This episode begins, very appropriately, with page one.

Or rather, page one, as described by Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman), of her scrapbook "101 Things to See." On this page, there is a leaf; as it is revealed, this leaf is one that brought her parents together, set the story for her existence and, to a certain point, represents her mother's life (and death), answering just a few questions about her.

After a brief montage of Clara's ante-Doctor life, we see the Doctor (Matt Smith) whisking Clara away in the TARDIS, after she tells him to take her "somewhere awesome." He takes her to the "Rings of Akhaten," a system of seven planets surrounding what seems to be a glowing, fiery planet (although some say it was a star, but my shoddy memories of physics and astronomy classes are telling me otherwise). The inhabitants of the orbiting planets worship what they call the "Old God" or, occasionally, "Grandfather," and hold the occasional "Festival of Offerings" to pay tribute to their deity when the rings of the planet are aligned. Cue the Doctor and Clara, arriving just in time to see a little girl (Emilia Jones) running away from some ominous-looking, robed men.

Over the course of the episode, we discover that the girl's name is Merry, Queen of Years, and she is the nervous, pre-ordained mistress of ceremonies, of a sort. She sings a duet with the priest at the temple orbiting Akhaten in order to keep their god (apparently a sort of mummified monster) asleep, lest he consume their souls. And everyone else's. And then move onto other systems, because when you're a particularly vengeful god, that's your prerogative, I guess.

The story, truth be told, is a bit of a let down. The concept is praiseworthy—after so many "Earth-centric" episodes, it is rather refreshing to see a wholly alien world. The planet features a mixture of alien races much like the "Star Wars" cantina scene—or perhaps there were some "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" influences on the show. One point of question, though: is there a reason that the TARDIS's translation function does not seem to work on Clara? It could be related to the fact that she doesn't think that the TARDIS likes her because it wouldn't open the doors for her, but it could be that the doors were just locked. 

The CGI, the costuming, the props and the sets were fun, campy, classic sci-fi goodness, but I wish they would have delved into the culture of the planets further (such as the exact mechanics of having an economic model based around sentimental objects rather than actual currency—and what exactly is the exchange rate for that? How does one determine the economic worth of a memory?) In all, the episode, written by "Luther's" Neil Cross, felt like a classic "Doctor Who" episode that fell considerably short. The build-up to the story was there, but then the Doctor and Clara hop onto a space moped and happened to leave some crucial plot points behind. 

The "Old God" turns out to be the planet itself, rather than the mummy, and it is a sentient, voracious parasite hell-bent on consuming soul's—or rather, the memories and thoughts of people/aliens/living beings/whatever. The Doctor tries to sacrifice his vast knowledge, delving into some classic, Russell T. Davies-era angst about the Time War and the last of the Time Lords, but it's not enough for the hungry, hungry god. Clara rushes into the fray, rescuing the Doctor (in another refreshing turn of events) and sacrificing her own personal object, her leaf. The leaf that represents not only her mother's past and her own personal origin, but also, all the days her mother did not get to live. "An infinity", the Doctor calls it, and no matter how large the appetite, nothing can consume an infinity. So the fiery planet with a face implodes on itself, presumably leaving seven planets and potentially billions of beings without a source of light and therefore, life. But that's not even touched upon and I suppose we're meant to ignore the fact that maybe the Doctor risked a huge number of lives to save one girl (which is generally the status quo) and destroy a planetary emotional parasite. 

The episode was okay, and just okay. It needed more than a little fine-tuning, but it was a good episode to just gloss over. It wasn't particularly memorable, and although there were a few scenes toward the end that were pretty emotional, you just can't get into it. And especially with the emphasis writers are placing on the mystery of the woman twice dead, we're really just waiting for resolutions or twists or turns or something. Maybe it's supposed to be a slow build up for Clara's story, and Clara found out that the Doctor's been appearing in her past—such as at her mother's graveside, which may cross the border between "genuinely curious" and "actually pretty creepy". 

I've already seen several criticisms of having so much singing in the episode, and while I didn't have a problem with it, I did think that the music, at times, was far too loud. It seems a consistent trend with the sound editing department. 

This episode has no mention of what is likely to be this half of the series' arc villain, the Great Intelligence Institute. And while it does mention several clues about both the Doctor and the "impossible girl", it fails to answer a larger number of questions about the plot. 

Some have said the episode dragged on, but I think it was the sudden shift between "rising action" and "whoa climax and resolution suddenly" that made it feel so disjointed. Perhaps with more time and more expansion on the plot and setting, it would have felt smoother. As it was, the episode instead just felt…absent. Absence of coherence, absence of forethought, absence of true revelations. The most gratifying part of the episode was the off-hand mention that the Doctor had "visited [Akhaten] with his granddaughter", which could be a hint that the 50th Anniversary special will contain Susan Foreman, the First Doctor's companion and granddaughter. 

(This, of course, isn't built upon either.) 

It was entertaining, and Smith and Coleman, on sparkling form, retained that fantastic chemistry from their previous appearances, but not necessarily worth it. It was more a musical version of "The Beast Below", Amy Pond's first "traveling" episode, the second episode of series five, than a proper introduction, and Clara deserved something better than what was given. 

All in all, this episode laid the foundation, but didn't quite finish with the framework. You can't build a house without first building walls, and that middle part was very much missing. 

Reach Staff Reporter Christine Bancroft here. Follow her on Twitter here.