Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 2 - The End of the World
As The Doctor and Rose begin their travels together, The Doctor asks her where she wants to go. After deciding to see the future and then not going far enough to be interesting, they travel 5 billion years into the future to witness the death of our Sun, and by extension, Earth. Following a brilliant nod to The National Trust (thoroughly British, don't you know), a member of the Blue Man Group allows them entry to the main party after The Doctor fools him with his psychic paper. At the party, we meet many guests who are all very alien, such as a flirty tree, another blue thing (the something of something), the Face of Boe, and then the last surviving human, the Lady Cassandra, who's had rather a lot of plastic surgery done. Although she is now paper thin. There are also the 'hooded people with dark, evil voices', or the 'repeated meme', who hand out balls in the name of peace, proclaiming this with their dark, evil voices. And very trustworthy they seem too.
Rose wanders off, a bit freaked out by what the human race has become, and meets the first female member of the Blue Man Group, who speaks to Rose to tell her that Rose has to give her permission in order for her to speak. After Rose admits that maybe running off with a strange alien was a little bit of a rash decision, she leaves to find The Doctor, and the Blue Lady then gets attacked by a bunch of the peace balls which have turned into spiders. Those hooded people with, dark evil voices weren't so peaceful after all.
When she meets up with The Doctor again, Rose continues to freak out, until he walks off in his own moody Northern way. They make up again when he hacks her phone to give her a free calling plan, and she calls her Mum across time and space just to check it works. Soon afterwards, tremors start running through the station, and the Blue Man Group representative gets roasted when one of the spiders deactivates the sun filter.
Flirty Tree offers to help The Doctor find the engine room, whilst Rose decides to mingle. She talks to Cassandra, who declares herself the last 'pure' human, although Rose gives her a 'pff, please' talk when she points out Cassandra's 700+ operations. Meanwhile, Flirty Tree tells The Doctor that she is at the party out of respect for her ancestors who come from Earth. She also reveals that she knows he is a Time Lord and that this is a bit of a shock, which gives us our first clue that he is the last of his species, although it isn't spelt out as such quite yet. The Obviously Evil Hoods kidnap Rose and lock her in a room where the sun filter is being shut off, and The Doctor discovers that the engine room is cooler than it should be, putting it down to the spider hiding in the control box. Back at the party, Cassandra gives a speech about mourning the end of the world, although as this is a world that let's Britney Spears' Toxic become a traditional ballad that has lasted 5 billion years, perhaps the mourning period won't last too long. Rose comes perilously close to becoming a burnt crisp, although she does very well not to be blinded by the rays of sunlight shining directly over her head, less than a foot away. Once he stops the filter from disappearing, The Doctor heads off to the party to solve the mystery of the spiders, leaving Rose to wait it out.
Telling the spiders to go back to their owner, we learn that the Repeating Meme is the perpetrator, although not really, because they're just an idea, even though they're real, but they're robots so they aren't really real, and an arm comes off, and it turns out it's really Cassandra. She threatens The Doctor, but he lays down the ultimate smackdown ('What are you gonna do? Moisturise me?' Ooh, BURN!), and lets her rant about how she's going to make loads of money from it all. Referencing yet another 20th Century song (seriously? Was there no original composing going on after this time?), she tells everyone they're going to burn and then teleports out of the party, as the spaceship starts to declare Earth Death in 2 minutes. Flirty Tree comes to the rescue in the engine room as she buys The Doctor the time he needs to get the shields up by evolving into Fiery Tree, Rose gets attacked by laser bolts from the Sun, and everyone in the party appears to get blinded by the Sun's rays, although they all seem to have the same magical ability of anti-blindness as Rose, because none of them are actually blinded despite directly looking into the Sun.
The Doctor brings Cassandra to justice, by reversing her teleport, and then allowing her to dry out without her moisturisers present. He's definitely still suffering from post-Time War syndrome here, as he declares 'everything has its time, and everything dies', before letting her face explode, literally. Rose then gets sentimental about the fact that we couldn't use the sheer power of the universe itself from stopping the Earth die, even though The National Trust clearly allowed it to carry on for billions of years longer than it should have. There really is no pleasing some people.
However, this clearly touches The Doctor, as he mentions for the first time that Gallifrey burned, and that the Time War happened and the Time Lords lost, leaving him as the last of his race. He offers Rose the chance to go home, but she decides that, as there's 11 episodes to go, she'd better stay with him.
The Doctor brings Cassandra to justice, by reversing her teleport, and then allowing her to dry out without her moisturisers present. He's definitely still suffering from post-Time War syndrome here, as he declares 'everything has its time, and everything dies', before letting her face explode, literally. Rose then gets sentimental about the fact that we couldn't use the sheer power of the universe itself from stopping the Earth die, even though The National Trust clearly allowed it to carry on for billions of years longer than it should have. There really is no pleasing some people.
However, this clearly touches The Doctor, as he mentions for the first time that Gallifrey burned, and that the Time War happened and the Time Lords lost, leaving him as the last of his race. He offers Rose the chance to go home, but she decides that, as there's 11 episodes to go, she'd better stay with him.
Following on from last weeks very grounded episode, we set straight off into space to witness the death of our Sun, and the Earth with it. Very jolly! While there are some very nice spacey visuals, and it's great seeing what aliens have been created for the show, looking back on it now it's not quite as exciting an episode as I remember. Great seeing Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper settling into their roles, but overall this feels like a slight step down from the first episode.
One of the problems, I think, is that some of the humour is very...I don't know what the term is - 'childish', maybe? I know, I know - Doctor Who is primarily a children's show, but I'd argue (strongly) that it doesn't feel like a children's show to me nowadays, or hasn't really since Series 2. It's the things like having Britney Spear's Toxic as a 'traditional ballad' that make me cringe in a very bad way, almost like the writers are trying too hard to get a laugh. They can do humour fantastically on Doctor Who, but that misses the mark.
One of the problems, I think, is that some of the humour is very...I don't know what the term is - 'childish', maybe? I know, I know - Doctor Who is primarily a children's show, but I'd argue (strongly) that it doesn't feel like a children's show to me nowadays, or hasn't really since Series 2. It's the things like having Britney Spear's Toxic as a 'traditional ballad' that make me cringe in a very bad way, almost like the writers are trying too hard to get a laugh. They can do humour fantastically on Doctor Who, but that misses the mark.
The feel of the episode then is still very much of the show in its infancy, but that isn't meant to be a particular criticism (except for the aforementioned dodgy humour...). If anything, it makes me look back on it with a certain nostalgic fondness for how I felt when the show first came out. It's just that, with the benefit of hindsight (which is what this series of reviews is about), it doesn't stand up with the best of what's to come.
Having said all that, the cartoon villain feel of Cassandra, something that we see less nowadays, is splendid fun. I don't think we have bad guys like her anymore, certainly not in the Matt Smith era, or at least not that I can recall at the moment. I can think of a few more in the Eccleston era and I'm looking forward to them very much.
We also get a bit more of a hint as to what The Doctor went through during The Time War - we know now that he is the last of the Time Lords, and Eccleston's face is perfect in showing the angst he is carrying, and goes some way to explaining his rather more grumpy portrayal of The Doctor. One of my favourite parts of Eccleston's portrayal overall is his huge beaming grin, and it's wonderfully done here. Also his general 'Northern' air. Such a strange thing that people pick up on this, but I know exactly what they mean.
If anything, Billie Piper has slotted into her role as Rose better than Eccleston as The Doctor at this point. She has the perfect blend of excitement and trepidation, and her slight air of feistiness begins to shine through here, which would come to be a common trait with all The Doctor's companions to date (except for Wilf, bless him). She's not as larger-than-life or in your face as Donna, Amy or Clara, but there's something about her that keeps her towards the top of my favourite companions.
Having said all that, the cartoon villain feel of Cassandra, something that we see less nowadays, is splendid fun. I don't think we have bad guys like her anymore, certainly not in the Matt Smith era, or at least not that I can recall at the moment. I can think of a few more in the Eccleston era and I'm looking forward to them very much.
We also get a bit more of a hint as to what The Doctor went through during The Time War - we know now that he is the last of the Time Lords, and Eccleston's face is perfect in showing the angst he is carrying, and goes some way to explaining his rather more grumpy portrayal of The Doctor. One of my favourite parts of Eccleston's portrayal overall is his huge beaming grin, and it's wonderfully done here. Also his general 'Northern' air. Such a strange thing that people pick up on this, but I know exactly what they mean.
If anything, Billie Piper has slotted into her role as Rose better than Eccleston as The Doctor at this point. She has the perfect blend of excitement and trepidation, and her slight air of feistiness begins to shine through here, which would come to be a common trait with all The Doctor's companions to date (except for Wilf, bless him). She's not as larger-than-life or in your face as Donna, Amy or Clara, but there's something about her that keeps her towards the top of my favourite companions.
There's also the start of the running 'we're not a couple' type gags that crop up throughout the earlier series (it'll reach its comedic peak in Series 4) - this time Jabe questions whether Rose is The Doctor's wife, partner, concubine or prostitute. Child-friendly indeed!
How It Fits Into The Series As A Whole
We learn that The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords
The Bad Wolf Sightings
The Moxx of Balhoon tells The Face of Boe that the current situation is 'the classic Bad Wolf scenario', referring to the fact that the balls given by the Repeated Meme are evil in disguise, as the bad wolf was disguised as Red Riding Hood's granny in Red Riding Hood. At least, I presume that's what they mean.
Overall
It's got it's moments, particularly the bits we learn of The Doctor's backstory, but it doesn't as well as some other episodes, and the 'funny' bits about traditional Earth ballads are just embarassing.
4/10
How It Fits Into The Series As A Whole
We learn that The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords
The Bad Wolf Sightings
The Moxx of Balhoon tells The Face of Boe that the current situation is 'the classic Bad Wolf scenario', referring to the fact that the balls given by the Repeated Meme are evil in disguise, as the bad wolf was disguised as Red Riding Hood's granny in Red Riding Hood. At least, I presume that's what they mean.
Overall
It's got it's moments, particularly the bits we learn of The Doctor's backstory, but it doesn't as well as some other episodes, and the 'funny' bits about traditional Earth ballads are just embarassing.
4/10
I seem to remember enjoying this one much more than the pilot, which was down to a couple of things. Firstly, the special effects were much better - the Auton Mickey was ridiculous, even when it first aired, and I thought they did a much better job in this episode. I've always liked aliens that actually look alien, and aren't just a bloke with a lump of plastic on the forehead (as most aliens in Star Trek are). It's why I loved Farscape, the alien designs were actually weird (as you'd expect from the Jim Henson company). They really nailed it in this episode, in particular with the Face of Boe, who looks fantastic. Secondly, I think it dealt very well with the repucussions of her running off with the Doctor very well - Rose (and the audience) still doesn't know who he is really, and I think they dealt with that in an interesting way, than opened up both of their characters well.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the cheesy approach to music, and I get frustrated with sci-fi shows when they have everything come from the 20th Century. Star Trek Voyager did that all the time - despite the fact that they were on the other end of the galaxy, they seemed to run into no end of artefacts from 20th Century Earth. Generally, I prefer Doctor Who when it's not in present-day London, which I definitely think was an issue with Eccleston's year - so I like this episode as a contrast to all the others, if nothing else.
I know what you mean about the catoonish villains, there is a definite shift in how they're portrayed at this point, when compared to where they are now. I'd argue that it's just a facet of the writer though - if you look at the episodes Moffat wrote before he became head writer, lots don't really have a villain in the traditional sense - something you should look at when you get to his episodes. Were the nano-bot things in 'The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances' really evil? What about the clockwork robots from 'Girl in the Fireplace'? It's something you should pay attention to as the show progresses, as I think Davies has a very different idea about what the role of a villain is, which makes the two eras of the show feel very different.
Auton Mickey is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen, but he plays it so brilliantly I've learned to love it!
ReplyDeleteThe London-centric episodes were probably just budget issues and a certain apprehension in ambition as you might expect with a first season, and it can help ground a show and make it relatable, but I think you're right - I prefer them being off world. Having said that, I've always loved the relationship between Rose, Jacqui and Mickey, and I think that particular parts works best when they're at home, or thereabouts.
I never really appreciated how much angst over the Time War and its repercussions that Ecclestone puts across - I wasn't as invested in the show when I first saw these episodes, and I was enjoying the general sci-fi feel of it rather than looking for bits of Who-lore, but now I'm looking back on it it's clear just how good he is at getting these things across. So different to Tennant and Smith, who were the more energetic overall, but equally fantastic in his own way. His very Northern way.
I've always thought that one of the strengths of Who comes from villains such as those in 'The Empty Child' and 'Girl In The Fireplace' - it adds to The Doctor's willingness to give everything a chance and justifies not rushing in to simply destroy them. Even if this doesn't apply to The Daleks!