The End Of The World

Funny, dramatic, beautiful, engaging and wonderful ... Maybe not in that order, but The End of the World has it all.

(This review contains heavy spoilers for the entire episode)

Carrying on from exactly where we left off in Rose; the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) offers Rose (Billie Piper) the chance to choose the TARDIS's next destination: Backwards or forwards in time. Rose chooses to go one century forward in time.

A few seconds later, the TARDIS materializes and the Doctor claims that if she's to step out of the TARDIS, they will be one century in the future. Rose seems unimpressed and the Doctor takes her further and further in time until ...

... They arrive on a space station five billion years in the future. Representatives of the wealthiest species in the Universe have gathered on a shielded space station to watch the Earth being destroyed by the expanding sun.

As the Doctor tells Rose: "Welcome to the end of the world." We go to the cliffhanger screech and the opening titles roll.

All is not well in this future, however. As the representatives gather and exchange 'gifts of peace,' the last Human being alive, Cassandra (Zoe Wannamaker), immediately takes over the party with relics from Earth. An ostrich egg and a jukebox which she claims is an I-Pod. A wonderful scene follows; the Doctor starts dancing to Tainted Love.

One of the tree people, Jabe (Yasmin Bannerman), takes a photo of the Doctor (who gave her the gift of 'air from his lungs,' an intimate gift on her home-world). She discovers who he is and what species he's from and ... Well, I won't reveal that.

The gifts of peace from one of the representatives are in fact incubation chambers for mechanical spiders who soon set about sabotaging Platform One. The heat-shields which prevent the sun's light and head from scorching the station begin to fail and the steward is killed.

The Doctor and Jabe rush down to the engineering section to try and find out what the problem is and, after capturing one of the spiders, the Doctor reprograms it to return to whoever brought it on board. At first, it goes to the Adherence of the Repeated Memes, but they are revealed to be simply remote controlled droids. The real culprit is Cassandra, although she claims to be the last Human being alive, she is simply a stretched piece of flesh attached to a frame that requires constant moisturising. She was hoping to collect an enormous ranson to pay for more treatments to herself.

As she teleports away, the Doctor and Jabe go back down to the engine room to reset the computer control, which has been taking over by the spiders and, with the shields down, the windows of the station are beginning to crack. Rose is still trapped in her room after the Doctor upgraded her mobile phone with a device from the TARDIS which would allow her to talk to her mother - five billion years in the past.

In order to get past the giant fans which block the reset switch; Jabe has to hold down a lever which slows their rate of turn. Due to the temperature, however, she begins to burn away (she is a tree, you know). The Doctor, using some trickery to slow time down, is able to get past the final fan and re-active the shields. Just in time as the sun expands and destroys the Earth.

The Doctor and Rose stand at a window. Rose contemplates that after five billion years of history; no one was looking at the Earth when it was destroyed. The Doctor takes her hand and they go back to present-day Earth. The Doctor tells her that his home planet was destroyed in a war, all his people are dead, he's the last of the Time Lords and he's left to travel alone: "Because there's no one else."

The Doctor asks Rose if she wishes to continue travelling with him, before she can make her mind up, though, she smells chips and offers to buy the Doctor some.

OH! MY! GOD! Was that episode beautiful? We finally get an explanation for why the TARDIS is so run-down, with no Eye of Harmony to sustain here; the Doctor is having to use whatever equipment he comes across to keep her functioning. Billie Piper's acting is very moving at the end when she reflects that no one watched the Earth burn. The Doctor and Jabe's relationship borders on the flirtatious and when Jabe finds out who the Doctor is and that Gallifrey is no more ... It's a touching scene and possibly the only time we've seen the Doctor cry. However, a mere few seconds later he's all business again.

Also up for praise, Zoe Wannamaker. She puts in a bitchy, funny and wonderful performance as Cassandra O'Brien, the last Human. The last pure Human that is. Her conversations with Rose, regarding cosmetic surgery, are both humorous and biting at the same time.

Russell T. Davies's writing is, again, on top form. With Cassandra's line that: "Humanity has touched every star," it's very possible that all the beings in attendance were descended from Earth. As Jabe seems to confirm when she says she is a descendent of an Earth forest.

It's a pity she had to die, too, she'd have made an excellent and interesting addition to the TARDIS crew.

The special effects are absolutely amazing. When the Earth explodes ... Well, it's a million times better than the CGI used in Earthshock at any rate. The space station is also well realized, both internally and externally. No more tin-foil and cardboard sets.

The only down-side, to me, is that Rose never really got to do much. Except for mope around her quarters while the Doctor was meeting aliens, flirting and saving everyone's lives. 

Well, that's another criticism: As a respecter of all life, the Doctor should've helped Cassandra when she was dying. But, as he says, "Everything has its time, everything dies."

All in all, I have to give this episode a 9/10.