Stardust and Stories

The episode of Doctor Who that just aired, The Rings of Akhaten, was not, I'd say, among the very greatest episodes of the show. Personally I liked it; some people seem to have rather hated it. What it did, indisputably have, however, were two really great speeches by the Doctor. Since there doesn't seem to be any way to get good transcripts of new episodes immediately following their broadcast, I've transcribed these speeches, and they can be found below the fold. Obviously, don't look if you haven't seen the episode.


First we have what I call the Doctor's "stardust" speech. It's a variation on a pretty common theme, where someone, typically a science-y type, tells someone else that they are made of stardust, of atoms created through nuclear fusion in the heart of giant stars. Not only, I think, does the Doctor tell this story exceedingly well, the context is set up very well for the speech to be effective. The person he's talking to genuinely hasn't heard this story before. Her people have a mythology that says that all life in the universe originated on a planet (that's actually an asteroid, I think, but whatever) in this one particular solar system, the sun of which is worshiped as a god and is demanding the young girl to whom the Doctor speaks these lines as a sacrifice. So what Richard Dawkins calls the "Magic of Reality" is on full display here, and being deliberately invoked by the Doctor: he's telling her the real story, because it is so much more wonderful than their myth (which he earlier called a nice story itself) and because it makes Merry, the girl, seem so much more precious:

Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story, one you might not have heard? All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago in the heart of a faraway star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets, and on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings until, eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Galel, and there will never be another. Getting rid of that existence isn't a sacrifice, it is a waste.

Next up is the grand peroration of the episode, the Doctor's address to the living star. This speech is both wonderful on its own terms and extremely intriguing in terms of how it fits into the broader arcs of the show; in particular, the line about secrets seems to be referencing the answer to a certain question that there are reasons to think we might be revisiting sometime soon. The context for the speech (which, of course, you ought to know already if you're even reading this) is that the Doctor can't figure out how to fight this god-sun that wants to feed on the stories* of people's lives, and then he hears the crowd on the asteroid behind him (not clear how the sound travels in space, but whatever) being led in song by Merry. This inspires him:

Okay then, that's what I'll do. I will tell you a story.

Can you hear them? All these people who lived in terror of you and your judgment. All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves to you. Can you hear them singing?

Oh, you like to think you're a god. But you're not a god, you're just a parasite, eaten out with jealousy and envy and longing for the lives of others. You feed on them, on the memory of love and loss and birth and death and joy and sorrow, so... so, 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 walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. 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 madman. I watched universes freeze and creations burn. I have seen things you wouldn't believe, I have lost things 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. Have it. You have it all!

Packed in there we've got Humanist Doctor (obviously, not limiting that to actual Homo sapiens or anything), we've got Defiant Doctor. We've also got a little bit of Sad Old Doctor, never the dominant voice but definitely there in the lines about the Time War and everything the Doctor has seen and lost. The Doctor is fighting this creature with the memory of his long, painful life, but in doing so he inevitably must dwell on his long, painful life. Matt Smith, obviously, is brilliant delivering these lines, expertly blending the subtle hint of anguish and tears into the bold, defiant declarations. This speech makes the episode, and what a speech it is.

Incidentally, we've also got a lot of references packed into a few lines. The Time War part is pretty obvious: it's about the Time War. It's interesting that he refers to himself as having 'marked' the Time Lords' passing, given that he caused it himself. When did he see the birth of the universe? I'm not sure I can recall seeing that part. The thing about watching as time ran out is probably about the Series 5 finale, "The Big Bang." The universe where physics was devised by a mad-man strikes me as a reference to Omega in "The Three Doctors," although there are apparently a couple of other candidates that I haven't seen. Idris remarks in "The Doctor's Wife" that the bubble universe they're in will hit absolute zero in a few minutes so they had better leave; that could be the part about having watched universes freeze, though I don't feel confident in that claim. He watched creations burn in "The Big Bang," also, I'd say, although it would be a little weird if two of these references are to the same thing. Then we get three references that sound general: he's seen, well, he's seen just about everything, actually, and he's lost his entire species just for starters. But the secrets... Well, this description of his forbidden knowledge sounds awfully similar to what he says in "The Wedding of River Song" to alternate-Churchill. Which means, I think, that in giving this god-sun his memories, he gives it the answer to The First Question (as he may once have done with Madame de Pompadour). Of course, the sun doesn't stick around for very long after learning the Doctor's secrets, but still, it's interesting...


*Oh, also, I love the thing he says about souls being made of stories. Just an off-hand little remark, but a pretty deep philosophical idea, and one that I think might fit nicely into my whole intranaturalism thing. The idea of the soul is one I'm very much drawn to, but obviously not in any sort of metaphysical/supernatural "immortal soul" type of way. As usual, the Doctor shows the way!