History YMMV / DoctorWhoS33E7TheRingsOfAkhaten

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: The two climatic scenes where the Doctor and Clara bare their souls to the Old God to defeat him - the Doctor by deriding the parasite and letting him feast on his memories, and Clara by giving up the most priceless heirloom and memory she has of her late mother - both of which are backed by some of Murray Gold's best music, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVk_dJVaobE The Long Song]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJqnGpkaqrM Infinite Potential]]".

* BrokenBase: The leaf scene in the climax has been rather...''controversial'' with fans. Some argue it's a powerful scene that was set up well, gives Clara's character a chance to shine and fully showcases her heart and humanity for the first time (which we'd be seeing a lot more of the following season); others argue that it's a sugary sweet ending in an already sugary sweet episode which completely undercuts the Doctor's [[HamAndCheese epic speech]] moments earlier.
* ContinuityLockOut: The Doctor's casual mention of having a granddaughter threw some viewers unfamiliar with the Classic Series for a loop, as it was the first explicit reference to Susan Foreman in the revived series at that point.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Throughout the episode, Clara shows she is companion material, by being compassionate enough to reach out Merry and brave enough to become involved in alien business far beyond her. The final ten minutes cement this by showing she's selfless enough to sacrifice an important heirloom of her dead mother to save a world that is not her own thousands of years into the future. The Doctor and Clara bond over their experience of baring their souls to the Old God, their new friendship set in stone, and to show their gratitude to Clara for saving their lives, the people of Akhaten return her late mother's ring to her. Really, the last ten minutes of the episode are quite an emotional high for the Doctor, Clara and the audience.

* {{Narm}}: Dave's speech about the "most important leaf in human history", and really the fact he kept the leaf in the first place, comes across less as a poetic love confession; at best it's a cheesy speech, at worst it's signs of a creepy obsession.

* {{Narm}}: Dave's speech about the "most important leaf in human history", and really the fact he kept the leaf in the first place, comes across less as a poetic love confession; at it's best it's a cheesy speech, at it's worst it's signs of a creepy obsession.

* MemeticMutation: The Doctor's angry bowtie-fix and DeclarativeFinger have spawned the [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/listen-here-you-little-shit "Listen here you little-" reaction image]], despite nothing of the sort being said in the episode. What sparked this meme was that if one pauses the episode at just the right moment (40:17), during the speech, the Doctor is caught in a mid-blink, with his lips pursed and finger waggling away, making him look ''incredibly'' dopey, as if he were drunk. As the Funny/DoctorWhoNewSeries image caption puts the moment; it's not only animations that use stretch frames.

* MemeticMutation: The Doctor's angry bowtie-fix and DeclarativeFinger have spawned the [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/listen-here-you-little-shit "Listen here you little-" reaction image]], despite nothing of the sort being said in the episode. What sparked this meme was that if one pauses the episode at just the right moment (40:17, during the speech, the Doctor is caught in a mid-blink, with his lips pursed and finger waggling away, making him look ''incredibly'' dopey, as if he were drunk. As the Funny/DoctorWhoNewSeries image caption puts the moment; it's not only animations that use stretch frames.

* MemeticMutation: The Doctor's angry bowtie-fix and DeclarativeFinger have spawned the [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/listen-here-you-little-shit "Listen here you little-" reaction image]], despite neither captions being said in the episode. What sparked this memne was that if one pauses the episode at just the right moment during the speech, the Doctor is caught in a mid-blink, with his lips pursed and finger waggling away, making him look incredibly dopey and as if he's drunk.

* MemeticMutation: The Doctor's angry bowtie-fix and DeclarativeFinger have spawned the [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/listen-here-you-little-shit "Listen here you little-" reaction image]], despite neither captions being said in the episode. What sparked it was that if one pauses the episode at just the right moment, the Doctor is caught in mid-blink with his lips pursed, making him look incredibly dopey.

* BrokenBase: The leaf scene in the climax has been rather...''controversial'' with fans. Some argue it's a powerful scene that was set up well, gives Clara's character a chance to shine and fully showcases her heart and humanity for the first time (which we'd be seeing a lot more of the following season); others argue that it's a TastesLikeDiabetes ending (in an already sugary sweet episode) which completely undercuts the Doctor's [[HamAndCheese epic speech]] moments earlier.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: The biggest reason why this episode is shredded by critics is because the story is relentlessly sweet and sentimental to the point of [[{{Glurge}} overstaying its welcome]].

* BrokenBase:
** The fandom ''creamed'' this episode in a popularity poll taken in ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine''. Lowest-ranked overall out of ''any'' Eleventh Doctor stories at the time, and one of the lowest on the list, period.
** In particular, the leaf scene in the climax has been rather...''[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment controversial]]'' with fans. Some argue it's a powerful scene that was set up well, gives Clara's character a chance to shine and fully showcases her heart and humanity for the first time (which we'd be seeing a lot more of the following season); others argue that it's a TastesLikeDiabetes ending (in an already sugary sweet episode) which completely undercuts the Doctor's [[HamAndCheese epic speech]] moments earlier.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Throughout the episode, Clara shows she is companion material, by being compassionate enough to reach out Merry and brave enough to become involved in alien business far beyond her. The final ten minutes cement this by showing she's selfless enough to sacrifice an important heirloom of her dead mother to save a world that is not her own thousands of years into the future. The Doctor and Clara bond over their experience of baring their souls to the Old God, their new friendship set in stone, and to show their gratitude for Clara saving their lives, the people of Akhaten return her late mother's ring to her. Really, the last ten minutes of the episode are an emotional high for the Doctor, Clara and the audience.

* VindicatedByHistory: Downplayed example. "The Rings Of Akhaten" still has its share of detractors, but it's become much, much more warmly received and appreciated over time by the fandom than it was during its broadcast year, partly because of the fun world-building, partly because of the rich character development for Clara, and partly because the Doctor's impassioned speech towards Akhaten has become one of the Eleventh Doctor's most iconic moments in his tenure.

* SpecialEffectFailure: In the scene where Clara and her dad are standing on her mother's grave, they didn't bother to use any makeup to age him, so he looks exactly the same as in the scenes set in the 1980s except for some gray colour in his hair.

* VindicatedByHistory: Downplayed example. "The Rings Of Akhaten" still has it's share of detractors, but it's become much, much more warmly received and appreciated over time by the fandom than it was during its broadcast year, partly because of the fun world-building, partly because of the rich character development for Clara, and partly because the Doctor's impassioned speech towards Akhaten has become one of the Eleventh Doctor's most iconic moments in his tenure.