The End Of The World

The Doctor: “Fantastic!”

Jabe the Tree: “I don’t understand. Just what is fantastic about that?”

Just about everything I’d say. 

THE END OF THE WORLD is just what the series needed after the manic introduction to the new Doctor Who in ROSE. 

I will confess, on first viewing, I was hugely disappointed by the opening episode. For me the anticipation of the first instalment in a new series after sixteen years absence had built up to gigantic proportions. As the 45 minutes of ROSE came to an end, I was left sitting on the sofa in bewilderment. Is that it? What was it all about? Did it make sense? What was with the soundtrack? Will it get better? 

However, I left it a few days and watched it again. And again. And each time it got better. So much so, by the time of THE END OF THE WORLD, I was again looking forward to the rest of the series, but with more realistic expectations. I am not saying the second episode only works for those with low expectations though, because this is a truly great episode which not only screams Doctor Who is back, but this is well and truly Doctor Who for 2005. 

With a brief re-cap of how Rose came to be with the Doctor, we find ourselves following the story immediately after her slow-motion run into the TARDIS, reminiscent of the days of the Hartnell and Troughton series, when one story ran almost immediately into another, and the characters didn’t even have time to catch their breath before they began their next adventure. With Rose’s excitement piqued by the Doctor mischievously enticing her to an exciting period in the future, they arrive on Platform One - a mile-long observation deck in orbit around the Earth – just in time to witness the devastating expansion of the Sun, half an hour or so before the world explodes.

Also assembled on Platform One to watch the destruction of the Earth are “the great and the good”, or as the Doctor points out “the rich”; an assortment of aliens such as the Moxx of Balhoon and the Face of Boe, and multiforms that originated on the planet, such as the Trees from the Forest of Cheam and the last ‘pure’ human, Cassandra. However, one of the guests has hatched a murderous plot, one which sees the station’s crew bumped off, and threatens the whole space station. 

One of the noticeable aspects of this second episode is the pace. Gone is the quick-MTV style editing of the previous instalment, to be replaced with a slower, slightly more gradual story. The main benefit of this is that it allows time to build up the tension which was rather lacking in ROSE, while giving the viewer a chance to keep track of the plot and follow all the rather wonderful jokes which Russell T Davies has littered the script with.

And what a script! Its an amusing tale told against a fantastic back-drop, with wonderfully odd characters and touches of social satire, from the ultimate personification of human greed and vanity in Cassandra, whose hundreds of surgical enhancements have left her nothing more than a stretched flap of skin with eyes and a mouth who needs frequent moisturising, to the ecological considerations of man’s total inconsideration of his environment. As Rose herself comments after the Earth has exploded in a massive ball of flame, “we were all too busy saving ourselves to notice it go.” There are also hints of what is to come, as the Doctor reluctantly tells Rose of a devastating event that happened in the years since he has been off screen, and which will have major implications for our hero.

This episode continues to show why the casting of the two leads was spot-on. The new Doctor develops quickly, with Eccleston settling down into the role very comfortably. I wouldn’t be surprised if future polls show the ninth Doctor to be one of the most popular incarnations. His manic grins capture a sense of Tom Baker’s alien barminess while McGann’s love of life is demonstrated by the glee with which he welcomes the arrival of the assembled multiforms and what is more, he clearly enjoys flirting with Jabe the Tree. Thankfully the goofiness is toned-down and we see flashes of Hartnell’s touchiness, especially when Rose quizzes him about his origins. 

Significantly though, this Doctor displays some human emotions rarely seen in any of his other incarnations. We see him shed a tear - a first, in the shows 41 year history (?) - when Jabe talks of how remarkable it is that he even exists, and then later he displays a surprisingly vengeful side to his character, when he allows his actions, regardless of Rose’ plea, to end the villain’s life. Eccleston’s powerful performance in these scenes and then later in the last scene, surpasses anything from the classic series, with only Baker’s ‘Do I have the right?’ speech from GENESIS OF THE DALEKS coming anywhere close. With the announcement that Eccleston will not be returning for a second series coming days before transmission, it is very disappointing that the show is to lose one of the best talents it has ever had.

Billie Piper demonstrates why she is perfectly cast as Rose. After the break-neck speed of the first episode, she captures Rose’s sense of suddenly being overwhelmed by her situation and the realisation of what she has done in so quickly abandoning her old life and rushing to join this stranger about which she knows nothing. Not only is this questioning of her actions refreshing – how many of the Doctor’s previous companions displayed this very human of reactions – but also allows the audience to learn more about the Doctor, without a jarringly obvious info-dump. 

Of the other characters, it is Cassandra who is the most engaging. The last of the ‘pure’ humans, Lady Cassandra O’Brien.delta.17 is a wonderfully acidic and self-centred individual, a testament to some of the worst excesses of human nature, displaying vanity, greed and a disregard for life that may stand between her and her goal. While Rose’s references to her as a bitchy trampoline and Michael Jackson illustrate RTD’s wit, her demise is truly fitting of a Who ‘monster’ with a gloriously gory pop. That Cassandra leaves a lasting-impression which would usually be undeserved from the four or so minutes of the screen time that she has, is testament to both Zoe Wannamaker and RTD for such a wonderful creation, although the real honours must go to The Mill. When I first heard about Doctor Who’s first fully CGI human character, I had reservations. I thought the potential for her to descend into an unrealistic cartoon so badly rendered that it would float on screen, was enormous, but The Mill have pulled it off brilliantly. 

In fact, The Mill have done a great job with all the visual effects for this episode, surpassing those seen in ROSE, although I believe the story’s futuristic setting helps. It is harder to escape criticism of special effects when they are used in the context of a contemporary setting, as opposed to the more fantasy-based settings. That is not to demean their achievement in anyway though, as the high level of CGI is maintained throughout the episode, only occasionally faltering, such as when the Doctor places an spider saboteur robot on the floor, and the visible jump to CG animation. 

Visually, what makes this new series stand out from the old is the very apparent attention to detail and the investment of money into more expensive sets. We can actually believe that the Doctor’s rickety old TARDIS is just that. The frantic pump-action operation of the console and the alarming shuddering and juddering of each flight give the impression that this time machine is every bit as old as the Doctor’s 900+ years. And its not just the detail on the series key elements. The ‘retro’ design of Platform One, combining metal and wood in some MDF inspired vision of the future banishes any memory of the tin foil covered computer consoles of old, and later the design takes central stage in a very dramatic finale when the Doctor has to run the gauntlet through the air conditioning. 

Clearly, as much thought has also gone into the smallest aspect, from the blood visibly pumping through Cassandra’s veins, to the script of the future English language and the twisting of notions and facts over generations and millennia, as exemplified in the legendary Ostrich egg and what Cassandra believes is called an iPod. It is this iPod which leads to a couple of odd moments when pop music becomes part of the soundtrack. I’ve often wondered how Doctor Who would work with the use of contemporary pop music in it. I will admit I wouldn’t have thought of putting a shot of a space station drifting towards the destruction of the Earth to the strains of Brittany Spears’ TOXIC, but that’s what the production team have done and in a strange way it works.

And speaking of the soundtrack, Murray Gold’s work on this episode is a great improvement on the first’s pumping electro-beats, a somewhat calmer tone which is far less intrusive than that of its predecessor. 

It is also good to have a pre-credits sequence in place, acting as the closest thing we’ll get to the cliffhangers of old in this new mostly single episode format. I gather they are here to stay, and jolly good too!

Finally, what are the comedic highpoints of the episode? Well, there are so many. The wonderfully cantankerous steward’s ‘shop floor’ announcement about the owner of the blue box. Rose introducing herself to a twig. The Doctor’s “What you gonna do? Moisturise me?” retort to the threat posed by the villain’s henchmen. Or how about Cassandra’s throw away line about her youth? There is so much here to chose from, even some slightly more adult orientated jokes, which I will admit slightly shocked me. 

But then this isn’t the Doctor Who of 1963 to 1989. This is something else. And absolutely fantastic it is too!