique. In the entire Universe, she is the only being to have passed through Big Bang 2 with her memory completely intact - remember that it was River Song who gave the empty diary to Amy - which she needed to remember the Doctor back into existence. That means River already remembered him - which isn't possible because he never existed unless...
River is not from this universe and was therefore not affected by the crack or the reboot - she doesn't start or end with our universe because she is not and never was part of it.
Just as Time Lords - the Doctor in particular - view humans as inferior but interesting - seeing us as entertaining savages but also admiring us for our strengths and seeing great potential for us in the future - but also fearing what we may become, so River Song's race veiw Time Lords. She sees the Doctor as he sees a companion - someone to share his adventures with but also someone to watch and learn more about the Time Lord race.
Compared to the Doctor, she is vastly superior but also very different - as the Doctor is to us - so much so that she doesn't even understand the concept of time beyond what she has learned from the Doctor. She is not tied by the same rules and laws as a Time Lord so even something totally impossible to a Time Lord - like being a the same place and time as herself is completely safe and normal. This allows her to remain in prison whilst also escaping.
Unfortunately, that lack of awareness of the importance of time and the order of events within it means that she doesn't even see the possibility of forestalling events- she simply goes back and changes them if the urge takes her with no notion of right or wrong in doing so and no thought of consequences. The effect of this - normal in her universe but not in ours - was that she caused a crack in the fabric of our universe which ultimately cost the life of the best man she'd ever known - the Doctor. She was easily able to bring him back by tapping into Amy's memory and toughts placed there by the Doctor before he disappeared but River's lack of understanding of time means she still killed him even though he is alive - that makes perfect sense to her. On the beach in Utah, she knew that the Silans was going to capture or kill the Doctor - so she instantly pulled him out of time but the Doctor told her that was not possible in this universe - events must play out in order - and they hatched spacesuit - which was something she knew she had because she knew she needed it but didn't know why because she lacks a sense of the flow of time - and with all of this happening outside of time, there was no break and the Doctor was safe. The River on the beach simply didn't know or understand what had happened because to her, there is no cause and effect.
She's been his guardian angel for all of his life - except that she - with her complete lack of sense of our universe's laws - is following that life in reverse. When she finally leaves him, she will breath life into his newly created Tardis - so she can be with him forever. That's what her race has always done.
I rest my case
