The Rings of Akhaten

The Rings of Akhaten
by Neil Cross
Originally Broadcasted: April 6th, 2013

The Doctor takes Clara on her first trip to an alien planet, and they end up at Akhaten, where the Festival of Offerings is in full swing. Clara meets Merry, the Queen of the Years who is scared of her duties, and quite rightfully so. For something is stirring inside the ancient pyramid, and a sacrifice will be demanded...

I had low expectations going into The Rings of Akhaten. You had reviews saying this was one of the worst Doctor Who episodes ever, and reviews saying it was one of the best. The Rings of Akhaten is not one of the best episodes of Doctor Who ever, but it is a good one with one particularly phenomenal scene. When Merry and the people of Akhaten try desperately to send the Old God back to sleep, it's really the Doctor who saves the day by feeding his hundreds of years of memories to the sun behind a beautiful singing planet. I think the Doctor's speech here is one of his greatest in the history of the show: "Can you hear them? All these people who lived in terror of you and your judgement. All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves, to you. Can you hear them singing?" In fact, I think this might even be Matt Smith's greatest moment as the Doctor. He really gets to show off his acting talents with a heartfelt speech and even breaks into tears. I challenge you to watch this scene and not feel emotional. Well done to all involved for creating such amazing drama. The rest of the episode however is a bit run of the mill. We get to see Clara's first trip into space, which seemed a bit reminiscent of how Rose reacted way back in The End of the World. Some funny moments ensue, and we get to see more of Clara's personality, showing her off as a really wonderful human being. You get some pretty awkward special effects in this episode however. The Old God on his own looks great, but the scenes showing the Doctor and Clara traveling to the Rings of Akhaten look really pasted together. But before all that, we get some lovely flashback scenes showing Clara's mother meeting her father in a typical romantic meeting. You wonder why show this at first, but it all makes sense by the end of the episode. Don't let the reviews fool you, for The Rings of Akhaten is a great Doctor Who story. Maybe not great, but you can't have every episode be The Caves of Androzani ;)

Luke's Rating: 8/10