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 It's typical isn't it??? You wait 9 years for a Doctor to come along & then you get 2 within a year! This was the scenario with which we were faced less than a week into the tenure of the 9th Doctor & whilst it is great for the publicity machine which fuels the Beeb's ratings (no publicity is bad publicity.....yeah, right! Tell that to Gerald Ratner!), I'll wager that most of us were left feeling a little flat (Cassandra too, I expect!) upon hearing the news last week. I'll also wager that BBC Enterprises were gnashing their teeth at the idea of all that merchandise coming out just as Chris Eccleston says his fond farewells. But enough of this, all of that is a matter for the future (or the past, depends on when you're reading this guff!), as for now we have far more important matters at hand.....namely, The End of the World!
Having read most of the reviews written around the globe about "Rose", I was astonished to find that my opinions seemed to tally with everyone else's, namely that it was a stonkingly good piece of television, well worth the intolerable wait we had to endure, but with the caveat of a slightly anorexic plot, sacrificed in the name of style & pace, & of concentrating on reintroducing the general public to our heroes...& Rose in particular.
Indeed, it can well be argued that the Doctor himself was lacking in sufficient screen time to fully introduce this latest incarnation to us all...& now we know why. Because he was to get his moment in this episode.
From the moment the recap of last week's episode finished (for the benefit of those of the Great British Public with the memory recall of a goldfish) & Rose has made that life-changing decision to re-enter the TARDIS, Chris commands the entire story in a way that a Doctor has seldom had the opportunity to do since Tom Baker's time. Clearly he wants to impress his new human companion & when she shows mild contempt for his ability to propel her a mere 100 or 10,000 years into the future, something inside him snaps (for reasons we are to discover soon) & he decides instead to spin the wheel of his new look console (constructed in Totters Lane we assume from the cornucopia of junk it consists of) & pump away like a Nicola Bryant fan in Planet of Fire until the TARDIS has arrived in the year 5 billion (approximately...imagine what THOSE New Year's Celebrations would entail!!!). The setting is Platform One, suspended above a very familiar looking Earth, on the advent of the expansion of the Sun & the inevitable demise of our world.
Right from the word go, the visuals in this story leave one gasping. The CGI is excellent (whatever anyone else may try to tell you), particularly bearing in mind the budget & timeframe the Mill had to complete the effects, but the sets are simply mind-blowing. Platform One's interiors appear to be sculpted from solid marble & present easily the most impressive space vehicle that the series has ever witnessed, & the clever use of camera angles merely enhances this. The Doctor casually announces to Rose that the Earth is about to boil & die, which understandably leaves her a mite shell-shocked for a fair proportion of the episode, when the Steward, splendidly portrayed in very David Collings/David Warneresque style by Simon Day arrives demanding to know who the hell are you ("Oh, that's nice thanks!!" replies Chris - awesome!) & how they came to be on board. Now, in these days of (essentially) 2 part stories (sorry...can't get to grips with this 45 minute format thingy!), explaining such occurrences takes up more than valuable screen time, so the cunning plot device of "Slightly Psychic Paper" appears, & quite brilliant it is too, for now the Doctor has carte-blanche to go wherever he pleases with "official" approval, yet without wasting time or money on unnecessary effects or lengthy explanations.
The Steward announces the other guests ("The great & the good" in other words, the filthy rich) & we begin to realise that we are in tribute territory, a place where so much great Doctor Who has taken place. Tributes? you ask....to whom exactly? Well...the aliens are clearly a nod to the likes of Star Wars, Trek & The Curse of Peladon, the whole setting has The Ark in Space to thank...not to mention Terror of the Vervoids; there are cleverly veiled references to The Chase, Alien, Robot, Invasion of Time, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Blade Runner, Agatha Christie & The Thing, while the Steward & his little cronies bear more than a passing resemblance to the androids on Karfel from the dreadful Timelash & the Oompa Loompa's from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Some of the aliens are really quite tremendous, notably the trees from the Forest of Cheem, the Moxx of Balhoon & the Adherents of the Repeated Meme, whilst some of the others just look like people with rubber masks on. One that doesn't is the Face of Boe...& he just looks a little like the Malus in a big jar (well, the last time we saw him he was getting into a pickle after all!!)! The appearance of this gathering is treated with some humour, as we are already coming to expect in 2005 Who (& not unwelcome is it either!), with plenty of opportunities for mirth provided by the exchange of gifts sequence, with Chris playing the overenthusiastic side of this new Doctor to perfection. Is it any wonder that Jabe finds his gift intimate? After all, what do trees breathe? I would imagine that Rose found the Moxx's gift rather intimate too!
Breaking into this little scenario we witness the arrival of the Lady Cassandra, wonderfully brought to life by some superb CGI & an even better portrayal by Zoë Wanamaker. I had had my doubts as to the validity of Cassandra...after all, the idea of anybody wishing to do away with human form to try to improve upon the bodily restrictions is scarcely plausible....unless you happen to be a Cyberman! (or Michael Jackson!) I worry, however, that the casual viewer may have regarded this as just stupid, but hopefully so caught up in the mood & general opulence will they have been that that particular idea will have passed them by! I personally liked the inclusion of the 2 "classical I-Pod" tracks, though surely "Toxic" was never pressed onto vinyl????
The advent of "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell is clearly too much for poor Rose & she dashes off, perused, after a brief exchange with Jabe, by the Doctor. During this exchange, Jabe has scanned the Doctor's physiognomy with her marvellous little twittery-bird scanning device & discovers something which clearly shocks her! Ooooooh! And on top of all that, one of the Adherent's gifts has cracked open & a nippy little 4-legged metal spider-droid is on the loose!! Arghhhhh.
At this point I should point out that although Eccleston steals every scene he is in, he is only marginally in front of Billie Piper in this respect, for she continues to impress with a delicate & subtle portrayal of a human coming to terms with the plethora of alien life around her. Brilliantly constructed by RTD, her realisation of her situation is handled with great aplomb after her full-speed-ahead experience with the Autons, she now has the time on her hands to actually take in what is happening & as the episode unfolds & she meets Raffalo the maintenance plumber, the idea that she has just left the security (however drab & tedious it was) of her normal life to go who knows where & who knows when with who knows who begins to dawn on her. She reacts, as would you or I, I should imagine, with first bemusement at her situation, attempting to communicate with the cutting from Jabe's grandfather (Now I'm talking to a twig!) & then hostility. How come she can understand all these aliens? We have always known this is down to the TARDIS' telepathic circuits, but has any of us ever stopped to question this form of mental violation in the way that Rose does? Ace probably would have, but then she had her own demons to deal with. Maybe Rose's demons are buried deeper, allowing her to spot these points more readily. Either way, the Doctor is clearly taken aback by this attack, having never considered it an issue before & with him off guard for the first time since they met, Rose is able to push some more. Who is he? Where is he from? In the past this was never a sore point for the Doctor. He was a Time Lord & proud of it...heck, for a while he was "More than a Time Lord", he was Lord President of the High Council, protector of Gallifrey! But now he seems embarrassed by the questions...he parries the interrogation & goes into a temper then a sulk (dramatic tension abounds!). Rose cools down, realising that she's hit a nerve & defuses the situation by making a crack about her mobile being out of range. The Doctor however has a nifty little gadget that can overcome a 5 billion year lag & with a bit of jiggery pokery suddenly Rose is on the phone to her wonderfully scatty mum again. RTD has expressed a desire to keep this season rooted to Earth & this is merely another way of enhancing that image. What does it matter that it's clearly impossible...the whole scientific premise of Doctor Who is hardly based on solid fact after all!
This merely brings home to Rose the fact that her world is long, long dead, but her reverie is disturbed by a sudden shudder. In true McCoy fashion Chris knows that things ain't right & off they shoot to investigate. The Steward is perplexed too, until he finds one of the nervous little spiders, which gingerly, almost apologetically, taps at his console, causing the sun-filter in his office to rise, literally roasting him.
The Doctor & Rose arrive back in the main hall & the Doctor quizzes Jabe as to the whereabouts of the engine room, but she is clearly interested in a whole different form of probing. No, about the Doctor's relationship with Rose, you smutty lot! This is a tremendous little scene, with the Doctor being rather flirty with Jabe & Rose taking mock (?) umbrage & going off to talk to "the family.....Michael Jackson" (superb dialogue as ever from the Welsh Wizard!), whilst the other two head down into the spectacular CGI engine room, via some narrow maintenance corridors that really look very authentic indeed.
Rose's little chat again highlights Davies' incisive wit, revealing that Cassandra was once a "little boy" (risking pushing the Jackson analogy too far, but still getting away with it) & bringing her bitchy tendencies to the fore. Rose reacts to this, her emotions on exactly the kind of trampoline she accuses Cassandra of being. She points out that her mum was born on Earth & (after a tiny but nonetheless significant pause) so was her dad, so SHE is by right the last human, not the freak that excessive plastic surgery (are you listening XXXXXXXXXX [insert appropriate name here!]??) has turned her into. During her rant, Cassandra, looking all the time remarkably like a flattened, stretched Zoë Wanamaker, merely rolls her eyes & looks shiftily around, imbuing this purely CGI character with an astonishing personality.
This scene is followed by the Biggie, the raison d'etre of the entire episode & the single best moment for the Doctor in this episode & prospectively for the entire season! As Jabe gently tells the Doctor what she knows of him & his history, he seems focussed on the job in hand of accessing the computer, but in his face there is a far away look & as Jabe professes her apologies & grasps his arm with an impressively wooden creak he turns & gazes at her, reaching across with his own hand to acknowledge her sympathy with a gentle touch of his own. For a second he is elsewhere in time & space & a single tear escapes from his right eye & drops silently to the floor. The incidental music plays this to the full & then the moment passes & he returns to work, but in this astonishing 30-second scene, we learn as much as we ever need to about the new Doctor's character. He has undergone a monumentous tragedy, but he refuses to be drawn under by it...he will continue to fight against the evils of the universe, whatever the odds, whatever the cost. The implications of this spectacular piece of television are all too obvious, & are later confirmed by the Doctor...Gallifrey is no more (remember that this is WAYYYYYYY in the future though, although by Jabe's reaction, clearly the decisive event was also a long time ago), the victim of a massive war, potentially the same war which was mentioned in the confrontation with the Nestene Consciousness, although by no means is this certain as yet.
Once this scene is over, the action can step up another gear. Rose is knocked out & dragged into an observation lounge. The Doctor & Jabe discover one of the sabotaging spiders, the dead Steward & the fact that another sun-filter is due to descend. These fast-paced moments take place over Britney Spear's "Toxic" & this in itself is yet another clue as to Cassandra's real motives. Her choice of songs - Tainted Love & Toxic, sum her up to perfection, as well as providing an effective score to match the action taking place at the time. The Doctor finds the locked door with Rose behind it ("Oh it WOULD be YOU!") & with a bit more jiggery pokery with the ever-present sonic screwdriver manages to avert disaster, although the sabotage & the sun's rays have trapped Rose in the room for the time being, thereby allowing the Doctor to get on with the rest of the episode unhindered, & helped merely by Jabe.
Cassandra is revealed as the villain of the piece, after the Doctor unmasks the Adherents as being merely remote control droids, with her motive being money. It may seem lame, but greed has always served as an adequate motive throughout human history....so why not now, at the denouement of the Earth itself? She teleports off the Platform as the spiders neutralise the protective shields. Fortunately there is a system restore switch (Ctrl Alt Delete maybe?), but this has been placed on the other side of the Platform's massive cooling fan system. The temperature rises, the windows crack, light blasts in killing the Moxx & the heat proves too much for poor Jabe, who dies a heroic death, much to the Doctor's dismay. Rose is left writhing around the floor in the observation deck dodging the lethal spears of light that are infiltrating the Platform. The Doctor must negotiate a rapidly spinning ventilation blade to reach the reset button & by means of extreme concentration & dramatic tension, he does just that at the very second the Earth goes pop. The Platform goes into self-repair mode instantly & all seems to be over. Rose is obviously released as everything is returned to working order & finds a very angry Doctor back at the main hall. Now, remember that this is a Doctor who has tried in vain to save the planet of the Nestenes AND Gallifrey & who knows how many others....he has battled insurmountable odds & probably fought alongside many selfless souls in this Great War we are learning about piece by piece. He has witnessed more than even he has thought possible & his compassion for those who would wilfully destroy for selfish motives has worn very thin. And he has just witnessed Jabe's death & narrowly avoided the deaths of everyone else on the Platform.
So the steam is rising from his distinctive ears by this point! He conveys his condolences to the Forest of Cheem. His brain is putting all the pieces of the puzzle together at lightning speed & he returns Cassandra to the Platform. Even at this point she is arrogantly gloating, but that soon stops when she realises that the heat is drying her out & as she is stretched pretty thin already, the heat takes things too far for her & she splats all over the Face of Boe. Rose urges the Doctor to help her, but this angry, disgusted, emotionally gutted Doctor merely points out that "Everything has its time & everything dies" & storms out.
Rose realises that in their panic to survive, the Earth died without anyone noticing. She feels the significance of the moment...of the billions of years of history passing unnoticed, but the Doctor too realises that for a time traveller, there can be no "end" as such. He returns her to 21st Century Earth where she sees that people are still doing exactly what they have always done in her world...& always will do whilst it is possible to return to that point in time. The Doctor, having realised that he might have been insensitive to her emotions whilst dealing with his own, explains who he is & what has happened. He doesn't explain who the war was with (Ladbrokes taking odds now...Daleks? The Master? Ant & Dec getting their revenge?), we'll leave that to Russell (Davies, not Buer!). The Doctor says he is the Last of the Timelords...but we all know that is highly unlikely. I mean, if the human race had the capacity to go anywhere & anytime & there was a war which destroyed Earth, we know we would survive....so there WILL be Time Lords out there...maybe even some we already know. Maybe even ones who can afford their own chips!
All in all this is a marvellous 45 minutes. It may have been better served in a 60-minute setting, but I feel that 90 minutes may have drawn it out too much & affected the pace of the story. Yes, some things are somewhat contrived, but who cares? Sometimes things do just happen with no logical explanation & if you examine anything in too much detail you can lose the essence of what makes it so good in the first place. This story had form, pace, great dialogue, great characterisation, magnificent sets, excellent sfx, stirring music & the major players were fleshed out some more & the foundations for future stories were laid. We might have started The End of the World against a sombre backdrop of the imminent departure of Christopher Eccleston, but at the end of the story we should be thankful that we have him here & now & that we have this calibre of story for him to show us what he can do & just rejoice that this season of Doctor Who is showing such phenomenal promise....& we haven't even seen the Dalek stories yet!!!!!!!!
» Review by Miles Northcott, Copyright 2005.
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Doctor (to Rose): “You think it’ll last forever. The people and cars and concrete but it won’t. Then one day it’s all gone, even the sky”.
Where shall I start?...
I loved last night's episode, though I had to watch it again to be sure. (No, seriously.)
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