"...It’s
dead. It burned, like the Earth. |
It’s
just rocks and dust – before its time |
I’m
the only survivor..." |
PLOTLINE
It's the year 5.5/Apple/26 (about five billion years into the
future), and the Doctor and Rose arrive on Platform One to journey through time.
The Sun is about to expand and swallow the Earth but, amongst the alien races
gathering to watch, a murderer is at work.
Who is controlling the mysterious and deadly spiders?
Welcome to the end of the World. You are in good company. The
guests:
- The Trees of Cheam (Jabe, Lute and Coffa)
- From the Financial Family Seven, the Adherents of the Repeated Meme
- From Solicitors Jolco & Jolco, Moxx of Balhoon
- Inventors of the Hyposlip travel system, the Brothers Hop Pyleen
- The ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light
- From the Silver Devastation, the Face of Boe
- Mrs and Mrs Pacoon
- The Lady Cassandra O'Brien.delta 17
EPISODE TWO REVIEW Spoilers
ahead
“Ping”.
Welcome to THE
END OF THE WORLD.
The classic, and in the parlance this new
ninth Doctor, “Whu-dun-it-alright” DOCTOR
WHO story that most spectacularly failed when it was last tried (THE
TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS). This time, we had just 45 minutes (and not 90
minutes) to resolve the mystery.
Quite frankly, has this already ascended
to the ranks of DOCTOR WHO ‘classic’ in
the space of a week? It has all the ingredients to make fans around the world
moist and eager for more of the same.
Checklist:
- A race against time
- Breathtaking plot revelations
- Breathtaking visual effects
- Breath taking aliens
- And acting that would make BBC
FILMS Executives weep
into their Cappuccinos as they realise that Eccleston will never hit the big
screen as the Doctor.
There was another factor; a tangible
sense that whist there was a number of ‘running
down corridors’, the episode was calmer and less hurried than the new series’ premiere.
The plot was clearer and the clear up logical.
The plot? The answer “is exactly what it says on the tin’.
Our Solar System’s sun is expanding
and will engulf planet Earth. A nearby (yet protected by a force-field) observation
space station (Platform One), the rich (and highly insured) of the Universe are
gathered to watch the gathering storm. However, just as the Doctor and Rose arrived
aboard, the facility is affected by power surges and, then, full sabotage as
its protective shielding fails.
Who has done this? One of the alien attendees? The owners of Platform One,
The Corporation? Or is it natural, caused by the solar radiation from the Sun?
For Rose’s first journey in the TARDIS (rejecting the 22nd century and
the year 12,005AD The New Roman Empire along the way…) she has travelled
to Earth’s demise. Devoid of life (Human Beings have abandoned the planet,
seeking solace with other races), held in stasis until ‘event’ can
be staged, and even re-shaped (shifting the floating land-masses back to ‘classic
Earth’ design) by its custodians, the National Trust.
In the past, DOCTOR
WHO may have struggled
to present one (perhaps, two, at a push) substantive and believable alien in
a ‘season’ (i.e. series
of episodes). Here, in a single episode we have at least three that are absorbing
to watch.
Amongst the attendees is The Lady Cassandra O’Brien.delta 17 (once “a
boy!”), claiming to be the last (pure, as opposed to those who have interbred
and classed as “Mongrels”) Human Being. Flat. Very flat. The vestige
of her being skin and lippy, stretched across a steel frame. DOCTOR
WHO's first
fully CGI (Computer generated Image) character with a hint Mona Lisa. What is
she actually thinking?
This character is unique in TV history.
Another first for DOCTOR WHO’s
history books. With four minutes of lip-synching (with Zoë Wannamaker providing
the voice), such a CGI character has never been so complicated for a TV series.
Take that STAR TREK and shove it up your warp drive.
The tracking shot of Rose
walking around Cassandra was delightful, as was the subsequent confrontation.
Scripted
by Russell T Davies, Wannamaker’s loquaciously sly creation is
(Robert) Holmeseque and is only matched by the tactile and eminent Jabe from
the Forest of Cheam (subtly played by Yasmin Bannerman).
If I be so bold, again. Jabe is the equivalent
of Sharez Jek in the level of consistent believability. A benevolent and beguiling
(mature) female (hurrah!) that mirrors the Doctor similar persona. The tragedy
being that their companionship is short lived and any soupcon of physical admiration
extinguished at the episode’s
denouement.
Well, if only there was an Extinguisher.
Remembering Jon Pertwee’s anecdote
about his favourite alien creation (the Draconian), his approval of the Forest
of Cheam would be significant. A race that surely demands revival in coming years
(of course, going back in time, we could meet Jabe again…).
Additionally, nice FX touch that Jabe’s ‘branch-held’ metal
device “chirped” and “cheeped” as it analysed the Doctor’s
scan (and his past incarnations DNA). RTD’s not such a bad writer after
all.
Third, and not least, is employee of the
Corporation, the Steward. Very ST:NG with a less flatness and more humanity.
The blue-skinned, bejewelled ‘host’,
played with both authority and naivety by Simon Day. The Steward has, really,
very little to do until his untimely fricassee. Shame (of course, as the Steward
comes from a race of genetically modified clones, we could meet him/them again.
I made that up, but worth lobbying for).
Other aliens were window-dressing (and had
no relationship with the Doctor, contrary to the insistence of RTD and Eccleston
that aliens would have), with the much trailed, Moxx of Balhoon being the most
disappointing and employed only for cheap ‘spitting
gag’ and resultant incineration.
Face of Boe? Well, had the privilege of being singularly window-dressed. Dull
and costly.
The Adherents of the Repeated Meme? As sinister as robotic mummies (PYRAMIDS
OF MARS) and spectacularly devoid of actual spectrum light bar their neck-chain
(credit to the cinematography) made the creation, again, too wasteful for such
a small (yet significant) appearance in this episode.
The direction (with the combination of cinematography and FX) was at a level
of perfection never seen before from a British production let alone DOCTOR
WHO.
The camera keeps its distance for both large set pieces and for delicate, emotional
exchanges between key characters. However, at times, it becomes very intimate
to capture pain (felt by the Doctor) and realisation of potential death (by Rose).
Euros Lynn is the consummate professional, and returns with the next episode
(THE UNQUIET DEAD).
One of the writing ‘gimmicks’ that T. Davies uses is to clash dark
and light within the same scene which forces the viewer onto the wrong foot.
There two key ‘gimmicks’ in this episode that moves the story forward;
(i) the Doctor explains to Rose the dire history of ‘classic Earth’ and
then (insert gimmick) a threatening shudder vibrates the space station; and (ii)
deep in the maintenance access corridors, a literally tear-jerking scene with
Jabe is quelled with the next line, “Is it just me or is it a bit nippy?”
More writing ‘gimmicks’, please.
This episode is all about Death. Death of the familiar, death to the unknown,
and death of the classic past.
The Doctor: “Everything
has its time, and everything dies.”
Additionally, Rose mourns not only the physical
passing of Planet Earth but of her current Earth-bound life of, as the Doctor
would say, eating, working and sleeping. She’s now moved on. The ‘rites of passage’ accelerated
by an alien and a Police Public call Box.
THE
END OF THE WORLD is DOCTOR WHO of old. A rattling good plot that twists
exponentially, sturdy acting creating unforgettable characters, crisp direction,
impeccable design and special effects, restrained incidental music and all broadcast
at a regular time on a regular day.
THE
END OF THE WORLD was written using the CLASSIC
SERIES winning formula but with new technology. How possibly could the
new custodian’s
of the series get it wrong?
|
