The Rings of Akhaten (TV story)

The Rings of Akhaten was the seventh regular episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. In it, the Eleventh Doctor's new companion, Clara Oswald, took her first trip in the TARDIS to an alien planet.

Synopsis
Clara Oswald wants to see something awesome, so the Doctor whisks her off to the inhabited rings of the planet Akhaten, where the Festival of Offerings is in full swing. Clara meets the young Queen of Years as the pilgrims and natives ready for the ceremony. But something is stirring in the pyramid, and a sacrifice will be demanded.

Plot
She and later the crowd begin to sing to the Doctor. He was giving his soul to the Old God, and the people were giving their souls to the Doctor, the lyrics are effectively wishing him to live.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Clara Oswald - Jenna-Louise Coleman
 * Merry - Emilia Jones
 * Dave Oswald - Michael Dixon
 * Ellie Oswald - Nicola Sian
 * The Chorister - Chris Anderson
 * The Mummy - Adrian Cook
 * Dor'een - Karl Greenwood

Alien species

 * At the market, the Doctor recognizes some alien species: Pan-babylonians. a Lugal-Irra-Kush, Lucanians, a Hooloovoo, Qom VoTivig, a Terraberserker of the Kodion Belt and an Ultramancer.
 * One of the alien species at the market appears to be using a recycled Hoix head which had a bubbling breathing contraption like a Hath.

Food

 * Clara tries out an "exotic fruit of some description," and does not like it.

Cultural references from the real world

 * The Doctor references by Lewis Carroll.
 * The Doctor says, "Home again, home again, jiggedy jig" when they return home, which is part of a famous nursery rhyme known as "." It's also spoken repeatedly by two of J.F. Sebastian's replicant toys in the acclaimed sci-fi film.
 * Akh-en-aten was an Egyptian pharaoh (and husband of Nefertiti) whose name means "incarnation of the sun god".
 * The Hooloovoo is a species in.
 * The Doctor slides under a closing door, and then reaches for his sonic, which he'd dropped on the other side, very much like the trademark move of Indiana Jones.

Individuals

 * Clara tells Merry that she hated history.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor tells Clara that he's been to Akhaten with his granddaughter before.
 * The Doctor tells Clara that the one thing she needs to know about him, "aside from the blue box and the two hearts," is that he doesn't walk away.
 * Clara mentions the Doctor being 1,000 years old.
 * The Doctor mentions that his sonic screwdriver has sentimental value to him, and wished not to give it up as currency as it "comes in handy".

Story notes

 * Unlike the previous episodes of Series 7, this episode does not introduce a new variation of the Doctor Who logo.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * The crack on the glass case containing the mummy disappears and reappears between shots.
 * The leaf that Clara has in this episode is different to the one shown in the previous episode. In fact, they come from different trees; the one from Bells is from a maple and this one's from a birch.
 * When Clara tells The Doctor she wants to see "Something awesome", just before she turns around she shows her teeth in a grin. Upon turning around, her grin has reduced to a smile with no teeth in no time to do so.

Continuity

 * The Doctor wears Amy's reading glasses. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan, The Snowmen, The Bells of Saint John)
 * Clara's leaf is featured and the story behind it is explained. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * Clara's book, 101 Places to See, used to belong to her mother. (WC: The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel, TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * The Doctor has faced a sentient star before, although he implied that he'd never faced one so big. (TV: 42)
 * The Doctor mentions the Last Great Time War and the destruction of the Time Lords. (TV: The End of Time)
 * The Doctor mentions bringing his granddaughter to Akhaten at some point in time, though she is not mentioned by name. This is the first explicit mention of Susan Foreman in the revived series.
 * Clara notices that the TARDIS doesn't seem to like her, an issue that former companions Jack Harkness and Charlotte Pollard had. (TV: Utopia, AUDIO: The Condemned)
 * The Doctor talks about seeing the beginning of time (TV: Castrovalva, The Big Bang), living to see time run out (TV: Flesh and Stone, Utopia), and being in a dimension where the laws of physics were devised by a madman. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker, The Mind Robber, The Three Doctors) He also mentions knowing knowledge that must never be told. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * A native of the City State of Binding Light is seen among the crowd at the Festival of Offerings. (TV: The End of the World)

Home video releases
to be added