The Question The Question was , according to the " Teselecta " s computer , " the first question , the oldest question in the universe , hidden in plain sight " . It was the organising principle for the religious movement known as the Silence , who believed that " silence will fall when the Question is asked " . Accordingly , they called themselves the " Academy of the Question . " More specifically , the Silence believed that The Silence planned to kill the Doctor , whom they believed was the only one who knew the answer to the Question . At one point , they attempted to do this by turning Melody Pond into a weapon to kill the Doctor . Her first attempt was in 1938 Berlin and then again in 2011 on the beach of Lake Silencio . Although this attempt also failed , the Silence ( as well as the rest of the universe ) believed it was successful . Unbeknownst to the Silence , the Doctor had used the " Teselecta " to fake his death at Lake Silencio . ( TV : " The Impossible Astronaut " , " Let ' s Kill Hitler " , " The Wedding of River Song " ) Dorium Maldovar told the Doctor that " silence will fall when the question is asked " was a poor translation . A better translation would be " silence " must " fall . . . " Although the " Teselecta " s databases were unable to identify the Question , Dorium claimed to know it . According to him , the Question was actually , " Doctor who ? " ( TV : " Let ' s Kill Hitler " , " The Wedding of River Song " ) Some of the events described in Maldovar ' s " prophecy " seemingly came to pass when the Eleventh Doctor and several companions were drawn to Trenzalore by the Great Intelligence , but these events were not what the " prophecy " actually referred to . On Trenzalore , a future version of the Doctor ' s TARDIS was found , but the doors were sealed and the only way to enter was by answering the question , " Doctor who ? " — uttering the Doctor ' s true name . The Great Intelligence threatened the lives of the Doctor ' s companions in order to force him to reveal the answer ; however , he did not need to as River Song , due to being a non - corporeal data ghost at this point in time , and who was aware of the Doctor ' s true name , was able to utter it from outside the TARDIS , opening the doors and preventing the Doctor from having to reveal the secret . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) The question was actually a transmission being broadcast across all of time and space , making it the " oldest question in the universe , " and was used as a code by the Time Lord s on Gallifrey who were sealed inside a pocket universe . They were transmitting the message through a crack in time on the planet Trenzalore , asking the Doctor to speak his true name in order to let them know that it was safe to emerge from the pocket universe . Along with the Question , the Time Lords also transmitted a Truth Field which enveloped the town of Christmas so that the Doctor could not lie if he were to answer the Question . This prompted a siege on the planet by a host of alien races who wanted to prevent the start of another time war , but they were held off for almost 900 years by a combination of the Doctor and a force field that had been put in place by the Papal Mainframe . In response to this , Tasha Lem commissioned a faith change and established the Church of the Silence , dedicating it to the cause of maintaining the Doctor ' s silence and keeping him from speaking his name . However , the Kovarian chapter , an offshoot of the Church , went to more extreme measures in their attempts to prevent the Doctor from speaking his name and releasing the Time Lords , travelling back along his timeline and attempting to kill him retroactively . One of their attempts on the Doctor ' s life involved the destruction of his TARDIS , although this attempt backfired on them and ended up creating the very cracks in time through which the Time Lords were calling . The conflict on Trenzalore eventually boiled down to the point that only the Daleks remained at war with the Church and the Doctor . The Doctor , having run out of regeneration s and convinced of his foreseen death on the planet , intended to let the Daleks kill him , but Clara Oswald believed that the future could be changed and implored the Time Lords to help the Doctor . Ultimately , she became the one to answer the Question , although she stated that the Doctor ' s real name was simply " the Doctor , " and that the meaning behind that answer was a sufficient - enough reason for the Time Lords to give him their support , which they then did by changing the future and granting the Doctor a brand new regenerative cycle , thereby allowing him to defeat the Daleks and survive the battle . ( TV : " The Time of the Doctor " )