11.38: The Rings of Akhaten
In which I don’t even know how to finish this sentence because everything is so unclear.
Broadcast: April 2013
Watched: January 2022
Uncharacteristically I haven’t written down a single line of dialogue. Actually, no, I’ve written down one, but only because Smith is so terrible at delivering it, which suggests we might be in trouble. (“She’s just a girl. She can’t be! She is!”)
I really want to like this one. The leaf intro, and the backstory about Clara’s parents, is lovely (even if the Doctor’s continuing stalking isn’t). Then we get a sort of Doctor-Who-as-tourism story: the regulars standing on an asteroid to look at the view, all those alien races, Clara eating a glowing blue fruit, a barking alien called Dorreen. Even the ritual and the singing are sort of pleasantly weird.
But then the plot kicks in, it all falls to bits. Merry the Queen of Years (great name) seems to be running away, then turns out to just be scared and there’s no reason to be, only then it turns out there *is* a reason to be. It is extremely unclear why the singing stops – it stops before the scary rumbling noise – so does Merry screw up? Does the other chorister? Or is the old god waking the cause, and it’s badly edited?
Then the Doctor tells Merry it’s her job to be a sacrifice, which seems to be new information. But if so, then why is the other singer surprised that the song is ending? Also, Merry knows three lines later that vigil are there to feed her to the old god, despite having apparently not known she was going to be sacrificed earlier in the same scene.
I think what’s going on here is probably warring drafts, but it’s not even clear enough for me to be confident of that.
THEN it turns out the vampire thing isn’t actually the biggest problem, because the sun is going to eat everyone (or is it another planet? That’s not clear either). But it’s not clear how Doctor works that out or what happens to the vampire thing, and then everyone just starts singing, while the Doctor lectures the sun-thing. And not for the first time this episode Smith can’t sell it, he really goes for it, but he is fundamentally shouting at some CGI.
Does this mean at the end the sun has gone out? Probably not but we shall never know for sure.
I really want to like this one because it’s so unusual. But I can’t even tell what they were trying to do.
Bah. Other thoughts:
Clara’s Mum dies on the day Doctor Who comes back. Her mum being dead is presumably the backstory for why looks after the Maitland kids?
In their second episode, Moffat characters need to help a child, in a “save the cat” kind of way.
The idea of items of personal value as a currency is lovely symbolism but makes no actual sense (“Oh yeah this was my grandfather ‘show, it’s priceless, can I swap it for a house”)
The Doctor rides a space moped, continuing his “Pertwee is acting up” period.
It’s really annoying the way Merry keeps going “You promised!” as a f*cking sun tries to eat them all, as if there isn’t a bigger problem right now.
“The most important leaf in human history” is incredibly egotistical of Clara isn’t it.
Why on earth does 11th Doctor always have secrets from his companions?