The End of the World (TV story)

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 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 says the 22nd century is boring. They travel again, this time to 12005, the time of the New Roman Empire. Again, they move on without leaving the TARDIS. Finally, to impress his new companion, the Doctor takes Rose to a space station orbiting the Earth in the year 5.5/Apple/26, the day the sun goes supernova.

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

The rich and powerful 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 blue-skinned Steward, who manages Platform One, the Doctor persuades him Rose and he are invited guests by using a piece of psychic paper that makes people see what the Doctor wants. 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 horrified 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" (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 just how far she is from home, with a man she does not know. She leaves, and does not see Raffalo spot small, spider-like robots in the ducts, which rapidly grab her and pull her inside. The spiders are being disgorged from the metal spheres gifted by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme to guests. They soon infiltrate the entire station, sabotaging its systems.

The Doctor finds Rose. When she asks where he is from, he brushes off her questions off. 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 gleefully observes that 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 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 Cassandra has had seven hundred eight cosmetic operations, and considers herself the last "pure" human — the others who left "intermingled" with other species and she considers them all mongrels. Her next 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 he exists. She sympathises with him and the Doctor is briefly moved to tears. They continue to the bowels of the station, where they find one of the spiders. Jabe captures it with a long, vine-like appendage.

As the station's systems continue to fail and, as a "traditional ballad" — Britney Spears' "Toxic" — plays on the jukebox, Rose is trapped in a room with a lowering sun filter. The Doctor hears her cries for help and raises the filter, but Rose is still locked in. Returning to the main hall, he releases the spider to seek out its master. It scurries over to Cassandra.

Cassandra has her attendants hold the others at bay, saying the moisturiser guns can also shoot acid. Her operations cost a fortune and she was hoping to create a hostage situation and 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 a teleportation device to transport herself and her attendants away.

With only minutes until the Sun incinerates Earth and the station, the Doctor and Jabe rush back 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 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 as the Earth explodes into cinders. The station's systems start to self-repair.

Several of the guests are now dead, incinerated as the Sun's rays burst through cracks in the windows. The Doctor finds Cassandra's teleportation feed inside the ostrich egg and reverses it to bring her back. She starts taunting the Doctor, saying that he cannot do anything about her. However, the Doctor calmly notes he has transported Cassandra back without her moisturising attendants. In the heat, 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, leaving only her brain tank and empty frame.

Rose is sad that in all the danger, the Earth's passing was not actually seen 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 admits his home planet was burned like Earth, but in a war. He is the last survivor of the Time Lords. Rose says he still has her, and he smiles as she offers to buy him some chips. They have only five billion years before the shops close.

Cast

 * The 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

Gallifrey

 * The Doctor tells Rose his planet was destroyed before its time as the result of a war which they lost.

Bad Wolf arc

 * Bad Wolf is mentioned for the first time, the Moxx of Balhoon stating "Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario."

Species

 * Cassandra mentions there are many species out there that describe themselves as "Human-ish," likely referencing the many near-human races. Cassandra most likely assumes that Rose is one of these Near-Humans upon meeting her.

Story notes

 * The story begins with a brief re-cap of the last week's episode similar to many American shows, but 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, with very few episodes made without a teaser (the exceptions are usually series premieres).


 * A BBC logo is 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 many 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."


 * In one scene Rose says "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 used the minor curse word. 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", referring to that singer's well-known cosmetic surgery.

Music

 * Tainted Love by Soft Cell - 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. Her hair is in one style for the long shots and another 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. Sarah Jane Smith asked the Doctor (DW: The Masque of Mandragora) while being possessed. It was this that alerted the Doctor to her possession. 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).
 * The Doctor implies he was on the RMS Titanic, previously implied in DW: Rose. In the classic series, there was a reference to the sinking in DW: The Invasion of Time.
 * It has been commented 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, approximately 10,000,000 years into the future. 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, DW: 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 briefly 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 get a taste of what travelling in the TARDIS was like. (PDA: The Ultimate Treasure)
 * The First Doctor previously met intelligent vegetation in BFA: Here There Be Monsters.
 * The Doctor tells Rose he came first in Jiggery-Pokery. In ST: Generation Gap the Third Doctor mentioned having "some experience" in Jiggery-Pokery.

Timeline

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

Home video releases

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