Did Jack organise the whole event, knowing that the Doctor and Rose would be there? Right here, Jack knows that this is them: the Doctor and Rose, before they even met him, before Bad Wolf, before Pete’s World. That has to mean the world to him.
Doctor Who yet again doing a wonderful job of subtly showing how ‘normal’ queerness is, not something to have made a big deal of or laughed at.
My favorite moments of Doctor Who:
Series 1, Episode 2: ”End of the World.”
My goodness, doesn’t the title of the episode say so much? As often as I can re-watch the series first episode, “Rose,” it doesn’t compare for my love of episode 2. Never have I had the opportunity to watch a premier and then have the second episode top it like this before.
We are given so much information about our main characters in this episode, that the plot, to me, just isn’t remembered. The Doctor takes Rose to her first even trip, which firstly just shows us how incredibly screwed up and post war traumatized he actually is for him to think that by showing Rose this, she’ll be impressed. In honesty, as much as he knew at this point he needed a companion, I think this was a subconscious way to push her home again. Or he was so internally screwed up that he didn’t even think - all he could focus on was destruction and death.
But he shows her her first real aliens (well, ones that look alien anyway) and we get a glimpse of her inability to accept their “alieness” for the first time, again, allowing us the audience to perhaps relate better to her. Rose is, if anything, a people’s generality.
But of course, bad aliens are trying to kill people and as usual, not only does the Doctor have to save the day, he also has to save the life of his companion, who unknowingly falls victim to being accident prone for the first time.
The blue plumber alien gave us insight into an alien outside of the world of Time Lord, and I found myself really taken with her. Sad that she got killed by metal tri-spider things.
We get to see the Face of Boe for the first time. During this episode, I didn’t understand the importance of this, but now that I look back on it - it’s kind of awesome.
We are introduced to Cassandra in this episode, and I still dislike her here as much as ever. Rose shocked me a bit in the way she just walked up to Cassandra and let her know face to face her disdain for what Cassandra had become. I do think that in future episodes, Rose gets reigned back a bit and lets the Doctor take the lead more. But here, she’s not afraid to say what is on her mind and as refreshing as it is, she does come across a bit… un-accepting of alien things, even if the “alien” was once-upon-a-time human. I was a little surprised that the Doctor didn’t at all insist on being beside her during her first interactions with alien life (especially since these aliens are some of the most important, I assume, in the universe - or at least this universe - at the time), especially considering he doesn’t really know her all that well yet. But he does seem to bring her here, and then leave her be for a lot of the episode. I suppose he hasn’t gotten used to having someone with him yet so soon after the war. I don’t see them as a “team” until the very end of this episode, if not after the next one.
The Doctor and Rose have their very first argument in this episode, with the Doctor refusing to open up to Rose about where he’s from and who he is. He just whole-heartedly doesn’t want to talk about it. I just love Billie’s performance of Rose’s vulnerability when she walks up behind the Doctor and says the line, “don’t piss off the designated driver.” And Chris’ reaction to that is just spot on - you see the surprise, agitation, and absurdity of her comment cross his face, and then you see him saddened by her comment because he feels guilty because he can see what she’s thinking and for the first time, can probably see that she’s scared and unsure, and is completely dependent on him to get her home. I love that out of his guilt, he super-charges her phone to where she can call Jackie. As un-domestic as he is, he certainly allows Rose to lead him around a bit in means of importance of family.
I just love that by her displaying a bit of vulnerability and uncertainty, that he is somehow encouraged to lead and be more considerate of her in the future. I think he realizes in that moment that he does have someone now, under his responsibility, and it’s a bit of a wake-up call for him. And I just love their entire interaction in this scene. It’s just great.
We get to see the first person die for the Doctor in this episode. Tree-lady sacrifices herself to save the Doctor - she knows who and what he is and understands all that he’s lost and understands the importance of keeping him alive above herself, even though I definitely got the impression that she was something special and unique to behold.
I love Chris’ moment of vulnerability - a single tear, when she tells him how sorry she is for his losses. I get really exhausted over people’s laments of David being the emotional Doctor, when we see so many moments like this with Chris. Chris may have had a harder bark than David, but in showing us the internal torment and hurt and pain and angst of the Doctor - they both were spot-on.
I love Jackie’s line of “It’s Wednesday, all day.” I miss oblivious Jackie, and just love her - always.
I think the most poignant moment of this episode, for me, was the scene where the Doctor is leaning in the doorframe, watching Rose as she watches the end of the Earth. She’s in tears, and is very heartbroken over what she’s seeing, and saddened that no one saw it go, nor appreciated the years of history that is now exploding. I think he’s rocked to the core in seeing her reaction, and his guilt is almost palpable. I think it’s in this moment that he realizes how cruel this was of him to show her. And her being so incredibly young. I think he also realizes how much Rose cares in this moment. That she’s special and unique and that he needs her in his life. I think this moment is so incredibly important in leading the show to where it ends up going, because the Doctor needed some type of awakening to go from very traumatized victim to the Doctor, the hero with his happy, trusty companion by his side, traveling the universe. He needed to be appalled by his actions to be able to see that he has a problem in the first place.
I think before this, he was just going through the motions of living, and it was at this moment, with Rose’s vulnerable, silent horror and despair, that he finally saw the person he had become and made a sudden decision to try and do better. To try and be better.
And so he gently, but firmly, grasps Rose’s hand and leads her away from the destruction and fire, and takes her right smack center back in front of populated 21st century, and lets her reacclimatize herself with being human and being back on Earth. Feeling the ground beneath her feet, smelling the familiar smells, giving her the comfort and relaxation that “going home” brings a person. Something, of course, that he’ll never get again. But he does it for her, because she needs it, and he did something mean and horrible by taking her to the destruction of her planet, and he needs her to know that she’s okay, and safe, and that then isn’t now, and that he’s sorry. I think he takes Rose where she needs to go a lot of the time out of guilt, and I think this is just the first of that.
He never promised her that traveling with him would be safe, but in that, he didn’t mean that she needed to fear him. And him taking her to the end of the world was just cruel, and I think he’s just horrified at himself for doing that to her.
All in all - one of my favorites of the entire series. I do consider the first two somewhat of a two-parter, even though they aren’t, and I just love them.
