The Rings of Akhaten

The Eleventh Doctor, having seen Clara die twice before, decides to learn more about his new companion and travels into her past to observe her. He finds that her parents met by a chance encounter caused by a gust of wind blowing a leaf into her father's face and discovers that her mother died while Clara was a teenager. The Doctor goes back to the present and collects Clara, then takes her to the Rings of Akhaten, where they observe a series of planetoids in a ring system orbiting a planet, with a shining pyramid on one planetoid. The Doctor takes Clara to a giant alien marketplace where the currency is items of sentimental value. Clara then encounters a girl called Merry Gejelh,[2] the Queen of Years. Merry tells Clara that she is hiding because she is supposed to sing a song at a ceremony and she is afraid to get it wrong. Clara reassures her by telling her what her mother once said, and Merry heads to the ceremony.

The Vigil as they appeared at a Doctor Who exhibition.

The Doctor and Clara attend the ceremony, where the Doctor explains that since the Rings were settled there has been a constant song sung to keep the Old God of Akhaten asleep. Merry begins singing, joined by a chorister at the pyramid. During the song, a beam of light from the pyramid envelops Merry, and she is pulled toward the pyramid to have her soul sacrificed to Akhaten. The Doctor and Clara rent a space bike which they ride to the pyramid. The Doctor promises Merry that she does not have to sacrifice herself and that he will stop Akhaten. The Doctor lets Clara and Merry escape from the pyramid, but Akhaten, a planet-sized parasitic creature, awakens.

Clara and Merry flee back to the ceremony and the Doctor faces the creature, realising it feeds off memories, stories, and feelings. He tries to overfeed it by offering the sum total of his Time Lord memories; Merry also leads the citizens in a song of hope, confusing Akhaten who then disappears. However, the Doctor's memories are not enough to sate the creature and Akhaten reappears. Clara returns to help, offering Akhaten the leaf that blew into her father's face on the day he met her mother, which contains an infinite amount of untold potential that Clara's mother never saw because she died early. Akhaten implodes on itself and the Rings are saved.

In "The Bells of Saint John", the Doctor finds a preserved leaf pressed between the pages of Clara's book, 101 Places to See. Clara enigmatically refers to it as "page one". The opening scene in "The Rings of Akhaten" explains this statement, showing how a mishap involving the leaf led to her parents' first meeting.[3] The Doctor mentions to Clara that he had visited Akhaten long ago with his granddaughter. This is a reference to Susan Foreman, the Doctor's granddaughter and companion who travelled with the First Doctor.[4]

In his speech to Merry Gejelh, the Doctor cites Lewis Carroll's poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" when he mentions "...shoes and ships and sealing-wax [...] cabbages and kings...".[5]

The episode received mixed reviews.[7] Neela Debnath of The Independent called it "heart-warming" and felt that centering the episode around a child "adds something". She also praised the aesthetics and the caring nature of Clara's character.[24] Zap2it's Geoff Berkshire shared similar sentiments, and also praised Emilia Jones' performance.[25] Both Debnath and Berkshire likened the storytelling to the Russell T Davies era (2005–2010).[24][25] The Guardian reviewer Dan Martin described the story as "slight and straightforward [but] told it in broad and effective strokes" with "gorgeous" visuals. He particularly praised the emotional effectiveness of the ending, but felt that "The Mummy", although visually impressive, was "a little bit of a squib after all the build-up".[26]

IGN's Mark Snow gave "The Rings of Akhaten" a rating of 7.2 out of 10. He wrote that Akhaten "felt like a fully formed world" but criticised the resolution and the Mummy's appearance.[27] Gavin Fuller of The Daily Telegraph gave the episode three and a half out of five stars and called it "a mixed bag ... but still with enough elements of uniqueness to demonstrate, almost 50 years on, just why there is still nothing like Doctor Who on television". He wrote that the religion and singing was well-realised, but felt the "mind parasite" was too similar to the Great Intelligence which was featured the previous week, and also thought the many aliens "gave more than a hint of trying too hard and did not get things off to the best of starts".[28] Digital Spy reviewer Morgan Jeffery praised Clara and the monsters, but felt that after a good build-up the episode fell apart at its climax, which he felt was "far too fantastical".[29]

SFX reviewer Richard Edwards was more negative, giving the episode three stars out of five. He felt that the story had a lot of interesting ideas but then became standard. He also criticised the use of the sonic screwdriver and the Doctor's monologue, which he felt had been overused too much recently, but said that the episode was saved by Clara.[30] Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times was also disappointed, saying that it "amounts to little more than series of events and has a more preposterous premise than usual". He questioned the physics and noted that there was not much of an ending and surprisingly found Smith not up to his usual performance.[31] Doctor Who Magazine reviewer Graham Kibble-White also reacted negatively, writing, "There wasn't a wet eye in the house, as pathos run nauseatingly amok," and claimed it "by some stretch the least awesome Doctor Who we've encountered for a long time." He also claimed it seemed like "Cross hadn't seen an episode since the 1980s" and that "even the leftfield mention of the Time War feels as if it's come from a quick consult with Wikipedia." Additionally, he felt that it could be "mockable" and complained that it was "turning the aliens into a freak show, something to be goggled at, rather than truly met."[32]

Cross acknowledged that "The Rings of Akhaten" had received a mixed reception and was originally bothered by some of the criticisms. However, he said he was cheered up by children between the ages of nine and fifteen who had experienced bullying and wrote to him saying that they had been inspired by the episode. One girl told him it had changed her mind about suicide.[7]