The End Of The World

It truly is a wonderful experience to get to Saturday, and be able to enjoy a brand new episode of Doctor Who. Absence, for many of us, has made the heart grow fonder. And even though I love many stories in the Comics, the Audios and the Books – TV tops them all in the sheer anticipation stakes.

We had a story set in the present to launch. Now it was time to go to the Future (the next goes to the Past – so the Triangle is complete). The Future is my least favourite place to go of the 3, to be honest. I’ve always favoured the pseudo Historical story type over all else – but after Russell T Davies boundless enthusiasm I was hopeful that for once Future would be better. I was expecting something special, with really weird aliens.

I don’t think we got something really special, but the weird aliens were out in force. After basking in my peers backslaps for a week, I knew I wouldn’t be as comfortable on the Monday morning in the office. This was the kind of Who that alienate many, because it really is so far away from their world. Personally I think far away from the normal world is a good thing – but even I cringed a little at various slices of the bizarre presented here.

The monsters of Doctor Who are an acquired taste. Personally I’m not monster obsessed. Doctor Who is brilliant with or without them. Certainly the monsters at the End of the World divided my house, with their alien-ness. Cassandra was the best – a brilliant comment on the excesses and vanity of this world we live in. The Droids, with their Spider robots, were superb – a golden star for the Special Effects Team. The Trees were marvellous too, especially Jabe – all credit to the Costume and Make Up there. The Moxx was a disappointment though. After adorning the DWM cover, I expected something more from a character our beloved leader has harped on about since he began devising this enterprise. My opinion of the background aliens was that I was glad they stayed in the background – can’t think of one I wanted more at the forefront.

So that’s the aliens – and to be honest, now I have written about them I see I reacted more positively than negatively. Maybe subconsciously I loved it all (probably that DW fan gene that makes me love all Doctor Who!). 

The script positively jumped with energy. There were some lovely comments by all the major players that had me nodding my head in approval, and throwing my head back in laughter. This was the kind of script that Douglas Adams would have been proud of – a kind of hybrid of serious and comedy futuristic Sci-Fi. What strikes me is how impressively Russell T has written the Doctor and Rose – especially Rose. Interviews with Russell T indicate he would rather have been the companion than the Doctor – and his grasp of how brilliant the Doctors companion can be, emphasizes this. Billie Piper is brilliant in this episode – and for a great deal of it she is very much on her own, the Doctor going off doing his own thing, with Jabe more a companion for large chunks of the story.

The 9th Doctor is now like one of your favourite relatives that you really get on with, but will only be around for a few weeks. Soon they will be heading off out of your life again, only to pop back every now and again. We haven’t had enough of Doctor Number 9 for me to be happy or sad about his leaving – but I know so far he’s been brilliant. I also know, like all the other Doctors he will always be around, even though Christopher Eccleston is departing. I’m actually more excited about a 2nd Series than the lead departing. DW has always been so much bigger and broader than one single personality – and it is no different now.

The Special FX was the major star of The End of the World. I am currently doing a Time Team, and have nearly finished Pat Troughtons Doctor – it’s an incredible contrast between The Seeds of Death (which I watched the afternoon before) and new DW. And I l love that contrast – I really do. As the series was then the FX are state of the art – but after 240 Black and White episodes, it all looks so marvellously real. I can’t think of one ropey effect in this show, and we have been reliably informed there’s hundreds of FX set-ups within. Brilliant FX, and I really felt there on Platform One watching the end of the world.

This Russell T script was also notable for its Last Time Lord references. I find is hugely interesting to see where this goes. After following the 8th Doctor arc in the BBC Books for the last few years, where Gallifrey was destroyed – I can’t help but think of that. But would the TV programme pick up a Book notion? Or, as I suspect, has Russell T taken Justin Richards marvellous idea to destroy the Time Lords, and leave the Doctor wonderfully alone? It will be fascinating to see.

I thought the conclusion with the Doctor and Rose in present day (Chips and all that) was glorious. It kind of shows my preferences in storytelling though that the few minutes I enjoyed the best was not at all representative of the story as a whole!

The End of the World was above everything else supremely entertaining. It might not be my kind of Doctor Who, but it still has a place in the mass of ideas that DW can present. There were some marvellous scenes (Doctor conquering the Ventilation fans, Cassandra exploding, the World finishing, the Doctors emotion at being the last Time Lord). There’s a mass of wonder here – mostly brilliantly diverse and entertaining. I am loving this new series – even more than I expected. 7/10