My Thoughts on Snowdrop, The Rings of Akhaten, and the Return of David Tennant and Billie Piper · 1:59am Apr 7th, 2013
I've just finished watching The Rings of Akhaten so I think this would be a good time to give my opinions on it as well as my opinions on the MLP: FiM fanmade short film Snowdrop as well as the news that David Tennant and Billie Piper are returning for Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary Special. There's certainly quite a bit for me to talk about. Firstly, I'd like to say that I will discuss spoilers so if any of you haven't seen The Rings of Akhaten or Snowdrop then I recommend that you do so before reading any further. You can find a link to Snowdrop below:
First, I'll discuss Snowdrop as that was what I saw first. I know that I'm a bit late on discussing this as it was released over two weeks ago; but I didn't see it, or even learn about it, until MariusIoannesP sent me a link to it through one of his comments on my last blog. And I'd just like to say thank you very much for informing me about Snowdrop, MariusIoannesP, because I loved it! The animation was superb, the character of Snowdrop was extremely likable, the music was great, the voice acting was good, and the ending was just...AAAHHH! THE FEELS! IT BURNS! It's very rare that a film, cartoon, video, book, or etc. can make me cry and this actually made me come pretty darn close. It had just such a depressingly and happily bittersweet end that wrapped everything up perfectly (with the last snowflake to fall being the first one ever to be made by Snowdrop). I'm also a pretty big Luna fan and I really felt for her when she was talking with Celestia about having to, in a way, let go of one of her closest friends. I don't have that much else to say about the video. I didn't have any problems with it and it's certainly one of my favorite MLP: FiM fan projects to date and I honestly found it a lot more satisfying and enjoyable than Double Rainboom. I still really enjoyed Double Rainboom and my favorite MLP: FiM fan project remains to be Turnabout Storm (which I will talk about in full once the final part comes out) but Snowdrop was definitely a great fan project that falls happily in between them. How did I not hear about this earlier?! Seriously!
Now I'll discuss The Rings of Akhaten. Out of the eight episodes in Series 7: Part 2, The Rings of Akhaten certainly wasn't one of the ones that I was most excited about. Don't get me wrong, I was still looking forward to seeing it but the other upcoming episodes have just caught my interests a bit more. But, with that being said, while I can't say that I enjoyed The Rings of Akhaten as much as I enjoyed The Bells of Saint John...it was still an incredibly enjoyable episode. I was glad to finally learn the significance of the leaf seen in the previous episode and the flashbacks to Clara's past were both heartwarming and heartbreaking. And (because I love pointing out coincidences in numbers thanks to Touch - another great show, by the way) am I the only one that finds it funny (in an interesting way) that Clara's mom was born on September 11, 1960 and that she died on March 5, 2005 (the latter date taking place during the events of Rose)? The world of Akhaten was fun and vibrant. The special effects on the star and such were great and the outfits for all the different aliens were interesting and fun to look at. Both the Doctor and Clara really got to shine in this episode. Their chemistry remained fun and entertaining and both the Doctor's and Clara's speeches to the "God of Akhaten" were deep and powerful. The music was also really good. While it's not something that I would put on my iPod and listen to constantly, it was still great and beautiful. I also liked Clara's chemistry with Merry, once again showing and extending her "governess" persona and skills. I liked the reference to Susan Foreman (the Doctor's granddaughter who was one of the first companions of the show) and my favorite line of the episode has to be: "Stay back! I'm armed...with a screwdriver!" The Vigil and the Mummy were both pretty creepy (the Vigil especially) but I felt that the Vigil were a bit underused. I wished I could have seen more of them during the episode and they just sort of vanished towards the end without having any effect on the final climax.
I do have a few minor problems with this episode. There were times when the story seemed to take a slight backtrack to the surroundings, aliens, and special effects being shown off. This didn't ruin the episode for me but it did cause a few instances for the story to come to a gradual and temporary "halt". Also, the ending was a bit too quick for me. We didn't get to see Clara say goodbye to Merry and our last view of Akhaten was the star going out. What happened to the people? Did everything work out for them in the end? I guess because everybody there voted to have Clara's ring returned to her. The return of the ring was nice but I felt it would have been better to have been shown in Akhaten with Merry giving the ring to her versus the Doctor giving it to her after the fact. And, once again, I wish the Vigil had been seen a bit more.
But that's all of the problems I personally had with the episode. I still found it to be quite an enjoyable episode that gave us a fun new alien world, a heartwarming/heartbreaking backstory to Clara, and some enjoyable melodies. I wouldn't say that this will be one of the most memorable episodes of Series 7: Part 2 but I wouldn't say it's as disappointing as some of the online spoiler-free articles have stated it as. Next week's episode is Cold War where we see Clara and the Doctor travel down into a Russian Submarine in 1983 to face off against a paranoid crew, a collection of dangerous nukes, and an angry Ice Warrior! Expect to see a blog from me on that episode next week! You can check out the trailer for Cold War below:
Lastly, I'll state how excited I am that David Tennant (the 10th Doctor) and Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) are returning for the 50th Anniversary! I have a feeling that we're probably going to see the Meta-Crisis Doctor versus seeing that actual 10th Doctor. I would have preferred the latter but they're kind of the same person so I don't mind. I am a bit disappointed that we won't be seeing the return of Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) or Christopher Eccleston (the 9th Doctor) and I have a feeling that Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) won't be making an appearance either. But at least there's a chance that we might see John Barrowman (Jack Harkness) and I'm sure that we'll see Alex Kingston (River Song) so I'm happy about that. I'm definitely looking forward to what chemistry we'll see Matt Smith, David Tennant, Jenna-Louise Coleman, and Billie Piper have together. It's sure shaping up to be one epic anniversary special! By the way, is anyone else hoping for a return by John Simm (the Master)?
So those were my thoughts on Snowdrop, The Rings of Akhaten, and the confirmed return of David Tennant and Billie Piper. Does anybody agree with me? Disagree with me? I'm interested to hear what all of you have to say.
Thank you for the shout out to me for turning you on to Snowdrop. It is probably the My Little Dashie of My Little Pony fan films.
I didn't know until now that Billie Piper and David Tennant return for the 50th anniversary. This is going to be really great! I'd like to see the John Simms Master again too.
I'm really liking this season of Doctor Who. Is it me, or has the music gotten better since the Christmas episode.
...
Eccleston won't be in the 50th anniversary?
I'm done with Life.
I missed yesterday's episode. Therefore, I didn't read this. The spoilers.
You know what would have made the speech in Rings of Akhaten even better?
"I've been to a world where the dominant form of life were talking ponies!"
Do you think the makers of Doctor Who are aware of the whole MLP/Doctor Whooves thing? It would be awesome if they shouted it one day. One can dream.
990814 Well, there is that scene in A Town Called Mercy where he claims to be able to speak horse.
1016741 Oh yeah! I forgot about that!
Thanks for the reminder.
990814
Needs to happen.
Now.