I was looking at some awful Doctor Who fan tumblrs (so many washed out, photoshopped pictures of Amy oh god) and it turns out people have been scouring last season for hints of the Silents/Silence showing up. There are a couple instances that could be blamed on odd acting or production screw ups. (Amy looking around the TARDIS at the end of "The Eleventh Hour" and looking horrified for just a second before turning around and asking the Doctor something, the door of the TARDIS moving on its own in the background at the end of "Vampires of Venice" when they're returning to it)
The one that seems totally legitimate and creepy happens at about 21:45 in "The Lodger", while Amy is talking to the Doctor. Who the hell is she yelling at?? And why was it not mentioned at any other point in the episode??
:shock:
Okay. Well, now I have to see season 5 again.
EDIT - Weird. I must have edited this before. Anyhow, I just rewatched THE ELEVENTH HOUR and THE LODGER for the pertinent silence bits.
Nope. They're not there. I mean, if these things happened... I'd
remember.
EDIT - I don't remember putting any of this up.
Anyhow,
a thought occurs.
Let's say that the Silence are indeed on the TARDIS.
A lot of things start to make sense. First of all, how did they sabotage the TARDIS?
Because they were in it. While River was trying to fix it, the Silence were actually on the TARDIS causing it to go boom. How did they get on the TARDIS?
Because they exist on the other side of the cracks in space. That's where they come from. They blew up the TARDIS in order to create the cracks so they could get into our side of reality. This is why no one remembers them. Like the cracks, they make you forget. And what was the vehicle that got them from one side to the other?
The TARDIS. It pulled them into our world. How does this whole thing start? It's a friggin' time loop.
But, wait, it gets better.
If the Silence were in the TARDIS, where would they go? Wherever the Doctor went. And where does the Doctor go? Earth. A lot. In all time periods. So he's been inadvertently dropping the Silence off throughout human history, giving them free reign.
Which is why the 1100 year old Doctor said,
"Humans. I never thought I'd get done saving you." Those escapades at the beginning of the episode? They weren't frivolous. The Doctor was going through time and space defeating the Silence throughout history.
When he finally finished defeating all the Silence's incursions, which took 200 years, he accepted his fate and returned to 2011 to die. (And I can imagine when this is revealed, someone asks about the Laurel and Hardy thing and the Doctor would reply, "Oh that. I deserved a break.") Notice that when Amy sees the Silence on the beach, the Doctor is very aware that's what she saw.
I should do a manifesto.