Friday, March 9, 2012

Doctor Who Watch-A-Thon: Season 1 Episode 2 “The End of the World”


As an effort to justify our somewhat obsessive T.V watching Meghan (Of Coffee and Wizards and @MegTao on Twitter) and myself have decided to undertake a Doctor Who Watch-a-long. We'll be starting with the beginning of the 2005 relaunch and will be posting about one episode each Friday, on our respective blogs. We hope you'll join in – whether as a re-watch or to discover the Doctor for the first time!

*just a heads up each post will contain spoilers for that episode and then ones before it*

Episode Summary
In the episode, The Doctor takes Rose Tyler on her first trip through time and space in the TARDIS to the year five billion where many rich alien delegates have gathered on a space station called Platform One to watch the Sun expand and destroy the Earth, but one of these guests is plotting to profit from the event by killing them all.

Thoughts on the Episode
Right off the bat, I love this episode because of how much it reminds me of the BBC's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It has a very Douglas Adams feel to it, which I think many people can appreciate.

Beyond that I hardcore love this episode because of how much deep we get into the Doctor's character. At the beginning he's all laughs. Explaining mind-blowing things like they're no big deal (“Oh it's just slightly physic paper.” “Oh the Tardis just let's you understand all languages”). But as the episode progresses we learn about his history and his people. You also get to see a much colder side of the Doctor. He let's Cassandra (The Last Human) die, even though Rose asks him to help her. It's an interesting choice and I always find myself wondering if it's the right one. The whole thing felt very...human of him.

Speaking of Cassandra, I think she is one of the most fascinating parts of this whole episode. For one she's had so much plastic surgery she looks like a tarp and for another she's transgendered. Interesting choice Doctor Who writers, interesting choice. But most of all she is just down right racist. She's got this whole Draco Malfoy thing going on, where she can't stand that humans cross-bred with other aliens and it breaks my heart a little to see that racism is still going strong 5 billion years from now.

Despite all the serious things that are found in this episode there are still more than a few hilarious moments. My personal favourite is when they wheel out a Jukebox, call it an iPod and play such “classical” hits as Tainted Love and Toxic. A must-watch for that alone.

Favourite Quotes
“I got a first in jiggery pokery. How 'bout you?” - Doctor while fixing up Rose's phone

“Better to die than live like you. A bitchy trampoline.” - Rose to Cassandra

5 comments:

  1. The Doctor basically killing Cassandra is a very human moment (revenge), but also a very Time Lord moment ("everything has it's time"), and I feel like that Time Lordness is something that changes and fluctuates throughout the series. (i.e. "I don't want to go." vs S6 finale).

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    1. Meghan you are so wise. I bow to your analysis :)

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  2. I was completely surprised when the Doctor let her die. It was not really something I expected from the doctor I knew. And my heart broke when Jade burst into flames. I liked her a lot.

    And you're right, the most hilarious moment was when they brought out the "iPod". Personally, though, it would have been a wonderful bit of Meta to have been playing one of Billie Piper's songs instead.

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    1. I totally forgot to mention Jade in this post but my heart broke for her as well. Such a fabulous character!

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  3. This was a really great episode. One of my favs so far...of course I have only watched 3...

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