The End Of The World

Where does one start when talking about this visual treat? Ah, well the visuals perhaps? This episode is a symphony of sight as well as sound. Let’s be honest: this is Doctor Who getting back at the American’s for always saying Star Trek was better because it had better effects… and the Doctor did it with style! About time too! I had long hoped that the day would come when we could tell all the Trekkies that now Doctor Who is better in story AND in SFX! HA… beam this up! And the music is presented, once again, on a high note. Some stunning moments of sound: the Doctor talking about his people, the Doctor walking through the final fan, Rose crying over the destroyed Earth that no one got to see go… amazing!! 

Ok so the most notable plot point is that the Doctor takes Rose to the end of her world; in this way perhaps building a relationship with her based on the none-too-healthy foundation that they’ve both lost their worlds. Yet for some reason, it’s ok for the Rose to go back to hers but the Doctor can never go back to his world… (a sad, and strange, fact undoubtedly based on the transduction barrier and the Time Lords hyper advanced technology). This bond is not solidified until the episodes end when Rose tells the Doctor (in relation to the fact that he is alone) “there’s me” – an essential moment in the understanding that Rose is now the Doctors’ equal – they’ve both lost their home and are essentially the last of their kind. Rose even gets to call her mum to bring home just how dead her mum is the moment she hangs up. A strange start to this friendship, I dare say! 

But as far as first encounters go, Rose is given a cornucopia of aliens to look at, but once again, as in Rose (the episode), she shows her humanity by needing to escape, to take a breather. This is all totally normal for the Doctor but clearly a bit much for a department store teen! This is an interesting counterpoint to Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, who also gives another stunning performance in the role of public alien #1. Here again we see that the Doctor, while 900+, still acts like a child one moment, weeps over the loss of his estranged race the next and finally is willing to let a woman not just die, but die horribly: an act of vengeance or justice? He is not human, and it shows. Even Rose is willing to release the evil Cassandra (“help her”); a wonderful statement at least from the writer of the episode that humanity ultimately cares for one another and is willing to forgive. Perhaps that is the human element that no Dalek would even understand! I digress… The fact that Rose is willing to help the villain is interesting when thinking back to the conversation she has with Ruffalo that she doesn’t really know the Doctor. What must she think of him now that he has let a woman explode?! That conversation too epitomizes Rose’s humanity. The Doctor again is shown to be … not human, though he is initially reluctant to say what he is! Tom Baker once said that to help highlight that difference between the human and the Time Lord, he liked to depict opposite emotions to what one would expect. Chris does this to perfect effect when asking Jabe if there is anyone to help nearby. Her negative response elicits the ubiquitous “fantastic”! Great stuff! 

So what of those moments outside the range of the visuals? The ones that may not push the story one way or the other, but they make for a more believable story: An iPod… classic. Why is it that they always get it right in so many SF shows? This hints at the very likely fact that the research would not be 100% accurate after 5 BILLION years! Jabe’s inability to understand the machin sounds is another superb touch – the answer was not readily accessible for the Doctor and it shows that Jabe is a different type of alien! Also, such great lines as “use of weapons, teleportation and religion are strictly prohibited”… stunning, brilliant… fantastic! The episode was not hindered by the Umpa-lumpas, nor was it enhanced by them, but Ruffalo was an awesome addition – shame she didn’t survive. And doesn’t Cassandra know that she would have been called a “girl” or is this again some mistake on her part, being as old as she is (calling herself a boy), or did the research not turn up anything about that? Or did she go through changes…? Is the Cassandra/Rose conversation a hint at the fact that humanity is too concerned with being thin? This is the final result? I commented before that Rose is perfect in form because she is real: not a stick model. This is a subtle testament that there are extremes to size; a lesson long overdue in our society! Is the Appearance of the Repeated Meem an obvious “baddie” because they are dressed in black, and hooded? Perhaps another subtle reminder that one should not take things at face value. And finally, what of the brilliant comment, akin to today’s jargon “talk to the hand”; this one is more comical for what it means: “Talk to the face”. HA! Brilliant! 

One question about the phone call: how long has Rose been gone when MUM gets the call? We have to assume, based on what we learn later, that this is probably the day after the attack of the Nestenes; but there again, wouldn’t mum have wanted her home to make sure all was well? A minor quibble, but worth mentioning. The other is why the Steward doesn’t think to leap up and run when the shields go down! Why is Rose, new to all things futuristic, smart enough to get the heck up and run, while the steward (and for that matter everyone in the observation dome) sits there and screams like a pixie…? 

So money may still motivate humans 5 billion years from now, assuming we don’t eat ourselves to death, egg ourselves, crack from mad cow or globally cook ourselves. But would humanity know what the “bad wolf” situation is all about? One must assume so, in the episodes to come. But can we then consider how the Moxx meant that they were in the Bad Wolf scenario? I think so… but that is for another review. For this, I am glad that the Doctor has come back full force in this second episode. He didn’t waste much time; maybe he took Jabe’s excellent advise: “Quit wasting time, Time Lord”.