Doctor Who:
The Rings of Akhaten
By Neil Cross
“Can you hear them? All
these people who've lived in terror of you and your judgement? All these people
whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves, to you. Can you hear
them singing? Oh, you like to thing you're a god. But you're not a god. You're
just a parasite eaten out with jealousy and envy and longing for the lives of
others. You feed on them. On the memory of love and loss and birth and death
and joy and sorrow. So, come on, then.
Take mine. Take my memories. But I hope you've got a big appetite, because I
have lived a long life and I have seen a few things. I walked away from the
last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of
the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing
remained. No time. No space. Just me. I walked in universes where the laws of
physics were devised by the mind of a mad man. I've watched universes freeze
and creations burn. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. I have lost things
you will never understand. And I know things. Secrets that must never be told.
Knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods
blaze. So come on, then. Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!”
The Doctor asks Clara
where she wants to go and she replies that she wants to go somewhere awesome. So he takes her to The Rings of Akhaten which
is part of a seven planet solar system and the species believe all life started
on a small planet in their system. The
pair goes on to explore the marketplace and Clara is exposed to all sorts of
different alien races. Clara meets a
young girl named Merry who is the Queen of Years and she is afraid of singing a
song to the Grandfather. Clara convinces
her to go back and do what she has to and that everything will be fine. But
everything isn’t fine as Merry makes a mistake with the song and the gods are
angry and The Doctor and Clara must come up with a way to save Merry and
everyone else on Akhaten.
After the good start to
the continuation of Series 7 with “The Bells of Saint John” we are treated to
“The Rings of Akhaten” by Doctor Who newcomer Neil Cross who is in fact the
creator and head writer for the crime series Luther. A highly critical acclaimed series and one of
the BBC’s top shows and one that is really good in my opinion. So now
he turns his attention to science fiction and more importantly to Doctor Who.
Will his story for Series 7 be a good one or should it be booked for bad
television.
