The End Of The World

Where do you start? For me, this worked - perhaps as all 'Doctor Who' should - on several levels:

Can I start with the obvious? The visuals were incredibly impressive - not at all creaky - and I watched "The Mind Robber" last week! ( Mind you, I don't share the view that they didn't all work in episode one of the new series either ). The exteriors of the space station were easily up there with the best.

I was completely enthralled by the slow tracking shots of the shuttles ( were they shuttles? ) arriving in the glare of the sun. And what a spectacular end to our (?) planet! Those scuttlings spiders!! Cassandra!!! The Face of Boe - so brilliant because he (?) was so briefly used. The Moxx of Balhoon didn't get much to do before being turned into goo! One minor criticism - and it is - in the words of an old teacher "carping", what happened to the reflection of the metal spider's legs in the glass table top? I may be mistaken here, but I have only watched this once.

Which neatly brings me on to the editing: Fast paced ( and I thought "Rose" was a lightning speed introduction ) and clearly demonstrating a real 'jois de vivre', a real zest for the programme. The denouement wasn't as rushed as Rose - though the despatch of the 'villain' was as equally easy and as equally quick. I loved Cassandra drying out and splattering the room but couldn't help but wondering what happened to the 'brain' in the jar underneath. Presumably "she" died of a loss of face!

Which, even more neatly, brings me to the script: The fact that Cassandra started life as a "he" was as inspired as Rose's "I'm talking to a stick!" line. Brilliant, quite brilliant! 

Yet again Russell T. Davies demonstrates his skill at combining the ordinary with the extraordinary - the comedic with the deadly earnest: As with last week's episode, where Rose is suddenly and unnervingly surrounded by eerily creaking shop dummies which stalk her through Henrick's basement, or where Chris Eccleston's 'Eric Morecambe' routine with the Auton's hand suddenly becomes deadly serious as it grabs Rose/Billies's face ( am I alone in momentarily confusing fiction with reality here? To me this was curiously effective, the thought of suffocation raising gut fears - and I'm old enough to remember those plastic daffodils! I haven't seen them since 1971, either. But I digress ).

This week we are treated to Rose's encounter with a blue plumber wherein we see a mix of the ordinary; social comment about prejudice - the plumber asking permission to speak - reminiscent of the signs in Bed and Breakfast windows of my youth reading " No Coloureds " (see also "Remembrance of the Daleks").

Throwaway lines about Cassandra to the effect "I'm going to have a word with Michael Jackson over there" serve to ground the programme further in the here and now. In the face of all the wonders we are treated to, who could not be moved by Rose's sudden, but understated, realisation that she has left her world behind to travel with a complete stranger? To be utterly reliant on him? Someone with potentially no way back. And how strange to talk to your mother on your mobile about the mundane when she's been dead for five and a half billion years? Very real concerns in a fantastic environment. Brilliant! Quite Brilliant!

As I say, this worked on several levels; the spectacular and the very ordinary - the alien and the very human. 

I disagree with comments about the incidental music in last week's episode, I didn't find it intrusive. Look and listen to the 'online' section of the chase sequence from "Rose" over Westminster Bridge and down onto the Embankment - this captures the fast pace brilliantly ( and is emminently hummable! ). This week's served to do the same with equal finesse. The part where the Doctor was trying to close the sun screens was suitably tense.

As to the players; Goodness they excelled: From Chris Eccleston's tear at the "premature" destruction of his home planet in the ( now twice mentioned ) war, to Jasmine Bannerman's incredibly sexy performance as a tree! Characterisation at a genuine level is beginning to emerge - yes, I think that her destruction was just a little ( in fact quite a lot ) too sentimental to be true, but, hey, you can't have everything ( are Timelords fireproof? Move over Emperor Ming! ). 

Chris and Billie are brilliant, the visuals are brilliant, the script is brilliant - the return to Earth to buy fish and chips was inspired - I enjoyed the music and above all I enjoyed the ride. News of a second series and a Christmas special has made the ordinary life of an ordinary bloke a little bit more special. Sad perhaps, but appreciatively true.