The End Of The World

After the entertaining but flawed ‘Rose’, Doctor Who continues with a special-effects laden trip to the far future, full of monsters, thus throwing the Doctor’s new companion right in at the deep end of culture shock. And it’s really rather good.

‘The End of World’ has more plot than ‘Rose’, although it is still rather slight, something I’m starting to realize is going to be a limitation of the single fifty minute episode format. Nevertheless, there is intrigue aplenty as sabotage and murder break out on Platform One, and there are a couple of nice twists. The Appearance of the Repeated Meme are obviously the culprit behind the robotic spiders, but I wasn’t expecting them to be revealed as androids, despite the clue in their name, which the Doctor picks up on. I also wasn’t expecting the deeply unpleasant Cassandra to be the real villain, and the teleport feed hidden in the ostrich egg was also rather a nicely unexpected moment since I’d completely forgotten about it by that point, as writer Russell T. Davies had obviously intended. There is a slightly tongue-in-cheek feel to parts of the episode, which also works very well, an example being the presence within the Platform of a gantry hung beneath three massive fans; from the moment we see it, it is obvious that someone will have to run across it, and it seems likely that this someone will be the Doctor. There is an explanation for why the sun would so slowly expand, with the technobabble explanation being that gravity satellites are holding it back, but even better is the Doctor explaining that the continents look just like they did in Rose’s time because the Natural Trust owns Earth and restored its old layout. This is magnificently silly, especially since the production team obviously has the ability to make the CGI Earth look different if they want. This being written by Davies, there are also elements of adult human scattered throughout the script, usually in the form of innuendo that might go over the heads of the younger audience members. There is Lady Cassandra’s fleeting comment, “when I was a little boy”, and Liana’s gentle flirting with the Doctor, most notably the moment when he tells her “Nice liana” and she blushing replies, “Thank you. I’m not supposed to show them in public.” Rather less subtly, she also casually and non-judgmentally asks if Rose is the Doctor’s wife, girlfriend, concubine, or prostitute, prompting Rose to indignantly respond, “Whatever I am, it must be invisible. Do you mind?” One criticism however, is that the same joke was used in ‘The Chase’ without involving music that makes me want to jam pins into my ear. 

‘The End of the World’ is also notable for showcasing a plethora of new monsters, which works to mixed effect. The Face of Boe and the Moxx of Balhoon both look superb, and the Lady Cassandra looks like a comic homage to Hellraiser and is impressively grotesque. The other guests are perhaps less well advised. The guests from the Forest of Cheem are not exactly Ents; of the Trees, Jabe’s companions look quite good, but Jabe herself is given a more human appearance, with most of Yasmin Bannerman’s face uncovered. This poses various questions, which irritate me, the main ones being, why would a tree have tits and teeth? The other guests look like cast-offs from the Cantina scene in Star Wars, or worse, most aliens from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Then there is the Steward, who looks like Simon Day painted blue, and his various staff members, who like dwarfs and children painted blue. I should also mention the spiders, which would probably have been made of rubber and plastic in the old series, but here are achieved by CGI; they aren’t bad, but occasionally do look like CGI images, whereas the genuinely impressive Cassandra does not. Still, this is Doctor Who after all, so I’m not complaining, but it is interesting to see what effect the budget has had on the monsters. Nevertheless, Euros Lyn does a fine job of directing, and the incidental music this episode is far more effective than in ‘Rose’ except when Munchkin music plays when we first see the little blue men. One oddity however is that we don’t actually see the Steward or Jabe incinerated, which might be something to do with the time at which the story is transmitted, but contrasts with Cassandra rather gorily exploding in a splatter of blood. 

What is obvious about ‘The End of the World’ even more so than in ‘Rose’ is that Davies is more interested in characterisation than plot. Whilst I hope the two don’t become mutually exclusive as the series progresses, it does work very well here, and unlike in ‘Rose’ none of the actors put in a bad performance. Christopher Eccleston is less manic in this episode overall, although the opening scene, in which he is visibly showing off as he pumps away at his lever in the TARDIS faster and faster and taunts Rose in to travelling further and further into the future is extremely funny. But there are darker, more emotional moments here, which give Eccleston a chance to show off his acting skills more in this episode. The Doctor’s quiet speech about humans surviving far into the future seems to be influenced by the Fourth Doctor’s similar speech in ‘The Ark in Space’, but it doesn’t work any less well because of this. Other notable moments include his obvious delight at meeting the other guests, as he improvises a gift by offering air from his lungs. He gets some very good scenes with Rose, who is starting to worry about what she’s got herself into, and it’s interesting that the Doctor gets defensive when she asks about his origins and goes into a very childish sulk. His subsequent scene with the awestruck Jabe is excellent, as she tells him, “I know where you’re from. I just want to say how sorry I am.” Impressively, Eccleston manages to bring a tear to his eye at this moment, adding to the pathos of the scene. We finally learn, “My planet’s gone… there was a war that we lost” and he then adds, “I’m the last of the Time Lords. They’re all gone”, which builds on the hints about a terrible war in ‘Rose’ and suggests that this is definitely going somewhere. The Doctor is also visibly furious at Jabe’s death as well as all the others, and the showdown with Cassandra, as he impassively watches her dry and out and rip apart, is quite disturbing. The fact that Rose whispers, “Help her” and he coldly replies, “Everything has its time and everything has its place” makes the moment all the more striking. The Doctor isn’t all gloom here however; Eccleston grins happily whilst delivering the line, “What you’re saying is, if we do get into trouble, there’s no one to help us out… fantastic!” His “Use the force, Luke” moment with the third fan is also a nice touch. 

Rose and Billie Piper also continue to impress. For the first time since Ian and Barbara, we get a companion who reacts to the sheer enormity of what is happening to her in a realistic way. Piper conveys Rose’s wonder, excitement, confusion and fear when she steps out of the TARDIS simultaneously, largely through facial acting, and she gets dialogue such as “The aliens… they’re just so… alien”, which allows Piper to really emphasize the depth of culture shock that Rose is being subjected to. She looks disgusted when she learns that Rifallo needs her permission in order to speak, but is relieved to learn that plumbers are still necessary five billion years in the future. Her best moment in my opinion comes when she’s telling Rifallo where she came from and starts to realize how bad her tale sounds, looking increasingly worried as she explains, “I just sort of hitched a lift with this man. I didn’t really think about it. I don’t even know who he is, he’s a complete stranger.” She also finds out how the TARDIS translates for her, and reacts in a way that, like the Doctor, I wouldn’t have thought of, angry that it has entered her mind without her permission. Crucially, Piper also proves good at conveying panic and terror, which she gets to do when Rose is trapped in a room with a descending sun filter and she hammers frantically on the door whilst screaming at the of her voice. This prompts the exasperated Doctor to exclaim, “Oh well, it would be you” when he realises who he’s rescuing. The only thing I’m not sure about is the mobile phone scene; I liked ‘Rose’ because it took the mundane and introduced the fantastical into it. Somehow, giving Rose the opportunity to phone home whenever she wants does the reverse for this episode, especially as the scenes on board Platform One are suddenly punctuated by a shot of Rose’s mum doing laundry. 

Finally, there are the supporting characters. Simon Day’s Steward comes across as a put-upon fellow, who is troubled by the day-to-day minutiae of bureaucracy, but Davies gives him a brief scintilla of characterisation that manages, very impressively, to give some impact to his death. It’s the moment when the Appearance of the Repeating Meme gives him a gift, and he looks genuinely honoured to be considered as anything other than a mere Steward by one of the guests. Ironically of course, there is an ulterior motive for this, but it is still a nice moment. Day manages to make his character likeable throughout, and he also screams convincingly when he’s roasted to death in his office. The Moxx of Balhoon, a fussy little fellow who gives the Doctor and Rose “the gift of bodily salivas” is similarly effective despite being incidental to the story; his general air of amiable excitement and his obvious terror when he thinks everyone is going to die makes him strangely sweet, so that the shot at the end of blue dwarves standing unhappily around his charred commode is rather touching. Jabe gets rather more to do, and she’s a great character, who swiftly forms a bond with the Doctor and almost acts a surrogate companion. Yasmin Bannerman gets some great dialogue, especially when she offers a cutting of her Grandfather as a gift, and makes the character utterly likeable. Her sacrifice is so obviously selfless that it plays a large part in the Doctor angrily letting Cassandra explode. Speaking of whom, Zoe Wanamaker is perfectly cast as the last human, a character who manages to by thoroughly loathsome largely by being a distillation of self-important divas of the late twentieth century. The concept of her appearance is mad, but feels perfectly at home in Doctor Who, and although she’s rather unoriginally motivated by greed, she’s effective enough as a villain. Davies deserves to be punished for giving her the atrocious line, “Talk to the Face” though, and I do find myself wondering why the Doctor’s trick with the teleport feed only brought Cassandra back, and not her armed guards.

Overall, ‘The End of World’ delivers on the promise offered by ‘Rose’, and it has a great last scene, as the Doctor asks Rose if she’s sure she wants to continue travelling with him. Trying to articulate what she wants, she’s distracted by the smell of chips and the pair wander happily off in search of food. I’m still not sure about the pre-credits trailer by the way, although it did result in me getting very excited about ‘The Unquiet Dead’, which will be like a cross between ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ and The League of Gentlemen. I hope.