Silence Will Fail (Doctor Who: An Examination Of The Silence Arc)

We're right.

Well, it's been a whole half a year since I talked about Doctor Who over here. We continue on through the long dark hiatus of 2019, bits and pieces of new news coming out and being rumored about Series 12... but not too much to show for it. I had to do something to pass the time, so why not a loving revisit? That led me to grabbing the Matt Smith years boxset on DVD for cheap, a simple little jaunt back to an era I hadn't thought about that much (and a precursor to an era I did think about that much, but this is not a Capaldi years post). It took a bit longer than it should have, and I took a big break near the middle, but I finished it. Even before I finished the first Matt Smith series, though, I knew I wanted to write this. 

See, I hadn't actually revisited the Smith years before now and given them a whole lot of thought in hindsight. New critical mind and all that, given I write about this shit now. The Smith years, in retrospect, are Steven Moffat at his most puzzlebox arc-ish peak. They're also him expanding upon (as well as nesting) earlier concepts that worked well for him in the past. Those being River Song and non-linear storytelling. Events being told out of order. Consequences shown and their inciting incidents teased. This either infuriated you or fascinated you. I happened to be in the latter camp at the time, and enjoyed the wild ride of trying to figure out the mysteries laid out before me. Who are the Silence? What are the Fields Of Trenzalore and the Fall Of The Eleventh? These things kept me guessing all through the runtime of the show. I always envisioned the Fields Of Trenzalore as a grassy plain, myself, where a question would be asked of the Doctor in a massive standoff. Well. I got it all except for the season. Everything was wrapped up sufficiently enough for me at the end of 2013, but on this rewatch a new revelation hit me. One which I knew I had to write about, one which kept getting more and more evident as I saw those consequences play out all over again. One fundamental truth which changes everything about the Smith years in hindsight.


The Silence may be the biggest cosmic fuckups to grace the 50+ year history of Doctor Who.