Memnoch
Lt. Vulture
Review: Episode 01x02 The End of the World Aired:2 April 2005
So for Rose's first trip in the TARDIS we are taken into the future, to the end. End of the world that is. You can tell when they land at first she is excited and I think the audience shares her excitement as this is the FIRST time many viewers are seeing the Doctor Who future. The Doctor is just fantastic when he talks about the "big picture" as Rose just appears stunned especially as the Doctor says,
"This is the year 5.5/apple/26. Five billion years into your future, and this is the day.. hold on... this is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."
The fact that its the year 5 billion comes in handy later. This also introduces the concept of the human race going into space and changing but still human. Rose accepts them semi easily, the Doctor is used to it but Ah, Lady Cassandra. The primary villian for this episode. Another interesting design, and an equally interesting villian. The dialogue is always the high point as in the section above and also the way the Doctor explains everything about the Trust and keeping the Earth as it was. The introduction gift scene is just so funny when they talk about the ostritch egg and the "iPod" with its "classic" music. Also, who is that we see.. the Face of Boe..? hmm. Also is the mention of Bad Wolf scenario between Boe and lil blue guy. Also something to remember is that Jade's scanner IDs the Doctor as Time Lord so by the Earth year 5 billion Time Lords are known of. Rose then meets a naitve of the time and starts to think "What did I do" as she talks of going off with the Doctor. Of course it isnt long until all Hell breaks loose on Platform One and that is where the fun begins. It starts when the poor girl Rose was just talking to gets "taken" by the robots. Again we get some great dialogue between Chris and Billie about who the Doctor is and it just goes great. So much in those few lines that will be teased out as the series goes on. Rose also gets her super phone, and it's touching to see her call the present from the year five billion. After this we return to the party and the Doctor goes off with Jade as Rose confronts Cassandra about being human. Following Rose's confrontation with Cassandra we get back to Jade and the Doctor. She talks to him about not believing he exsists and says shes so sorry so they also know about the Time War and that Time Lords don't (save the Doctor) exsist anymore. It's not long before things go from bad to worse, the Steward is killed and Rose is trapped with the sunfilter comming down on her. The Doctor runs back to the group where the information about the Steward is revealed to all along with the fact that the robots have infiltrated the whole of Platform One. It is here Cassandra blames the Face of Boe for their situation. The Doctor then sends their captured robot back to its owner, first the Repeating Mean then Cassandra, the real meanace. All for profit, vanity and hatred. As usual the Doctor saves the day by getting the manual control of the sheilds functioning. He then brings Cassandra back onto Platfrom One from her previous teleport escape but without the moisturizing acid she quickly dries out and goes POP. The Doctor then goes and looks for Rose who is looking at the Earth, now just dust and rocks. She laments that no one saw it go as they were all too busy saving themselves. It is here the Doctor takes her by the hand and they go back to the present where Rose sees that it the Earth is still there and we get a secret from the Doctor.
" My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust, before it's time."
He goes on to mention the war, but when quizzed he simply says he's the last Time Lord, the last traveller and Rose says he has her, and says she doesn't know what she wants... but she wants chips.
This episode was one that initially gave me problems because it seemed sooo very bleak. After watching it again though I realized that it wasn't bleak so much as it was just very different and laid out some clues to the bigger picture. The alien designs were all very interesting and fun to look at. Cassandra was by far interesting, even if a tad 2-demensional. Evil for evil sake. As I said before the gold is really the "bonding" scenes between Rose and the Doctor. Suprisingly I have no major nits to pick on this episode and while it isn't one that I am prone to watching over and over it is a SOLID story from start to finish.
Script: 7.5/10 Inventive and different but a little rough in some areas
Acting: 7/10 A little harsh maybe, Billie and Chris were fine but Zoe as .....................Cassandra seemed a tad over the top.
Design: 8/10 The aliens were fantastic, the Face of Boe especially. As a trip ....................to the year five billion I was very pleased.
Overall: 7.5/10
Rose:7.8
EotW: 7.5
So for Rose's first trip in the TARDIS we are taken into the future, to the end. End of the world that is. You can tell when they land at first she is excited and I think the audience shares her excitement as this is the FIRST time many viewers are seeing the Doctor Who future. The Doctor is just fantastic when he talks about the "big picture" as Rose just appears stunned especially as the Doctor says,
"This is the year 5.5/apple/26. Five billion years into your future, and this is the day.. hold on... this is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."
The fact that its the year 5 billion comes in handy later. This also introduces the concept of the human race going into space and changing but still human. Rose accepts them semi easily, the Doctor is used to it but Ah, Lady Cassandra. The primary villian for this episode. Another interesting design, and an equally interesting villian. The dialogue is always the high point as in the section above and also the way the Doctor explains everything about the Trust and keeping the Earth as it was. The introduction gift scene is just so funny when they talk about the ostritch egg and the "iPod" with its "classic" music. Also, who is that we see.. the Face of Boe..? hmm. Also is the mention of Bad Wolf scenario between Boe and lil blue guy. Also something to remember is that Jade's scanner IDs the Doctor as Time Lord so by the Earth year 5 billion Time Lords are known of. Rose then meets a naitve of the time and starts to think "What did I do" as she talks of going off with the Doctor. Of course it isnt long until all Hell breaks loose on Platform One and that is where the fun begins. It starts when the poor girl Rose was just talking to gets "taken" by the robots. Again we get some great dialogue between Chris and Billie about who the Doctor is and it just goes great. So much in those few lines that will be teased out as the series goes on. Rose also gets her super phone, and it's touching to see her call the present from the year five billion. After this we return to the party and the Doctor goes off with Jade as Rose confronts Cassandra about being human. Following Rose's confrontation with Cassandra we get back to Jade and the Doctor. She talks to him about not believing he exsists and says shes so sorry so they also know about the Time War and that Time Lords don't (save the Doctor) exsist anymore. It's not long before things go from bad to worse, the Steward is killed and Rose is trapped with the sunfilter comming down on her. The Doctor runs back to the group where the information about the Steward is revealed to all along with the fact that the robots have infiltrated the whole of Platform One. It is here Cassandra blames the Face of Boe for their situation. The Doctor then sends their captured robot back to its owner, first the Repeating Mean then Cassandra, the real meanace. All for profit, vanity and hatred. As usual the Doctor saves the day by getting the manual control of the sheilds functioning. He then brings Cassandra back onto Platfrom One from her previous teleport escape but without the moisturizing acid she quickly dries out and goes POP. The Doctor then goes and looks for Rose who is looking at the Earth, now just dust and rocks. She laments that no one saw it go as they were all too busy saving themselves. It is here the Doctor takes her by the hand and they go back to the present where Rose sees that it the Earth is still there and we get a secret from the Doctor.
" My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust, before it's time."
He goes on to mention the war, but when quizzed he simply says he's the last Time Lord, the last traveller and Rose says he has her, and says she doesn't know what she wants... but she wants chips.
This episode was one that initially gave me problems because it seemed sooo very bleak. After watching it again though I realized that it wasn't bleak so much as it was just very different and laid out some clues to the bigger picture. The alien designs were all very interesting and fun to look at. Cassandra was by far interesting, even if a tad 2-demensional. Evil for evil sake. As I said before the gold is really the "bonding" scenes between Rose and the Doctor. Suprisingly I have no major nits to pick on this episode and while it isn't one that I am prone to watching over and over it is a SOLID story from start to finish.
Script: 7.5/10 Inventive and different but a little rough in some areas
Acting: 7/10 A little harsh maybe, Billie and Chris were fine but Zoe as .....................Cassandra seemed a tad over the top.
Design: 8/10 The aliens were fantastic, the Face of Boe especially. As a trip ....................to the year five billion I was very pleased.
Overall: 7.5/10
Rose:7.8
EotW: 7.5
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