Talk:Akhaten

Star or planet?
At the beginning of the episode, doesn't the Doctor refer to it as a planet? Ensephylon ☎  16:17, April 7, 2013 (UTC)


 * Wasn't that him referring to Sun-singers of Akhet not this astronomical body.
 * Your question still remains, I'm not sure if it's referred to as a planet or a star. It looks and behaves like a planet (like a gas giant) but also glows like a star. --Tangerineduel / talk 16:53, April 7, 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but he called the Sun-singers of Akhet "seven worlds all surrounding one sun," therefore they're a solar system, not a planet. So what was he calling a planet...? --SOTO ☎ 17:03, April 7, 2013 (UTC)

At the start he says the illumination is from an 'alien sun'. He is referring to Akhaten; besides, the surface and atmosphere of the star reflect that of a star, not a planet (e.g. boiling mist, corona).

The doctor said that while it could feed on what had been, it could get much "fuller" on what could have been. Does this mean it's part of the trickster's brigade?

Couldn't one argue that the light from the sun could've been coming from anywhere? You don't need to look at the sun directly to see its light, after all. Also, nobody is blinded when they look at Akhaten, and it has rings. It could be a gas giant, or is pretending to be one.


 * I thought the reason no one was blinded when they looked at Akhaten was because it was asleep. When they woke it up, it opened its "eyes" and "mouth", there was light inside.
 * Most importantly, they're called the Sun-singers of Akhet as in they sing to the sun. In the episode, it's said they sing to keep the Old God asleep, so doesn't that mean that Akhaten is the sun that they're singing to? Kelnius @ http&#58;//absurdwordnerd.blogspot.com.au ☎  10:57, January 4, 2014 (UTC)

Many pages that link to this refer to it as a "sentient star" one of them being 42; I was just looking at that page. When I first saw it, I thought it was a star as well. Since many pages refer to as a star, but the article itself says it's a planet. These contradictions should be fixed, either by changing this page, or all the links. I'd go for the first though, not just because changing all the links would just be annoying. Masterpwn ☎  17:27, April 24, 2014 (UTC)

Grandfather
"I thought the Old God was Grandfather, but it was actually just Grandfather's alarm clock." The Doctor then later refers to Akhaten as the Old God. The only way this can make sense is if Grandfather is actually the mummy, and not Akhaten; the mummy woke up because Akhaten was hungry. -- Snorlax Monster  10:46, April 9, 2013 (UTC)

I don't agree : when the Doctor refers to Grandfather's, I've got the feeling he's talking about the huge hungry star, not the mummy. Akhaten woke up because the Mummy had woken up too. Chapeltok ☎  07:23, April 11, 2013 (UTC)
 * But that doesn't fit with what the Doctor said. He did call Akhaten the "Old God" after he discovered his "semantics mix up", meaning that Akhaten is the Old God. However, he said that Grandfather and the Old God were separate entities, and Grandfather woke up because of the Old God (pointing to the mummy when referring to Grandfather as well). Grandfather woke up because, well, Akhaten waking up is a pretty big deal, and that served as its "alarm clock". -- Snorlax Monster  07:33, April 11, 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry, but that goes against the entire point of the episode. Before he realised his semantics 'boo boo', he had no knowledge of the real Old God/Grandfather, aka Akhaten. He thinks at first that the Mummy is "the Old God, sometimes Grandfather." Therefore, he couldn't possibly have thought that Akhaten was the Old God, assuming your reading of the quote. Also consider the build-up of the episode: we think that the Old God is the Mummy, but then we're told that the Mummy is only the Old God's "alarm clock," and he wakes Akhaten up. Then we're treated to the bigger enemy, the real deal. Why exactly would they forget about Grandfather and just go to the alarm clock? The only possible explanation of all this, and exactly what the script implies, is that Akhaten is the Old God/Grandfather and not the Mummy, although "Old God" and "Grandfather" should still go as aliases in the infobox, since it is called that for the majority of the episode. --SOTO ☎ 11:41, April 11, 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm only referring to the situation after he realised his "semantics mix up". After that point he referred to Akhaten as the Old God, so I'm not disputing that "Old God" refers to Akhaten. His mix up was that he thought they were two names for the same thing, when in fact they referred to two separate entities. Akhaten is the bigger enemy, and his purpose isn't the solely serve as the mummy's alarm clock; the point is that the only reason the mummy woke up is because Akhaten was going to destroy everything (which seems like a pretty good reason for it to wake up). The script (or more specifically, the Doctor) says that the two are separate when clarifying that the mummy is not the Old God (but it is Grandfather). Old God is an alias of Akhaten and Grandfather is an alias of the mummy. -- Snorlax Monster  11:51, April 11, 2013 (UTC)

Mythos Connection
I would like to create a trivia section explaining the Old God's references to the Cthulhu Mythos. Aside from the obvious reference in calling it "The Old God," it bears physical resemblance to August Derleth's creation Cthuga, a giant ball of fire easily mistaken for a sun or planet. It also somewhat resembles Azathoth conceptually, as Azathoth was a "blind idiot god" floating in space and kept pacified by music. I believe this is especially relevant considering that according to Expanded Universe materials, the Great Intelligence is also known as Yog-Sothoth. This could represent a trend for the second half of the season referencing the Mythos.

I previously created such a section but it was deleted, so I thought it would be best if I brought my suggestion here first.


 * I realize this response is a year late, but we don't allow trivia sections on in universe pages. We are more of an encyclopedia, not a collection of essays. While your information sounds interesting, it just doesn't fit here. Thanks. Shambala108 ☎  17:49, April 24, 2014 (UTC)

The doctor and the leaf
First off, this is the first time I'm doing this so something's gonna look bad or not work or something. To the point. Can someone explain how a leaf has more potential than the doctor? The doctor has lived longer than the leaf can exist for starters, so just that should put him over the leaf. And the reason Akhaten explodes or whatever is that the leaf has so many possible futures. Which means they are saying the doctor only has one? Which means his whole life is a set point in time. I just don't understand how a leaf could have more pasts and futures than the doctor, and that's not even looking at the doctors possible age! Voidcube ☎  13:35, June 21, 2015 (UTC) Voidcube


 * My understanding is that it was not the leaf alone that makes the sun explode, but that - like the straw that broke the camel's back, or the thin mint wafer that exploded the fat guy in the Monty Python sketch - it was the leaf as well as the memories of the Doctor which caused it to explode; it didn't "spit out" the Doctor's memories before the leaf, after all. Kelnius @ http&#58;//absurdwordnerd.blogspot.com.au ☎  14:23, April 16, 2016 (UTC)