It feels savage to have a strongly negative reaction to such a sincere and emotionally pure episode of Doctor Who. It is such a heartfelt and earnest production, so I feel like a brute saying its one of the worst episodes of Doctor Who, but it is one of the worst episodes of Doctor Who. It is more boring than anything else. Not much happens.

There is tonnes of sitting around and singing with monsters very slowly walking towards the camera; or faraway monsters being menacing. There is a constant looming feeling of "nothing" happening.

In its defense, it is unlike anything else the show has turned out in its first 60 years. Its borderline subversive - story beats do not happen at the points they typically do. This story does not have the shape of a Doctor Who episode, which I suppose is to its credit. Though cliches are cliches for a reason.

Its a sweet idea, currency on Akhaten being "meaningful" objects. While the internal logic of this is a bit dodgy, it is a lovely unique thought. Less unique is the generic ending where the monster is destroyed by feeding too much on a power it cannot contain.

I genuinely believe this is a story that could put a new viewer off of the show. I was very surprised that there are fans out there.