By Mike Morgan /
3. Too Many Villains Ruins The Soufflé - The Rings Of Akhaten
The Rings Of Akhaten from Series Seven is another story where there are plenty of great ingredients but, sadly, they aren't mixed together in the correct ratios. The result? Well, it's the equivalent of a flat soufflé. Ardent admirers of this story may now proceed directly to the comments section and leave angry protestations to the contrary. The story brief of a truly alien environment must have seemed irresistible for writer Neil Cross, but there's more to a good story than having a set full of wonderful creature effects. For a start, there's the need to have a compelling antagonist. The Rings of Akhaten takes the courageous approach of coming up with lots of different villains in place of one iconic foe. Viewers are just getting used to the Vigil when the mummified alarm clock ghoul wakes up, but wait - he's not the enemy - the gas giant with the smiley face is! Even the singers hunting for Merry seem sinister in the opening scenes - that's four lots of baddies in forty-five minutes! The sum of these parts is a curious sense of both overkill
and of not having seen enough of each foe. But most incredibly of all, a leaf defeats a god-parasite the size of a gas giant. In a series where so many stories are spoilt by bad endings, there are no words for describing how much of a disgrace this denouement is. In fact, there are so many things about this story that fail to make any logical sense that an article could list 10 compelling reasons and still only scratch the surface. Actually, one did.
Click here to read it.