Doctor Who Review - "The Rings of Akhaten"
rating: 2.5
Well, they cant all be winners. After a decent string of hits that included last weeks The Bells of St. John, the recent Christmas special and most of the first half of season seven, Moffat and crew have finally hit a bit of a stumbling block. Its a shame, because the basic premise of The Rings of Akhaten is a decent one. Its just a bit the execution is so mind-numbingly dull and almost completely forgettable. The story begins with the Doctor (Matt Smith) taking his new companion Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) on her first proper trip in the TARDIS. They arrive at an alien star system that features seven planets, each with life, orbiting a star. Mind you, it looked more like a lot of asteroids orbiting a staror maybe a gas giant. Im not sure, and dont care enough to find out. Anyhow, it turns out that the people who live in this area are trying to keep one of the Old Gods from waking up. Now, sadly, that concept involves much less Cthulu and much more jack-o-lantern, but there you are. Things happen. Theres a little girl in distress and a lot of really, really good and interesting alien designs show up. But, alas, despite the interesting ingredients, we wind up with a terribly boring story. At no point did I find the singing that features prominently in the story to be something I wanted to listen to for more than a few seconds. Instead it went on for several minutes. I found the initial mummy creature to be of a very interesting design, and I was vaguely curious to see what hed wind up doing once he broke out of his glass cage. I didnt, even for one moment, think that the powers that be thought the most interesting thing he could do was to topple over. As for the eventual reveal of the actual threat, yeah, not buying it. Some sort of giant alien parasite takes over a gas giant/star and lives inside it. Its massive enough to do that, but still able to perceive small individuals like the Doctor, and somehow is able to hear the sound of people singing across the tracks of space. Instead of being wowed, I found myself wondering how such a creature could have possibly evolved. And this isnt even getting to how much I had to work to suspend disbelief at the Doctor and Clara riding some odd space bike, in space, without space suits. But even thinking about that now opens up such a can of worms There were good scenes in the story, and I loved the Doctors casual mention of his granddaughter. I really long to see Susan turn up on screen at some point. I know it isnt likely, but I continue to hope. I also really did enjoy some of the rather interesting creature designs. But, frankly, that's about it for the high points. The episode and story werent exactly bad, as I said, but this is very certainly one of those episodes that Ill struggle to remember years from now. It bore a slight resemblance to Amys first space story, The Beast Below, but while that one improved upon a second viewing, I just somehow dont expect that to be the case here. I also dont plan to find out. NEXT TIME: The Ice Warriors! Cool!