Death and the Silence in Doctor Who

Bleeding Cool have posted the covers of the latest Doctor Who Magazine which lets slip a little twist. Namely, one of the characters - either the Doctor, Amy, Rory or River - is going to die.

Head writer Steven Moffat has said that it isn't a trick and whoever it is is definitely going to die. Now, if that was really true it would pretty much mean that the Doctor himself was out of the running. I mean, you can't have Doctor Who without the Doctor (well, maybe for an episode or two but no more). I'd also say that Amy was out of the running as well. She's still the Doctor's assistant/companion and I don't think they'd just replace her at the beginning of a new series.

So that leaves Rory and River, both of whom have died before. Of course, if River died then it would sort of ruin her ending in the Silence in the Library. Which, finally, leaves Rory...

Now, this all assumes the death will not be, in some clever way, undone. As with other previous deaths, I suspect that won't be the case. Generally speculation, based in part on the Doctor's words in the trailer ("Amy Pond. My life is in your hands" or something similar), is that it is the Doctor who dies (killed by River, perhaps, to fulfill her destiny in ending the life of a good man, as mentioned in the last series?) and Amy and Rory have to go back and change time to stop it from happening. Which, if true, means the death is a bit of a cheat, after all. I guess we'll find out when the new series starts on April 23rd.

Whilst I'm here, another thing to note is that people have been wondering what "The Silence" is that will apparently 'fall' in this series (and predicted to fall way back at the beginning of the last series). The BBC's recently released press pack contains a sort of Q&A section with Steven Moffat in which it says:

"Will there be new monsters? They're ... scary. Very scary. And, ohh, I don't want to say more – there's the Silence in episodes one and two, the Siren, in episode three, the Gangers in five and six, all these are more than just freaky costumes and masks; there are SCARY ideas here".

And later, Matt Smith says,

"I think The Silence are one of the greatest monsters of recent years and certainly one of the scariest. They're also very clever and I love the fact they've been silently working since the dawn of time to make The Doctor come unstuck."

Which all seems to indicate that, yes, the Silence are the Grey-like race of 'monsters' or aliens we've seen hiding in the background in the trailers. So, I wonder what's so bad about them 'falling'?

And then there's the cliffhanger that'll come at the end of episode 7 (before the series takes a break and comes back in autumn):

"Normally our cliff-hangers are lives being threatened; with this one, three live are changed FOREVER".

I wonder which three lives these will be? Probably those of the Doctor, Rory and Amy when they finally discover who River Song actually is, I guess!

Finally, here's the synopsis to the first episode - The Impossible Astronaut:
"Four envelopes, numbered 2, 3 and 4, each containing a date, time and map reference, unsigned, but TARDIS blue. Who sent them? And who received the missing number one? This strange summons reunites the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song in the middle of the Utah desert and unveils a terrible secret the Doctor's friends must never reveal to him.

Placing his life entirely in their hands, the Doctor agrees to search for the recipient of the fourth envelope - just who is Canton Everett Delaware the Third? And what is the relevance of their only other clue: 'Space 1969'? Their quest lands them - quite literally - in the Oval Office, where they are enlisted by President Nixon himself to assist enigmatic former-FBI agent Canton, in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman".