Starring: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman.
Writer: Neil Cross.
Director: Farren Blackburn.
With Clara Oswald now officially embarked on the TARDIS and adventuring with the Doctor, the second half of Doctor Who’s Series 7 was off to a rollicking start with last week’s episode, ‘The Bells of Saint John’. Now this week’s episode, ‘The Rings of Akhaten’, written by Neil Cross, has passed, so let’s dive in and see what’s what!
WARNING: As ever, there may be mild spoilers!
The episode starts with a series of flashbacks showing us some more of Clara’s past, particularly the meeting of her parents. We also have a few little questions from last week’s episode addressed, such as the relevance behind “the most important leaf in human history”. Intriguingly enough, we also find that the Doctor has been observing Clara at several stages of her life, still totally focused on solving the mystery about her. Indeed, something about this episode seems to hint that the Doctor is starting to form theories, although nothing is concrete…
We then leave Flashback Land! The Doctor has returned to pick Clara up, and is bringing her off on her first adventure. Clara asks the Doctor to show her “something awesome”, and the Doctor very much obliges. The TARDIS arrives at the titular inhabited rings of the planet Akhaten, where aliens of all species and shapes have gathered for something called the ‘Festival of Offerings’. The duo head into a wonderfully-alien marketplace, and Clara is utterly fascinated by all that’s going on. However, as per the norm, all is not well. Clara runs across a young girl named Merry, who is something called ‘the Queen of Years’, supposed to sing a song at the festival, and terrified of getting it wrong…
A good, very Doctor Who-ish plot to start an episode with, and the remainder of the episode delivers on that in spades. Neil Cross was asked to make this one a “proper alien adventure to show Clara what the universe is like” and he does so with aplomb. ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ shows off alien culture in a way that will probably remind many of Star Wars, it has a similar feel to it. There are more aliens on-screen in this episode than have ever been on-screen in Doctor Who before, and it really shows off the marvellous, bizarre universe that Doctor Who takes place in. The culture of Akhaten comes across very strongly, with its own customs and features, and seeing Clara’s reaction to it is probably quite similar to the reactions of the audience themselves. It cannot be stated enough: looks-wise, this episode is about as sexy as Jenna-Louise Coleman herself (this will be mentioned weekly, just a heads-up).
Speaking of, this is that all-important “companion’s-first-proper-adventure” episode, and Clara does not disappoint. Coleman perfectly shows off Clara’s sense of wonder and excitement at seeing these incredible things, as well as continuing to be more than a match for the Doctor, with her rapid-fire talking and total self-assuredness. Without spoiling it, Clara adapts very well to the situation, taking charge when the Doctor isn’t around and making some very important decisions. She’s cocky and fun as ever, and seeing her dealing with being thrown into the situations that Doctor Who companions must invariably deal with is a treat. She reminds me a little of Ace, in a way, and that’s never anything less than a good thing.
As for the Doctor himself, Matt Smith is as incredibly fun and watchable as ever. He manages to show a sense of wonder, in his own way, regarding the setting, and seeing the Doctor wander around communicating with all of the aliens and just generally enjoying himself is always nice. 
The Doctor has a few action-hero moments in this that are highly amusing (including a brilliant Indiana Jones moment), but when the episode takes a turn for the worse, as they always do, Smith plays the Doctor’s darker side as excellently as ever, and there are a few moments that will tug on the heartstrings of the viewers, no doubt about it. As ever, the chemistry between Coleman and Smith is absolutely top-notch, and the two make a fantastic duo on-screen.
The villains of the episode are suitably creepy, of course, although especially so in this case. The black-clad and masked Vigil that grace the episode’s poster are very menacing, with their slow, unflinching movement and their gravelly, hissing whispered voices. 
The mummy of the episode that showed up in the trailers is a very creepy monster, and there are a few moments where it really comes off as unnerving. And then there’s something I won’t talk about due to spoilers, but you’ll know it when you see it, and it’s awesome. The aliens that show up in massive numbers are all excellent as well, and a lot of Doctor Who fans will recognise several references to the past with re-used suits or the like (my particular favourite being the “Sycorax-with-Ood-tentacles-and-a-Hath-breathing-device” creature).
In fact, there are quite a few references to the past in this episode. Little things like the Doctor briefly using the Venusian aikido stance made famous by the Third Doctor, or a line briefly referencing having come to Akhaten before with Susan. There are minor references to episodes as recent as ‘The Wedding of River Song’, and as long-gone as ‘The Celestial Toymaker’. I’ve seen a lot of sentiment from people along the lines of “This episode felt like when I first started watching Doctor Who” and I totally agree, it has a very classic feel to it.
All in all, an absolute cracker of an episode. The ending is a bit rushed and a bit of it is something of a cop-out, but these are problems that don’t even interfere with the episode in the slightest, because the rest of it is so good. It’s fun, it looks great, there’s a lot of great character development, it has a wonderful feel, it’s reminiscent of Star Wars and Indiana Jones and still very uniquely Doctor Who. It’s wonderful.
Gonna give this one 9/10, and it’s probably even better than that.
Roll on next week, for the long-awaited return of the Ice Warriors in ‘Cold War‘!
