The End of the World

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  • #26246
    Craig @craig
    Emperor

    The Doctor takes Rose on her first voyage through time, to the year five billion. The sun is about to expand and swallow the Earth.

    Rose is cautious and soon starts to question her reasons for joining The Doctor. But amongst the powerful alien races gathering to watch on Platform One, a murderer is at work.

    #26259
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    It’s actually been quite a while since I watched this, and I’d forgotten how impressive some of the visual FX truly are. The CGI on the spiders themselves is well done considering the TV budget. It was an astute move to basically shout “YES WE HAVE A BUDGET” early on.

    So – the Doctor and his “plus one” turn up on a space station. Let’s face it, he’s in the mood to impress his new companion. With all of Time and Space to wow her with, he brings her to see the destruction of her own planet. It’s not quite the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but would surely pack an emotional punch to an inhabitant of said world. Perhaps there is something nagging at the Doctor?

    Any wake needs guests of course, and the guest list shows a lot of imagination. I actually like how the slightly malevolent looking Moxx of Balhoon turned out to be such as cosmic old woman. Also top marks for the name “The Adherents of the Repeated Meme”. RTD showing some foresight in predicting a contingent of BTL commentators, there. Rewatching this episodes I couldn’t help mentally ticking a box when the big ‘ol Face of Boe mentions a Bad Wolf scenario.

    After rejecting the obvious advances of Rose’s mum last week, here the Doctor meets a flirtations tree and flirts right back. You tend to forget the ninth Doctor was a bit of a flirt himself. When the War Doctor asked “is there a lot of this in the future”, he really didn’t know how quickly it would come about.

    I think you can tell I enjoyed this a bit more than Rose, and I confirm I did the first time round. I still think the tone is pitching towards a bit farcical at times, but for some reason I still find myself immersing in it. I think a big reason is there is really no prior anchor point (as the Autons were in Rose) for me to evaluate against prior experience. This is all new territory.

    I’ve heard people complain about Cassandra, but again, in a comic way her snobbishness about being the last human is pretty funny. I think the voice performance by Zoe Wannamaker is great. As a satire against the extremes of cosmetic surgery, it’s broad, but no broader than some of the BG years attempts.

    Really, hats off to Billie Piper in this. I think her reaction to suddenly finding herself in this position feels very real. I think she conveys that sudden disconnection and being somehow “lost” really well.

    I also reallt admire the scene where the button that will save the day is trapped behind an unnecessarily complicated death machine(tm). I thought the scene where they took the piss in the film Galaxy Quest may make people reticent to continue using that device, but it’s good to see the old traditions continue. Poor Jabe.

    I really like the speech and confessional about the Doctor and the fate of his planet at the end. It’s a nice attention grabbing sting in the tale, signalling that a substantially darker tone may be possible in the new iteration.

    #26270
    The Krynoid Man @thekrynoidman

    I thought it was alright when I first saw it but looking at it now it’s not very good. It fails as a mystery because it’s obvious who the bad guy is, and it fails as a comedy because it’s not funny (well some of Eccelston’s lines were funny). I do like the ending though, The Doctors speech is very poinient. The effects were fantastic for the time too.

    #26276
    Anonymous @

    The end of Rose saw the titular character excited at the prospect of travelling through time and space. Here, she’s hit squarely in the face by a big dose of culture shock. They’re on a space station orbiting Earth and there’s not another human in sight (yet), just lots of aliens. There’re big aliens, small aliens , robot aliens and blue aliens (blue aliens are cool).

    When it comes to aliens, it’s usually Star Wars that gets mentioned as the influence for character design but in this case the aliens look as if they’ve just popped across from The Uncharted Territories. In Farscape, we had sentient plants in the form of Devlians, here they’re erm, Trees (and much more attractive than Ents). There’s the diminutive, Throne-sled bound Moxx of Balhoon referencing Rygel XVI and a rather large head-shaped puppet-alien referencing pretty much every large puppet-alien from FS.

    I loved ‘The Host’. He seems to be one of those people that would really enjoy working in the hospitality business if only it weren’t for all those pesky guests to run around after.

    This episode also serves as a reminder that it’s not always robots, despotic travel-machine bound mutants and cyborgs that are up to no good. Sometimes it’s the ‘humans’ as well (even if they are a dress-size minus 12 🙂 )

    @thekrynoidman – yes, it was obvious from the start who the baddie was but IMO, that was the intention. RTD’s a good enough writer to have kept it a mystery if he’d wanted to.

    Nit-pick alert (part one).

    It’s so hot in the ‘unnecessarily complicated death machine’ – [(tm) @phaseshift] that wood bursts into flames without any direct heat (eg. fire or a spark) and yet The Doctor is unaffected. Time Lords are certainly made of stronger stuff than your average alien 😉

    Nit-pick alert (part two).

    “YES WE HAVE A BUDGET”

    Yes, they do indeed have a budget. I just wish it would extend to using more varied locations. How many times have they used ‘The Temple Of Peace’ now? I’ve never been there but feel like I know it’s layout better than the back of my own hand 🙂

    Had EotW been shown later in the series, I’m not sure it’d have ‘worked’ but coming as it did at the start of a newly invigorated franchise, it’s a cracker!

    #26282
    Anonymous @

    actually @fatmaninabox I totally agree with the nit-pick alerts (bloomin clever idea and spot on too).

    I too think that EotW may not have worked so well in later series: it really was designed to show all the oddities of space and time (cue a bit of Bowie here) and to introduce Rose to the wonderful world of the ‘weird ones’. Given her compassion, Rose’s interaction with the ‘lower class’ mechanic bloomed into a full on understanding and admiration of other species and types. Of course, a simple story, but when I watched SitL yesterday, I heard grave dialogue (absolute magic of course) such as: “I have the two qualities you require to see absolute truth: I am brilliant and unloved”. Mixed with Tennant’s quick chatter about  neural relays, I think that the complicated episodes of the following series may have spooked new viewers if those later episodes had arrived too early; fully and conceptually sculpted in 2005.

    It’s why I liked the first episode ‘Rose’- even clunky plastic Mickey and the burping dumpster. Mr Ilion (not a fan of Who in the early days) found both ‘Rose’, for its slapstick, and EotW, for its introduction to crazy monsters and dehumanised creatures who shriek “moisturise me”,  an absolute treat and a humdinger from this soon to be bouncing new series.

    Its easier to built a monument than a movement. We have the latter in Moffat’s complicated arcs and mysterious companions. RTD needed to start with a monument to this series, crossing fingers and toes that Eccles and the space station would captivate little kids, win the mums and finally, old followers of BG, drawn to the tele like a bunch of Autons (‘Rose’) scuttling to (rather than away from) the TV like the Spider Droids in EotW would delightfully anticipate Who’s new look- and its hook: many many monsters! And don’t forget a countdown…till the end of the world no less. It certainly caught me in 2005 when I least expected it to.

    Kindest,  purofilion

    #26298
    Anonymous @

    I’ve been thinking about my ‘nit-picks’ and decided to try and come up with a way to close this pesky plot holes. So here’re my half-hearted attempts…

    Nit-pick (possible) solution part one

    It was no hotter in the UCDM than your average sauna. The reason Jabe burnt was that her ‘tree-sap’ (ie, blood) becomes volatile when exposed to extreme heat and it’s this that caused the fire.

    Nit-pick (possible) solution part two

    The Temple of Peace was among the various artefacts that the Daleks allowed The Meddling Monk to have in exchange for his help (see the Big Finish 8th Doctor stories Lucie Miller/To The Death for details).

    In his grief at losing (spoilers 😉 ), The Monk had copies of The Temple Of Peace built on every civilised world that he visited as a memorial.

    #26300
    Monochrome Dimension @monochromedimension

    Recently watched this on Watch, hadn’t seen it in ages. I actually don’t mind this episode, its a bit silly in places… but I don’t mind when Doctor Who is silly. Doesn’t have to be serious all the time, ya know! Not sure on the Ninth Doctor’s pick for Rose’s first journey in the TARDIS… you wanted to impress her… by showing her home planet being destroyed? But this episode does introduce us to the more ‘very sci-fi’ aspect of the show, with lots of aliens and its set on a space station! The effects are good as was mentioned before.

    And here is where the Doctor says Gallifrey is gone (or words to that effect), something I was not happy about in the new series. It really seems to distance itself from the Classic Series because of this. Of course now we know it isn’t gone, which is why I was so happy after watching ‘Day of the Doctor’… but it makes everything seem so lonely. The Doctor is lonely, and for some reason without Gallifrey… the Whoniverse seems lonely… I don’t know why. We won’t be watching ‘Dalek’ (I recently rewatched it anyhow), but that’s another episode where the loneliness is apparent… and not just for the Doctor.

    #26306
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    I keep thinking how much I enjoyed Day of The Doctor. AG Series One makes so much more sense now. 🙂

    But it does make more sense – it explains visually what RTD clearly had in his head; Gallifrey is gone, burnt. And so the Ninth Doctor is pissed off at humans (‘stupid apes’) even though he loves them. He drags Rose off to see her planet burn, possibly not even realising why he’s doing it.

    The humans lived. The Time Lords – didn’t.

    I can appreciate Eccleston’s performance a lot more now that I’ve seen what came ‘before’. It’s a very good portrayal of someone who is as traumatised as hell.

    Anyway, going back to End of the World. It certainly has a budget; lots and lots of good quality CGI. The aliens don’t look human (well, apart from the Time Lord). Even the human doesn’t look human. 😉

    I’d rate the story itself as largely ‘one for the kids’. It has lots of aliens, a simple moral about racism, and is generally a good little adventure story. Remembering that RTD was having to re-introduce Doctor Who to a new generation, it also demonstrates what Doctor Who is about. Exciting adventures in far-future space stations, people getting horribly killed, and explosions. 😛

    Next week we go to Victorian … err, Cardiff. Kids, this is a time machine. Not just a spaceship. 🙂

    I agree with @monochromedimension that destroying Gallifrey felt wrong, somehow. I understand entirely why RTD did it – he needed a compelling backstory and he needed to not start the new series with several decades of baggage. Destroying Gallifrey gave him both – it really did draw a line between BG and AG. Same Doctor, many of the same aliens, but – we start here. There is no need to know anything of the series before ‘Rose’. Do not worry about strange men with scarves (unless you want to).

    @fatmaninabox – I’ll see you the Temple of Peace and raise you the Millenium Stadium. Presumably the service corridors under the Stadium represent a peak of architectural efficiency, because civilisations across the universe seem to have copied them.

    #26309
    Anonymous @

    @bluesqueakpip

    I’ll see you the Temple of Peace and raise you the Millenium Stadium

    Aaargh! I was saving that for a future nit-pick 👿

    All I can come back with is ‘Tredegar House’ in Newport. I visited there in the early 90’s when I lived in Newport. It’s a lovely, old building. Well worth a visit for anyone who likes that sort of thing.

    #26310
    The Krynoid Man @thekrynoidman

    @fatmaninabox RTD making the villain intentionally obvious is actually worse. It makes the Doctor look like an idiot for not guessing who it is. It would be fine if it played out like an episode of Columbo where you see the crime happen and the suspense comes from the Doctor catching them out, but it doesn’t, it plays like a standard detective story just with a very unsubtle profromence from the villain (I’m not going to say who it is in case I get told off for spoiling it for people who haven’t watched the episode, although considering the full episode is at the top of the page it would be their own fault).

    #26311
    Anonymous @

    @thekrynoidman you are in a bad mood, dude! 🙂 Other opinions (such as mine at the top) suggest that new viewers were interested in how the Doctor was going to foil the baddie rather than who the baddie was. Again, like episode one, Rose, I think the Doctor wasn’t the main character: rather it was Rose and us, as viewers, who were introduced to the wonderful world of colourful, intriguing monsters; each a unique character. Personally, a size -12 (as @fatmaninabox suggested) semi-human was great stuff! The Mox of Balhoon: amazing creativity!  It needed momentum as a series and this was the best way to set it rolling. Maybe now retrospectively we tend to smugness about the baddie: but Who isn’t Agatha Christie! And thinking back on it (5 mins ago), there is some suspense near the end. We’re not sure if the baddie will foil the Doctor at one point. Remember: this was for new viewers and ‘older’ diehards from a previous century.

    Kindest, purofilion

    #26312
    Anonymous @

    @thekrynoidman

    The mystery of who was trying to sabotage Platform 1 was the sub-plot. Just a bit of camp fun with weird and wonderful aliens to entertain and thrill the little ‘uns (and some of us big ‘uns too 🙂 ). This episode wasn’t supposed to be a detective story which is why it was made so obvious who the baddie was. As I said previously, RTD’s a good enough writer to have kept us in the dark if that had been his intention.

    The main point of it was Rose’s reaction to seeing what’s out there and that, sometimes, it isn’t always as glamorous as she thought it would be. Yes, it can be thrilling but sometimes there’s danger. Sometimes, people (and planets) die.

    As @purofilion points out, the is Doctor Who not Agatha Christie – she comes in much later 🙂

    #26313
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    @thekrynoidman – I’d agree with everyone else that the ‘mystery’ was a sub-plot. Doctor Who may sometimes decide to have a bit of a mystery, but this episode was really a ‘save the day’ story. The first three episodes of the new series are introducing us (through Rose) to the world of Doctor Who. Mostly, during the RTD era, this involves the Doctor saving people, planets and reality itself. 🙂

    So – alien invasions in which the Doctor-plus-Rose save the day! (Episode 1). Adventures on space stations – with aliens – in which the Doctor saves the day! (Episode 2). Adventures in history, meeting famous people (Episode 3) – in which … well, you get my point.

    And we have a budget!!! No more being expected to make an alien world out of a collection of loo rolls, some old shampoo bottles, cornflake packets and a piece of sticky-backed plastic…

    #26314
    The Krynoid Man @thekrynoidman

    @purofilion, @fatmaninabox, @bluesqueakpip I realise and agree that the story was about Rose and her reaction to seeing the universe for the first time, but the point I was trying to make, admittedly I didn’t do it very well, was that if the episode have a mystery sub plot, it could at least have some element of mystery to it. It’s fine if you disagree with me though, it’s just my opinion.

    #26315
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    @thekrynoidman – well, I think it did have some element of mystery to it – if you were eight. 😉

    That’s what I mean (I think I said it in Rose) about RTD not yet knowing where his audience was. The answer turned out to be ‘everywhere’, but at this point he didn’t know if he was writing primarily for kids, with the adults watching on sufferance. Or was he writing primarily for adults, people who’d watched it when they were kids?

    The ‘mystery’ sub-plot is aimed fairly and squarely at the kids, I think. If you think about it, villains in kid’s movies generally do have the equivalent of big arrows pointing at their heads saying ‘suspect ME!’

    I personally suspect that in RTD’s mind, the Doctor had figured out who was behind it long before that ‘reveal’ – he was just making sure.

    #26318
    The Krynoid Man @thekrynoidman

    @bluesqueakpip Fair enough, although I personally hate the “it’s for kids” argument as I feel it’s just used as an excuse for lazy script writing (but that’s a rant for another time).

    #26321
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    @fatmaninabox

    I have to agree on the comparison with Farscape. There is a mad creativity about both shows which I admire. I think I once said that, although I’m not a fan of cross-overs, I could see the TARDIS landing on Moya, and the Doctor interacting with the crew quite easily in a way that I couldn’t with, for example, the Star Trek Universe.

    Just on your nit-pick with Jabe, it hadn’t really occurred to me as a stumbling block because the idea of a tree evolving a human shape was so out-there anyway 😉 , but hey, if we want to rampantly speculate on alien biochemistry….

    I’d imagine the tree-people live on a timescale far more rapid than a typical tree, and that they have a circulatory system that more mirrors our own (rapid, opposed to slow sap transfer, to account for the huge amount of energy required for moving and thinking). That could be a thinner (less viscous) version of the usual constituents which are water with various cellulose compounds, minerals, sugars and balanced with heavy chain alcohols, (sinapyl and coniferyl alcohols) with lighter alcohols to reduce viscosity (you’ve probably heard of wood alcohol, which is predominantly methanol balanced with traces of others usually up to butanol). These lower weight alcohols are obviously highly flammable on their own, but mix well with water. For Jabes circulatory system to work, there would need to be a higher concentration of these to reduce viscosity.

    It’s known that exposure to higher temperatures in living wood can evolve these gases (it is suggested it could be a minor contributory factor in ongoing forest fires) as the wood “sweats” flammable gas as it dries out. The more alcohol and lighter elements in the wood, the more extreme the effect at lower temperatures. So Jabe gets dry, sweats alcohol and become very combustible around the bark.

    On the ignition side, Jabe, unusually for a tree, is wearing clothes. Don’t laugh, because the Static potential of clothes is well known to be a hazard around flammable substances. There are many industrial facilities where you have to check yourself with a device to measure it before you enter (if you “fail” because you boots that are too insulating, you wear a temporary band around your ankle and shoe to earth you).

    So that’s my far-fetched reasoning. Flammable sweat and static discharge. 😀

    #26322
    Anonymous @

    @phaseshift

    I thinks it’s due to the combination of a cold and insomnia (been awake since 8am yesterday!) but I got as far as ‘heavy chain alcohols’ and then my brain exploded 🙂

    I’m no fan of crossovers either unless they’re within the same franchise (Buffy/Angel, the occasional TNG character cropping up in DS9) and I intend to avoid the Trek/Who one at all costs but a Farscape/Who crossover? That’d be a marriage made in heaven! I’d be just as happy with a David Kemper penned DW episode. He’s the only writer I can think of that’d out-bonkers The Moff 🙂

    Speaking of FS/DW. In one of those bizarre cases of coincidence I’ve just been reading that Virginia Hey has recorded a Big Finish story with Tom Baker.

    http://www.kasterborous.com/2014/02/farscapes-virginia-hey-joins-tom-baker-white-ghosts/

    I’m off to bed, just as soon as I’ve wiped the bits of brain-matter off the ceiling. Apologies to the Topic Dalek for being slightly off-topic 🙂

    #26323
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    @bluesqueakpip

    I think that is the interesting thing about rewatching these episodes. You do get the sense it’s very new, and the elements are designed to engage as much of any potential audience as possible.

    So far, it’s very light and frothy. Deliberately so. It does remind me somewhat of the first series of Buffy in that respect in that it’s using some pretty fun adventures to trap you into buying into the main characters. There are hints of darkness and casualties in the support, but I think every new series in genre struggles with issues of tone. I can’t honestly think of one multi-series genre show I’ve watched where I’d say “oh – check out the first series, but it all goes downhill after that”.

    It’ll be interesting to see how that changes as time goes on in this retrospective.

    #26324
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    @fatmaninabox

    Actually, re-reading it was a bit heavy for a Monday morning. To summarise:

    She sweats alcohol and the static in her clothes ignites the alcohol.

    #26325
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    @phaseshift – if it wasn’t for the fact that Jabe said her ancestors were from the rainforests, I’d have wondered if she was a eucalyptus. They’re extremely flammable.

    #26326
    Anonymous @

    @phaseshift

    Actually, re-reading it was a bit heavy for a Monday morning.

    No, the problem is with me. Made up technobabble I can deal with but confront me with actual science and my brain goes boom 🙂

    Having had a good sleep, I re-read your theory and it does make perfect sense.

    #26327
    Anonymous @

    @thekrynoidman  I think the argument “it’s for kids” is OK actually? I recall mini-Ilion being five when EotW aired. I saw his eyes pop with the Moxx spitting, and the Adherents, with their black cloaks, immediately led him to shout and point: “baddie: right there”. I was watching him with delight remembering my own reactions at his age to the monochrome episodes, the corridors and the alfoil creatures (no less scary) and realised it was pretty much written for children. Even now, he watches something like The Doctor Dances and is terrified but finds it funny also.

    When I sat down on the sofa to watch EotW -mainly because mini-Ilion was loving it so much, Mr Ilion joined us -busy working, but hearing giggles and “oohs” from the couch he wanted to check it out (for the second time). In five minutes it became what Who has always been: family TV. Sure, the script was simple but I’d stand by the theory that had it been complex, had it contained the hints of story arcs, kids would have found it odd and adults might have said: “this is nothing like what I remembered”.  When you think about how, as a child, you were drawn to the show, I think that ultimately it’s the oddity of the Doctor, the villains & the TARDIS. I don’t think the complicated script (which surely existed back in the 70s) was the main reason a viewer became a fan so quickly. That element was an added attraction.

    Kindest, puro

    #41580
    Cath Annabel @cathannabel

    @purofilion @thekrynoidman  @bluesqueakpip   I think when ‘its for kids’ is used to excuse simplistic or sloppy writing, it’s a total copout.  Kids deserve good writing – and they can tell the difference.  I read Enid Blyton as a kid, alongside Alan Garner, ROsemary Sutcliff, C S Lewis et al – and I knew the difference.  EB was a bit of lightweight fun, the others fired my imagination, moved and inspired me, and stayed with me for life.    But that just goes to show that aiming at kids doesn ‘t have to  be at the expense of depth and subtelty.  I think the really good point here is that at this stage neither RTD nor anyone really knew who the audience for new Who would be.  Old Who faithfuls, new gen adults or kids – hence perhaps some uncertainty of tone is forgiveable.  And Who when it hits its stride always has this massive age range to cater for, much more so than Buffy, for example, and has to make some concessions to the kids (re gore and sex mainly) whilst  not losing the rest.  Sometimes you can feel that happening but at best its seamless.

    #41582
    Cath Annabel @cathannabel

    More specifically on this ep, my biggest problem was that it suffered from Harry Potter syndrome.  Too much dependence o n reaction shots – lingering ones at that – to tell us we should be awestruck/amazed/amused.  Which would make more se nse if it were Rose’s reactions, but less so the Doctors.  He knows all the species gathered there, he’s seen everything  before, and yet he’s grinning like a loon as if this is all wondrously new to him.

    Otherwise, lots to enjoy, the Indy style flashing blades between him and The Button, Cassandra, a Bad Wolf ref., and stunning visuals.

    #41584
    The Krynoid Man @thekrynoidman

    @cathannabel Thank you.

    #41589
    Anonymous @

    @cathannabel

    [The Doctor] knows all the species gathered there, he’s seen everything before, and yet he’s grinning like a loon as if this is all wondrously new to him.

    At the time BG fans might be feeling the same way as the Doctor, seeing all the improved visuals and new aliens?! It was still new to me, even though I started watching Matt Smith first. I’m guessing for the long-time fans the Doctor’s reactions could seem camp and out of character. I think the BG viewers were supposed to watch through the Doctor’s eyes, while the newer fans were watching through Rose’s eyes. But no Doctor ever wore leather before, so every fan had to be interested in learning more about the new Doctor, like Rose.

    I love this episode. The only thing that seems childish to me is Cassandra. She could make some viewers think “Oh no! It’s DW, NOT muppets in space!” But I’ve never seen anything like her before, that’s what makes this episode work, imo. The other aliens are a bit ho-hum, but Cassandra never fails to get a reaction (good or bad) and she’s the human. 😆

    The Doctor is trying to impress Rose, and the viewers, that what he’s showing is cool. Is he really that excited or is he just trying to sell it? Both answers work for me. What a disaster it could have been if the aliens sucked. The Doctor’s excitement would’ve exploded the cringe-worthy-richter scale and Rose would want to go home and never come back.

    Thank you CathAnnable for posting on this thread. Everyone’s comments have been great. @thekrynoidman has a different opinion than me (big shock 😉 ) but still good to read and nicely written.

    I like your new avatar @Purofilion. Interesting how many different ways there are to enjoy DW. If RTD reads about your family’s experience, watch out he might kiss you (take autograph instead).

    #41612
    Anonymous @

    @barnable

    re: avatar thank you: it comes from my pictures of the garden. At a time when I was working away happily for hours a week. Now, it doesn’t look quite that good. You can’t buy that many pansies or even petunias in the same colour anymore!

    I think Rose’s first episode and her reaction to the new species was wonderful. Had it not been for her incredible  ‘burst’ on screen then perhaps we would’ve never seen Who after that first season.

    @cathannabel

    yes, CE does “grin like a loon!” You’re right, he should be more ‘meh’ about it and intrigued, perhaps, by the gathering rich assembled to watch the end of the Earth than the species themselves -unless he’s excited because he’s showing someone new this adventure? I always found some of his comedic actions to sit uncomfortably. I think it shows in these first two episodes.  I don’t believe he was the best choice for the Doctor and perhaps he even knew it. I’m not sure why CE refuses to talk about Doctor Who at all. Was there a gay thing/issue? Did he object to kissing Capt. Jack (I heard that around the ‘water cooler’ which means it’s ridiculous, unfounded gossip!)?

    Barnable -I loved Cassandra but when she reappeared in Tennant’s run it was  better.

    #41631
    Anonymous @

    @purofilion

    i had brought his up to @cathannabel already but I almost think it’s like a psychological knee jerk reaction to the trauma he just experienced. A defense mechanism if you will to distract him from what he had just done …. And maybe even a little looney because he didn’t expect to live….? He does seem excessively goofy. I love him though and though he was a great doctor.  I agree too about Cassandra.  The first ep was sort of dumb and her second (once we got over the tiresome body hopping crap) appearance much better. The ending was what I really loved though.  Everyone thinks poorly of her because yeah she is a bit witchy-Poo and yea pretty evil  but at the ending holding this dying stranger in her arms desperate to get help and all the while telling this stranger “I’ve got you darling I’ve got you”. Redemption for her character I thought and I cried at that too and by the way how do you stick to one episode in posts?? I keep wanting to mention other ones and then I’m like “R you Yankee freak you’re doing it wrong!!”  🙂

    #51077
    tardigrade @tardigrade

    Until rewatching this, I’d forgotten how good some of the effects were this early in the run. Some really strong creature effects and CGI in places, although overall a pretty generic environment. I particularly appreciated the makeup for Jabe, which I though was convincing and not as derivative as some of the other creatures. The swinging blades I could have done without though- just too contrived and pretty much a cliche.

    The story is pretty simple, and realistically I don’t think was really intended as that much of a mystery.

    I found the attempts at humour in this episode much easier to bear than in “Rose” and appreciated that the Doctor showed a little of what was going on beneath the cocky mask. His choice of five billion years in the future, while initially just appearing to be showing off, is shown to have a meaning, even if perhaps he didn’t consciously intend it. The Doctor, whose own planet has been decimated, is showing Rose the end of her own planet.

    To those who said that it was an unnecessary to have Gallifrey destroyed, I’d suggest that it would have been a great opportunity lost not to have taken advantage of the significant gap in the Doctor’s timeline to introduce a back story for that period that had strongly affected the Doctor and that would play out over several seasons, and I think this worked out to be a strong story arc, which gave scope for some later episodes that are amongst the very best in the run.

    #53648
    Doctor 20 @doctor20

    Why was Rose angry about the TARDIS translation circuit? When she says that the aliens speak English, the Doctor explains that the TARDIS puts a telepathic field into her head and translates languages. However, she got furious and asks why he didn’t ask? What did she mean? Ask what? I thought she’d be happy or pleased, because it makes her understand what they’re saying. Then she ask questions that he refused to answer, making him defensive and very angry. How very surprising.

    #73435
    Rewvian @rewvian

    On my rewatch I noticed that the Moxx of Balhoun actually died when the sun hit him.  Quite a lot of characters bit it in this episode to be honest.  But Moxx dying struck me in particular because that character actually had an action figure!

    This was a pretty memorable episode and a pretty good one.  I had forgotten Cassandra was behind everything, but of course she was.  It was kind of ironic that all of these wealthy aliens had gathered together to watch Earth’s final moments but nobody really got to watch it because of everything else that was going on around the outpost.

    #75385
    VickyMallard @vickymallard

    And here we go again. Still feels weird with this Doctor, but I guess I’ll get used to it eventually. And it’s interesting to see how he IS the same character. All that time-lordiness, the not explaining, occasionally almost arrogance. Although this incarnation seems to be somewhat less emotional and emphatic – he didn’t seem to consider even for a second that seeing her home planet explode might be somewhat upsetting for Rose. For him, this has been everyday life for centuries (I guess – how old was he when the time war happened?) But of course it served as a great opportunity to introduce the Doctor and the fate of Gallifrey. I think my favourite bit was the scene with the tree lady, when she confronts him and tells him she knows who he is, and puts her hand on his arm. Generally the scenes with the tree lady were fantastic.
    The little alien spiders were interesting, I was kind of expecting them to actually attac people, but that never happened. Also interesting that the “repeated memes” (?!) actually didn’t even really exist.
    I loved the tree people, and it was nice to see Cassandra and the Face of Boe! Oh, and the “gift” from the Doctor… “I give you air from my lungs”. It could be considered insulting, but for a tree I guess might count as a gift…

    #75386
    winston @winston

    @vickymallard I really liked the ninth Doctor but he is a little rusty when dealing with us mere humans. He has been on his own for too long and of course he is an alien. This must have been a really shocking experience for Rose what with all those aliens and the end of earth but she handles it pretty well.

    I liked the tree people and Cassandras first appearance was memorable. We will see more of her and the Face of Boe in the future. It is a good episode and there is more to come.

    Stay safe

    #75387
    ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u

    @vickymallard @winston

    Yes, those interesting aliens (a nod to the 70’s series The Curse of Peladon?) and lots of hints as to the fate of Gallifrey. And without the oft unsuccessfully employed device of the ‘regeneration trauma’, Ecclestone makes a convincing and intriguing alien in a humanoid body.

    If you’re a huge 10 fan (and there are a lot) then Ecclestone must seem an oddity. He clearly left the show unhappy with someone and we must assume that was RTD. I thought it was a great performance. Having (unfortunately) also seen his teeth grinding, shouty Macbeth, I thought this Doctor was a great interpretation.

    Series 1 had its issues (as you will see) but The Doctor wasn’t one of them.

    #75388
    Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent

    @vickymallard @winston @ps1l0v3y0u I found this episode entertaining. The Doctor flirting with Jabe the tree person – (Rose noticed – “You two go and pollinate”) – I really liked her, it was tragic when she died heroically. The theme of the Earth ending made me feel a bit – uneasy. But there were a host of interesting characters to absorb.

    Cassandra, now, as the last ‘pure’ human is really unattractive. Not only murderous and conceited but a bigot as well, I was delighetd when Rose gave her an earful.

    Hey! – the Moxx says (as an aside) “Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario.” The very first mention of Bad Wolf. (It will have more significance later…)

    Not having seen any Doctors beyond Jon Pertwee, and that decades ago, I thought Ecclestone was really good as Nine.

    One of the better episodes in Season One, I reckon.

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