First broadcast 6 April 2013.

There is an apparent tradition in 21st century Doctor Who, and a sensible one at that, for a new companion’s second episode to be set in space. It’s a logical choice: the companion is a viewpoint for the audience, and a new one is a good opportunity for new viewers to sample the series. The companion is inevitably introduced in some sort of alien invasion storyline in present-day Britain, and so it follows that their first proper trip in the TARDIS will showcase just how bug-headed and weird the series can get. Rose Tyler got “The End of the World”. Amy Pond got “The Beast Below”. Clara Oswald, in turn, gets “The Rings of Akhaten”.

In an attempt to impress her, the Doctor (Matt Smith) takes Clara (Jenna Coleman) to the Rings of Akhaten, a series of planetoids orbiting a central gas giant. When Clara interferes with the sacrifice of young Merry, Queen of Years (Emilia Jones), it raises the ire of the enormous alien parasite that the Rings’ people worship as a god.

There is a nice ambition to “The Rings of Akhaten”, which attempts to realise a fleshed-out alien world with the help of numerous prosthetic masks, boundless imagination, and a limited BBC budget. When elements work, they are a delight. When they stretch the production’s capacity too far, it can become a minor challenge to watch. A more experienced writer may have avoided the more egregious elements – there is a ‘space bike’ that looks absolutely dreadful – but this episode marks the Who debut of writer Neil Cross, who perhaps did not know any better. Director Farren Blackburn does their best, but they are working entirely in the studio and there is simply no making the environment more realistic.

There is also a price to Cross’ imaginative world-building, which is that the episode lacks the time for a comprehensive plot. There is a lengthy first act, and an emotive climax, but very little in-between. Things happen, and the various elements are both well thought-out and beautifully designed, but it all feels rather truncated and unsatisfactory in the end.

Credit to composer Murray Gold who, among his more unnecessarily loud and emphatic scores, develops a genuinely rousing composition for the episode’s climax. It’s so effective that he re-uses it by the end of the year for the 11th Doctor’s regeneration.

Good ambitions, strained execution: this is a passably enjoyable episode, but it has so much more potential than what is on the screen.

It is worth taking a look at how Clara is developing in this, her second (or fourth) episode. The Doctor obsesses over how he has met the same woman three times, referring to her again as “the impossible girl”, and stalking both her parents and her childhood. Time will reveal this to be a bit of a red herring, since the implication that her parents have anything to do with her mystery will ultimately go nowhere. There is a leaf that her father collects than Clara subsequently uses in the episode’s climax, but it is a weirdly unnecessarily second climax that repeats the first one – only with less emotion.

Meanwhile Clara herself enters the TARDIS not with awe but with a desire to be impressed. The Doctor seems all too keen to impress her as well, creating an unwanted first date vibe that doesn’t ring true. Rewatching these episodes more than a decade after broadcast is making my dislike of Clara’s character a bit clearer. She seems actively unlikeable in this episode’s opening scenes, and the Doctor’s behaviour around her rather creepy. Credit where it is due, the episode’s denouement sees her realise the Doctor has been stalking her and calling him on it; sadly her ultimate response feels too weak for what has occurred. Jenna Coleman is still delivering her lines too fast, but honestly that is a technical note and I know from my initial viewing that she eventually slows down.

It is worth noting Emilia Jones as Merry. She does an excellent job here, and actually could have made for a decent companion in an alternative Season 7. Jones would go on to star in Netflix series Locke & Key and Oscar-winning film CODA. She received a BAFTA nomination for her role in HBO’s Task.