NWR The Rings of Akhaten

[puppetmaker]

I am going to honestly say that if I get any feedback/comments on this one, there will be spoilers so if you haven’t seen it and want to keep spoiler free, don’t go below the cut line and avoid the comments.

This episode has raised a lot of fan discussion and a few fights, which is interesting for an episode, with the exception of a few things, could have been just about any Doctor and most of the companions. I honestly could see Tom Baker’s Doctor in this episode without missing a beat.

Overall it had its good moments and its frustration Dr. Who logic (or lack of) moments. Again fine acting from the cast as a whole. Clara reminded me of Sarah Jane a bit in this one.

The aliens living on the planet were interesting but suffered from Star Trek bumpy humanoid syndrome. I do understand a bunch of aliens evolving in the same area all being sort of the same but everyone has a humanoid shape? Even FarScape found ways of inserting the impossible into all of their bazaar scenes to make it feel more aliens and not the local version of costumed SF swap meet.

Over all it was OK but not something that made me go Wow!

Again spoilers only to this episode and back please. Speculation is fine but I am trying to avoid spoilers for the rest of the season.

Next week “Cold War” The Doctor, a Submarine, and a menace….Did they do that in the Terror of the Zygons?



OK I am unclear, did giving over the memories make the other person lose them? Or be injured in any way? I apparently missed something in the exposition which was put somewhere in the episode or maybe there wasn’t.

They keep saying Mummy but I thought I heard the word Vampire from the Doctor’s lips as in “State of Decay” type vampire not “Vampires in Venice “ type vampire.

And the possibility of time? Stories that might have happened only if? I think just about every object that has personal meaning to someone who has passed at an early age would have that.

And by now Clara should have creepy stalker vibe from the Doctor. I know Amy had her “raggedy doctor” but this is a little more on the creepy side. If Clara figures out the number of times she has seen the Doctor out of the corner of her eye, the logical response is not going to be a pretty one. He was there at her Mother’s funeral. He was there when she was a child. This one figure has always been there in the shadows. And if that’s not stalker behavior, then I need to go check a dictionary.

That being said, I do enjoy what the actress is doing with the character. She is taking some lines that seem rather odd and stilted and is making them sound natural.

And the Vigil? Looked like they escaped from a Hellboy movie. Hoping this is their one and only appearance this season and aren’t part of something larger. Because every time I saw them, I was taken right out of the story and started wondering what Mike Mignola is up to.

I think it comes down to too much going on. It felt like a throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. They took those and composed the story.

And I will not even approach the physics (or lack there of) in this episode. My inner physicist was squirming more than usual.

So character stuff interesting. Big Bad not so much.

It felt like a filler episode except for the pieces about Clara’s parents and her mother’s untimely death.

So 3 out of 5 TARDIS(es)

Comments

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this episode did have a lot going on. I'm still not sure if I liked it. The singing was beautiful, though. I like the idea of a people trying to keep their god asleep because awakening it would be terrible. But the whole "feeding it stories" thing kind of confused me. I mean, I get the concept in general, but it just...needed more.

I would say that this episode is better than last week's.

[thinkum]

This episode felt rather a mess to me, although the little girl was really quite wonderful in her performance.

I found myself quite annoyed by the fact that The Leaf appeared to have changed size and shape since the Doctor first saw it in the previous episode.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

I hated this episode. I was bored rigid and have come to the conclusion that I don't really like Doctor Who any more and only watch it out of nostalgia (and for my children). The cast are great; it's the scripts that let them down very badly and it's such a sad waste of potential. I thought the music was cheesy and couldn't understand how they couldn't get a better composer for music which was supposed to be world saving. And the stalker thing, oh my goodness. I was watching thinking "since when did the Doctor become a stalker??" It's the second assistant they've had him doing this kind of thing and it's getting a really creepy vibe that I don't like. OK, I can see that maybe they're going in a direction of he's really old and the last of his kind, so he's slowly going nuts, but this is the Doctor, dammit. I have fond childhood memories of him. I don't want to be thinking of him as some kind of deranged obsessive you need to keep away from your daughter.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

I get the feeling that they are cramming into 7 episodes, what should have taken more like 10.
That said, they are putting a lot of stuff that isn't going to be resolved until near the end of these episodes.
I have a feeling we haven't seen the end of that leaf or that book of Clara's.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I agree, the best parts were Clara and the little girl/the singing. The Doctor did say "vampire," and I thought of the old-style space vampires too, but he might not have meant it was one of that race so much as just something that feeds off other people. We also thought the stalker thing was creepy, and could definitely bite him, since Clara clearly has no problem standing up to him. It definitely felt like a "okay, time to let the new companion settle in a bit" ep. Looking forward to the next one, though why does Liam Cunningham keep winding up in ill-fated boats? :)

[astroboy359.livejournal.com]

I'm just a little annoyed with them changing the rules on how the TARDIS works every week these days. No Guns. Universal Translation. Clara certainly would have been able to talk to all the sentient races on the asteroid. The grunting was dumb.

Aside from that I'm enjoying Clara a lot. Clara(Jenna) has a great Ace(Sophie)-like feel to her. An Ace was the first companion I know who took a cricket bat to a Dalek.