Episode #161 : The End of the World

The Doctor: You think it'll last forever: people and cars and concrete. But it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned, like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust. Before its time.

Rose: What happened?

The Doctor: There was a war, and we lost.

Episode 161:   The End of the World.
Companions:   9th Doctor and Rose Tyler.
Air Date:         2nd April 2005.

The Ninth Doctor takes his new companion, Rose Tyler, to the year 5,000,000,000 to see the sun expand and destroy the Earth. The observation deck space station, Platform One, is holding an event with the richest beings of the time observing the Earth's destruction, but mysterious metal spiders gifted by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme to the other guests are secretly infiltrating and sabotaging the station.

After a reasonable but perhaps shaky start, Doctor Who continues with story set against the backdrop of the Earth's last hour before destruction. But the Doctor isn't here to save it, the Earth has had her time. Instead, he thinks bringing Rose to the far future will be an adventure but doesn't consider the impact it will have on his new companion. That is one of the things I especially like about this episode. Previous companions seem to get past the culture shock quite quickly and adapt with ease. Rose however gets rather upset that she is seeing the Earth die even though it is billions of years in her future. We also see her reaction to suddenly realising that she has just picked up and off into time and space with a complete stranger. Again, something we didn't see under the classic show. For the criticism that was levelled at RTD during his time as producer of the show, it is elements like this that really help define the new Who.

This story also features the first instance of the phrase Bad Wolf which would appear in every episode of this first series from here on. Here it is spoke by one of the alien visitors who mentions "the Bad Wolf scenario".

As you see in the above quotation, this story starts to introduce the back story which we have missed while the show was off air. It appears that Gallifrey has been destroyed in some sort of conflict with an unnamed enemy and that the Doctor is the last of the Time Lords. At the time of air, I didn't like this as I am rather fond of stories that feature the Time Lords but as we go along we eventually learn of Gallifrey's fate.

There are quite a few elements in this story which will return as the show goes along, including the Face of Boe and Lady Cassandra, in addition to the Bad Wolf plot line. The End of the World is a very good example of Doctor Who but I can't help but feel that it might have been better if stretched out to two parts. There is a lot crammed in here and doesn't get nearly enough air time. However it does end with some thought provoking comments and all good science fiction should entertain and make you think.