Allons-y, Alonso! The City
Entertainment Blog is going to take a crack at reviewing non-reality shows,
starting with “Doctor Who.” Before we jump into this week’s new episode, a bit
about your humble blogger. I’m a fairly recent “Who” convert, having devoured almost
all of the reboot episodes in the past three months (I missed a Christmas
special or two). I’m now going back and watching as much of the classic stuff
as I can find. I love the show and its mythology, but admittedly I’m nowhere
close to an expert.
However, I have my own “companions,” a viewing party that
includes several die-hard fans of the Doctor. Between them they have a fairly encyclopediac knowledge of the series. I mean, Anna dressed up as a full-sized Dalek
for Comic-Con. That’s dedication.
Anyway, on to “The Rings of Akhaten,”
in which our dashing, bowtied hero tried to discover
more about The Impossible Girl, his new companion, Clara Oswald. The beginning
of the episode answered at least one mystery surrounding The Girl Twice Dead,
as the Doctor went back in time to watch Clara’s parents meet thanks to the
serendipitous arrival of a lone leaf. It’s the same leaf that became “page 1”
of Clara’s travel book, which we saw last episode.
In the present, the Doctor took Clara for her first official
spin in the TARDIS. She wanted to see something amazing. He gave it to her: the
Rings of Akhaten, the celestial satellites spinning
around a massive red star (presumably Akhaten,
although I don’t know if that was ever explicitly stated). The Doctor explained
that the two of them were there for a specific reason: the people of the seven
planets that orbit the star believe that this is the birthplace of all life in
the universe, and that every thousand years they gather for a ceremony honoring
their god, which sleeps in a gleaming pyramid on one of the asteroids circling
the star.
The two of them end up in a bazaar full of all manner of
aliens — I feel like we haven’t had a fun menagerie scene like that in a while
— and two intriguing narrative nuggets were casually dropped. First, the Doctor
mentioned to Clara that he once brought his granddaughter to this place.
Second, Clara again evaded discussing her past when the Doctor asked her for
something of personal/emotional value, which is used as currency at the bazaar.
Looking back at the three iterations of Clara that we have
met thus far (the one in the future from “Asylum of the Daleks,”
the one from the past from “The Snowmen,” and this current present version), every
one of them has shown an impulse to redirect the conversation as soon as the
Doctor starts inquiring about her past. Typically this is done via Clara
flirting and subsequently befuddling the Doctor. Given that we learned this
episode that Clara’s mother died young, it may simply be a defense mechanism on
her part. But I remain highly dubious of Clara’s alleged origins.
At the bazaar Clara ran into a little girl, Merry, Queen of
Years, who was trying to hide. Merry explained that she had a big part to play
in the upcoming ceremony, and was terrified that she would get it wrong. Clara
assured her that she would do great. But when the ceremony started, with Merry singing to the pyramid that supposedly contained their
sleeping god, called Grandfather, something went wrong — Merry messed up.
Suddenly Grandfather started to wake up and Merry was snatched in an energy
field and dragged toward the pyramid. The Doctor and Clara grabbed a space
motorcycle (lots of motorcycles in the second part of S7; my friends suspect
Steven Moffat’s going through a mid-life crisis) and
zipped to her rescue.
In the pyramid our heroes discovered a few things. 1) That
Grandfather is essentially a parasite that feeds on other beings’ stories/life
experiences; 2) That Merry was in fact always going to be sacrificed, whether
she screwed up or not; 3) That Grandfather is not the mummy alien in the
pyramid. That’s Grandfather’s “alarm clock.” Grandfather is in fact the star at
the center of the rings, or possibly some sentient force that dwells within it.
That last part raised a few
interesting questions with me. The Doctor said that the people that live on the
seven planets in the rings of Akhaten believe the
location to be the starting place for all life in the universe. Clara asked if
that’s true, and the Doctor shrugged; what matters is that they believe it. But
several things said throughout the episode suggest that there may be something
to that belief. Merry made a few references to the fact that once the entity
inside the star gets angry, it expands and consumes everything in its path.
That sounds an awful lot like the Big Bang to me. And the Doctor specifically
referenced the Big Bang when explaining that Merry (and everything else in
existence) was created out of the stuff that launched out of that cosmic event at
the dawn of time. Ultimately I don’t think it matters, but I did think it
interesting that that idea was floated and then vaguely supported throughout
the episode.
Ultimately the Doctor tried to stop Grandfather by force feeding him all of the stories and experiences he’s
consumed over the thousand-plus years he’s lived as a Time Lord. But it wasn’t
enough. Clara came in and offered up her leaf as an offering — the leaf that
brought her parents together, and which symbolizes not only the experiences her
mother lived, but all of the possible experiences she
COULD have had, had she not died. The leaf apparently did the trick, and
Grandfather — the entire star at the center of the rings of Akhaten
— folded in on itself and collapsed into nothing. The Doctor speculated that
all of those possible realities represented in that leaf were simply too much
for the parasite to digest.
A few thoughts on this. First and
foremost, when the star collapsed in on itself my initial reaction was, “Um, what
is going to happen to the various planets/asteroids orbiting that star?”
Clearly there was a complicated gravity system at work there, and now the
center of it is just…gone. Secondly, stars are kind of important for light and
energy. There were seven planets with species living on them in that system.
They are now living without any source of light. And possibly
drifting out into space. The physics of that conclusion terrify me.
Beyond that, I’m not convinced that the Doctor’s explanation
about what stopped Grandfather was what actually happened. Why that one leaf? Surely there had been other mementos offered by the
crowd at various ceremonies that belonged to people who died unexpectedly. It
just doesn’t make sense.
I am still totally unconvinced that the version of Clara
currently traveling with the Doctor is who she says she is, and that her
history is what is being presented to us. This is the third version of this
exact same person that the Doctor has encountered in time. Who knows, there may
be other versions of her out that he hasn’t yet encountered. She can’t be some
normal girl. Something is going on there, and the Doctor knows it. It’s obvious
that he likes Clara, is drawn to her. But he is also distrustful of her, as
evidenced by him investigating her origins this episode. He is curious at best,
suspicious at worst, and I think he has every reason to be.
So what is Clara? That is the big mystery surrounding this
second half of the season. There are countless theories, of course. Our little
band of viewers is collecting our observations. Disagree? Have something to
add? Let us have it in the comments!
-The dates that are popping up around Clara line up way too
closely to “Who” lore to be coincidental. According to Clara’s tombstone at the
end of “The Snowmen” she was born on November 23. That’s the date the first
episode of “Doctor Who” premiered in 1963. According to this episode, Clara’s
mother died on March 5, 2005 — the date that Rose Tyler left with the Ninth
Doctor in Season 1 of the reboot. Character endings surrounding Clara are lining
up very closely with beginnings for this show. It’s either a very subtle nod to
fans or a deliberate trail of breadcrumbs.
-The TARDIS does not like Clara; it would not open its doors
for her this episode. (I also notice that the Doctor keeps leaving the doors to
it open since Clara has shown up, and it drives me NUTS.) For whatever reason
it is reacting more negatively to her than it has with any other companion I’ve
ever seen.
-Clara has repeatedly shown, in all of her incarnations,
several defining characteristics. 1. She is drawn to the Doctor and actively
follows him (or, in the case of Oswin, guides him).
2. She has mother/child issues. 3. She has a strong desire to travel and see
the world. 4. She is a very quick learner.
-This is the first episode in recent memory that the Doctor
has brought up Susan, the granddaughter the First Doctor traveled with during
the first season of the show. The Doctor left Susan in the future to get
married, and said he would come back for her. So far as we know, that has never
happened. And Susan has been barely referenced since she departed in the
original Season 2, in 1964. There was absolutely no reason for the Doctor to
mention Susan here, because as far as I know, the adventure with Susan on Akhaten was never shown or mentioned previously. (Please
correct me if I’m wrong.) This is a classic case of a gun showing up in the
first act. Expect it to go off in the third.
-The rumor is that everything in the second half of this
season leads up to the 50th anniversary special on November 23 of this year.
Given that there are only six episodes left before that, it’s highly unlikely that
the Clara mystery won’t somehow tie into that. My guess is that Clara either is
Susan regenerated, or possibly her offspring.
– If nothing else, I bet she’s related to the Time Lords.
Notice that the Doctor is wearing his fob watch again (it was dangling from his
vest this episode). The last time I remember prominently seeing that watch was
when the Master came back during the Tenth Doctor’s run. Those watches carry
the personality/memories of a Time Lord for safekeeping. We don’t know that
Susan was biologically a Time Lord, or adopted, or mixed species, or what. But
the fact that the pocket watch just pops back up just as this new character
joins the Doctor… Again, too many “coincidences.”
-There are some interesting things happening with numbers. The
number 11 keeps appearing. We learned this episode that Clara’s mother was born
on September 11. Last episode Clara told the child she was nannying
that Chapter 11 in Amy Pond’s book would make her cry. And, of course, she’s
running around with Eleventh Doctor. There are other interesting number things
going on. Ages 16 and 23 were missing from Clara’s book, as shown in the last
episode. That’s a difference of seven. Sevens have been popping up (such as the
seven planets in orbit around the sun in this episode, or the number first
shown on the cubes during the Slow Invasion in “The Power of Three”). This may
be a lot of hooey, and certainly the least concrete of our observations. But it
sure is fun to think about.
Next: Submarines! DavosSeaworth! Underwater intrigue!
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2013.
