(792) The Rings of Akhaten

The Rings of Akhaten is a story that I have never rated very highly. I felt that it was slightly boring but I was hoping that this story would improve but bearing in mind that there have been several stories recently that I had hoped would improve upon watching it today. The pre-title scene is basically Clara Oswald, the conception years. The Rings of Akhaten is written by Neil Cross who was asked to write this story because of the success of a future story. This is a story that was largely filmed in a studio and the story was good enough to maintain my interest

One of the things that I liked about this story is the singing. This is some of Murray Gold’s finest work since Journeys End back in 2008. Another good thing about the story is that the idea people pay with stuff that means something to them. There was aspects of this plot that I thought were better thought out that I had given it credit for.

Akhaten is a parasite that required memories, stories and items of sentimental value. The plot is centred around the Queen of Years who is about to be sacrificed to Akhaten. I thought that Emilia Jones did a good job as Queen Merry. I thought that this story saw another great performance from Matt Smith. His best scene came when he was talking to Akhaten. I think that this scene should show any open minded fan who wasn’t convinced about Smith why he is a good actor to play the Doctor. It was a great little speech which was helped by Queen Merry singing that lovely little song. This was also the best performance from Jenna Coleman so far. She pushed herself into the story and tried to do the right thing without any sense of her thinking she knows better. This is what Rose would have done and possibly Martha but the Moffat companions are able to be better than that.

There has always been an argument that the Sonic Screwdriver became a convenient tool and I notice it got used a lot more in this episode than usual. I can’t make my mind up whether it’s a problem in this episode but it is definelty more noticeable than in the past.

The NEXT TIME trailer shows (sort of) the return of a classic monster in one of my favourite stories of the series from what I can remember. Speaking of what I can remember, this story has definelty improved from what I can remember in 2013. I don’t think that it’s the best story of series but neither is it the worst. There are some stories during this marathon have improved watching it in this manner but this hasn’t really happened since the Patrick Troughton era so its nice that this has happened with this story.