Howling:What happens when Silence falls?

I have a theory about what will happen when Silence falls and when it will happen. I'd like to present it here to see if there are any major holes in it I've missed.

My first part, which has been suggested before, is that the question is the Doctor's name. That fits the 'oldest question in the universe' motif because the Doctor has travelled to the beginning of time and to the end.

Also, I don't think it will truly be when the question is asked but when it is answered that that answer will be used to make the Silence fall. After all, if it is the oldest question in the universe then it makes sense that it's been asked quite a few times before. However never before has it been honestly answered, and we know the Doctor will tell River his name.

So as for who asks the question, I think it will be River. We know she finds out about it and we know Amy is supposed to help "bring the silence" (as was mentioned in 'Day of the Moon') so it makes sense that as River's mother she would help bring it if River asks the question.

So what is the Silence that will fall? Given we know the Silence make people forget them and they appear to have been involved in the Doctor's TARDIS exploding, which specifically created cracks which removed people from history and resulted in them being forgotten, I'd say 'Silence falling' is likely to continue that theme. I think Silence falling will be erasing everyone from history, meaning there are no more voices ever (it's the logical step up from the Daleks wiping everyone else out in the present; wiping everyone out from ever having existed).

Perhaps there's even some weapon out there whose password is the Doctor's name (hence why he's kept it secret all this time) which would result in everyone being wiped out (with the exception of the Silence themselves, who as a religious order feel they're washing away the 'sin' of other races). That explains why he trusts River so much when he learns she knows his name. The only time he'd have told someone his name is if he were willing to trust the universe itself in their hands.

So, thoughts? 210.49.167.47 12:51, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

Eh? I can't hear you. Boblipton 14:29, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

That theory doesn't quite work. For one thing, he has been hiding his names since well before the time war, and plenty of Time Lords must have known his name. The Master, who we all know isn't actually dead, must still know his name having known the Doctor as a kid. The Tesselecta specifically said that Silence will fall when the question is asked, not when it is answered, and people have been asking "Doctor Who?" since the very beginning. Erasing everyone from existance is clearly what they tried last season, and it almost worked. The other example of Silence falling would be Vampires in Venice, which was never really explained. The idea of using his name as a password for a weapon also doesn't quite work. The most likely candidate would probably be the hand of Omega since he seems to have taken that weapon with him when he initially left Gallifrey, but why would he use his own name as a password. Usually when I try to use my name as a password, my computer says that that password is weak and I have to come up with a stronger password, usually with a few numbers and capital letters thrown in. Apart from that, the Doctor isn't the only Time Lord who seems to have given up his name in order to go by a title(the Master, the Rani, the Corsair). Maybe renegade Time Lords somehow lose their name and are forced to go by a title, though that obviously doesn't explain everything.Icecreamdif 20:13, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

Time Lords aren't the only ones who go by acquired names. In the show, Ace did. That obviously started as a nickname but, because she disliked her given name, she treated "Ace" as her name and there were plenty of people who never knew her by any other name. In the real world, there's the likes of Sting, Lady Gaga, etc. -- stage names, certainly, but of a different kind from (say) Cary Grant or John Wayne. It happens in more ordinary walks of life, too. There are people who are known only or mainly by nicknames. In some cases (I know a few), if you use the "real" name, even their closest friends take a while to work out who you're talking about. The Doctor seems to be a special case, though. In The Girl in the Fireplace, Reinette, Madame de Pompadour said, "It's more than just a secret," and she was reading his mind at the time! Just the same, the name by which the Doctor was known on Gallifrey before he became known as "the Doctor" isn't likely to be the answer to the question. --89.242.66.251 21:33, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

True, but the fact that most renegade Time Lords don't go by actual names, and the fact that they all follow the same formula (The Title) suggests that the other Time Lords names are hidden just like the Doctor's. Wasn't there also a line in Fires of Pompeii about his name being hidden in the Medusa Cascade?Icecreamdif 21:43, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree with most of what Icecreamdif said, but a few points:


 * "The Title"-style names seem to be unique to a small group of Time Lords, not even to all rogues. From what we've heard, 5 of the 10 members of the Deca had names like that, plus the Corsair (who could easily be, say, Jelpax or Vansell before they settled down, or someone who wasn't part of their clique at the Academy but joined up with them later), and the Other (which is probably where they got the pattern from—what better way to rebel than to make your very name an echo of the most infamous rebel in history?). A handful of rogues of the previous generation, like Ulysses, picked new names from other species' mythology. Other than that, nobody seems to have changed their name to go rogue. (OK, it's true that The Visionary, The Woman, and The Partisan were credited in the end titles of The End of Time with Deca-style names, but nobody called them that in-universe, and it's a bit odd to imagine someone actually being called "the Woman". Even if those are their in-universe names, the whole point of the Woman and the Partisan was that they were the only ones on the council deliberately standing against the Sanction, and they may have even been the Doctor's parents, so it doesn't seem to unreasonable that they'd follow his example.) If you only go by TV, none of this really changes; we've got the same 6 Time Lords (but we don't know 5 of them were in a clique called the Deca, and we don't know they named themselves for the Other), and we don't know anything about Ulysses and his generation, so everyone but those 6 goes by their real names.


 * As for using your name as your password, well, Peri did say that his name was impossible to pronounce, and Sam Jones said it was hard to pronounce and to remember, so maybe it's a better password than "Icecreamdif" (or your real name). But the very fact that he trusted Peri, Sam, and a few other companions with his name means it's unlikely to be the key to some super-mega-weapon. Imagine if Peri called out the wrong name in bed one night; Brian Blessed would have the power to destroy the universe. That's pretty scary. --70.36.140.19 02:08, September 19, 2011 (UTC)

Richard IV with a doomsday weapon-pretty scary. Either way, the fact that so many Time Lords have stopped using their name in the exact same way the Doctor has suggests that it is not a doomsday weapon, unless of course the Master's also got one that he's just never bothered to use.Icecreamdif 02:15, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * To be fair, we're talking about a master criminal who accidentally miniaturized himself and got stuck in a box; is it that hard to believe that he'd forget that "Koschei" is the password to his doomsday weapon? (PS, sorry for destroying the universe by typing "Koschei" there.)


 * Anyway, the real question is: can silence fall in the forest if there's nobody there to not hear it? --70.36.140.19 03:10, September 19, 2011 (UTC)

Well, I thnk any version of the Master other than the Anthony Ainley version would be smart enough to figure it out (you know, the incarnations that don't wear ridiculous disguises for no particular reason), and we know from Logopolis that he's not above putting the entire universe on ransom. Besides, it would still be much easier for the Silence to wait for the Master to come back to life again, and then ask him what his name is then to go through this whole thing with the Doctor. Besides, how are they supposed to find out his name if they're going to kill him. Well actually, I guess that it could be that River Song was only pretending to be a good guy in those other episodes so that the Doctor would eventually tell her his name, or they are actually trying to kill him to prevent silence from falling. It still doesn't seem particularly likely though.Icecreamdif 04:15, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * Good point; the Silence ought to know their history well enough to be able to figure out that the Master never stays dead more than a decade or two, and often as little as a year or two. But how could they penetrate the cunning ruse of using an anagram or translation of the word "Master" as a pseudonym? --70.36.140.19 04:31, September 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * I think it should be noted here that it was never said that the reason the Doctor's always kept his name secret was because it was the password to the weapon (or that the name itself was a weapon). The Doctor could have used a title because it's standard Time Lord practice, or because he's part of a select group of Time Lords as suggested above. This does actually make some sense if the doomsday weapon in question was password locked after the time war at which point all of the other Time Lords were dead. As far as passwords goes, a name which everyone who knows it is either dead or a trusted companion isn't a bad one (and also the Silence may not know his name is the password, just that River will eventually ask the question which gives them the password). That would also explain why the Doctor was willing to let Peri know his name before the Time War but now it's this huge secret.
 * CleverAndKnowsIt 06:29, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * Even though I still don't like the overall theory, you've got a good point here. Thinking back on it, his name actually became a secret during the Second War in Heaven, stopped being a secret after Gallifrey was restored, and became a secret again after the Last Great Time War. I don't know if that means anything or not, but it's at least interesting. --70.36.140.19 12:17, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * Since we are doing the wild speculation thing here, it makes some sense if, rather than being the password to a weapon, the Doctor's true name is hardwired into the TARDIS as a key to a self-destruct mechanism. That also would explain how the Silence were able to destroy the TARDIS and create the cracks in the universe. 177.17.48.144 14:57, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * well i have always thought that there is a reason the doctor hides his true name mabey out of shame for a large crime he has commited not as the passkey to a super wepon but in context of the question it has got to be something that if asked then it will be hard for the doctor to anser but i have noticed that through out the seriesesthe theme of the doctor being a being drenched in the blood of millions for example (i think davros mentions it, it is in the pandoric fariy tale and the minotor) so the question could simpley be why? Whooligist 20:57, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * Some reasonable hypoetheses are offered here. Mine is based on the history of Gallifrey, which went through a period of magic before the rise of the Time Lords. Names have tremendous power in magic, as has been explained in The Golden Bough. Perhaps the reason that the Doctor keeps his name secret is that it would give others power over him. This may, of course, no longer apply in actuality, but as a Gallifreyan cultural relic of that era. Boblipton 21:07, September 19, 2011 (UTC)

Well, that is sort of what happenned in The Shakespeare Code, until the Carrionites realized that they could use Rose's name against him. Still, that doesn't explain why there have been a handful of renegade Time Lords who choose to go by titles instead of by their names while most other Time Lords seem to just have names with no problem. The idea of the Doctor's name being the oldest question in the universe is interesting from a real world point of view, because that is the oldest question in the history of the show that hasn't already been answered. Still, I doubt that that is where this plot arc is going.Icecreamdif 21:52, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * Whooligist's idea was essentially the understanding of many of the NA writers who weren't let in on the Cartmel Masterplan (although Cartmel and Platt said they were wrong): The Doctor had chosen to hide his name because of something shameful he did, but then the Time Lords decided that gave him too much control, so they banned it. Kind of a "You can't quit, you're fired!" thing. There's a great reference to it in the EDA Unnatural History. The Doctor remembers scenes from Time's Crucible and Lungbarrow, and Little Brother interrupts his reverie, saying (paraphrasing) "That's my favorite of your origin stories, too. This is the one version where they banned all mention of his name, and yours too, right?" (The "his" here is the Other, of course.)


 * Boblipton's idea came up in another EDA (or maybe elsewhere in the same one, I forget), where a Faction Paradox agent tells the Doctor (paraphrasing again), "Once you hid your name, you'd bought into the notion that names have ritual power, so as soon as we discovered your name, you were ours." --70.36.140.19 03:42, September 20, 2011 (UTC)

I haven't read any of this stuff, but from how you describe it it sounds like they all still have the same basic problem that they act as if the Doctor hiding his name was unique, when we know that t is at least a commonish thing for Time Lords.Icecreamdif 04:10, September 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * The fact that there's something unique about the Doctor's namelessness is pretty much a given. Going back to The Shakespeare Code, for example. The Carrionites know all about Time Lords, and yet when they scan for his name to gain power over him: "There is no name" "Why would a man hide his title in such despair?" (It's Boblipton's idea followed immediately by Whooligist's, now that I think about it.) The novels basically tell us the same thing as the episodes, and don't even really add much detail. (Well, they do give us the names of most of the other renegades, and the audios give us the last one, but you know what I mean.)


 * The only question is whether that uniqueness is shared only by the 2 most notorious renegades in Time Lord history (the Other and the Doctor), or by the 7 most notorious (them, plus the Master, the Rani, the Monk, and the War Chief… and the Corsair, who we don't actually know anything about, but we can assume he fits). Or maybe there are a handful of others. Anyway, does it actually matter whether the Doctor is different from them, or whether they have the same name issues?


 * Well, you're right that it matters for at least one thing: The Doctor's name being the oldest question in the universe would be a bit silly if the Master's name were just as big a question. But I think you're also right that there are plenty of other reasons to believe that's not where the plot arc is going anyway, so it doesn't make much difference. And beyond that, I don't think The Shakespeare Code, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Silver Nemesis, Unnatural History, etc. are affected either way. --70.36.140.19 04:59, September 20, 2011 (UTC)

Its a bitt irrelevant, but I don't think that the Monk or the War Chief really count. From what I remember of the Time Meddler, the monk was just an alias that the guy was using for that particular scheme as he was disguised as a monk, and none of the aliens in The War Games gave their names (War Lord, Security Chief, etc.) ecvept for the ones who were in the tmie xzones, so it is likely that those aliens just had some protocal involving referring to people by their rank. The fact that there is something special about the Doctor's namelessness is pretty much a given(he's not like Jack who just picked an alias for a con and stuck with it), but it doesn't seem to be unique. Hopefully they will eventually do a story that focuses on it, maybe when the Doctor tells River his name, buut I don't think that that's where they're going with this seaosn.Icecreamdif 05:41, September 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * The War Chief, you're right, unless he showed up in a novel or something we never heard from him again, and that's just what he was called by the War Lords, who obviously had their own whole non-Time-Lord naming thing going on. But the Monk showed up again in The Daleks' Master Plan, and he was called the Monk again, so he seems to be the same as the Master and the Rani.


 * But I could imagine Moffat making it just the Doctor and the Master whose names are special secrets. I think 70 just brought the Master up as an example at the end there, but he actually is different from the other renegades. He's always been the kind of dual, or equal opposite, to the Doctor. The Doctor may be the only person alive who knows his real name, but he can't use it, because the Master is one of only a handful of people alive who know the Doctor's. Of course hardcore fans would ask what about the Rani, the Monk, and the Corsair, but Moffat wouldn't bother to explain that. The obvious possibility is that they were just wannabes, who took cool names even though they didn't have to (just like the first mobsters with cool aliases were actually trying to hide their real names because they were on police records, while most of the later ones just wanted to sound hard). But leaving it open means someone can write in the Rani 5 does after Moffat retires and choose whether her name is important. --12.249.226.210


 * The Other. And wht makes you think that the Rassilon (to choose a name) was really named Rassilon? Boblipton 19:53, September 20, 2011 (UTC)

Hasn't the Rani already been written back in? I heard somewhere that River Song, Amy and Rose are actually the Rani using a chameeon arch. I'd forgotten that the Monk came back again in one of the lost episodes. It may be only hardcore fans who would complain about the Rani and the Monk, but the Corsair is much more recent, and if Moffat was going somewhere with the whole name thing than he could have easily asked Gaiman to give the Time Lord character a name instead of a title. Also, the rani didn't seem like the type who would take a name just to be cool, and she certainly didn't seem like somebody who would want to emulate the Doctor and the Master. Icecreamdif 20:06, September 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * Hey, I played the role playing game. Rassilon's birth name was Rass'il Onasty, or something like that. (I remember the apostrophe isn't in quite the right place to make him "O'Nasty", because that would just be _too_ silly, but it had to be somewhere, because aliens always have apostrophes.) And the Monk and the War Chief are both the Master in disguise, and there is no UNIT controversy because the Brigadier actually said he retired in 1996 and we were all fooled by a production error in Mawdryn Undead. :)


 * Anyway, the Other is only important to fans who read the novels. And from what 70 said above (I don't know much about the Other myself), you can take care of him easily: the Doctor and the Master are both echoes of the most notorious renegade in history.


 * Icecreamdif: I'm going to ignore your statement, because I know you're really the Rani in disguise. :P --12.249.226.210 20:20, September 20, 2011 (UTC)

Damn, how were you able to see through my dissguise. Its even better than the Master's disguises of Kalid and Sir Gilles. Having not read the novels I don't know much about the Other, but I don't think that even this wiki considers the role playing game to be canon. Rassilon's not a title anyway, so even if he did used to be called Rassil O'nasty, it just mmeans that he changed his name because Rassilon sounded better, and it isn't really relevant to this discussion.Icecreamdif 20:38, September 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't think anyone considers the RPG canon, which is why I quoted the other silly stuff from it, and added the :) at the end. And yes, the point is that Rassilon isn't relevant; his name isn't the same kind of secret as the Doctor. I still think the idea of only the Master having the same kind of secret works (and, sure, the Other—again, just say he's the inspiration for the Doctor and Master), even though I know some fans would be annoyed by ignoring the Rani and the Monk. And I recognized you as the Rani in disguise becaue I'm River Song's 7th incarnation, and you were my 5th. --12.249.226.210 01:03, September 21, 2011 (UTC)

I had a theory that it is actually a good thing. Consider that the base Demon's Run was named after the Good Man Goes to War poem, and Madame Kovarian didn't seem to be aware of it. Perhaps 'Silence Will Fall' is more a portent of their movement being undone, rather than a portent of their victory over the Doctor. As for the question...perhaps it was Melody Pond asking 'Who is River Song?' Just a thought. [Unsigned]

First, please sign your contributions. Either use the "signature" button on the toolbar (you may need to press "more" first) or type 4 tildes (~).

Second, when Melody asked, "Who is River Song?" silence didn't fall. --89.242.78.198 06:23, September 21, 2011 (UTC)

To be fair, it's never been said that it's the first time the question is asked that that's when Silence will fall. When we were told "he will knock four times" we didn't believe that the first time that someone knocked four times that the Doctor would die. Rather, we believed that when the Doctor died would be when someone would knock four times. In fact, given it's supposed to be the oldest question in the universe, it's pretty much guaranteed that it would have been asked before. So "Who is River Song?" is still perfectly valid. CleverAndKnowsIt 06:48, September 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, as soon as the Midnight entity knocked four times, this forum, Gallifrey Base, the blogs, etc. were chock full of people who were absolutely sure that was proof positive that the Midnight entity was going to kill the Doctor… But still, valid point.


 * But it sounds like you're taking "the oldest question in the universe" literally, and it's hard to see how that could be "Who is River Song?" It's only people in the 50th-52nd and 21st centuries who've even heard of her. Well, I guess someone in the 1st century did ask "Who is impersonating Cleopatra?", but that's not really the same question, and it's still hard to believe no one in the universe ever asked questions before the 1st century. (I suppose that would explain why nobody thought to ask, "Hey, Omega, are you sure you don't want to be a bit farther back when you detonate that star"?)


 * Actually, taking it literally, the oldest question in the universe is probably, "By the way, where is Adric?" from Castrovalva, right after they turned the TARDIS around a fraction of a second before reaching Event One, but somehow I doubt that's it… --70.36.140.19 07:13, September 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, wouldn't it be something more like "Are you sure it's safe to be dumping fuel from the Terminus here ?" 177.17.56.70 10:59, September 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * No no, that's not the oldest question in the universe, because there was no universe yet at that point. And if you're asking for the oldest out-of-universe question, that would be, "So, Sydney Newman, what's this new show you want to pitch?" :) --70.36.140.19 17:59, September 21, 2011 (UTC)

And then with the answer "Doctor Who?", we end up right back where we started. Actually, that could explain why the show as on the TV in Rememberance of the Daleks.Icecreamdif 18:56, September 21, 2011 (UTC)

Possible candidates for oldest question:

1. Are you sure that's a good idea?

2. What did you do that for?

--89.240.240.113 02:24, September 30, 2011 (UTC)

With apologies to Rolf Harris:

3. Can you see what it is, yet?

--89.240.240.113 03:01, September 30, 2011 (UTC)

Well, I guess you were right. "Doctor Who?" is actually the question, though this open more questions than it answers. For one thing, we have heard plenty of people ask tis question (its probably the longest running gag in the show), so it mut mean when either a specific person asks the question, or a specific time that it is asked. Since we apparently haven't yet seen the Doctor tell River Song his name, silence may fall when she asks the quetion. Remember back in Silene in the Library, when the River initially told the Doctor his name, and he said that therer was only one time he could ever tell someone hi name?The two biggest theories for when that one time would be were tthe Doctor's wedding and the Doctor's death. We have now seen the Doctor's wedding and he actually didn't tell River his name, so that must mean that he will tell River his name when he dies. Actually, it would be pretty awesome, if done right, if we found out the Doctor's name on the 50th anniversary of the show.Icecreamdif talk to me 17:49, October 2, 2011 (UTC)

He already told her when he died in Let's Kill Hitler. And apparently he must answer the question on the Fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh(?!) when no one can fail to answer and must answer truthfully.Boblipton talk to me 19:36, October 2, 2011 (UTC)

I'll need to rewatch Dorium's head's scenes later, but are you sure that the Doctor whispered his name to River in Let's Kill Hitler. I always assumed he told Melody to tell River that he loved her, which would make her reaction ("I'm sure she already knwos") make more sense, and would also give her more motivation to save the Doctor after learning that she was Rver Song. This, and the fact that in The Wedding of River Song the Doctor claimed to River that he was going ot tell her his name suggests that he hasn't told it to her yet. Anyway, I'm sure we'll see an episode on the fields of Trenzalore before too long, and hopefully either learn the Doctor's name, or at least learn why it has been kept a secret for so long. Icecreamdif talk to me 20:32, October 2, 2011 (UTC)

We know she knows it and there's only one time he could tell anyone. And we know what he told River this time. Apparently we're going to have to wait for Tenzalre.Boblipton talk to me 21:28, October 2, 2011 (UTC)