Doctor Who: S07PT2E02 - The Rings Of Akhaten.

Although not the best episode of New Who ever, the Doctor came back pretty strongly, much stronger than I for one expected. So let's see where he goes next...


The Rings Of Akhaten is the story of a leaf but not just any old leaf, the most important leaf in human history! This leaf's story turns out to be quite the epic one, with grand proportions that never once loses sight of its humanity or the most important thing in all of time and space, love. Corny? Sure. Fantastic telly? Absolutely. Doctor Who is one of the few shows that can balance epic scope with muted emotional action and work.

A big part of the reason The Rings Of Akhaten was so good was because of the sense of escapism, of adventure. Although it deals with heavy topics like religion and sacrifice, with an alien twist of course, the episode never loses focus of the fact that this is Clara's first proper voyage. The Doctor is brimming with joy to show Clara the wonders of all of time and space and his excitement is just infectious. I really did feel Clara's wonder, I really did feel the Doctor's joy at Clara's wonder, it was just so beautifully constructed that I felt like I was on the trip with them, caught in the energetic Doctor whirlwind.

This is important because although far from stale, nothing really stands out about the concept or the concepts execution. I don't really want to give anything away, I'd love for you to enjoy it for yourself without me ruining too much, but most of the plot points or visual execution of those threads have been done elsewhere. I mean they haven't been done quite this well on TV before, there are some eye popping, make-you-want-to-go-out-and-buy-a-several-grand-TV, visuals here but fans of the sci-fi film genre are likely to get déjà vu. But as said, you'll be too busy grinning like a goof and trying to keep up with the Doctor and Clara on their adventure to really notice - you know, aside from your jaw dropping that this is a TV show that used to have cardboard robots and it now looks like this.

What also helps is an actual, direct villain. There is a late twist which is written rather clumsily but that aside the Doctor has enemies to confront directly and epically but still in a very Doctor Who feeling way. The villain just feels much more focused than it did last week, which was just a pile of half baked concepts. Plus the villains looked fantastic and rather scary as well with the final villain being absolutely incredible.

I didn't even really think the episode was that overstuffed by Moffat Who standards at least. Yes it is true that the episode is made up more of ideas than fully realised plot threads but the actual ideas themselves were at least formed, they at least felt like they had more thought put into them than the first draft feeling concepts chucked around last week. The narrative was sound enough to exist without further exploration.

And perhaps the most important thing is no bullshit. I like setup establishing moments in a narrative but I find most TV shows take the piss. They take a mystery, get us interested and then stretch it out as far as they physically can until I am literally screaming, 'get the fuck on with it'. When the Doctor licked the leaf, I didn't even bother mentioning it because I assumed it'd do the classic plotting of dropping it from the story entirely for about twenty episodes, aside from odd scenes here and there, to finally reveal it again when the audience is long since beyond caring. What does Who do instead? Last week 'oh this leaf is weird' this week 'here is why the leaf is important'. Thank you! This is how you plot and pace, I wish others were as direct as you are.

Can we just talk about the Doctor, by the way? Isn't he just the most wonderful character? When the episode opened and he was literally stalking Clara through time, even to the point of finding out how her parents met, I admit I cringed. However the purpose of these scenes became clearer and clearer as the episode progressed, making the climax fall into place very smoothly and gave us some great insight into Clara. With this in mind the rest of the episode more than redeems him. The Doctor returns to being a perfect balance between childlike goof and almost thousand year old sage and he seamlessly swaps between these two aspects of his character from scene to scene, making it all feel like one, believable and ultimately consistent whole. A sexy Doctor is something I disagree with but in my mind, the Doctor has always been a badass, this episode simply confirms it.

I have to say I quite enjoyed Clara as well this week. I won't lie about how much I hate what Clara does to the Doctor, the Doctor isn't supposed to be a creepy, lovestruck stalker although it isn't the first time nor will it be the last time that the Doctor chases ghosts. But I just found her written so well this week, I liked how alien she felt in the alien world. I know that sounds really obvious but ironically I think that is something a lot of sci-fi gets wrong, it makes everyone feel too comfortable in the most alien of surroundings. Here however she felt out of place and of course she should do. Plus she conveyed a sense of wonder that was truly believable as well, so we could share her wide-eyed gasp inducing moments with her. And with her dramatically saving the day by the end, I'm really looking forward to where her character goes next.

Also worth a mention is Emilia Jones, although her character is hardly explored or given much depth, she still isn't shit which practically every other child actress is. As soon as the focus shifted to her, I immediately sighed and waited for the episode to go downhill but I kept waiting and kept seeing some perfectly solid acting. Hats off to you.

Doctor Who has always relied on a fair amount of bullshit, plot convenience powers and deus ex machina but I kind of love how that still remains, especially in the kind of world we live in today. The Doctor didn't overcome his enemy with weapons, or magic or whatever else (unless we want to stretch the Sonic Screwdriver as much as the writers do) but it still never gets to the point of a CGI heavy, explosionfest. In the end the day was won with words, a leaf and love. Corny? Certainly. A bit silly? I'd say very. But it's sad that such an action muted but emotionally high climax feels so alien to us, that it gets slammed so hard by critics simply because it isn't a big battle sequence. And so in turn I really do admire the balls of the show as the critics demand action and still Doctor Who chooses emotion. Of course it's all about the money, it's about whoring yourself to the audience to make the most money but little glimpses, like the climax of the episode, gave a real sense that Doctor Who has a clear sense of identity as a show and there are limits to how far it will degrade itself before it decides to do its own thing no matter who complains. Rock on.

In my mind this was Eleven's best adventure yet. I'm not generally someone to throw out huge statements like that, I can't stand sensationalising unless I'm doing a snarky rant on something but honestly, my feelings of Moffat's run were expressed in my last review and this was the first week where I felt emotionally engaged in all the right places, I was wowed in the right places, I loved the way the Doctor was written, I loved the way Clara was written, no aspects let me down this was just...the perfect kind of episode of Doctor Who. Then again this is unsurprising because this week it had absolutely nothing to do with Moffat and instead came straight from the mind of the man behind Luther, a personal favourite of mine. I can't wait to watch your next episode.

Pros;

• The epic, almost cinematic, feel to it all.
• It's so human. 
• Chooses emotion over action.
• It felt like an adventure, like I was on the trip with them and with all the stress in my life at the minute, it was an enjoyable holiday.
• The Doctor and Clara were great this week.
• Incredible visuals.
• Good villains.
• No bullshit.
• A child actress who isn't shit. 
• A truly epic climax.

Cons;

• There is nothing particularly original here.
• The whole alarm clock twist thing was pretty awful.
• I really don't like what the Doctor is becoming because of Clara, stalker Doctor, really?

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'The Rings Of Akhaten'?