Doctor Who Series 7-8: The Rings of Akhaten (SPOILERS)

Dryk

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Robot Number V said:
In this case, Clara defeating the Psychic Vampire with some multiverse-style nonsense. If the leaf represents not only her memories of what happened, but also every possibility that didn't happen (no idea how that works, by the way) then doesn't the same principle apply to literally every other memory the thing has absorbed? What makes the leaf so special?
Yeah that was my main gripe with the ending. Also the fact that said leaf is being wielded by and is responsible for this conception of a girl who has existed three times already, they didn't NEED the multiverse stuff to explain it.

Crazy Zaul said:
That was a shit episode. Got bored less than half way through. An entire cast of new and potentially interesting aliens wasted too. I miss when Dr Who was guaranteed to be always good. Now it has good and bad episodes like any other show.
I have seen all of the new series, most of the fifth, sixth and seventh doctors, the first two serials, the movie and Genesis of the Daleks... I don't remember coming across a time like that at all.
 

Rylot

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I enjoyed watching this one more than the last one, but it just completely falls apart the moment you stop and think about it. It seems like Moffat has some big plans for the end of the season with the anniversary and all but he's spent so much time and effort on it that the rest of this season's episodes are just shoddy plot-hole ridden affairs just meant to introduce things and fill time till the finally. I mean I kinda liked the few times in previous seasons when they brought back villains (they did lean too heavy on the Daleks) but now they seem to be doing it a bit more. This opinion is probably brought on by the fact that I just watched the episode today of Tennant's Doctor that was stuck aboard a ship crashing into a sentient sun.
 

Requia

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Tom Milner said:
One thing that bothers me...

How can a star be alive? Secondly, how will the seven worlds now survive without a star?
It was a planet, not a star. And I suspect for the 'alive' part the old god is the end of the lifecycle of the infovore from the Bells of St John ep.
 

Shodan1980

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My big problem with the episode is to build to quite a brilliant sci-fi idea that an entire planet is an alien, and then do absolutely nothing with it. For all the difference to the story it made it could have been a sentient pebble. Then the stuff with the leaf was nonsense. It would maybe makes sense if we, and Clara, were to know what she is and what her removal from the universe might mean but without that knowledge it was just another power of love resolution, and why is Clara so convinced it will work? When you think how the previous companion's "oooh look at how awesome time and space travel is" episodes where they first get to explore the TARDIS' full potential then it becomes all the more underwhelming. "End of the World", "Gridlock", "Planet of the Ood", "Beast Below" all much, much better ideas and shows. Hells, Saturday's episode felt like a cheap retread of "End of the World". And the less said about that bloody singing the better. For me the only thing of import was "I don't think it likes me"
 

Rednog

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Loved that we finally get an adventure episode....but then it really wasn't.
And holy plot holes...though at this point I honestly shouldn't be surprised anymore.
Great to see that TARDIS's universal translator being thrown out the window. Also love the Doctor being a complete dick to his companion...yea give up your dead mother's ring so I don't have to give up my sonic screwdriver, because it's not like I haven't had it destroyed before and the TARDIS just gives me a new one. Speaking of the TARDIS, why buy the damn speeder if you could take the freaking TARDIS?
Also, why does the Doctor live when his memories get eaten, the episode established that when the big bad monster eats memories people/things dissolve away, the Doctor just gets the wind knocked out of him?

Also, I know it was to move the plot along...but why did the Doctor just fuck off for no reason and leave Clara alone?
 

JomBob

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Towards the end I assumed that the Doctor was going to use the sonic screwdriver to amp up the lullaby and send the star back to sleep after failing to KO it with his own memories. What was that nonsense with the leaf? If they wanted to have it used they should have had her bribe someone with it.
 

Ironside

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Robot Number V said:
Look, I'm willing to overlook the absolute pointlessness of the monster in the glass cube. I'm willing to overlook a random song somehow keeping a giant psychic parasite asleep. I'm even OK with the song inexplicably ceasing to work for no apparent reason. But some things about this episode reeeeeally stretch my tolerance for bullshit.
I thought this latest episode was terrible as well, but the things ive quoted were explained in the show. The random song wasn't keeping anything asleep as explained by the doctor. The alien inthe glass case was just waking up anyway and was there to act as an alarm clock for the parasite in the sun/planet - the song didnt stop working it just never worked in the first place. I wish the doctor had said that right at the start though so we didnt have to go through a whole episode of it.
 

Robot Number V

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Ironside said:
Robot Number V said:
Look, I'm willing to overlook the absolute pointlessness of the monster in the glass cube. I'm willing to overlook a random song somehow keeping a giant psychic parasite asleep. I'm even OK with the song inexplicably ceasing to work for no apparent reason. But some things about this episode reeeeeally stretch my tolerance for bullshit.
I thought this latest episode was terrible as well, but the things ive quoted were explained in the show. The random song wasn't keeping anything asleep as explained by the doctor. The alien inthe glass case was just waking up anyway and was there to act as an alarm clock for the parasite in the sun/planet - the song didnt stop working it just never worked in the first place. I wish the doctor had said that right at the start though so we didnt have to go through a whole episode of it.
Uh...OK, first of all, he didn't explain any of that. He said the monster was "an alarm clock". That tells me nothing. HOW is it an alarm clock? Who set it? Why did it "go off" now? All the same questions I asked still apply, just switch out the phrase "random song" with "random cube monster".
 

Cookiegerard

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I thought it was really drawn out, and to be honest, pretty boring. And the whole, watching her since birth thing is a litttle bit creepy, if you put too much thought into it. Also, he blew up a planet with lots of stuff orbiting it, shouldn't they be all out of order now?
 

Supertegwyn

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God, if another Doctor Who episode ends with "The Human Spirit" overcoming all, I am going to shit a basket of bricks. And then throw them at Stephen Moffat till he is covered in my shit bricks.

I really hope that Moffat leaves soon. I don't mind Matt Smith, but Moffat seems hopeless at stringing together episodes. Gargh!
 

Evil Smurf

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1. this did not feel like a Dr Who episode, Dr. Who episodes are exciting! They are about the mind of he doctor, his personality compared to his companions.

2. Why did this episode feel like an attack on religion?
 

Evil Top Hat

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Yeah, it was just as bad as last week, if not worse.

Ending was a massive kop out. Huge sections of the story made zero sense. Blegh.

It was bad for the same reasons that last week's episode was bad. Hopefully this trend will be broken by next week's vaguely interesting looking episode.
 

Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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Eh.

Nothing much happened, so there was nothing much wrong. People very cavalier about wandering round alien worlds, and the Indiana Jones reference was very forced...the Doctor would have had to put his sonic-screwdriver (which wouldn't have had that much personal connection cause he keeps getting his blown up and the Tardis gives him a new one) on the ground under the door then dramatically pick it up again, giving he was already holding it at the time.

Scorched_Cascade said:
Mostly concerned about the "next week on" clip showing a guy with what looks like an AK-47 on a submersed submarine because an assault rifle is clearly the perfect weapon to have in that kind of environment....what could possibly go wrong? Hull breach, catastrophic de-pressurisation and death of crew That'll probably get handwaved or subverted at some point but I'm wondering what idiot gave him that type of gun in the first place.
"De-pressurisation"? More the other way round. But, maybe the sub is for covert Spetsnaz deployments, then they'd be armed. Only, yeah, it won't be, of course.
 

Froggy Slayer

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I didn't actually mind most of it. Hell, the Mummy was actually pretty creepy, for me anyway. The ending was pretty bad though; the Doctor's memories should have been what killed it rather than a bloody leaf.
 

The_Echo

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Is anyone else getting weird vibes from the Clara episodes? It brings back memories of older companions.

Her first encounter with the Doctor has an ubiquitous, ordinary thing become malevolent ("Rose"), then the first place the Doctor takes her is to a location where they witness a dying star ("The End of the World"), and the preview for the next episode really felt like another "42."

Not to mention Clara herself is starting to feel like an odd mix of Martha and Donna. Not that I'm complaining, just noticing.
 

ellieallegro

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I like quirky Clara but this episode was all sorts of act three fail. I "get" what they were trying to go for here but they could have have worked it into the plot/episode a little better. Also, why couldn't they show them getting a replacement star care of the doctor not to mention what is the ramification of the destruction of not one but seven societies creation myth?

Alas, maybe it's putting to much thought into it... because [hand waving] reasons.
 

Encurtidos

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If the Doctor gave up his memories..shouldn't he be dead, or not remember anything? That made no sense at all!