The Coca Cola Kid
2013-04-06 22:12:31 UTC
Let this be the official review thread for the newest episode of
Doctor Who, 'The Rings of Akhaten'. All others are pretenders.
So far, most of the reviews that I have seen of this episode have
panned it, including one that rated it ten out of ten. (But, that
person always rates stories in the Steven Moffat era ten out of ten,
even when his review was clearly negative, so ... whatever.)
Last week's episode was very ho-hum, an extremely average
execution of some great concepts. Not surprisingly, many fans raved
about it. It was not 'bad', by any stretch of the imagination, but it
was a series of wasted opportunities, and too many set pieces crammed
into forty five minutes. The preview at the end of that episode, for
this week, did not look promising, since they chose the tackiest, most
poorly lit scenes to tease us with in a seemingly disjointed manner.
However, you could tell that it was something that they put a lot of
effort into, and subsequent previews looked much better.
I do not care if this turns out to be an unpopular episode with a
majority of fandom. I would assert that this was a very successful
attempt to make Doctor Who, as *real* sci-fi. Finally, we get a truly
alien planet, with alien cultureS, something that has been sorely
lacking, since Doctor Who has returned in 2005, save for the random
bits and bobs, here and there.
Of course, the forty-five minute, single episode, format of the
series does not lend them enough time to develop the supporting
characters in detail. That is a flaw with the show's current format,
not the current episode.
No doubt, this episode will draw criticisms and ire from those
with strong religious views, for it reveals that the 'God', that is
worshipped by the inhabitants of an entire solar system, to be nothing
more than a parasite, who is not omnipotent, nor even close to it.
I liked the idea of a culture singing a long song, for thousands
of years, to keep the parasite asleep and sated. I was almost
worried, during the climax of the story, that the Doctor and/or his
companion were also going to break out into song. But, thankfully,
they did not go there.
Those who are familiar with the Doctor's long history of repeated
amnesia, in the novels, may also be worried by the alien parasite
'taking' all of his memories. Whether the Doctor actually lost a huge
chunk of his memories remains to be seen, in future episodes. But, he
did not appear to have amnesia at the end of this episode, even though
Clara's leaf disappeared after she offered it to the alien.
Many will probably compare this episode to ones like 'The Long
Game' and 'The Beast Below', which I think were underappreciated, but
I think that this was better than those. Doctor Who has a machine
that can travel anywhere in time and space. It is about time that it
has done some world building, and I would definitely welcome more
episodes like this, as long they took a different angle and did not
just retread the same ground. This episode successfully whet my
appetite, leaving me wanting more.
11/10
Doctor Who, 'The Rings of Akhaten'. All others are pretenders.
So far, most of the reviews that I have seen of this episode have
panned it, including one that rated it ten out of ten. (But, that
person always rates stories in the Steven Moffat era ten out of ten,
even when his review was clearly negative, so ... whatever.)
Last week's episode was very ho-hum, an extremely average
execution of some great concepts. Not surprisingly, many fans raved
about it. It was not 'bad', by any stretch of the imagination, but it
was a series of wasted opportunities, and too many set pieces crammed
into forty five minutes. The preview at the end of that episode, for
this week, did not look promising, since they chose the tackiest, most
poorly lit scenes to tease us with in a seemingly disjointed manner.
However, you could tell that it was something that they put a lot of
effort into, and subsequent previews looked much better.
I do not care if this turns out to be an unpopular episode with a
majority of fandom. I would assert that this was a very successful
attempt to make Doctor Who, as *real* sci-fi. Finally, we get a truly
alien planet, with alien cultureS, something that has been sorely
lacking, since Doctor Who has returned in 2005, save for the random
bits and bobs, here and there.
Of course, the forty-five minute, single episode, format of the
series does not lend them enough time to develop the supporting
characters in detail. That is a flaw with the show's current format,
not the current episode.
No doubt, this episode will draw criticisms and ire from those
with strong religious views, for it reveals that the 'God', that is
worshipped by the inhabitants of an entire solar system, to be nothing
more than a parasite, who is not omnipotent, nor even close to it.
I liked the idea of a culture singing a long song, for thousands
of years, to keep the parasite asleep and sated. I was almost
worried, during the climax of the story, that the Doctor and/or his
companion were also going to break out into song. But, thankfully,
they did not go there.
Those who are familiar with the Doctor's long history of repeated
amnesia, in the novels, may also be worried by the alien parasite
'taking' all of his memories. Whether the Doctor actually lost a huge
chunk of his memories remains to be seen, in future episodes. But, he
did not appear to have amnesia at the end of this episode, even though
Clara's leaf disappeared after she offered it to the alien.
Many will probably compare this episode to ones like 'The Long
Game' and 'The Beast Below', which I think were underappreciated, but
I think that this was better than those. Doctor Who has a machine
that can travel anywhere in time and space. It is about time that it
has done some world building, and I would definitely welcome more
episodes like this, as long they took a different angle and did not
just retread the same ground. This episode successfully whet my
appetite, leaving me wanting more.
11/10