The Rings of Akhaten Review

I've read a lot of reviews saying that the story here is rather thin. I'm more concerned about the plot-holes. How were those asteroids producing sufficient gravity to keep an atmosphere? How will they survive now that they have nothing to orbit?

We did get a couple of new pieces of info regarding Clara, which is good. We know she has proper parents, which rules out several theories. We also know her mom was killed by Autons and her dad was almost run over by the same car that killed Pete Tyler.

I think the variety of aliens was a bit too high seeing as the Doctor said they mostly all came from that system. No star system is going to have that many different intelligent species. There must have been at least eight or so different species. Some of them did look a bit familiar, apparently the special effects studio had been saving up spare masks from previous TV shows and movies, so not all of these were brand new.

I'm also really getting sick and tired of the fact that this show only has two special effects. They have the blue-white lightening for electricity and artron energy and the glowing orange stuff for everything else. The texture of the glowy orange stuff changes somewhat, sometimes it's closer to a gas, sometimes there's more chunks.

The bit with the Doctor near the end raises a question: is the Doctor now going to be missing some of his memories? I mean, he gave them up to feed this planet, so does he no longer have them? Or did the planet simply not like them and not take them? Or did he keep copies?

When Clara got back home, she said it looked different. I'm guessing this is going to be a major plot point in the next episode or somewhere down the road. Also, is the Doctor going to keep dropping her off at home at the end of every episode? That's what happened with Amy and Rory in Series 7 and look what happened to them.

Overall, I don't like the number of questions this episode raises and the gaping holes in physics it leaves. I'm going to rate it down.

2012: Looking Back

2012 has been a big enough year for Doctor Who. We've had the departure of the Ponds, the dawn of a new companion, the return of River Song, prequels, and much more.

The Ponds
We first heard the news that Amy and Rory would be leaving late last year. There was massive speculation as to how they would leave until it was announced that their final story would feature the Weeping Angels. At that point, most of the rumors turned to them being displaced back in time. The rumors turned out to be true, but with the twist of them jumping off a building first. I think no amount of rumors or time could have prepared us for the ending. If you didn't cry, you're not human.

The New Companion
The rumors of the new companion started out around January with rumors that Sofia Myles would play the new companion. Moffat was apparently trying to mislead us, as it turned out the new companion was to be played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. After that, there were no official announcements about her, only filming reports that seemed to indicate her name was Clara. The next we heard of her was her appearance in Asylum of the Daleks, which turned out to be the best-kept secret in all of Doctor Who since David Tennant's appearance in Series 7.2. After that, rumors were flying left and right about her character Oswin Oswald and whether she was the same character that would appear at Christmas. There were also rumors of Clara being a ghost, based on filming reports of the Doctor saying he's going to find Clara at the funeral scene and reports that Clara would die in the Christmas Special. When at long last the Christmas Special came, it raised more questions than it answered. Instead of us asking why there were two women who looked so much alike at different points in time, we're now asking why there are three and why they all have the same name. Not only that, but we're also asking why two of them died and whether she's going to die in every episode (as some fans have speculated).

River Song
River Song's appearance in The Angels Take Manhattan was a nice addition to the episode. The Ponds' last episode really wouldn't have worked without their daughter present. The episode wouldn't have been as heartbreaking if she wasn't there losing her parents. Also, I liked the touch of the same monster being present when Amy met River for the first and last times. Then there was the part where River had been pardoned. You could see the look on the Doctor's face when he heard this and realized that she was now free to roam the universe and would eventually find her way to the Library.

Prequels
2012 marked the return of the prequels. We started out with the excellent five-part Pond Life in August, written by Chris Chibnall. It's arguably the best television short story Doctor Who has ever attempted. Prequel to Asylum of the Daleks provided essential backstory to the episode, unlike Prequel to A Town Called Mercy and most of the prequels from Series 6, which either were unnecessary scenes or contained information already in the episode. The Great Detective and Vastra Investigates serve to set the tone of the characters in The Snowmen, with the Doctor being retired and Vastra, Jenny, & Strax assisting Scotland Yard.

P.S.

Here is an unshot scene from The Angels Take Manhattan specially made by the BBC with voice-over by Arthur Darvill. It features Brian Williams after the events of that episode.

Moffat Is Pure Genius

Seriously, he's been planning the New York aspect of this episode for far longer than anyone imagined. Melody regenerated alone in 1960s New York. Well, guess who's stuck in the past in New York and wants children to raise? That's right, her f*cking parents! Amy and Rory get to properly raise their daughter.

I think she regenerated again after moving out from her parents, and ended up as Mels. Then she was picked up by the Silence and turned into a psychopath.

Amy & Rory Aging Curiosities

So in The Power of Three, Amy says she thinks Rory and her have been traveling with the Doctor for ten years from their point of view. In A Town Called Mercy, she (or maybe it was Rory, I don't remember) commented about their friends noticing how fast their aging. That makes it sound like it's been much less than 10 years for the rest of Earth. In yesterday's episode, it's apparently 2012 (when it's not 1938). Assuming that's Amy and Rory's present, that means they've only been traveling with the Doctor for two years, but from a wibbly-wobbly perspective, it's been ten years. So Amy is 23/31 years old.

Rory mentions in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship that he's 31, seeing as he's talking to his dad, that's the age his dad thinks he is. So if that was in 2012 also, that means Rory was born in 1981 and is a good eight years older than Amy. That would make sense, seeing as in The Eleventh Hour, she was 19 and he had already finished nursing school and was working in a hospital. It doesn't work in the flashbacks in Let's Kill Hitler when Amy, Rory, and Mels are all little kids. Rory is obviously around the same Amy in the flashbacks. So how did he land a job at a hospital when he isn't even old enough to have finished college? Especially since he's been working there for 18 YEARS!

And then, AND THEN, <spoilers>in The Angels Take Manhattan, their gravestone says Amy was 87 when she died, and Rory was 82.</spoilers> So Amy is now somehow 5 years older than Rory. Huh? All evidence seems to suggest Rory is older than her. Unless <spoilers>the Angel zapped Amy back to an earlier point than Rory.</spoilers>

TL;DR Amy & Rory's ages =