The End of the World (TV story)


 * For the Bernice Summerfield audio drama, see The End of the World (BFBS).

The End of the World was the second story in the first series of Doctor Who. It was the first instance of travelling into the viewers' relative future in the revived series.

From a behind-the-scenes perspective, it was significant for being director Euros Lyn's first work on the series. At the time of broadcast, it featured the most extensive use of CGI yet seen on Doctor Who.

Synopsis
The Ninth Doctor takes Rose Tyler on her first voyage through time, to the year five billion. The Sun is about to expand and swallow the Earth. But amongst the alien races gathering to watch on Platform One, a murderer is at work. Who is controlling the mysterious and deadly Spiders?

Plot
The Doctor asks Rose where she would like to go on her first trip in the TARDIS. She asks to go one hundred years into the future, but when they arrive, the Doctor states that the 22nd century is boring. They travel again, this time to 12,005 at the time of the New Roman Empire. Again, they move on without leaving the TARDIS. The Doctor then takes to a space station orbiting the Earth in the year 5.5/Apple/26 - the day the sun expands.

The Doctor tells Rose that the Earth has emptied, mankind having left it long ago and the planet taken over by the National Trust. They have used gravity satellites to hold the effects of the sun back, but now the money has run out the Earth will be allowed to be swallowed up by the Sun at last.

The extraterrestrial rich of the universe will witness the end of the world, which will occur in about an hour. The station has automated systems and is staffed by blue-skinned humanoids. On encountering the Steward, who manages Platform One, the Doctor persuades him that he and Rose are invited guests by using a piece of "Psychic paper" that makes people see what the Doctor wants them to see. The other guests arrive, including the diminutive Moxx of Balhoon, the Face of Boe, living humanoid trees from the Forest of Cheem (whose ancestors originated on Earth) and, from Financial Family Seven, a group of hooded aliens, known as the Adherents of the Repeated Meme. Rose watches in fascination as the last living human arrives — the Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen (a piece of stretched-out skin with eyes and a mouth, mounted on a frame and connected to a brain jar). The skin needs to be constantly moisturised by her attendants. The guests exchange gifts: Jabe of the Forest of Cheem gives the Doctor a cutting taken from her grandfather; the Doctor gives her the gift of air from his lungs. The Moxx gives the gift of bodily salivas, and the Adherents of the Repeated Meme hand out gifts of "peace" in the form of metal spheres, even to the Steward.

Cassandra gives her own gifts: the last ostrich egg, and an "iPod" (which is actually a jukebox) from ancient Earth. Rose is a bit overwhelmed when the jukebox plays "classical" music — the song "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell — and leaves the hall. She has a brief conversation with a station plumber, Raffalo, who is investigating a blockage. At first she is comforted by the familiarity of Raffalo's matter-of-fact, working-class manner. But when Raffalo explains that she is from Crespallion, which is part of the Jaggit Brocade, affiliated to the Scarlet Junction, in Complex 56, Rose realises how far she is from home, and with a man she does not even know. Rose leaves, and does not see Raffalo spot some small, spider-like robots in the ducts, which rapidly grab her and pull her inside. Meanwhile, the spiders are being disgorged from the metal spheres gifted by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme to the various guests, and soon infiltrate the entire station, sabotaging its systems.

The Doctor finds Rose, and when Rose asks him where he is from, the Doctor brushes her questions off, getting defensive and angry. When the Doctor alters Rose's mobile phone so she can talk to her mother in the past, another fact sinks in — her mother is long dead. The Doctor jokes that if Rose thought the telephone call was amazing, she should see the bill. Suddenly, a tremor shakes the station, and the Doctor observes that it was not supposed to happen. The Steward, investigating the cause of the tremor, is killed when a spider lowers the sun filter in his room, exposing him to the direct heat of the Sun's rays.

The Doctor also starts to look into the tremor, and Jabe offers to show him where the maintenance corridors are while Rose goes to speak to Cassandra. Rose finds that Cassandra has had a grand total of 708 operations to keep her alive, and considers herself the last "pure" human — the others who left "intermingled" with other species and she considers them all mongrels. Her 709th operation (to bleach her blood) is next week. Disgusted that humanity has come to this, Rose insults Cassandra and storms off, only to be met by the Adherents, who knock her out.

In the corridors, Jabe quietly tells the Doctor that she scanned him earlier, and was astonished to discover what he was and that he still even exists. She genuinely sympathises with him, putting a hand on his arm, and the Doctor is briefly moved to tears. They then continue to the bowels of the station, where they find one of the spiders. Jabe captures it with a long, vine-like appendage which she usually keeps hidden out of courtesy.

As the station's systems continue to be sabotaged and, as a "traditional ballad" — Britney Spears's "Toxic" — plays on the jukebox, Rose wakes to find herself trapped in a room with a lowering sun filter. The Doctor hears her cries for help and manages to raise the filter, but Rose is still locked in. Returning to the main hall, the Doctor releases the spider to seek out its master. At first it focuses on the Adherents of the Repeated Meme, but the Doctor points out that in fact, when you actually take enough time to think about it, the Repeated Memes are just ideas, and the Adherents are remote-controlled droids. He pulls the arm off one of them, which deactivates them and the spider scurries over to Cassandra.

Cassandra has her attendants hold the others at bay, saying that the moisturiser guns can also shoot acid. She reveals that her operations cost a fortune, and she was hoping to create a hostage situation whereby she could later seek compensation. Now she will just let everyone burn and take over their corporate holdings. Cassandra orders the spiders to shut off the force field protecting the station, then uses an illegal teleportation device to transport herself and her attendants away.

With only a few minutes left until the Sun incinerates Earth and the station, the Doctor and Jabe rush back down to the air-conditioning chamber. The restore switch for the computer systems is at the other end of a platform blocked by giant rotating fans. The Doctor protests that the rising heat will burn the wooden Jabe, but she insists on staying to hold down the switch that slows the fans. The Doctor makes it nearly to the end before Jabe catches fire and burns. He closes his eyes and concentrates, making it past the last fan and throwing the reset switch. The force fields come up around the station just in time, as the Earth explodes into cinders. The station's systems start to self-repair.

However, several of the guests are now dead (including the Moxx but not the Face of Boe), burned alive as the Sun's rays burst through cracks in the windows. The Doctor is furious, and after finding Cassandra's teleportation feed inside the ostrich egg, reverses it to bring her back. She quickly regains her poise and starts taunting the Doctor, saying that he cannot do anything about her. However, the Doctor calmly notes that he has transported Cassandra back without her moisturising attendants. In the raised temperature, she begins to dry out. Cassandra begs for mercy and Rose asks the Doctor to help her, but the Doctor coldly says that every thing has its time, and every thing dies. Cassandra's skin stretches and tears, her innards exploding and leaving only her brain tank and empty frame.

Rose is sad that in all the danger, the Earth's passing was not actually witnessed by anyone. The Doctor takes her back to the present in the TARDIS, telling her that people think things will last forever, but they don't. He reveals to her that his home planet was burned like Earth, but in a war, and that he is the last survivor of the Time Lords. Rose says that he still has her, and he smiles as she offers to buy him some chips (after all, they only have five billion years before the shops close).

Cast

 * The Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Steward - Simon Day
 * Jabe - Yasmin Bannerman
 * Moxx of Balhoon - Jimmy Vee
 * Cassandra O'Brien - Zoë Wanamaker
 * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
 * Raffalo - Beccy Armory
 * Voice of Computer - Sara Stewart
 * Voice of Alien - Silas Carson
 * Coffa - Paul Kasey
 * Lute - Alan Ruscoe

Story notes

 * The story begins with a brief re-cap of the last week's episode similar to many American shows, however unlike most American shows there is no voice over announcing "previously on Doctor Who". The footage from Rose simply begins the episode. Discounting the 1996 TV movie, this marked the first time a Doctor Who episode had started with a pre-credits sequence since Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988; unlike the original series, which used the device rarely, it would become standard practice for the series from here on out, with very few episodes made without a teaser (the exceptions are usually series premieres).


 * A BBC logo is placed on the bottom of the screen when the recap finishes and this episode begins. At this point the corporation had not yet established the practice of showing the logo during the opening credits.


 * Russell T Davies, who created Cassandra, has said on multiple occasions that he was inspired to create Cassandra upon viewing skinny Hollywood actresses at the Academy Awards. On 2 April 2006, the Sunday Mirror quoted Davies: "It was horrific seeing those beautiful women reduced to sticks. Nicole Kidman struck me in particular. Nicole is one of the most beautiful women in the world. But she looks horrifying because she's so thin. It's like we're killing these women in public. We watch while you die."


 * Rose - "Wait hold on. They did this once on Newsround Extra" - Newsround is a news program on BBC 1 and CBBC aimed at providing news for children. Newsround Extra is an extended version of this concept which concentrates on a single issue or subject. A newsround reporter was on set watching as this scene was filmed. His report can be read here on the newsround website


 * A minor milestone occurs when the Doctor utters the phrase "What the hell is that?", the first time the character has the minor curse phrase. This marked a slight loosening of the Doctor's use of language in the revived series, although in light of the show's family-friendly tone the Doctor has never said anything stronger than "hell" and "damn."
 * The scene between Rose and Ruffalo was a late addition, added because the episode was underrunning.
 * This is the first time the Doctor has actually been seen to shed a tear.

Ratings

 * Saturday - 8.0 million viewers

Myths

 * The first thing Rose sees upon leaving the TARDIS is a ventilation duct. What is commonly mistaken for a ventilation duct was actually the shuttered window in the smaller observation room. The Doctor opens it after he exits the TARDIS.

Cultural References

 * The room with all of the moving blades seems to be inspired by Star Wars, which is famous for its long bridges over really huge chasms and no hand rails or anything to stop people falling to their death.


 * When the Ninth Doctor returns Rose to Earth in the 21st century there is a man selling the Big Issue. This is a magazine sold on the streets in the UK and Australia to provide money for homeless people.
 * When Rose tells the Doctor she is going to talk to Cassandra she calls her "Michael Jackson."

Music

 * Tainted Love - Plays after all of the delegates have assembled


 * Toxic by Britney Spears - Plays while the delegates await the destruction of the Earth and the Doctor realises the danger they are all in.

Filming locations

 * Much of Platform One was filmed in 'the chapel of peace' in Cardiff.
 * The service tunnels were filmed in the basement of BBC Wales.

Production errors

 * Rose Tyler's hairstyle changes from shot to shot when she is discussing being 'the last human' with Cassandra. Rose's hair is in one style for the long shots, and another style for the close-ups.

Continuity

 * Rose asks why all of the aliens seem to speak English, the first companion to do so since Sarah Jane Smith. Given his reaction, Rose is also the only one to question why he didn't ask permission first. Donna Noble also asked the Doctor and tried speaking Latin (DW: The Fires of Pompeii). In the classic series, Sarah Jane Smith asked the Doctor (DW: The Masque of Mandragora), but while being possessed. It was this that alerted the Doctor that she was possessed.
 * The Doctor implies he was on the Titanic, a connection previously implied in DW: Rose. In the classic series there was a reference in The Invasion of Time.
 * It has been commented upon that the Doctor shows a darker side by leaving Cassandra to die, a scene very reminiscent of the scene with Davros in DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, even down to use of the phrase "Have pity".
 * Cassandra returns in DW: New Earth.
 * The Face of Boe returns in DW: New Earth and DW: Gridlock. The Doctor later speculates that the Face of Boe may be the future form of Jack Harkness. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)
 * The Earth's end was last seen when the planet was trailing smoke as it headed towards the Sun at the close of episode two of DW: The Ark, during the 57th segment of Time. The last Humans left on Earth had evacuated the planet because of the increasing danger that it would fall into the sun, fleeing to planets such as Refusis II and Frontios (DW: The Ark, Frontios).
 * The Doctor upgrades Rose's phone into the Superphone. He later does this to Martha Jones and Donna Noble in DW: 42 and DW: The Poison Sky.
 * The Doctor uses Psychic paper on-screen for the first time. His second incarnation briedly used it during his time as an agent of the Celestial Intervention Agency. (PDA: World Game)
 * Just as with Rose, Peri's first TARDIS trip was to a space station — deliberately chosen by the Doctor, so Peri could easily see lots of different alien races and thereby get a taste of what travelling in the TARDIS was like. (PDA: The Ultimate Treasure)

Timeline

 * This story takes place after DW: Rose
 * This story takes place before DW: The Unquiet Dead

Home video releases

 * This was released along side Rose and The Unquiet Dead on a "vanilla" DVD with no extras.
 * It was also released as part of the Series 1 DVD boxset
 * This was also released with Issue 1 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.