The 10 scariest monsters from Doctor Who’s classic and modern era

5. The Silence

First appeared in: “The Impossible Astronaut and throughout new Who season 6.

As the Doctor puts it, The Silence are the “creaking under your bed, the thing in the corner of your eye.” They could be right behind you right now, but you’d never realize unless you were looking right at it.

First appearing in and throughout season 6 of the new Doctor Who, The Silence are the stuff of nightmares. A creature that you can only remember when looking directly at it, one instantly forgets them as soon as they are no longer within eyesight. It turns out that the world is teeming with them, only no one knows they even exist. The Doctor devises a way in which the team can remember if they’ve seen The Silence, by the recordings and tallies all over Amy, Rory and River’s bodies are almost as scary as The Silence themselves.

As revealed during season 6, The Silence are a religious order that have been shaping the way humanity has lived for as long as no one can remember. They’ve influenced global events and, as the Doctor points out, they are less aliens and more parasites that have been feeding off Earth and humanity since time began.

One of the cleverest tricks is that often the camera will mimic the way in which the characters forget that they’ve seen The Silence, making them all the more scary as we don’t know if they’ve been around or not. If you suddenly see some tally marks on your arms, you should feel very scared indeed.