The End Of The World

Well where do you start, episode 1 (Rose) was good but this was even better. You may have seen various TV programmes and newspapers rubbishing the effects used in "Rose", the rubber arm and the wheelie bin coming in for particular stick. Well get a load of this - stunning external space shots, amazing spider bots and aliens that probably didn't leave green paint everywhere a la Myrka.

The effects were only part of the greater whole though, light humour and some touching scenes made for a really well crafted story and I have to say I am coming around to the format of 45 minute self contained episodes.

The show started well carrying on where last week left off, this was always strange in the show before the Doctor would go from one danger to another without really knowing what had happened in the intervening period.

The Tardis controls took me a little by suprise I have to say - A bicycle pump!? - oh well they reckon it is supposed to be composed of lots of different bit from different periods, basically anything the Doctor could get his hands on. Strange as it may be it does add a touch of H G Wells time machine to the show as well as a bit more like Peter Cushing's Tardis.

Anyway back to the story, So the Doctor and Rose after a couple of stops arrive on platform 1 5 billion years into our future on the day the sun expands and fries the Earth. The Doctor has some Jedi mind tricks which he uses on the platform steward "You will take me to Jabba" and then we're into the main viewing room where we are introduced to an wide array of new creatures. 

Something I am still trying to get used to are Christopher Eccleston's weird faces that he seems to pull; when Cassandra is wheeled in, last week when he and Rose were walking through the housing estate and Rose asks him who he is:

Rose: Doctor what?

Doctor: Just the Doctor

Rose: The Doctor

Doctor: Hello (funny face)

I suppose it's part of his new character, maybe he's gone a little bit manic after the destruction of the Timelords. More on this later.

The Mox of Ballhoon spitting in Rose's eye and the Doctor breathing on people nearly had me on the floor, it's cheaper than a bunch of flowers and a card! There'll be kids now at school breathing and spitting on one another and hopefully in a couple of weeks children will be screaming EXTERMINATE in the playground - it's all good.

When it was announced that Dr Who was coming back I hoped that we would get some more character development and if you like some more emotion from the Doctor and we got it in bucketfuls here. Jabe scans the Doctor and discovers that he is a Timelord, knowing of the destruction of Gallifrey she confronts him in the maintenance shaft and they have a wonderful moment where she comforts him infact I almost (stress that ALMOST) had a tear. Then you get Jabe laying down her life so that the Doctor can save the platform again knowing the Doctors hate for the waste of life I ALMOST had another tear. Then to top it off we have Rose confronting the Doctor about who he is and what he is doing, he tells her he is the last remaining member of his raceand this although you don't know them makes you think back to the good old days of the stories set on Gallifrey and you know that he can never go back. Never again will we have warrior robots in the Death Zone or tea in the Panopticon needless to say it twangs the owld hearts strings - twang twang twang. 

The Doctor then suddenly turns into a Nokia engineer and rigs up time crossing mobile for Rose to give her mum a ring, probably at a time before the events of "ROSE". He then jokes about the bill which had me nearly on the floor.

Anyway to sum up, great effects, great action sequences, great script and great direction and writing.

If the series keeps getting better at the rate which it improved from last weeks to this weeks then roll on next week because it's gonna be a cracker!

Oh finally - Disappointed that Eccleston and the BBC announced that they were parting company so early in the shows broadcast but Eccleston should return for a regeneration episode.