The End of the World

The opening TARDIS scene is probably one of the best first ‘TARDIS moments’ produced. The Doctor doesn’t just take Rose somewhere on a whim, instead they escalate the adventure as she goads him into showing off.

How more impressive for a second episode can you get with ‘Welcome to the end of the world.’? Its a fantastic idea and RTD nails the emotion behind the episode. Looking out at the dying Earth is a lovely scene, one which is improved vastly by the musical score, which thankfully is a massive improvement on ‘Rose’ where the majority of the score really let things down.

Another improvement on ‘Rose’ comes from Euros Lyn’s directing, he knows when to keep the camera still, how best to shoot the sequences and also just the pacing of things are bang on. I have no criticism of the directing of this episode at all. It pretty much floors Keith Boak’s in ‘Rose’ which was completely dreadful, lazy and uninspired.

The third great thing about this scene is Billie and Chris, they truly are a great duo together. Their emotions really spark off each other in every scene. The best moment comes where Chris states quite simply, and not over done (as many actors might) ‘Welcome to the end of the world.’

'Were going where the sun shines brightly
Were going where the sun expands
We've seen it in the science books
Now lets see if they survive.'

The CGI in this episode also has to be applauded. Its some of the best we see probably until series 3, with great establishing shots before and after the main titles. RTD realises here that CGI has to be used like you’d shoot anything, and they can’t just have it during big action scenes, even though it adds heavily to the budget. A main influence for this is likely Star Wars, especially where the two transport ships arrive, but overall its very much his brilliance that realises these kinds of things are important. A lot of other show-runners might have saved on the budget and only had CGI for the big moments, instead Euros and Russell use it to hold the pace/emotion of the episode and basically say ‘Look what we can do.’
This moment should probably have come in ‘Rose’ just to keep them watching, but that’s more of a ‘series’ criticism than concerning this episode.

The main plot is some pretty good Who, and unlike last week the episode does not survive solely on Rose and The Doctors characterisations. Whereas last week’s episode was very much about Rose, here we learn a lot about The Doctors character.

So were on a Space Station above Earth while the Sun is exploding, and the Universes most powerful beings are there – what could possibly go wrong?

These aliens are really all great designs, and are a signal back to the Old-Who designs, unfortunately these kinds of designs never really pop-up again at all in the next five years.

Cassandra is a great character, she’s psychotically selfish/narcissistical and the whole ‘Plastic Surgery’ thing is great and acts as a really good satirical take on today’s obsession over keeping young and ‘perfect’.

Its slightly odd watching this episode again and realising just how much they’ll ruin her after a return from the grave in ‘New Earth’ where she suddenly becomes a joke than a villain, and where The Doctor suddenly has sympathy for her – and for no good bloody reason either!

Overall she is a great first villain for the first series.

The bloody nerves of this woman!

The companion moments this episode work really well. Rose’s reaction to The Doctor is for a me a bit daft as she takes a while to start really questioning things, but then I suppose it is because she gets caught up in it all.

Her argument with the Doctor following on from her learning that the TARDIS is in her head and who he actually is pushes her character into a strong position – this isn’t a girl that will just fall over The Doctor and not question him. Sadly this characterisation is only true for Series 1.

Its the Doctors characterisation here that works the best. On one hand he wants to share with Rose, but on the other he doesn’t want to go into Gallifrey or the war, instead he wants to be a new man. Just a traveller – The Doctor.

Its in this episode we learn so much of what has happened since we last saw The Doctor. Much of this is through the character Jabe played by the wonderful Yasmin Bannerman. By knowing who he is we get some wonderful moments from Chris who plays The Doctors sadness brilliantly (far superior to David Tennants often clichéd interpretation), and conveys the feeling of loss perfectly.

Her sacrifice is also a great characterisation as the Doctor has been able to share his pain with her for the first time, and so her death due to Cassandra leads him on a viciously angry path which ends with him leaving Cassandra to quite simply explode.

Following all this The Doctor realises he can’t just go on as a travelling man, but has to accept who he is and what happened to him. He does this with Rose with the great Juxtaposition between the destroyed Earth and then the busy populated road in Rose’s time. Here Rose realises The Doctor isn’t some kind of malicious secret keeper who she can’t understand, instead that he is a complex character who is going through something and that she can help him just by being there.

While the characterisation is very powerful, some of the plot is still a bit flimsy.

This mainly resolves around a silly sequence involving controls at the end of a massive fan which will basically kill anyone trying to shut them down and rest the system!

Rumour has it RTD has to cross a similar walkway just to get to the quiet rationale part of his mind.

This is the weakness of RTD, he is often very controlled in his characterisations (sometimes he does go a bit overboard) but often his plots are based on him giggling and just wanting to see something, or have something happen.

Where he got the idea of the fan sequence from I don’t know, but it comes across as lazy writing, and where as the episode deserves close to a 10/10, the pacing and plot problems this causes are so large it falls to a 9 for me.

Unfortunately its not the only ill thought out moment. 

A sun filter which falls with the press of a single episode? Sorry, can’t buy it.

Spider things pulling a full person into a shaft? Again – nope.

For me this drops the episode down further, and maybe its just he needs to learn what does and doesn't work, but some of this just doesn't work, or really fit in with the series.

A few minor points to go over as well:

While some fans don't like the pop music moments I think they hugely add to the pace of the episode, and are again another strong aspect in its musical score.

This is probably the best scored Episode of Who, until The Big Bang.

Its odd, I feel much more likable to Rose now, I guess watching through the series I'll learn why my opinion of her became so low.

Billie Piper is just amazing in this episode, and her and Chris have a great chemistry - almost contrasting each other but at the same time having the same kinds of emotions.

The I-Pod joke is a bit obvious and why have the 'classic Earth' conversation? We never see Earth, not in detail anyways - is unnecessary and a bit self absorbed - unfortunately 'our modern times' get sold as something amazing and endless for much RTD who and its just a bit...unrealistic and too optimistic frankly.

Once again Euros achieves some of the best shots Who will ever have.

Other things such as the plot never really rising into the realm of imagination weaken the episode overall.

But this is a very good episode, and really strengthens the series after a pretty awful first episode.

Thus I award it a nice, strong 8.5/10.