'The Rings Of Akhaten', one of my favourite episodes of Series 7. And it's also one of the most divisive, if internet comments are to be believed. Some people think it's the worst episode since 'Fear Her', others (like me) applaud it. So what is it about this episode that has really divided the fans?
Well let's start by talking about the production design, which whether you're a fan of the episode or not, is undeniably one of the highlights of the episode. Steven Moffat promised us that this episode would treat us to 'the best alien world DW has done' and I'd have to agree. The alien world of Akhaten IS the best alien world DW has done so far. It's full of so, so, so many new aliens that you'd be mistaken for thinking that we were back in the Star Wars cantina! I was in awe at the creatures on display here, the costume and make-up department clearly outdid themselves and yes while some of the props (if you look closely enough) are reused from previous monster designs just the sheer amount of new alien races on display here is certainly refreshing and a welcome addition to the episode. It's definitely worth freezeframing at some points just to see a few cool looking aliens in the background (and speaking of the background, despite having only three set's in the episode the director did well to hide that, I didn't feel like the show was constrained at all). Design wise, The Vigil were the best monsters, they were very good at being that particular type of DW creepy, so it's a shame they were nothing more than simple henchmen to the main baddie. The mummy 'alarm clock' was another great design, although I was thankful that he wasn't the big bad, I find it hard to believe a creature of that size (that can't even break a glass box!) could consume an entire solar system on it's own. The CGI was for the most part impressive, bar the few scenes on the hover bike which looked like a rather awful green screen background. But the shot of the Doctor in front of the sun god bathed in silhouette was practically movie quality, proving just how inconsistent the CGI in DW can be at times. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if this was the most expensive episode of the season, just the amount of CGI and make-up/costumes involved was enormous, truly giving us that movie blockbuster feel that this series has been trying to achieve. Overall I think they succeeded in creating a rather immersive alien world, it's just a shame we couldn't have seen more of it in the episode.
The story (penned by newcomer Neil Cross) at first appears like a rather simple tale set on an alien planet but there is a lot of subtext about religion and faith if you look closely. The Doctors speech about the solar systems beliefs ('Well, it's a nice story') felt oddly atheistic, and at the end during his big speech he outright rejecting this society's “god” as a parasite living off fear. And coupled with an innocent child being brought up to essentially be sacrificed to a god...it's not exactly showing religion in the best of light is it? Hmm perhaps I'm reading into it too much...
I also liked how the stakes kept rising, to the point where it was suitably epic at the end (prepare to see that word tossed around a lot in this review). You weren't sure if The Vigil were the bad guys at first, and then we were introduced to the mummy which in any other DW episode is where they would have drawn the line but NOPE the 'god' in question is in fact the very gas giant that Akhaten orbits around, making it (size wise) the biggest baddie The Doctor has ever faced to the point, and even he has to question his ability to beat this thing!
Now this story is getting a LOT of hate because it's another one of those 'we solved it with lurve' endings in which Clara quite literally beats a giant parasite (the size of a gas giant!) with a leaf at the end, and yeah on paper it does sound mightily silly and BULLSH*T...but it's important to know that it doesn't come out of nowhere, even IF it doesn't hold well to scrutiny (but let's be honest here, when has anything EVER held up to scrutiny on DW?). Emotion and memories are a big part of this episodes story, which why I like it so much. The opening scenes were rather sweet giving us that much needed back-story for Clara that 'The Bells Of Saint John' so sorely needed, seeing something as simple as seeing how her parents hooked up and the tragic death of her mother (did they ever explain how she died?) finally made me invest in the character on an emotional level. In fact the entire episode had a few rather touching moments for Clara, I liked the way she talked to the scared girl (she is a nanny so no wonder she's good with kids), I loved the fact that she had to give away her mothers ring as payment for the hover-bike (neat little idea that, objects with sentimental value as currency) and later on the leaf that was so important to her parent's lives. I think the thing that separates Clara from someone like Amy who would moan and let's face it, be a bit of a bitch at times in her first series is that she is genuinely a good person, a nice, well rounded character who is just as selfless as the Doctor. It's just a shame that other episodes of this Season haven't highlighted those qualities as much as this one. So when the time comes and she has to sacrifice the leaf, boldly stating that days that should have been or could have been (like the days that she could have spent with her mum, had she not have been.....you know, dead) are much more powerful than what has been, i.e her memories, it comes off as being extremely arresting for the viewer.
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| I love these guys, so creepy... |
I also liked how the stakes kept rising, to the point where it was suitably epic at the end (prepare to see that word tossed around a lot in this review). You weren't sure if The Vigil were the bad guys at first, and then we were introduced to the mummy which in any other DW episode is where they would have drawn the line but NOPE the 'god' in question is in fact the very gas giant that Akhaten orbits around, making it (size wise) the biggest baddie The Doctor has ever faced to the point, and even he has to question his ability to beat this thing!
Now this story is getting a LOT of hate because it's another one of those 'we solved it with lurve' endings in which Clara quite literally beats a giant parasite (the size of a gas giant!) with a leaf at the end, and yeah on paper it does sound mightily silly and BULLSH*T...but it's important to know that it doesn't come out of nowhere, even IF it doesn't hold well to scrutiny (but let's be honest here, when has anything EVER held up to scrutiny on DW?). Emotion and memories are a big part of this episodes story, which why I like it so much. The opening scenes were rather sweet giving us that much needed back-story for Clara that 'The Bells Of Saint John' so sorely needed, seeing something as simple as seeing how her parents hooked up and the tragic death of her mother (did they ever explain how she died?) finally made me invest in the character on an emotional level. In fact the entire episode had a few rather touching moments for Clara, I liked the way she talked to the scared girl (she is a nanny so no wonder she's good with kids), I loved the fact that she had to give away her mothers ring as payment for the hover-bike (neat little idea that, objects with sentimental value as currency) and later on the leaf that was so important to her parent's lives. I think the thing that separates Clara from someone like Amy who would moan and let's face it, be a bit of a bitch at times in her first series is that she is genuinely a good person, a nice, well rounded character who is just as selfless as the Doctor. It's just a shame that other episodes of this Season haven't highlighted those qualities as much as this one. So when the time comes and she has to sacrifice the leaf, boldly stating that days that should have been or could have been (like the days that she could have spent with her mum, had she not have been.....you know, dead) are much more powerful than what has been, i.e her memories, it comes off as being extremely arresting for the viewer.
And this is of course without Matt Smiths EPIC speech just before Clara's equally impactful one, which is, hands down, my favourite 11th Doctor moment from here on. It was quite simply stunning and is probably one of the reasons why I like DW so much. I mean, just read it!
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| E.P.I.C |
And again that's without Matt Smith's excellent performance, proving once again just how outstanding he is at being The Doctor. Again you could say that they basically talked the villain to death, but it works because of how much weight is given to those words by the actors and how much it means to their respective characters. I'm fine with non-sensical conclusions as long as it ties into the themes of the story and there is real emotional impact with them, and this episode had it in spades.
One other element of the episode I'd like to recommend is the fantastic score by Murry Gold, as music is another big part of the episode. The singing was so prevalent that some people are calling this episode a musical, which is a complete exaggeration and even if it seemed like it was a musical, so what? DW is a very flexible show and if the creators decided to do a musical episode then what's wrong with that? If anything it adds more variety, (as long as they do it well) and guess what? In this episode it was handled well and wasn't murder to your earwaves like some have been saying. Child actress Emilia Jones is great as Merry Galel and while her singing can be a tad to much at points, she did fine overall and the chant at the end overlapping The Doctor's speech coupled with the bombastic score is another reason why it's a fantastic scene. So critizising the episode because it's different is not a valid complaint, if anything it should be a positive!
Even I have to admit that the episode has it flaws though. For starters, the sonic screwdriver is used WAY to much to the point where it might as well be a magic wand. This, coupled with the hand-wavey resolution to 'The Power Of Three' earlier in the season makes me just want to pluck the F*CKING thing out of the Doctor's hand and smash it to pieces because as a plot device, IT IS BULLSH*T ON THE HIGHEST SCALE AND MUSTN'T BE ALLOWED TO LIVE.
...but in all seriousness, whoever is in charge of the show right now should just outright ban over excessive uses of the sonic screwdriver in future episodes because it's just getting ridiculous now! CUT.IT.OUT.
Another thing that didn't seem to be explained was what the parasite actually did to The Doctor, supposedly it consumed his memories without a hitch but he seemed perfectly fine afterwords so it mustn't have taken them away then....and if that's the case then what's the point of stopping it? If consuming peoples memories doesn't harm them or take away their memories then The Doctor might as well just let that happen because nobody's in danger here! The things harmless! And what happened to it exactly? I mean it had it's fill of memories and then just....disappeared? WTF?! EXPLAIN! I've watched the episode again and it's quite literally nowhere to be found. So despite me loving the episode, technically that is still bad writing right?
And how would singing 'Wake up' to the monster instead of 'Go to sleep' help things if the monster was awake anyway? And I know I've said this before but HOW CAN THEY BREATH IN SPACE? AND HOW CAN THE DOCTOR HEAR THEM IF SOUND CAN'T TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE? EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN! EXPLAAAAAIN!!!!!
....but apart from that, I loved the episode!
So why has this episode divided fans? I think it's the sentimentality of the plot coupled with the rather large amount of singing not to mention some serious plot holes. I mean in some ways it's a very odd episode isn't it? It's another one of those plots that involve saving the world with the power of lurve. I shouldn't like it, and yet the marvellous production design, music and emotion of it all won me over along with Matt Smith's speech at the end which HAS TO BE one of my favourite moments in DW ever. So despite a few flaws, this is another case of the positives FAR outweighing the negatives in value: 9/10.
Positives:
+ Epic score
+ Fantastic performances
+ Often times superb visuals and production design
+ LOTS of new aliens!
+ THAT SPEECH
+ Really emotional script
Negatives:
- The script does have a few rather large plot holes
- MASSIVE overuse of the sonic
...but in all seriousness, whoever is in charge of the show right now should just outright ban over excessive uses of the sonic screwdriver in future episodes because it's just getting ridiculous now! CUT.IT.OUT.
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And how would singing 'Wake up' to the monster instead of 'Go to sleep' help things if the monster was awake anyway? And I know I've said this before but HOW CAN THEY BREATH IN SPACE? AND HOW CAN THE DOCTOR HEAR THEM IF SOUND CAN'T TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE? EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN! EXPLAAAAAIN!!!!!
....but apart from that, I loved the episode!
So why has this episode divided fans? I think it's the sentimentality of the plot coupled with the rather large amount of singing not to mention some serious plot holes. I mean in some ways it's a very odd episode isn't it? It's another one of those plots that involve saving the world with the power of lurve. I shouldn't like it, and yet the marvellous production design, music and emotion of it all won me over along with Matt Smith's speech at the end which HAS TO BE one of my favourite moments in DW ever. So despite a few flaws, this is another case of the positives FAR outweighing the negatives in value: 9/10.
Positives:
+ Epic score
+ Fantastic performances
+ Often times superb visuals and production design
+ LOTS of new aliens!
+ THAT SPEECH
+ Really emotional script
Negatives:
- The script does have a few rather large plot holes
- MASSIVE overuse of the sonic
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