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Review of Doctor Who The Rings of Akhaten

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This is the most visually stunning episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen. It easily surpasses anything from the cardboard sets and slate quarry landscapes of the original classic series, and is still ahead of anything we have seen since the reboot in 2005.

Stylistically, it reminded me of the first Star Wars, particularly the famous Cantina scene where Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi venture into a bar full of weird and wonderful aliens. I lost count of the number of costumes on display as the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) wander the crowded streets the Akhaten market. Hats off to the BBC costume designers for the superb quality and detail that they put into this spectacular visual feast.

Review of Doctor Who The Rings of Akhaten

But I found the story a strange one. Entertaining certainly, but weird at the same time. Doctor Who rarely examines religious themes. But here we have a narrative questioning the beliefs and motivations of people worshipping, through ritual, a God like being in a golden pyramid. The Doctor refers to the ancient creature as “a mummy” though the locals know it as “grandfather”.

And the little girl, Merry, played with wonderful apprehension by the talented Emilia Jones, is at once part of the ritual and a potential sacrifice to the grandfather god when the ceremony goes wrong. Her dialogue duet scene with Clara, beautifully played by both actresses, is moving and allows Jenna-Louise Coleman to further grow into the role of new companion.

I also found the scene where the two of them hide from the sinister Vigil creatures and their whispering voices, most chilling. A shame then that the story did not make more of these monsters which looked like a cross between the Cenobites from Hellraiser and demons from the video game Doom.

Song plays a strong part in the rituals. Hymn like, melodic but alien they are among Murray Gold’s best work for the series so far and subtlety emphasise the religious references.

It turns out that Grandfather is a decoy. The real god is a parasite the size of a planet, now awake and keen to devour Merry and the inhabitants of Akhaten.

The Doctor offers it his 1000 years of memories in what is one of Matt Smith’s best monologues. Those are real tears in his eyes. But all this experience is not enough for the parasite. It takes Clara to challenge it to devour “what could have been” to cause the demon to gorge itself out of existence.

“There’s quite a difference, isn’t there, between what was and what should have been. There’s an awful lot of one but there’s an infinity of the other.” – The Doctor
Strange, sometimes disturbing, but always entertaining, The Rings of Akhaten is another successful “movie of the week”. And the poster above reflects but cannot do justice to the cinematic visuals on offer here.

Such were the strange themes being examined here, I watched the episode again a few hours later. It was even better the second time.

Your turn: Do you agree with my Review of Doctor Who The Rings of Akhaten? Did you think it was a weird episode? Share your thoughts or your own review. Please leave a comment or post a link to other reviews.

“Run you clever boy, and remember” – Review of Christmas episode of Doctor Who The Snowmen

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Show runner Stephen Moffat chose Christmas Day to reboot Doctor Who with a new title sequence, remixed music, new TARDIS set and a scary, funny, well written romp set in Victorian England. It sets up next year’s 50th anniversary perfectly and left me waiting eagerly for series 7 part two next April.

Review of Christmas episode of Doctor Who The Snowmen
The Snowmen Movie of the Week poster

In keeping with the style of the current run, The Snowmen was a “movie of the week” complete with its own movie poster. And cinematic it was with snow bound London skylines and the BBC’s usual attention to period detail. The BBC do Victorian so well don’t they?

Usually Doctor Who Christmas specials are a little cheesey and removed from the main series story arcs. Whilst The Snowmen displayed all the usual Christmas trappings, it was definitely part of the storyline this time. Matt Smith, as usual, expertly played the role, but this time he was withdrawn from the world and almost Scrooge-like, mourning the loss of his previous companions Rory and Amy. He’s done with saving the world. Done with giant robots and killer Christmas trees. All he wants to do is be miserable and live in the TARDIS he parked on a cloud. A cloud reached by a very Mary Poppins style spiral staircase.

Review of Christmas episode of Doctor Who The Snowmen

But scary snowmen with shark teeth are popping up and devouring Yuletide Londoners. These were well done though I believe earlier versions looked a little too like Rainbow’s Zippy. I would have liked to see them on screen more. Perhaps they could have eaten a few more people. But hey this is a family show.

The villain played by Richard E Grant is using the Great Intelligence to conjure them up whilst searching for the DNA of a nasty governess frozen in a pond.

Cue new companion Clara played by Jenna-Louise Coleman (flitting expertly between posh spoken Miss Montague and her other barmaid persona with a more streetwise way of talking) attempting to suss out the Doctor and persuade him to return to his universe saving ways.

Review of Christmas episode of Doctor Who The Snowmen

Also helping the Doctor (and protecting his current desire for seclusion without agreeing with it) are Madame Vastra (“Good evening. I’m a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife”) Jenny and the Sontaran in a butler’s outfit, Strax. The latter gets the funniest lines in the story (“Try to escape and you will be obliterated. Can I take your coat?”)

And I loved the scene when the Doctor asks Strax to go and fetch the memory worm. When Strax comes back empty-handed the Doctor sighs with exasperation, “You forgot the gauntlets!”

Review of Christmas episode of Doctor Who The Snowmen

Despite this great comedy, and despite a slightly underplayed malevolent performance by Grant – though his brief resurrection as a zombie at the end was pretty horrible – the delight of this story really lay in the developing relationship between the Doctor and Clara.

Of course we the audience know he has met her before and when she mentions her love of soufflés the penny starts to drop. She was in the season opener “Asylum of the Daleks” back in September but of course in that one, Matt Smith could only hear her voice and her name was Oswin. Only after saving the city in a typical return to form did the Doctor begin to realise. As she died Clara’s last words were, “Run you clever boy. And remember.” The same as Oswin’s parting words in the earlier adventure.

And on her grave: “Clara Oswin Oswald”.

Matt Smith is now on the run to find his soufflé girl. With a new theme tune, new TARDIS set, new Victorian inspired costume and another fascinating mystery to solve, for the first time in 8 years of Christmas specials, being part of the ongoing storyline, The Snowmen leaves us desperate for the next episodes which are still four months away.

Over to you: Do you agree with my Review of Christmas episode of Doctor Who The Snowmen?Were you right about the Clara/Oswin link and where do you think it will go next? Please share your thoughts or give a link to your own reviews. Click below where it says “Leave a reply”. Go on – share!