The Rings of Akhaten
Central Premise Recycled From: “The End of the World” crossed with “The
Satan Pit”.
Moffat
Autorecycling: The Doctor visiting/stalking some girl over the course
of her childhood; Moffat Moppet; stalking, whispering creatures that are basically The
Gentlemen from Buffy with the serial numbers filed off; lots of
mumbo-jumbo about how wonderful stories are.
Recycling
Other People: Robes and priests and impending fiery doom straight out
of “The Fires of Pompeii”. An evil deity-figure called The
Grandfather. One of the background aliens is wearing a
water-breathing apparatus like the ones seen in “The Doctor's
Daughter”. Living suns, like the one in “42”. Yet another alien
market that owes way too much to Mos Eisley.
Evil
Household Objects: No, but there's a magic leaf.
Doctor
Who!: Not said.
Outfits!:
The Doctor's still in the tweed, and Clara's got some
ultrafashionable boots on.
Small
Child!: Merry, the Moffat Moppet of Years.
Murray
Gold's Top Ten: The moment the Doctor mentions that singing is part
of these people's beliefs, everyone should start bracing themselves
for the return of the Welsh Choir of The Damned. Props to the sound
effects department for giving the sun a cool rumbling effect, though.
Clara
Dies Due To: Nothing, this week; it'll be a while before this trope
comes back.
Clara's
Job of the Week: Child.
“Run,
you clever boy, and remember”: One
of the aliens in the marketplace says it, highly distorted, as the
Doctor enters for the first time.
Topical
Reference to Puzzle Future Generations: This story's pretty free of
them.
Gratuitous
Plot Hole of the Week: So, the resolution of this story involves the
Doctor destroying the sun, and thus the entire system? And
everybody's OK with that?
Cliche
of the Week: Pyramids with supposedly impenetrable tombs containing
evil mummies. “I've seen things you could never believe, etc.!”
Continuity
Frakup of the Week: Not so much continuity this week as Massive
Science Fail, namely, the idea that one can ride a space-moped
through the system without any sort of protective gear or breathing
apparatus. Likewise, although it's not entirely improbable that the
audience to the concert just sits there passively while the whole
drama with The Grandfather reawakening unfolds, it does seem a little
weird; do they think this is a normal part of the show, or what?
Nostalgia
UK: The early 1980s are envisioned as a place of Beano annuals,
suburbs, earth-tone Ford Capris, and the song “Ghost Town”
cutting out right before the political part of the lyrics begins. The
Doctor mentions his granddaughter.
Item Most Likely to Wind Up as a Toy: If this were the Star Wars
franchise, we'd have multiple versions of every single alien in this
story. This isn't, and the mummy, with its chair and glass box, is too big to be
anything other than a limited-edition figure, so we'll probably just
get one of those grill-faced stalking thingys. If NBC can sell Tauron
Mafia temporary tattoos from Caprica, why can't Character Options come out with
stick-on Chorister scarification marks?
