- ‘The End of the World’
Writer: Russell T Davies
“Everything has its time and everything dies.”
‘The End of the World’ serves as a lovely companion piece to the series opener, providing a stark contrast to the more subdued and subtle moment-to-moment action of ‘Rose’, and if you’re flabbergasted at the idea of ‘Rose’ being considered a more tempered episode of Doctor Who, welcome to the opening of the very, very deep rabbit hole.
The Doctor and Rose, in their first proper adventure, travel to the year 5 billion. In a wonderful opening scene that injects some humanity into the Ninth Doctor, each time Rose suggests a year, he pushes her further and further into the future, until they cannot reasonably go any further. The Doctor’s childish and giddy nature as he rushes around the TARDIS console, soaking in Rose’s admiration gives a great insight into the Doctor’s role in the universe around him: More than a saviour and a hero, he is a constant traveller, marvelled by the universe even after an incomprehensibly long life.
The episode’s main set is situated in a ship miles away from the Earth, just before a solar flare is due to ignite the entire planet. While this is not the main conflict of the episode, its presence serves to provide the audience with a clear distinction between how the Doctor thinks versus how his companions often do. The Doctor stands, silently revelling in the majesty before him, humanity’s homeworld in flames, but Rose’s mind is elsewhere. When she laments that her mum is buried somewhere down there, it’s a stark reminder of the constant implication of the Doctor’s Time Lord heritage. The Doctor can regenerate and move on, but humans will wither and die, without exception or interjection. On top of this, it further serves to drive home an integral element of Rose’s character, the life of hers that exists outside of the Doctor and their adventures. This, to me, is the first example of something that sets Series 1 apart from the later series, which is the ability to create character and emotion in off-the-cuff lines, which is absolutely essential for any piece of fiction that is attempting to deliver fifty years of history and canon to an audience that are using this series as an introduction to the world of Doctor Who.
For me, however, the absolute highlight of this episode has to be the character of Kassandra. Despite presenting herself as “the last pure human”, she’s just a large stretch of skin escorted around by two masked figures, constantly requiring moisturising in order to avoid drying out. Her false upset at the burning of Earth and her total misunderstanding of culture and history leads to some hilarious scenarios, describing Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ as a ‘traditional ballad’, the perfect accompaniment to the mourning of the death of Earth. I cannot say I disagree with her.
I find myself not really having a lot to say about ‘The End of the World’ (which probably wouldn’t be a million miles away from my reaction at the literal end of the world) despite the fact that I enjoy the story. Kassandra as a villain is ceaselessly entertaining, and Eccleston and Piper demonstrate their fantastic chemistry here in abundance, setting the perfect blueprint for their relationship across the entire first series. I find the dialogue concerning the mysterious event known only as the Time War between the Doctor and “Tree”, a literal anthropomorphic tree, serves its purpose to begin generating interest in the explanation of a pivotal moment in the Doctor’s life. The vague yet definite details we are given surround the destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords themselves is certainly intriguing, but not a whole lot is really said on the matter in this episode, nor should it be so early on. As such, I shall reserve my opinions on the decision to remove Gallifrey and the Time Lords from the narrative for a later episode. How exciting!
All in all, a nice companion piece and an interesting story made whole by interesting and provocative side characters. While Davies is around, expect to hear that line a lot.
7/10
Joe Porter 