The Silence

The Silence describes an unknown, but powerful external force or group that forced the Doctor's TARDIS to explode on the date of June 26th 2010, and thus created the Cracks that would erase various things throughout the universe, and eventually the universe itself.

In 1580 Venice, Rosanna Calvierri said that through some of the the cracks, she and her race saw only silence and the end of all things, implying that the silence came from the cracks in time. She would later go on to mention that her race "ran from the silence" in fear, through a crack that acted as a portal to that place and time, before it snapped shut behind them. Following his defeat of Rosanna and her race, when the Doctor was preparing to leave, a mysterious silence fell over Venice. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)

When it first took control of the TARDIS, the entity forced the TARDIS to land outside of Amy Pond's house on June 26th 2010, and began to explode shortly afterwards, trapping River Song inside of it, where she was put into a timeloop as the explosion happened continiously at every point in time until the Doctor saved her. Although the entity behind the voice was never visible or named, it was heard to be speaking before the TARDIS exploded, saying: "Silence will fall!" (DW: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang).

Behind the scenes

 * Steven Moffat has confirmed in Doctor Who Confidential that the Silence will be featured in Series 6, with its identity possibly revealed. Moffat has implied that the Silence is a group of people several times. On Doctor Who Confidential, he said "who are the Silence?", and in an interview said that Series 6 was about who "they" are, implying it to be a group or number of people and not simply one.
 * The actor who portrayed the voice of "The Silence" is as-of-yet unknown.