Doctor Who - Nightmare in Silver airs in:

Days : Hours : Minutes : Seconds

Friday, 5 April 2013

Skaro's Doctor Who Spoiler-free Review: The Rings of Akhaten





The Rings of Akhaten, airing tomorrow is a alien-packed, comedy musical thriller...never did I think I'd say that about an episode of Doctor Who, but there you are - it's what you get with a sci-fi series that can go anywhere and everywhere and only a week apart from the last.

The episode itself is a very emotional one, not only do we get a glimpse at a certain characters very emotional past, but we also have 2 very heartfelt musical moments which have a lot of emotion behind each one, you never know - there may even be a secret song hidden in the episode! The emotion is very raw and gripping, we get to see an emotional side of almost every main character in this episode which is a rare opportunity in such an alien-packed episode. We may even get a few scares from a new race of aliens  The Vigil - but are they evil, or good?

We also get introduced to two new characters in this episode, one quite small - The Queen of Years, and one quite big... I'll leave you with those deductions about the other one, "Grandfather...". Not only are new characters introduced, but age-old ones referenced too, including one of the Doctor's first companions, which gives a great feeling to any Classic-Who fan.


For the second script but first to air from new writer, Neil Cross, it certainly gives a good-impression of such brilliant writing that he has going on within his mind - managing to capture emotions, aliens, Earth and mystery - right until the final moments of the episode. It certainly gives high hope for his next episode later in the series, Hide.

Murray Gold again is on top form, providing such brilliant musical variations of past tracks, and some brand new ones which will certainly live down in Doctor Who history with "Song of Captivity". Congratulations to all of those involved in creating this episode - you helped make such a wonderful episode, that I'm sure everyone will enjoy on Saturday 5th April, 6:15pm (BST).

2 comments:

Farsighted said...

Glad you enjoyed it; some other reviews weren't as kind. I'm thinking I'll like it a lot; really enjoyed A Christmas Carol, a do love the emotional stuff. Love the fact that Doctor Who can be so different in every episode.

Steve Andrew said...

Yeah, I really liked it too. Not an all-time-classic, but not the disastrous end-of-all-Who that a lot of reviewers seem to think it is. It's just really different, maybe due to it being Neil Cross's 1st televised ep. There were a lot of plot threads going on, some more distracting than others. The main Akhaten peril was probably less important than the underlying "who is Clara" plot, which is getting more and more intriguing as it progresses. Feels simultaneously similar and different to the Amy Pond plotline.

I really loved the variety of alien make-up FX in this one - it really felt like the Mos Eisley cantina. And another possible point - was the Akhaten parasite of a similar species to the one in 42?