Before the article gets expanded a lot, was the old god the sun or a gas giant? I thought it was the latter, the rings especially looked liked rings around a gas giant rather than an asteroid belt. Also it is destroyed at the end of the episode which would be inconvenient if it was the sun. Was there anything that established it either way?
Edited by Omegatron Hide / Show Replies
The Doctor Who Wiki refers to it as a planet: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Akhaten
, which seems to be the logical choice, as you pointed out. I do not remember when (and if) it was stated in-universe, though.
It was stated early on that it's a planet when the Doctor said the locals believed all life in the universe riginated from this planet.
When he said "that planet" I assumed he meant the rock with the pyramid on it. In retrospect, though, the big red thing is probably a gas giant, which would make the things orbiting it moons. For one thing, a star, even a red giant, would be too bright to look at, though since this same episode has people cavorting through space without spacesuits, I'm not going to hold the laws of physics as absolute proof. It looks like a lot of people have assumed it to be a sun as well, so some cleanup of the page is in order. And in any case, the disappearance of a planet would be just as problematic for those in orbit around it, since its mass seems to have disappeared, taking its gravity well with it. (But, again, physics)
I thought the seven worlds were other planets in that solar system rather than orbiting the gas giant which would make the disappearance of it a bit easier to deal with. If the doctor said the seven worlds orbited it I missed that.
But at the start of the episode, with the whole light of an alien star thing, I thought it was pretty clear they were referring to the body in question. The thing is, ambiguity between stars and Hydrogen gas giants is a thing in real life astronomy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf. My interpretation was the sentient whatever might fall in that grey area. No fusion, but luminous through gravitational collapse.
Complete WMG, but maybe it collapsed into a black hole at the end? Doesn’t get rid of the sudden lack of light problem, but the civilization ‘maybe’ looks advanced enough to cope with that. It would get rid of the gravity problem.
{plis since the eleven doctor has lots of old doctor who villains returning they might ask the Usurians (The Sun Makers) for help.
Now the Doctor Who Wiki refers to Akhaten as a sun, so the question rises again. However, since the laws of physics seemed VERY lose in this area of space (they were happily hopping from asteroids to asteroids far too small for having an atmosphere without ever needed any breathing apparatus, and it's somehow implied the sun could hear them sing), maybe the disappearance of the sun is not that a big deal. The Doctor does not seem to be very concerned anyway, and apparently they were happy enough to return Clara's ring (althought he Doctor remain curiously vague on who "all those people" she saved are, so a particularly dark interpretation is still possible ...)
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
The production team seem to have thought of it as a planet - the first few scenes in the system are lit as if the 'sunlight' is coming from the viewers right, but the planet is in the foreground.
It ain't over 'till the ring hits the lava.
Ten to one Usurian(Doctor who ep The Sun Makers) Willhire to replace the gas giant sun.
I wonder if Merry really was supposed to be, for want of a better word, eaten. The monk in the pyramid seemed surprised when the mummy began to wake, and was doing his best to prevent it. On the other hand, the crowd didn't seem surprised, but they were largely unresponsive to anything- they were all still sitting there after the planet awoke, while probably of them had some means to flee. The Doctor said it was the Old God's time to wake, but he didn't base this on any specific information; it was probably conjecture. I'm thinking maybe Merry's sacrifice was a contingency in case something went wrong, and it just so happened that it did.