Doctor Who (2005) 1.02

The End of the World

The Doctor takes Rose to the distant future to witness the day the Sun expanded and destroyed the Earth. The TARDIS lands on an observation platform near the Earth. They are joined by a dozen or more guests who are there for the same reason. The Faceless Meme, one of the guests hands out gifts that look like spheres but actually contain little spider-like robots.

Rose gets a bit weirded out by the other guests. She tries talking to the Doctor about it but he just weirds her out some more when he explains to her how it is that everyone seems to be speaking English. He kind of makes it up to her when he fixes her cell phone so that she can call her mother, in the distant past.

The steward of the observation platform notices that something is wrong but he is killed by one of the spider-like robots before he can figure what is wrong.

Rose gets into an argument with Cassandra, a stretched piece of skin with a face who claims to the last living human. The Doctor and Jabe, a tree-lady, check out some of the access tunnels. The Doctor suspects that there is something wrong with the observation platform. Rose goes for a walk and is captured by the Repeated Meme.

The Doctor and Jabe find one of the small, spider-like robots. He uses it to figure out that the Repeated Meme is really just a front for Cassandra. She and her assistants teleport off the platform after telling the Doctor and the other guests about her plans. Her small, spider-like robots turn off the shield protecting the observation platform from the heat of the sun. Everything starts to get much hotter.

The Doctor and Jabe go find the system restore lever but before he can reach it the temperature rises to a level that Jabe cannot tolerate. She catches fire and dies. The Doctor gets to the lever just in time to save most everyone else. He finds way to bring Cassandra back to the observation platform. The heat is tolerable for most but she explodes and dies.

The Doctor and Rose return to the TARDIS and then head back to 2005. He levels with her and tells her that his planet is gone and that he is the last of the Time Lords.

Thoughts

Zoë Wanamaker was the voice of Cassandra. This is the first of two episodes in which she appeared. Cassandra returns in the first episode of season two, despite her apparent death in this episode. Zoë Wanamaker also appeared in one episode of Tales of the Unexpected.

It was a little odd how Jabe's demise happened mostly off camera. One moment she was there and then she was gone. She made a great companion while she was around. There was definitely come chemistry between her and the Doctor.

I enjoyed seeing how Rose and the Doctor's working relationship evolved over the course of this episode.

The show gets better than this but I enjoyed this episode very much, including the silly and heartfelt moments. It was considerably better than the previous episode. Having a good actor present to voice the villain and a good one-off companion makes all the difference in the world.