Episode 2 of Series 7, Part 2 takes us all the way back to the late summer of 1981 and a serendipitous encounter between a red leaf and young couple-to-be; reveals that time is not, point of fact, made of strawberries; and pits the Doctor against his biggest—some might even say most awesome—enemy yet.
And most of that's in just the first five and a half minutes.
"The most important leaf in human history."
It's a lot of ground to cover: the "first page" to something awesome. And writer Neil Cross wastes no time—picking up in "The Rings of Akhaten" where show-runner Steven Moffat left off in "The Bells of Saint John:" with that leaf, that exact leaf, "the most important leaf in human history," it turns out, the leaf that brought Dave Oswald and Ellie Ravenwood together and without which Clara "Oswin" Oswald would never have been; reminding us that even the most impossible things have to start somewhere, with someone(s) or something, and that, sometimes, even the smallest of things—the flutter of a butterfly's wings or the falling of a leaf—can have profound consequences, drawing elements together or sending them bursting apart to form "shoes and ships and ceiling wax and cabbages and kings" and, eventually, something unique in the universe; then whisking us away, though time and space, across that universe, to feel the light of an alien sun on our eyelids, ready or not, as though for the first time.
And so the Doctor and Clara arrive at the Rings of Akhaten—impeccably, just in time for the Festival of Offerings, which takes place only "every thousand years or so, when the Rings align." As they make their way through the festival—sampling the local cuisine and discussing economics—they are separated, and Clara finds herself standing before a frightened little girl, who looks lost.
"Can you help me? Because I need to hide."
"I know the perfect box."
Taking the little girl's hand, Clara races back to the TARDIS, but finds it locked. The little girl improvises.
"My name is Merry."
Safely concealed behind the TARDIS, Merry explains that she is the Queen of Years, chosen when she was "just a baby—the day the last Queen of Years died—to be the vessel of… history." That history is recounted through song, a special song that, today, she is to sing for the Old God, Grand Father. And she's scared of "getting it wrong."
"Everyone's scared when they're little." Clara reassures her. "I don't think you'll get it wrong. I think you, Merry Gallel, will get it very, very right."
Technically, in reality, she does. But it doesn't matter. As she sings, Grand Father, the great star at the center of the Rings of Akhaten—from which the seven orbiting worlds believe all life in the universe originated—awakens, its hunger for a young soul having grown to the point that it is immune to Merry's lullaby and the Sun Singers' Long Song. Merry is transported to the Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten.
The Doctor and Clara attempt to intervene, but end up trapped with Merry, a mummy-vampire, and the freakishly Cenobite-like Vigil within the Pyramid.
Mistaking the mummy-vampire for Grand Father, the Doctor convinces Merry that it isn't a god and that she needn't sacrifice herself to it and promises—"Cross my hearts"—to save her and her people. An exit is found, and the day appears saved (at least, to the Doctor, Clara, and Merry), until the real Grand Father appears and threatens to consume the entire system.
"You're going to fight it, aren't you?"
"Regrettably, yes. I think I may be about to do that…. Now, off you pop. Take the moped. I'll walk."
As the Doctor prepares to face Grand Father, the peoples of the Rings of Akhaten begin to sing, and their song inspires him to use his own song, his own history, as a weapon.
"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 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 have lost things that 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!"
For a moment, the inferno fades and, again, the day seems saved.
But it isn't enough.
As the Doctor falls to his knees utterly spent, Grand Father begins to burn again.
At that's when Clara appears, 101 Places to Visit in her arms.
"Still hungry? Well I brought something for you. This."
Opening the book, she produces the most important leaf in human history.
"The most important leaf in human history. It's full of stories. Full of history. And full of a future that never got lived. Days that should have been that never were. Passed on to me. This leaf isn't just the past. It's a whole future that never happened. There are billions and millions of unlived days for every day that we live. An infinity. All the days that never came. And these are all my mum's."
It's too much.
The star implodes.
Grand Father is no more.
Day saved.
Great Lines
Dave: "This exact leaf had to grow in that exact way in that exact place so that precise wind could tear it from that precise branch and make it fly into this exact face at that exact moment. And if just one of those tiny little things had never happened… I'd never have met you. Which makes this the most important leaf in human history."
Clara: "I don't think it likes me."
Clara: "Okay. Can you pretend like I'm totally a space alien and explain?"
Clara: "Blimey! I hated History."
Doctor: "Oh! That is interesting. A frequency-modulated acoustic lock. The key changes ten million zillion squillion times a second."
Clara: "Can you open it?"
Doctor: "Technically, no. In reality, also no. But still… let's give it a stab."
Clara: "Eee!"
Clara: "Do you just lock us in?"
Doctor: "Yep."
Clara: "With a soul-eating monster?"
Doctor: "Yep."
Clara: "And is there actually a way to get out?"
Doctor: "What? Before it eats our souls?"
Clara: "Ideally. Yeah."
Doctor: "Possibly. Probably. There usually seems to be."
* Also see above for the Doctor's dialog with Grand Father. And Clara's.
Wibbly-wobbly Timey-wimey… Stuff that You Might Have Missed
The magazine that the Doctor is reading in the bus stop is "The Beano Summer Special 1981." If the year on the magazine is the current year, then we can reasonably assume, judging by the wind and falling leaves, that the Doctor witnessed the meeting of Clara's parents in either the late summer or early fall of 1981.
Dave Oswald, Clara's father-to-be, is lost at the beginning of the episode. Loss and the fear of being lost are a recurring theme—not only in this episode, but in the previous episode, "The Bells of Saint John"—and seem to reach their apex during the Doctor's confrontation with Old God, Grand Father, at the end of the episode (see above).
Red is, again, also a recurring theme. From the red leaf, to red-starred pajamas that Clara wears as an infant, to the red bow at her neck as a toddler, to the red jacket and barrette that she wears as a kid, to the red coat that she wears when visiting her mother's grave, to the red cord that accents her graduation gown in the Doctor's most recent photograph of her, to the red bag that is slung, sash-like, over her right shoulder, to the ceremonial robes of the Sun Singers of Akhat and the Queen of Years—there is no shortage of the color, which seems, more often than not, to be a signifier for Clara.
Clara also wears a familiar shade of blue in the episode.
"Oh my stars!" is exclaimed three times in the episode. Once by Ellie Ravenwood. Once by Ellie Oswald. And once by Clara.
Clara also asks "Who?" three times in the episode.
101 Places to See once belonged to Clara's mother—becoming her property when she was "aged 11." 11 also appears on Ellie's headstone, which reads
ELLIE OSWALD
BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER
BORN
11th SEPTEMBER 1960
DIED
5th MARCH 2005
—making her not yet 45 when she died. In the same scene that these 11s appear, the number also appears in the series 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13, the only of Clara's ages visible as she turns the pages of 101 Places to See. The new series has introduced us to the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors and will, presumably, soon introduce us to the Twelfth. As established in "The Deadly Assassin," the Thirteenth Doctor, having exhausted his 12 regenerations, should be the last Doctor. Of course, there's been a lot of regeneration energy swapping hands (and lips) lately (see "Journey's End," "Let's Kill Hitler," and "The Angels Take Manhattan").
The Doctor has been to the Rings of Akhaten before—along time ago, with his granddaughter. He has at least one, Susan Foreman, introduced in "An Unearthly Child." In the new series, family has been mentioned by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, but never so specifically. Here, the mention sets up an interesting juxtaposition between a benevolent old "god" and grandfather and a malevolent Old God and Grand Father.
Above the festival hang 3 large, spiked spheres resembling underwater mines. Coincidence that the next episode takes place on a submarine?
Dor'een's language isn't translated for Clara by the TARDIS—perhaps, because it (she) doesn't like her.
Another of the aliens encountered by the Doctor and Clara looks a bit like a Hath (see "The Doctor's Daughter").
The Doctor nearly loses his sonic twice in the episode: once, carelessly, without thinking, producing it as a form of currency; later, dropping it beneath the Pyramid door as it is closing.
While pursuing the Queen of Years, Clara pauses for a moment, turns, and looks through a length of conduit. From our perspective, looking back at her, we might as well be a Dalek (see "Asylum of the Daleks").
Clara apparently grew up in or near Bridport in Dorset, England; she was lost at Bridport Beach during the August Bank Holiday. Bridport has other DOCTOR WHO connections (see BROADCHURCH).
In the flashback that accompanies Clara's story of the time that she became lost, a globe and a rocket-shaped lava lamp can be seen beside her bed. Globes are also a recurring theme (see my previous post about "The Bells of Saint John").
Before the Doctor confronts Grand Father, Clara vows to stay with the Doctor—"to assist." The term assistant has sometimes been used by classic-series Doctors to refer to companions—most famously, perhaps, by the Third Doctor.
During his epic confrontation with Grand Father, the Doctor says that he has "walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a mad man." The first "mad man" to come to mind is the Master. But whether this mad man is actually the Master and precisely when this has happened (or will happen) are matters for speculation.