Doctor Who - End of the World
161. 020405. 102 by Russell T Davies
Starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose. Description and review.

 Quote of the episode:
Rose: They all speak English.
Doctor: No, you just hear English. It's a gift of the TARDIS telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates.
Rose: It's inside my brain.
Doctor: Well, in a good way.
Rose: Your machine gets inside my head.... it gets inside and it changes my mind you didn't even ask!?
Doctor: I didn't think about it like that.
 

The episode opens with a few scenes from the previous story leading to Rose entering the Tardis. The story then starts with the Doctor offering to take Rose to the past or the future. She chooses the future. The Doctor rolls a control forward indicating going further into the future, then pumps a handle up and down that looks very much like a bicycle pump.

The TARDIS lands on a space station circling Earth, not far from the exploding sun. Rose comments that the Sun shouldn't expand so suddenly and the Doctor replies that the Sun's explosion had been held in check by 'The Trust' for thousands of years by gravity generators, and this was the day chosen for everything to end.

Then the beginning theme and the title.

The Doctor and Rose are introduced to many creatures who've arrived on the station to view EarthDeath. This includes tree people who have evolved from the Amazonian Rainforest, a flat piece of skin with a face that is over 2000 years old and is the last human alive, some androids, the head of Bael and several other creatures. The Doctor has managed to get an invitation by convincing the blue administrator that his blank card showed their ticket.

 In greeting the guests an exchange of presents is expected. When the Doctor is greeted by a particularly ravishing tree he is offered a cutting of her grandfather. In exchange he gives her air from her lungs. 'How...intimate' Jabe says seductively. 

She secretly scans him and finds that he is a Time Lord. She is totally surprised at this as she knows that Gallifrey was destroyed in a  war and there weren't any Time Lords left.

Rose finds the sudden culture shock of all these aliens too much and needs to take a break to find some normality. She befriends a little blue female alien and finds out that she works as a plumber. Rose is secretly relieved that some things never change. (The plumber is later taken by a group of four legged mechanical spiders)

Rose and the Doctor have an argument as the Doctor doesn't want to talk about his past and Rose realises that it isn't a good thing to argue with the designated driver.

They make up and the Doctor adds something to her mobile so that she can call her mother 5 billion years ago. It comes as a shock that she's talking to her mother long after everyone is dead.

Hooded black robed creatures hand out balls as gifts. These balls later hatch electronic spiders that scan through the system and begin sabotage. The administrator dies when the sun filter system malfunctions and fries him instantly.

The Doctor and Jabe go on a tour of the engine corridors to find out why they're feeling gravity shifts. In talking Jabe tells the Doctor that she knows who he is and that she's very sorry about what happened to his planet. The Doctor pauses for a moment and tears drop from his eyes. They then discover the sabotage by the spiders.

Rose has an argument with the last pure racist flat human and leaves. She is attacked by the black clothed aliens and is locked in a room with the sun filter slowly lowering. The Doctor tries to rescue her but only manages to halt the radiation at a point. The doors are welded shut and Rose can't get out. Auto repairs systems are down.
 

The Doctor goes back and confront the guests to find the culprit.

The culprit disappears by teleport as the countdown to EarthDeath continues. Without protection the satellite will be destroyed. Rose is trapped in a room with sun beams burning through, breaking holes in the sun filter. The beams are burning everywhere, destroying some of the guests.

Remember Galaxy Quest? Remember the scene where they have to jump through huge blocks smashing up and down and there doesn't seem to be a reason for it? The Doctor needs to jump through huge fast spinning fans to get to a reset switch to save the satellite. Does Jabe survive? Does the Doctor save everyone as the fan blades spin ever faster? Is this a nod to Galaxy Quest?


Rose, The End of the World
The Unquiet Dead

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