March 22, 2014

Silence Will Fall – The Complete Timeline

silence-will-fall-pandorica

Guest contributor Noah Fischel goes through the Silence arc in chronological order.

Now that the arc of the Eleventh Doctor’s life has finished, it’s time we put everything in order. And this isn’t the order of episodes, this is the order of cause-to-effect. Beginning from the formation of the Silence to the Doctor’s regeneration. Now, because a lot of the arc is pre-destination paradoxes and looping timelines, it will probably get a bit confusing, so brave heart, readers.

Beginnings and precursors (2013 Specials)

Starting the whole timeline off is, actually, something that happened toward the end of the Eleventh Doctor’s life. The arc begins with The Day of the Doctor, in which the Tenth, Eleventh, and War Doctors save Gallifrey by trapping it in a parallel pocket universe. With hope in their hearts, the Doctors left each other to finish out their lives. But the Time Lords tried to figure out ways of escaping back to our universe.

The next section of the timeline is confusing, as two things practically happen at once, because one couldn’t happen without the other.

The Pandorica Will Open/Doctor who? (Series 5/Series 6B & 7A)

Hungry Earth Crack (2) The pre-destination paradox comes into play when the Time Lords find a way to come back. The cracks in the skin of the universe, sealed, but still scarred. The Time Lords found one on the planet Trenzalore and began calling out across the universe for help. Asking a certain question. When the Doctor came to investigate, he found out, with help by his trusted Cyber-head, Handles, the translation of the question. “Doctor who?”. If the Doctor answered with his true Gallifreyan name, the Time Lords would know it was safe to come through, and with a truth field surrounding the area, he couldn’t lie. This scared the Papal Mainframe, who had an “emergency faith change” and became the Church of the Silence, with their sole purpose being keeping the Gallifreyans from returning and sparking a second Last Great Time War between them and the other races surrounding the planet.

With the faith change, came a rogue chapter, lead by Madame Kovarian. She and some priests from the church, the memory-altering race of Silents, went back along the Eleventh Doctor’s timeline to kill him before he reached Trenzalore. Blowing up his TARDIS seemed like the perfect way to defeat the Time Lord. Little did they know that he wasn’t the one in there piloting when they decided to do it, and as an additional kick in the teeth, their actions sparked the entire conflict.

Silence Will Fall (Series 6A and B)

river-astonaut-wedding With the exploding TARDIS failed, and the universe restored, the Kovarian chapter of the Church tried more drastic measures. Going so far as kidnapping Amy, stealing her child, Melody Pond, and turning her into a killer. Eventually going by the name River Song, she was bred with one task in mind: To kill the Doctor. All through her life, from early childhood up until early 20s-30s (or older, if you consider Alex Kingston’s age) she was thwarted every chance at killing the Doctor. Spacesuit, no. Poison, no. Spacesuit again? Still no. Well yes… Well, sorta.

The Doctor hatched a plan in an instant and escaped his death in the Teselecta, the time-traveling, shape-shifting robot powered by miniaturized cross people. He and his shrunk down TARDIS hid inside the Justice Department vehicle while River shot with her superpowered spacesuit. How is that for a getaway plan? With the fixed moment in place (he was there, right?), the universe (and the Silence) thinking he was dead, and Dorium’s box left open, the Doctor was able to sneak away back into the shadows.

Slip Back Into the Shadows (Series 7A and DVD Minisodes)

Free and on his own, the Doctor began adventuring around, but the main goal was deleting himself from the universe. First stop, the Inforarium. Using the same memory proof effect as the Church priests, he was able to ‘erase’ himself from the Inforarium databanks.

However, the TARDIS trio of Amy, Rory, and the Doctor, were abducted one-by-one and taken aboard the Parliament of the Daleks. Tasked with disabling and destroying the asylum of the Daleks, he met Oswin Oswald, Junior Entertainment Manager of the starship Alaska. When he tried to save her, though, Daleks from many past “battles” from the his history began to wake up and recognize him. But not after Oswin deleted the information of the Doctor from the pathweb database of his worst enemies. Not even his own enemies remembered who he was anymore. Not even Stormcage Containment Facility had records on him, releasing River Song from prison and allowing her her freedom.

Breaking Some Serious Science (2013 Specials)

Jumping ahead, with the reveal of the Doctor’s dangerous secret, he departs to help Kate Stewart with an investigation in the Under-Gallery of the National Gallery. Does this sound familiar? That’s the next portion of the looping timeline (jeez this gets confusing). After leaving the gallery, with a new destination in mind, the Doctor and Clara find themselves on Trenzalore. Also sound familiar? This is the exact point in which Kovarian split from the Church. At the same time, however, the Doctor, settling down to save the town called Christmas, manages to defeat the enemies, while Clara convinces the Time Lords through the crack that they should be thankful to the Doctor for saving them. As a reward for helping save Gallifrey, the Doctor gets a brand new regeneration cycle, and after defeating the Dalek fleet above the town, regenerates into the Twelfth (Fourteenth?) Doctor.

And that is the story of the Eleventh Doctor. The final timeline of the Silence Will Fall arc: