(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.

(784) The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe

The Seventh Christmas Special of the new series marks the first time since Matt Smith became the Doctor that Karen Gillan’s name wasn’t featured in the title sequence. Instead it was Claire Skinner who gets the co-star credit. The episode starts with a bang and the Doctor flying towards the earth whilst trying to put on a spacesuit. This suggests to me that Steven Moffat sometimes doesn’t care about the laws of space.

Claire Skinner plays a widower called Madge who loses her husband in the war and is trying to protect her children from the news. I thought that it was a lovely performance from Skinner and thought that she bought something different to the story. Alexander Armstrong makes a physical appearance in Doctor Who after voicing Mr Smith in the Sarah Jane Adventure and in the Journeys End/Stolen Earth two-parter in 2008. He doesn’t feature too much in the story but when he does then he is rather good and I liked how they got reunited in the end and that it was Madge that unknowingly got him back home alive. Madge opens the TARDIS with a hair pin and this works and the Doctor makes a joke that 900 years of time-travel seems less secure. I would expect this got a lot of Doctor Who fans in a lather as it writes off nearly 50 years of history. I remember in The Sensorites (1964) that it was mentioned that the TARDIS lock has millions of combinations and the wrong turn could melt the lock so it seems that in the intervening years that the lock was changed.

It takes about 20 minutes for the story to get going. It doesn’t really begin until Cyril goes into the box and ends up on a snowy world. The world is rather impressive and looks lovely. Even in early July it still looks like a nice place to visit and is very Christmassy. The look of the entire episode was quite nice and showed that a decent amount of money was spent on making it look nice.

If there is one aspect of this story that is a bit disappointing then it’s the inclusion of Bill Bailey and Anabella Weir who are underused. Now sooner had they arrived then they had to leave and it seemed to me to be of a waster because you could have given these roles to less known actors. The performances from Matt Smith and Caroline Skinner were good and they worked well together and the dynamic was different. Normally when I write this I would say that Madge has potential as a future companion but on this occasion that isn’t the case because the usefulness of the character wouldn’t work in a normal circumstance.

Amy & Rory don’t appear until the end of the episode. The Doctor arrives at her door two years after the previous story. It’s a nice reunion and ends with the Doctor wiping away a tear which I suppose is something different for the Doctor to do at Christmas. I have liked the fact that Amy and Rory didn’t feature until the very end because it meant that the show got to have a different feel to it. I thought that the episode wasn’t the greatest Christmas Special but I have enjoyed it more than I did back in 2011. The thing is that the next series is one of change and one that for the first time since the Tom Baker era would take place over two years.