The End Of The World

Beginning at the beginning, it's surprisingly cool to see "Doctor Who" starting off with a modern-day-TV-style "previously on Doctor Who" clips montage (though they didn't use the words) and then a pre-credits teaser before launching into the title sequence. I like it!

It's also extremely cool to have so many amazing visuals to see in a "Doctor Who" episode. And it's hard to pick favorites too... there's all the exterior shots of the Platform, the swelling red sun, the Earth, the shuttles, the fantastic shot of the exploding Earth (I wonder which will be better... this shot or the one in US theaters in 3-1/2 weeks time... this one will be tough to beat), all the different sorts of alien life forms (especially Cassandra), the spider robots, etc. etc. etc. They pulled out all the visual stops on this and turned in shot after gorgeous shot, and gave the series as a whole the extra-strength steroidal shot it needed to put all the low-budget complaints from the critics aside in a big way.

All the different aliens were terrific both in their extremely creative designs and well-executed appearances. This would all be for nought, of course, if all they were was what they looked like, but selected members of them are given good screen time and good things to say, do, and be. Though all good, the best of this bunch were Jabe, Cassandra, and Raffalo the plumber (note: all female). I love the idea of Jabe's people being intelligent trees to whom a breath of carbon-dioxide-filled air from your lungs is an intimate gift... I love the satire dripping from every appearance of Cassandra and her moisturizing men... and I especially loved Raffalo the plumber who needs permission to speak and is grateful to Rose for giving it to her. My heart really sank when Rose left and we stayed with her shot because it was then obvious she was about to get killed. The fact that it did sink proves how quickly she became endearing, thanks to both the character writing and the wonderful performance by Beccy Armory. I say she was unrecognizeable enough to be given another part in the next season. Anyone else agree?

I loved most of the humor in this... a particular favorite was Cassandra's mistaking a jukebox for an iPod and her choices of music. Note how at first the songs seem to be nothing more than jokes, but then note how the lyrics are suspiciously appropriate for the scene in question (especially "Toxic"'s), and then note who it was selected the songs... Cassandra was giving herself away here, though no one in the station noticed apart from perhaps the Doctor... he seems to keep looking in Cassandra's direction as though he's already figured out it was her when he's using the spider-bots to find the culprit. And my favorite funny line: "What are you gonna do? Moisturize me?"

There were three scenes in particular that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the story, for the emotion they each conveyed. 

In chronological order, the first was the one where Rose and the Doctor have their argument about how he's just letting the TARDIS translate for her mind without asking her first and then she demands to know who he is and he very angrily won't tell her. You instantly wonder what he's being so defensive about, and when you look at Eccleston's face, he looks genuinely damaged here. Then he calms down, does some jiggery-pokery with Rose's cell phone, and lets her call her mum five billion years ago, which cheers her up no end and is pretty moving in itself. I got a little lump in my throat as Rose realized she was really talking to her mum... that smile Billie used here lit up the scene more than the swelling sun. 

The second scene is the one where the tremendously regal and beautiful Jabe reveals to the Doctor that she knows what he is and how she can't believe he exists and how very sorry she is. Again, it's the look on the Doctor's face... that look of real hurt and damage that tells you something big has happened to him, even more than Jabe's dialog did. (though it could also have been because someone spoiled the secret for me in advance) 

The third scene is the final one, where the Doctor takes Rose back to present-day London and a crowded street where they can smell chips, to show her both that her world is still there and that it won't last forever. It reminded me in a way of the scene from part one of "The Trial of a Time Lord" when the Doctor is trying to console Peri for similar reasons, only this scene had the tremendous advantage of being able to be shown and not told, thanks to the newer (and probably very blown) budget. This would've been a great scene if it had stopped here, but it became a classic one when he reveals to her that his planet's been destroyed in a war that they lost (undoubtedly the same one that turned the Nestenes into refugees), and that he's the last of the Time Lords. That damaged look crossed his face again here, only this time it was followed by a look of healing... as though this may have been the first time he's been able to actually say this to anyone, and just getting it out has helped him. His choice of ultimate destination for Rose's first trip is clearly the choice of his subconscious... like it needed to see Earth's sort-of-natural death. That, I think, is why he went there... not to impress Rose, but to sort out these events in his own mind, though I suspect he didn't realize this consciously until the end of the episode. My fan genes wonder how he can be certain that he's the last of the Time Lords, given that there were a number of renegades out there in the universe like the Monk, or Drax, or the Rani, who you'd think weren't on Gallifrey when whatever happened happened, or that there might still be some locked away in Shada, or other things like this, but for now I'll take him at his word. I'm also wondering where the TARDIS is getting its power from now, but there's loads of ways to answer that too, and again, I can be patient.

The "damaged" Doctor bit also goes some way to explaining his actions (inactions?) in the final scene back on Platform One with Cassandra, where he teleports her back and then doesn't lift a finger to prevent her drying out and dying. His morality has shifted it seems, and seems more stereotypical Texan-Republican than the Gallifreyan we used to know... seeing it destroyed must be the trigger for this, and I suspect we'll get to know why in more detail later on. I hope Rose helps him on this, as she just starts to in this story just by being his emotional sounding board at the end. I think she'll try, and I'm guessing that's a thread they'll be exploring at times during the season.

This episode is not perfect, however, and my chief complaints are with the basic plot, which relies too much on tried and true cliches of both "Doctor Who" and the genre in general. It's another by-the-numbers story like "Rose" was, again possibly deliberately as just getting her and the audience into such a scenario is a job in itself, but the numbers were just too familiar for me this time. The worst cliche of the bunch is the set-piece at the end with the giant rotating fan blades. When "Galaxy Quest" did the same thing with pistons, it was funny because it was pointing out how pointless these straight-out-of-a-video-game set pieces are, but here they actually tried to play this straight and it failed miserably... apart from perhaps the very last bit where the Doctor uses what seems to be his time-senses to get through the last fan. But really, this was a real let-down, and it really cheapened Jabe's death for me, since it was so tired and contrived.

On a lesser note, I'm also wondering how pulling the arm off of one of the Meme robots and then yanking something out of the arm caused all of them to fall over dead. Eh?

The cliches in the plot didn't ruin my enjoyment of the episode, however, since most everything else was so right. I think I'll go with another 8 out of 10 for this one.