The Rings Of Akhaten: Rank - 293

  The Rings Of Akhaten

(Season 7, Dr 11 with Clara, 6/4/2013, producer/showrunner: Steven Moffat, writer: Neil Cross, director: Farren Blackburn)

Rank: 293

It's an intergalactic song contest of sorts, only the girl-soprano is whisked off mid-song and rescued with a leaf. Yes, it's one of those stories...

A whole DW episode set around a music concert with a crowd of multiple aliens! The previews for this story sounded so far in my wheelhouse I'm half surprised I didn't write it first. It's still a terrific idea when done right I think: Nothing conjures up a fictional world in seconds more than giving them artistic expression at something. Unfortunately though, instead of an alien Woodstock, this is one of those really dull classical concerts where nothing much happens for hours and the soloist is a squeaky young humanoid. If I wanted that I could just have put the proms on (and not the rather good DW proms either). The soloist is beamed away by the baddie mid-song as a sacrifice, which tells you all you need to know about how good the concert is (why does this never happen to the Spice Girls?) The rest of the episode is then as generic as DW gets, as the Dr and Clara bargain for her release by handing over some precious 'memories'. Which I guess is a vision of the future for what Ticketmaster will be like in a couple of centuries. For all my scorn, though, this is such a good idea and so different to the usual run of the mill DW story that it gets bonus points for bravery. I just wish it had got some for execution too so it could have been a true classic.

Positives + The highlights all come from the early moments with Clara exploring her first alien planet and an exotic market that's just the right blend of familiar and other-worldly.

Negatives - Composer Murray Gold (was he hired because cybermen are allergic to him?!) has written some truly beautiful scores, but he also has the habit of using his music to dictate how the audience should be feeling at any given time. With a script like this giving him carte blanche to really go for it he was always going to go overboard and it makes for another of those annoyingly over-saccharine schmaltzy DW moments. Nice tune though.