ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
This is a long way from a favourite Matt Smith story for me.
It’s all way too mawkish and sweetly sentimental that it gets in the way of the
plot. It is filmed absolutely beautifully mind you with some glorious visuals.
The Doctor is still trying to find out more about Clara, so
he visits her past and sees her parents meeting up because a leaf blew into her
father’s face; also he sees Clara’s mother die whilst Clara was still young. He
then returns to the present and takes Clara to the Rings of Akhaten, a series
of planetoids in a ring orbiting another planet. At the market on the planet,
currency is items of sentimental value.
Clara meets a young girl, Merry Gejelh (Emelia Jones) who is
nervous about having to sing at an upcoming big ceremony. Merry is the Queen of
Years and has a central role in the ceremony. Clara manages to put her mind at
rest and Merry goes off to sing whilst the Doctor and Clara decide to watch the
ceremony.
The song which Merry must sing has been sung ever since the
Akhaten system has been settled, continuously, it is to keep the God of Akhaten
asleep. As Merry sings a beam of light from a pyramid on one of the planetoids
envelops her and takes her away. The Doctor and Clara follow on a space
scooter. Merry is to take over singing for her life to keep Akhaten asleep but
the Doctor promises her she does not need to sacrifice herself in this way. The
Doctor lets Clara and Merry escape from the planetoid and Akhaten wakes up –
and he is hungry.
Akhaten feeds off memories and the Doctor offers up his mind
to keep the God sated. But this is not enough, so Clara offers Akhaten the leaf
that blew into her parents face and the memory is so strong Akhaten implodes,
saving Merry and the Ring system.
The fact that Akhaten is destroyed by one memory of Clara’s
when all of the Doctor’s memories cannot do the same feels really unrealistic
and the sickly sweet solution to the problem – that Clara’s memory is so
precious – just feels wrong. Add to that all the singing and a young girl as
one of the main characters and it all just gets way too syrupy for my tastes.
The idea that the Doctor almost stalks Clara through her
childhood is also a peculiar one.
Yes, it is all filmed really well – the Rings of Akhaten
themselves look fantastic – but good filming can’t rescue this story which is
one of the weaker stories we’ve had in a long time.
Even Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman don’t quite seem convinced
and give rather subdued performances to what we’ve seen previously. All told,
disappointing.
NEXT UP: COLD WAR
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