TV Review: Doctor Who: S07:E07

TV Review: Doctor Who

Series 7, Episode 7: The Rings Of Akhaten

Air date: April 6th 2013

The seventh series of the revived Doctor Who (which kicked off way back in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of the adventurous Time Lord) is now fully under way. With former companions Amy and Rory Williams sadly gone for good, it's time for Jenna-Louise Coleman's Clara Oswald to prove to both The Doctor and us that she is a suitable substitute for his best friends.

Last week saw her official entrance into the TARDIS - except of course, The Doctor has already met Clara twice before and she has died both times. The mystery deepens with this latest companion, but with this week's episode The Rings Of Akhaten, Doctor Who sticks to the usual formula when attempting to win over the audience with a new central character. 

In previous seasons, the first three episodes have more or less followed the same structure: Doctor meets companion, Doctor takes companion into outer space (often into the future), Doctor takes companion into the past. These latest episodes haven't differed from the norm, but showrunner Steven Moffat quite rightly drives home the idea that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

Of course, the big change is that Coleman is slowly but surely finding her groove as Clara - losing Amy and Rory was devastating both for fans of the show and for the Doctor himself, but thankfully Clara is proving to be quite the empowering assistant thanks to Coleman's confident, assured performance.

In the midst of all this is a plot of course, and this particular effort comes from Luther writer Neil Cross. Cross is making his Doctor Who debut here and while it's an assured one, it comes off as a little simplistic and childish now and again considering that we were promised a "blockbuster" episode per week. Really, this just feels like a standard feel-good David Tennant episode from 2007.

Kicking off with The Doctor and Clara inside the TARDIS, Clara claims she wants to see "something awesome." Believing he has the right place to blow her mind, The Doctor takes his new companion to the planet Akhaten, a world in the style of Rome whose inhabitants celebrate the Festival Of Offerings, a day in which the people sing to what is essentially an angry galaxy eating star to keep it from taking out its rage on them. For some reason The Doctor refers to it as a "space version of Pancake Tuesday."

The premise alone almost ensures that The Rings Of Akhaten is not as good as last week's mid-season opener The Bells Of Saint John. From the bizarre set up of a girl singing to what the locals refer to as a God to the disappointingly bland monsters, this episode feels pretty bogged down by its limited running time. Perhaps if Cross had had more time to develop his ideas, however unoriginal they may be, the resulting climax wouldn't have felt like the cop out it was. 

Functioning as possibly the most glorious looking episode of Doctor Who in recent memory, The Rings Of Akhaten feels like a cross between Indiana Jones and Star Trek and while this should be awesome, the feature sometimes falls flat with an anticlimax, some very cheesy dialogue and some largely unexplored religious themes (at one point, when asked if the Akhaten God is real, The Doctor simply responds with "Well. It's what they believe.").

Flaws aside, though, Doctor Who's latest does give us a deeper insight into Clara's past with more pieces to the puzzle and for anyone still stubbornly claiming that she can't possibly step into Amy's shoes, The Rings Of Akhaten may just convert them into an optimist.

As for Smith himself, he gets the best scene in the episode as The Doctor recounts all of the amazing and sad things he's done in his life. As usual, the references to both old and new incarnations of the show are exciting and with the 50th Anniversary specials coming up later this year, we can expect more and more nods to the past as we get closer to the milestone.

Summary

The Rings Of Akhaten has some very lofty ambitions but ultimately it fails to match them due to its limited running time and Doctor Who's nature as what is effectively a teenage sci-fi. That said, it does provide a satisfying vehicle for us to get closer to Clara and appreciate her more as a real character rather than a substitute. It also looks incredible, from the new interior of the TARDIS to the Star Wars-esque streets of the alien planet, helped by some fantastic CGI and costume design. Still, with such a strong opener last weekend, it's a shame to say that The Rings Of Akhaten is a disappointingly dry pancake.

5/10 - Mediocre

Next episode: "Cold War"

Air date: April 13th 2013