The Rings of Akhaten (3308/708)

[fumblesmcstupid]

I am so feaking mad. The audio track was off by 2 or 3 seconds so none of the dialogue matched their mouths. URRRGHHH. Totally ruined the episode.

[BruTak]

Speaking of Clara's mum, who else noticed her maiden name? Ravenwood.

It was on the book Clara was holding (and crying on) as she stood by her mum's grave.

Does this mean that Clara's related to Indiana Jones?

[Blencathra]

Speaking of Clara's mum, who else noticed her maiden name? Ravenwood.

It was on the book Clara was holding (and crying on) as she stood by her mum's grave.

Does this mean that Clara's related to Indiana Jones?

I noticed. And that Clara's parent's are called Ellie and Dave. Such a lot of leaf, tree and forest references. BTW Ella was the name of Donna's daughter in The Library (Forest of the Dead) and of course Other Dave and Proper Dave (who turned out the lights!) ended up downloaded into the Library as well.

Edit - Incidentally I don't actually believe that Proper Dave & Ellie are the real parents of Clara. Just that certain things are bleeding through to this world from The Library, names being one of them.

[Greenee]

[QUOTE]

Quote Originally Posted by BruTak View Post
Speaking of Clara's mum, who else noticed her maiden name? Ravenwood.

It was on the book Clara was holding (and crying on) as she stood by her mum's grave.

Does this mean that Clara's related to Indiana Jones?

I noticed. And that Clara's parent's are called Ellie and Dave. Such a lot of leaf, tree and forest references. BTW Ella was the name of Donna's daughter in The Library (Forest of the Dead) and of course Other Dave and Proper Dave (who turned out the lights!) ended up downloaded into the Library as well.[/QUOTE

I didn't neither of it. In what way was there an Indiana Jones refference? It's been ages since I've last seen it.

[BruTak]

The other Indiana Jones reference was when the Doctor dropped the Sonic Screwdriver as he slid under the rapidly descending stone door, then grabbed it at the last moment.

[Nolamom]

It was a lovely soundtrack. Great visuals. On Clara's mother telling her that she would always find her - so sad to think of that and the graveyard scene at the same time.

[Coco Pops]

Loved the living sun...... Loved the flying moped. Loved the diverse population as they walked around the bazaar.......

Didn't love the use of the Sonic Screwdriver as an escape device. Gee wonder what it will do next week?

[MasySyma]

Meh.

It wasn't the total train wreck of last week, but it wasn't stellar.

The Good:
Clara. Any scene she didn't share with the Doctor tended to work pretty well. I also appreciate that she calls the Doctor on his crud. She is no replacement.

The meh but tolerable:
Yet another 11 is mighty speech. Enough already. While I did think 11's epic issues were used well here, I'm tired of the close up and the almost whiny speech of why he is so powerful, important, blah, blah. It never works. It might as well say "and now the companion will act."

The Bad:
The story. 1. It's a mash up Rose's first trip, Amy's first trip, and the Satan's pit pair. 2. It also has a massive loop hole at the end, like many Doctor Nine episodes. The system's God has been destroyed. What holds the system together is gone, and the Doctor won't be there for the chaos and violence to follow.

The destiny/potential thing. 1. Who has got to quit the potential as energy source thing. It uses every five minutes and it gets old. 2. You can't have destiny and potential unused. If people are fated to meet, they are also fated to die. Hence, no potential for unused energy. It can't be both ways.

The episode in itself was not terrible, but it felt rushed. Given the gap fans have had to endure, the extra time does not appear to have been spent well.

Season 7 continues its mediocre streak.

[P-90_177]

Great episode. Loved it. In fact I reckon it's a new favourite of mine in terms of being an audio and visual feast. In terms of beauty and the amount of feeling that the actors put into it I put it up there with "Vincent and the Doctor".

Bit of a boo boo regarding the different leaf. I'm going to assume that someone just didn't think and mislaid the real one. Or when they got to episode 2 they realised that the original leaf wasn't big enough to cover a whole persons face and make them walk into the road.

As for who Clara is, I'm reckoning now that it's something that'll happen to her in the future that will lead her to be spread across history. It did dawn on me a week ago that she could be the embodiment of the TARDIS since her attitude is not unlike Idris in a lot of ways. But I doubt that's the case.

I found it interesting that the Doctor was willing to allow his secret to be taken by the God. It would possibly make it the only other thing out there to know it. His speech had me really quite choked up though and I don't think I've ever seen the Doctor look so old. The wonderful thing about Matt Smith is that he does make the Doctor look and feel ancient.

Also can't wait for the soundtrack to this series to come out now.

The one thing that did irk me just a tiny bit is the seemingly Harry Potter like wand battle....... However I let it go because it still looked awesome. And the use of it to keep the door open doesn't bother me. I've already reconciled that part of it in my head.

[Greenee]

The other Indiana Jones reference was when the Doctor dropped the Sonic Screwdriver as he slid under the rapidly descending stone door, then grabbed it at the last moment.

Sure, could have seen this myself. But who or what was named Ravenwood in Indiana Jones?

[BruTak]

Sure, could have seen this myself. But who or what was named Ravenwood in Indiana Jones?

Marion Ravenwood (as played by Karen Allen). Also her father, Abner Ravenwood who's mentioned in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and who according to Indy's backstory was his archaeology tutor

[Commander Zelix]

Personally, I miss Russell T. Davies very much. I find Moffat's writings try to appeal too much to children instead of the children in us like Davies used to do. Russell T. Davies was more adult and balanced in that aspect. This episode is another example of that. Still the show is watchable but not as great as before.

[P-90_177]

Personally, I miss Russell T. Davies very much. I find Moffat's writing try to appeal to much to children instead of the children in us like Davies used to do. Russell T. Davies was more adult and balanced in that aspect. This episode is another example of that. Still the show is watchable but not as great as before.

I actually find it the other way around. Although I enjoyed them at the time I found the Davis tenure to be terribly predictable. Monsters also were overly child friendly. The Slitheen, Dalek Pig mutants, Giant wasps, Upright Rhinos... the list kinda just goes on. Moffatt stories are more complex with far more thought put into who the enemy is. The last few series have been terribly thought provoking and surreal as well which is even better. Yes they also go more towards the 'it works because it works' way of presenting "science" but when it comes to Doctor Who I'd rather the science look like magic anyway since it adds to the wonder.

[Sealurk]

Personally, I miss Russell T. Davies very much. I find Moffat's writing try to appeal to much to children instead of the children in us like Davies used to do. Russell T. Davies was more adult and balanced in that aspect. This episode is another example of that. Still the show is watchable but not as great as before.

In fairness this episode wasn't written by the Moff, but by Neil Cross, who hasn't written for Who before (he's the creator/writer behind the generally rather good Luther, though I'm not sure that ability translates so well to Who), but I do agree with you. I used to absolutely adore Steven Moffat's writing even before Doctor Who, and when he had only one or two episodes a series to do during RTD's tenure, they were pretty much the very best of the season. Now that he's literally and figuratively running the show, I think his writing has slowly got worse and he does seem to be edging more and more towards making it a children's show rather than something that is accessible to all ages.

[Admiral Mappalazarou]

I loved this episode for its imagination and the Doctor's hearty speech. First thoughts were of whther or not the Akhaten sun is related to the same species we met in Series 3's 42. Probably not but just a thought