The End Of The World

There is genius at work here. A trip of a lifetime was promised. So far it is proving to be just that. People search for deep meaning in Doctor Who. Ardent fans will argue its rich moralistic exposure of society. Occasionally that was there - but rarely and not as deviously and cleverly as it is now unfolding.

The End of the World in its perfection is merely an outer layer constructed to be stripped away only to tease us that an exceptional story arc is developing. It is that which is the trip. Who is taking us on that trip? The Doctor, ostensibly. Certainly Eccleston in the space of less than an hour of screen time has proven himself to be the Doctor and has now set the standard that must be matched and bettered by those who may follow. Confirmation of Chris' departure has only elevated the sense that something special is happening here. Something only this special show could achieve. The isolation, vulnerability, loneliness and emotional instability and sometime coldness of his portrayal of the character are only enhanced and conveyed by our knowledge that we are getting to know someone at the same time as acclimatising ourselves to his departure. For a show that has the anachronistic twists of time travel at its core, isn't this just so perfectly apt?

Yet whilst it is Eccleston who pilots the Tardis, it is Russell T Davies who charts its course. I never expected that course to be so emotionally charged. It is Russell who is steering that trip. He's seeding clues and building new layers. First - the war. Then the war "We lost." Then the nameless enemy who won that war. My guess is that they are not mentioned at this time because they too are being re-invented. I guess that the dangerous species that is so unspeakably evil and mighty enough to defeat the Lords of time will be revealed as merciless soldiers bred to follow orders whose only function is to kill. But we are three episodes away from their reinvention as self-sufficient darkness that have thrived, strengthened and no longer need to seek out their father to solve their inner woes. That's just my second guessing. But only writing that is this engaging incites the brain to guess ahead. When was the last time science fiction did that for you?

Has anyone noticed - even this early - the prevalent undercurrent theme of the natural course? The Doctor would not leap in to save something - our earth - that has spent its purpose and had its time. Just as he would not "moisturise" Cassandra who had outstayed her time. Yet he intervened against the Nestene Consciousness to save the apes who had only just started to walk. Yet, Gallifrey, he reflects; "Went before its time." This Doctor is up to something. He has a plan. Rose is being tested by association. Is she the assistant who might help him put right something that should not have happened? Can this Doctor step into the time vortex, perhaps walk out of the Tardis Doors in flight, leaving Rose in charge of the Tardis so that he can interfere and change his own timeline to prevent defeat in that war and save a planet that "went before its time?" 

I feel that Russell is doing something possibly thought impossible. He is creating a new show whilst cleverly, deviously and subtly honouring its rich past and continuity without allowing it to drown in the minutiae of such detail that marked the latter Nathan-Turner years. Russell is breathing life and regenerating the whole idea of Doctor Who and he has made us excited and proud and emotionally involved in a way few of us have felt for any work of fiction since we first watched Doctor Who as children. Tears rolled from my eyes during the End of the World taking me back to the last scenes of Planet of the Spiders and Logopolis. But for which world was I more emotionally upset at its passing - the Earth or Gallifrey? And which world now - at 37 - do I want to Doctor to step in and save?

There is magic at play here. Russell is frantically pumping that bicycle pump. He is making me feel 7 years old again. He has rolled away 30 years of emotional hardness. Today I read on the BBC news website that drinking milk might cause Parkinson's disease for middle-aged men ... “Beef or eggs or global warming?” Say no more. I remember when the future was not all doom and gloom. This show, in two episodes, has reminded me that it is still possible to view the world with excited eyes that show the horizon as not the end of what your vision can perceive but only the first point in the distance from which you can see even more ...

I may be reading into it something far too deep. But who cares ... I am excited. In a negative world isn't it nice to have 45 minutes of escape and hope?