Who Review: The End of the World

For her first “official” TARDIS journey, the Doctor takes Rose far into Earth’s future. They arrive at a space station that’s being used as a viewing platform where guests can watch Earth’s sun expand, and planet Earth explode. Rose is shocked, but the Doctor sets her mind at ease: Earth’s inhabitants all evacuated the endangered planet a long time ago. This is Rose’s first encounter with a large and varied assortment of alien life forms, which causes her simultaneous fascination and discomfort. Leaving the Doctor with Jabe, a sentient tree-lady from the Forest of Cheem, Rose talks with the Lady Cassandra, the last living human, who has had so much surgery she is nothing more than stretched skin with a mouth and eyes. Their conversation degenerates into harsh words, and Rose leaves her to explore on her own. But something’s not right on the space station. Something is messing with the computer system, deactivating the shields that protect the occupants from the harsh rays of the broiling sun. Unless someone can trace the fault, and restore the system, everyone on board, including the Doctor and Rose, will suffer the same fate as the planet they’re watching…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

The production team pulled out all the stops with this episode. With about 200 special effects shots, it might still hold the record as the Doctor Who episode with the biggest budget. Not only are there all the CGI effects (the space station, the sun, Earth, the satellites around the Earth, the robot spiders, the air conditioning fans, and Cassandra to name some of the more obvious ones), but there are a load of prosthetics for all the aliens on the ship. I think they got their money’s worth. The effects all work very well, making an episode that, at least visually, stands up against the best of Hollywood.

The story takes Rose five billion years into her planet’s future, where she gets to see the day Earth dies from the comfort and safety of an observation deck. The Doctor uses his psychic paper for the first time to gain access for himself and his “plus one.” On one level, we can understand Rose’s reaction to the very different looking aliens. But on deeper consideration, her response has a touch of racism to it. None of the other aliens comment on Rose’s skin color, the fact she has hair, or anything else that makes her different from everyone else. And yet Rose immediately points out the blueness of the Steward, and tells the Doctor how everyone is so alien, without a thought of how she might look to them. She accepts Jabe’s gift of a cutting from her grandfather, but when she talks to it, she laments that she’s “talking to a twig.” And when the Doctor and Jabe depart together, she calls after them, “You two go and… pollinate…” I wonder if this is deliberate, perhaps to be expected from someone who has probably not traveled much before. The interesting contrast is her reaction at the end, when she returns to the observation deck and sees the wounded and grieving, and perhaps feeling a little more as if they’re not that alien after all. They suffer and weep just like everyone else.

As for the Doctor, we get to see a decidedly darker side to his character than we’ve seen before. He has very little patience for Cassandra, and when she is unmasked as the one who deliberately created the system failure, the Doctor seems to relish making her pay. Summoning her back without her “moisturizing” aides, he watches as her skin begins to creak, ignoring her cries of “moisturize me!” and Rose’s quiet pleading for him to help her. Cassandra explodes, and the Doctor lets it happen. “Everything has its time,” he says. When he and Rose arrive back on Earth, the Doctor tells her that he’s the last of his people–a fact alluded to by Jade. His planet was destroyed in a war. Perhaps this explains the darkness, and the lack of mercy for Cassandra.

Also, the Doctor seems to slow down time to get past the A/C fans to reset the system, a trick we haven’t ever seen him do before, or since (though perhaps there’s the suggestion of that ability at the end of “The War Games,” where the Time Lords slow time to try to stop the Doctor escaping). I should also note that this story is where the Face of Boe makes his first appearance. He will return to the show later.

While it has its light moments, “The End of the World” is more serious, with many losing their lives at the hands of a cold killer. It’s not a very complex plot, but it serves to give more depth to the Doctor and Rose. In their first argument, Rose complains about the TARDIS getting inside her head enabling her to understand and communicate with the various foreign life forms around her, something you’d think she would appreciate. She is angry with the Doctor, refusing to tell her anything about himself. And perhaps a little surprised at herself that she would so easily trust an alien she doesn’t know.

Another good story, still somewhat introductory, but with a little more meat to it. Worth watching.