This week the Doctor and Clara finally get away from Earth and explore a proper alien planet. This is fast becoming a modern Doctor Who tradition: each time the Doctor acquires a new companion he takes her to a strange place full of aliens in their second adventure together.
The Rings Of Akhaten feels a lot like an old school Doctor Who episode. You know, the ones where they'd visit an alien planet and the Doctor's companion would always wander off and get involved with the goings on of some alien society and the Doctor would have to save them. That's a good thing.
The Rings Of Akhaten feels a lot like an old school Doctor Who episode. You know, the ones where they'd visit an alien planet and the Doctor's companion would always wander off and get involved with the goings on of some alien society and the Doctor would have to save them. That's a good thing.
Unfortunately it felt a little derivative of recent episodes, especially The End Of The World. You know, the one where the Doctor takes Rose to the year 5 billion to watch the sun explode, and there's lots of weird aliens there including the Face Of Boe. Parts of it also reminded me a bit of The Beast Below, specifically the "getting separated from the Doctor and getting caught up in the culture" aspect. That's not a good thing.
Spoilers Ahead!
The Plot:
Clara asks the Doctor to take her someplace "awesome." He takes her to the Rings Of Akhaten, where there's lots of aliens, a big festival and people singing songs to keep their sun god asleep. It's all kind of confusing, but Clara ends up saving the day with her special leaf.
• This has nothing to do with the episode itself, but I really like that poster. It's done in the style of awesome movie poster artist Drew Struzan (specifically the one he did for Raiders Of The Lost Ark). You may not recognize his name but if you've been to a movie theater in the past thirty years you'll definitely recognize his work.
As near as I can tell that's not a real Struzan poster; it looks a little too Photoshoppy to be his work. I'm not sure why they didn't just get him to actually paint it rather than commissioning a reasonable facsimile.
• I guess they've stopped customizing the Doctor Who title screen. Last year each episode's title was filled with a texture that had something to do with the story, but for the past two weeks it's just been a distressed white.
• FYI: It's pronounced "Ack-A-Ten." Ignore the "H"."
• Wow, the Doctor's got a little stalkery this week, didn't he? We see he's been spying on Clara's parents since the moment they met cute, then he's been very closely observing her for years as well. I get that he's following Clara through time trying to figure out the riddle of her existence, but it came off a little creepy.
• Who's the blond guy standing next to Clara when she's mourning her dead mother? Boyfriend? Brother?
• When the Doctor first takes Clara to Akhaten, he tells her that the inhabitants believe that all life in the universe originated there. When Clara asks if that's true, the Doctor smiles wistfully and says, "Well, it's what they believe. It's a nice story." Obviously the answer's a resounding no, but the Doctor's too polite to destroy the belief system of an entire civilization. A nice little bit of acting from Matt Smith.
• I get that this is Doctor Who so I shouldn't expect much in the way of scientific accuracy, but... I'm not quite sure how the Seven Worlds of Akhaten work. It looks like the inhabitants live on a several large asteroids that somehow have an atmosphere and normal gravity and are situated about a mile from… a big planet? A dim sun? I think it's supposed to be a planet but I'm honestly not sure.
• Clue, or red herring? When Clara asks the Doctor if he's ever been to Akhaten before he says once, with his granddaughter (who we all know was named Susan Foreman). Maybe I'm just imagining things but it seemed like Clara's ears pricked up at this mention.
So was the granddaughter comment just a throwaway line for long time fans, or is it a clue as to the true identity of Clara? A lot of people on the interwebs think Clara is somehow really Susan.
• The various alien makeups by Millennium FX were well done, and no doubt broke the show's budget.
• Kind of fuzzy as to what was going on in this episode. The inhabitants of Akhaten sing a constant song (that somehow travels through the vacuum of space) to keep their angry god asleep. It's implied that an alien mummy in a glass case is the god. Later Merry, the Queen of Years, makes a mistake in the song and the mummy wakes, using a tractor beam to pull her towards it so it can consume her soul. The Doctor and Clara follow, but then find that the mummy is not the god, it's the planet (or sun?) Akhaten itself. There's also a group of steampunky creatures called the Vigil that try to stop the Doctor. Confused? Join the club.
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| The Doctor faces off against the biggest and angriest pumpkin in the universe. |
• The Doctor realizes that Akhaten feeds off memories and stories, so he tries to overload it by offering up the sum total of his knowledge and memories. Energy tendrils from Akhaten appear and seem to be drawing these memories from the Doctor.
Apparently Akhaten just read the Doctor's mind and didn't actually drain it, since he's not reduced to a drooling simpleton afterward.
• Once Clara offers up her "unlimited potential" leaf, it appears that the planet (or sun?) Akhaten implodes. Hopefully that doesn't disrupt the planetary system too awfully much.
The idea that the leaf is filled with all the untapped potential of her mother's life sounds an awfully lot like the way the Weeping Angels work-- they send you back in time and feed off the potential energy of all the life you never got to live.
• At the end of the episode Clara remembers seeing the Doctor when she was a child and realizes he's been stalking her through time. Instead of being incensed and repulsed and calling the authorities as a rational person would, she mildly scolds him about it and continues to travel with him.
• Best thing about this episode: No one made the god-damned "Doctor Who?" joke this week.
