The Silence invade Star Wars

[ChosenOne54]

Several million Silence are transported into the Star Wars universe during the events of the Empire Strike Back. Their goal is to take over the Empire, and gain control over the galaxy. This is not a direct confrontation; they do what they normally do (hide in the shadows and manipulate).

For those of you who don't know:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Silence

Can they do it?

[FaxModem1]

Hmm, I think that Palpatine would be able to detect it.

[NecronLord]

We really know nothing about how powerful the Silence are.

[ChosenOne54]

Well, they somehow forced the Doctor's TARDIS to explode, causing every star to supernova at every point in time.

Though, no, we don't know much.

[Lord Woodlouse]

Hmm, I think that Palpatine would be able to detect it.

He probably would. Then he'd forget it.

[Darksider]

If anyone can get them into actual combat, they seem to die much easier than most Who Villain races. Their strength seems based around their ability to manipulate others and erase their memories of it.

Doesn't the doctor have some kind of psychic voodoo powers or something? If the Silent's memory erasure trick worked on him, it might work on force sensitives as well. If they can counter it, the Silence will fall rather quickly, and in a manner they do not intend.

[Mr Bean]

Do their manipulation techniques work on technology? If not then the Silence are simply pointed out by the quadrillions of droids and other AI systems in SW's.

[Captain Seafort]

Do their manipulation techniques work on technology?

No. Amy's phone retained the image of the Silence, as did the various recordings of Armstrong's first steps onto the moon.

[Mr Bean]

Do their manipulation techniques work on technology?

No. Amy's phone retained the image of the Silence, as did the various recordings of Armstrong's first steps onto the moon.

Yeah so they are boned. If their spooky mind powers only works on organics there will be hundreds of ways to detect them and even if they spooky mind powers let them affect people through security Camera feeds the "Woop Woop Woop" of the intruder alarm will let people know something is up.

Plus who knows if Silence powers are good against 100% of all SW species of which there are tens of thousands of intelligent different races life forms floating around.

[NecronLord]

Do their manipulation techniques work on technology? If not then the Silence are simply pointed out by the quadrillions of droids and other AI systems in SW's.

Specifically, they work through it. If you record an image, and even make a duplicate image, it retains the same properties.

But when you can see one you can recall all previous encounters with them, consequently, after 1969 whenever a human at least one who's seen the Moon Landing will be inspired to acts of immediate violence against them. It's implied there's some compulsion attached to it too.

[NecronLord]

even if they spooky mind powers let them affect people through security Camera feeds

They do

the "Woop Woop Woop" of the intruder alarm will let people know something is up.

In fairness, while they suck in a fight, they do have full time travel and a stated MO of infiltrating a species' past. It's likely they'd take precautions to make sure AI was programmed to ignore them by brainwashing its creators. It's reasonably likely if they were attacking the Galactic Empire, they'd try and ensure the dominant droid-producing species make their creations ignore them.

It's unlikely to work well, of course. They don't have the numbers.

[Mr Bean]

In fairness, while they suck in a fight, they do have full time travel and a stated MO of infiltrating a species' past. It's likely they'd take precautions to make sure AI was programmed to ignore them by brainwashing its creators. It's reasonably likely if they were attacking the Galactic Empire, they'd try and ensure the dominant droid-producing species make their creations ignore them.

It's unlikely to work well, of course. They don't have the numbers.

The problem is all of the species are droid producing, we are talking about an entire Galaxy here and each species makes droids in their own image so to speak. Human style droids are common because one you become a galaxy fairing civilization it becomes cheaper to buy the mass market versions which happen to be humanoid because such is the most wide spread and common use. But your seriously talking about a scale issue here, if there are say seven million members of the Silence race running around unless they all live forever there might be two of them per planet. And what do they do about Hive Minded species of which Star Wars has half a dozen? Some of whom communicate instantaneously via ultrasonics or organic radio waves with hundreds of their fellow members of their species?

[NecronLord]

The problem is all of the species are droid producing, we are talking about an entire Galaxy here and each species makes droids in their own image so to speak.

Not quite all, but you're of course correct in general terms, there is a stunning variety of droids out there.

On the other hand though there are evidently seriously long established interplanetary standards in 'droid design and creation (such that interoperability between planets is practicable; you can even put a cybot galactica protocol droid head on a Geonosian battle droid's body and the droid can see through its eyes, and a battle droid's head can control the protocol droid's body) there is logically going to be some kind of W3C or ISO for droids in Star Wars that must be specifying a lot of their essential functions.

That and huge mega-corporations like Cybot Galactica would be prime targets for such an operation, though the possibility of pulling off such a thing would be entirely unknown, and first they'd need to access historical records to find appropriate targets.

In principle they could locate the major contributors and pull it off, by making sure they're infiltrated into the homes of the people involved before they become important. In practice I think it'd be unlikely to work, simply because it does require that everything goes right, and that the Jedi Order of that era doesn't pounce on them.

But your seriously talking about a scale issue here,

Quite so.

if there are say seven million members of the Silence race running around unless they all live forever there might be two of them per planet. And what do they do about Hive Minded species of which Star Wars has half a dozen? Some of whom communicate instantaneously via ultrasonics or organic radio waves with hundreds of their fellow members of their species?

Avoid them, most likely, those races don't seem to contribute significantly to galactic politics, and the Star Wars galaxy's big enough for isolated sightings to go down as nothing more than folklore.

[Mr Bean]

Avoid them, most likely, those races don't seem to contribute significantly to galactic politics, and the Star Wars galaxy's big enough for isolated sightings to go down as nothing more than folklore.

The Verpine are a very common semi-Hive mind species who are valued as excellent mechanics and builders and possess the ability to communicate to each other via short natural radio transmissions (Per Wiki ranges in the hundred kilometers or so) and the species constantly communicates with each other as they can communicate with hundreds of their fellows at the same time. Both the Old Republic, Empire and NR all used their race in supporting galactic commerce because they are willing to work, are excellent workers and require very little in the way of material comforts or needs aside from food or living quarters(Verpine are fine living in the SW equivalent of a washing machine box). Requiring only modest payment and the ability to examine your technology. They are a race tailored made to give something like the Silence a hard time since they are everywhere there is trade there is a colony of Verpine tirelessly working to repair the local starships and technology of any kind. The way the EU pitches them it was an excellent way to maintain your ships was to go to the home system, hire a hive to come work in your star base and know you have an excellent supply of workers who literally could breed more to meet demand if required and if overpopulated would go home and become part of a new hive available for hire for some other jobs.

[lordofchange13]

Do their manipulation techniques work on technology? If not then the Silence are simply pointed out by the quadrillions of droids and other AI systems in SW's.

But would then forget what the Droid told them, organics rule and they are easly munipulated. The Silence could just order the human/other races to shut down all AI devices on the panet. or reprogram them

[Mr Bean]

Do their manipulation techniques work on technology? If not then the Silence are simply pointed out by the quadrillions of droids and other AI systems in SW's.

But would then forget what the Droid told them, organics rule and they are easly munipulated. The Silence could just order the human/other races to shut down all AI devices on the panet. or reprogram them

Why would they need to tell them anything? I was referring to droid defense based systems of which SW has a ton including automated turrets, fully intelligent battle droids and can the Silence affect entire planets at once now? My impress on reading the wiki and watching clips is their magic powers of mind manipulation require you to be in close contact with them. If a member of the Silence gets a Republic general to give him full access to their base and grants him rights, the security officer in a bunker somewhere looks at the access list and not remeber who this person is asks why they have access, can't remember and so deletes them off the list and hello blaring alarms if the Silences tries to infiltrate.

My understanding is of the Silence that to get you to do anything they have to tell you that in person, you forget them when you look away from them but they can't reprogram you via a still photo but require audio visual cues to do so.

[Shroom Man 777]

Do Silence Moffat tricks work on creatures that can't see? A Jedi or whatever could just close his eyes and thus, without being affected by the patented Moffat visual tricks to induce tension in audiences, use his senses to stab the Silence in the dick.

Aren't there SW races that can perceive stuff without eyes?

Turns out hinging your shtick on some camera trick to induce fear and tension in audiences sort of have these effects. Imagine if there was a species of creature that don't even need to blink. How would something like the Weeping Angels fare against that?

[ChosenOne54]

Don't know if anybody's brought this up yet, but going unnoticed in Star Wars might actually be easier than doing so on, say, Earth, whether or not droids can see them, if only because a person's reaction to seeing one would more likely be "Oh, what part of the galaxy do you come from?" as opposed to "Oh my God! An alien!"

[Shroom Man 777]

Blending in might be easier. But enacting your schemes, in a world way more advanced than Earth when all it had were literally graphs from the 1960s, with all sorts of tech to counteract them? Who knows.

[avatarxprime]

Do their manipulation techniques work on technology? If not then the Silence are simply pointed out by the quadrillions of droids and other AI systems in SW's.

But would then forget what the Droid told them, organics rule and they are easly munipulated. The Silence could just order the human/other races to shut down all AI devices on the panet. or reprogram them

Why would they need to tell them anything? I was referring to droid defense based systems of which SW has a ton including automated turrets, fully intelligent battle droids and can the Silence affect entire planets at once now? My impress on reading the wiki and watching clips is their magic powers of mind manipulation require you to be in close contact with them. If a member of the Silence gets a Republic general to give him full access to their base and grants him rights, the security officer in a bunker somewhere looks at the access list and not remeber who this person is asks why they have access, can't remember and so deletes them off the list and hello blaring alarms if the Silences tries to infiltrate.

Palpatine had all manner of agents with backdoors and overriding access to facilities, it would be easy enough for the Silence to be assumed among their number in such a situation. Even without that, they can be given a blanket access to the hypothetical base in question and use the General's codes to access anything they need since via suggestion they can tell the General what to use for codes.

My understanding is of the Silence that to get you to do anything they have to tell you that in person, you forget them when you look away from them but they can't reprogram you via a still photo but require audio visual cues to do so.

The Silence don't need to tell you in person, that's why the Moon Landing trick worked. As long as you see the image of the Silence and then someone (Silence or not) tells you to do something it will become a compulsion for you. The Doctor displayed that when he used the hologram of a Silence and told Canton to adjust his bow tie, which Canton then proceeds to do without knowing why after the hologram is turned off.

[BlackAdder]

Well, they somehow forced the Doctor's TARDIS to explode, causing every star to supernova at every point in time.

Though, no, we don't know much.

Actually, we don't know if it was the Silence who did that. Steven Moffat (as far as I know) hasn't said anything.

[ChosenOne54]

"Silence will fall..." right before the Tardis explodes.

"We are the Silence... and Silence will fall..." says the injured SIlent they captured.

Though we don't know for sure, I thought it was fairly obvious.

[NecronLord]

My understanding is of the Silence that to get you to do anything they have to tell you that in person, you forget them when you look away from them but they can't reprogram you via a still photo but require audio visual cues to do so.

They don't seem to need to do it in person, so much as have a audio-video feed to do it. It's not really properly explained.

Turns out hinging your shtick on some camera trick to induce fear and tension in audiences sort of have these effects. Imagine if there was a species of creature that don't even need to blink. How would something like the Weeping Angels fare against that?

Quite. I always imagined the weeping angels arriving on some planet only to discover that it's populated by cybermen and suddenly having a rather bad day of it.

[Lord Woodlouse]

Presumably these hive races would forget once that individual member of the hive stopped looking at them. Conversely, the entire hive could potentially be controlled by the Silence telling one of them what to do. Not that they'd need to. These shipbuilders might be all over the galaxy by I doubt they're in every strata of every planet's society.

[inviz345]

the silence shoot energy blots and can teleport anywhere they also have a Chameleon circuit .