Doctor Who - End of the World

[mrph]

I liked that one much more that I'd expected to.


Britney Spears and Soft Cell. Oh my.

For such a jokey-looking episode (the last human, National Trust jokes, bright blue aliens...) it turned out surprisingly serious. Dead people, dead planets and a killer killed by the Doctor...

(And let's ignore the interesting physics of those sun filters, hmm?)

Things are taking shape and there's definitely Plot Waiting To Happen, isn't there? Come to think of it, there's also been a fair bit of plot that's obviously happened since the last Doctor Who series.

There was a war. Possibly the same war that was mentioned in the first episode. Gallifrey died.

Hmm. Am I the only one thinking "Daleks"? If any race - as opposed to a single evil genius (The Master, Omega, whoever...) is going to annihilate Gallifrey, it's likely to be them. Possibly with Davros directing them.

The last Time Lord? Well, maybe. Aside from any other renegades still wandering about - Romana, the Master (unless he's presumed dead after the movie?), the Rani, Drax... but still, fair comment.

...and if it was the Daleks, I can quite see the Doctor blaming himself. Maybe it's payback for what he did to Skaro, hmm? For that matter, maybe he just blames himself for not finishing 'em off (...when the Time Lords asked/assigned him to...) back in the Genesis of the Daleks days. Davies knows his history, and the continuity seems to be working in the background even when it's not referenced directly, after all.

Other stuff. Rose. The mobile phone fix was a bit convenient, but Rose's reaction to the end of the world and everyone being dead... that was nice. Appropriate. Brought the initial comedy down to a much more serious level.

Can I just pretend that "National Trust" was the Doctor choosing an appropriate/funny name for the organisation, or just the TARDIS language effect (nice to see it mentioned, nice reaction from Rose) approximating?

And the Doctor killed Cassandra. Well, possibly. Did that jar below her skin contain a brain? If so, she might just be back in a less visually amusing form some day...

Nasty of him, anyway. But in keeping with his circumstances. If, hypothetically, your planet got killed because once upon a time you decided to let someone live... well, that might just influence your actions the next time someone kills one of your friends.

What else. Hmm. Well, reversing the teleporter was a bit too easy - he could at least have used the sonic screwdriver for a few seconds tinkering first.

And the giant cooling fans... well. Anyone else have bad FPS flashbacks at that moment? In my case, I was thinking of Dark Forces and a certain fight on board the bad guy's ship, but I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, too... :)

Edit: a couple more comments.

Firstly, I'm starting to think "hmm" about what they've done to Gallifrey. If the Time Lords are already dead and gone, we aren't going to be seeing any Rassilon stories, are we? And I'd always hoped we'd get more about him one day. For that matter, I suspect mrbear is going to be in mourning for Lungbarrow for a bit - as it's a Gallifrey tale it's never likely to make it to TV now, after all.

Secondly, I'm not so sure about the hand-cranked TARDIS. I'll get back to you on that after another episode or three.

Thirdly, barring a very sudden downturn in the series, I think I'll be buying the inevitable Season One DVD set as soon as it appears. :)

Comments

[gothwin.livejournal.com]

You were not the only one thinking Daleks. Seems the obvious choice.

As for the only surviving timelord...seems like an odd statement for a time traveller to make. Sure there are many of them floating around the spacetime continuum.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

We've seen about a dozen since the series started, I think. Of which at least one or two are now dead or permanently dealt with - Morbius, Azmael, the War Chief etc...

I think Gallifrey was always in an odd situation, somehow outside time - iirc that there were rules which meant you couldn't use a TARDIS to go 'back' to old Gallifrey, too.

[ehrine.livejournal.com]

I have kind of idea in my head that in all their messing about trying to master time travel, perhaps the timelords accidently drew Gallifrey out of the normal space/time continuum or something. End result, it had it's own timestream which means that it would be very hard to travel there to any point in its history that isn't exactly the same relative point to yours (ie a year goes by in yours, so a year has gone by in theirs irrespective of how much time hopping you've done). Would certainly make some sense. Sure, the timescoop in the Five Doctors got arround that, but that's a very complex piece of old technology (that incidently was already _in_ that altered continuum).

*shrug* works as a concept for me.

[gothwin.livejournal.com]

Of course there's alway Romana and Susan....they didn't ever go back to Gallifrey did they.

I (being bored on Sunday morning) did a bit of research and found this page

http://www.drwhoguide.com/

seemed to explain that Gallifrey was destroyed in the series of book...and it wasn't by the Daleks. I also found that apparently there was a mini-series called Gallifrey released on CD staring Leela, Romana and K9. Depsite being a bit fan of the Doctor I wasn't aware the story was continuing.

Cooling fans

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones and other Action/Adventures ...

[jorune.livejournal.com]

The female leads in Baywatch were guaranteed screen time for their breasts, do you think Eccleston has guaranteed angst time?

I think that the Gallifrey war is a dangerous concept to play with. Time fades the importance of past events, history is written by the victors. The 'shadow war' was a relevant topic in 2005AD with the Plastic Host, is it still relevant 5 billion years in the future? If so what keeps it relevant? Are the 'war' and 'shadow war' the same time, is it possible to sound like a complete arse when talking about time travel?

Star Trek has been obsessed with time travel for the 5 years and has shown how difficult it is make an entertaining tale of it. All too often they have reached for the reset switch or tachyonic mcguffin generator to finish off the story. I do hope the writers are aware of just how much a hole they can dig themselves into. It's the hole where the joy of the show will leak if they get it wrong.

I believe that this war is a definite break from the past canon. Doctor Who is an adventurer who believes in non violent resolutions, ask questions first and shoot later. I liked that aspect of the Doctor and I'm sorry to see it gone.

10 episodes to go before he karks it.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Is it still relevant? Yes. To the Doctor.

To everyone else... probably not. After all, look at the problems Jabe initially had finding any record of the Doctor's species. Having said that, given their stature the Time Lords would probably be remembered. If only as legend...

I felt the violent resolution was there to make a point. The Doctor's a bit broken at the moment, and that illustrated this nicely - Rose asked him to be merciful and he didn't heed her. I think it's setting up part of Rose's role in this season - to be the person who brings the Doctor out of this state, back to the person he used/ought to be...

[jorune.livejournal.com]

Fair points, perhaps Time Lords are the mythical dragons of universal history.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

The cooling fans reminded me of Galaxy Quest.

I liked this one as well and it brought a tear to my eye at one point.

[dmh.livejournal.com]

Agreed about the Tardis console -- one of the controls appears to be a bicycle pump! :o)

As far as the destruction of Gallifrey goes, someone on LJ has suggested it's consistent with the books. I too have my money on it being the Daleks, but who can say?

[zarbi.livejournal.com]

I agree. It was a highly successful combination of drama and fun. I think that it will easily survive Ecclestone's departure if the writing continues to be of this quality. I drool at the special effects, remembering the awfulness of the series in my 70s teenage. I loved the way that they finally explained the fact that everyone seems to speak English, and retrospectively fix a major plot flaw all past series. There was also some neat hints as to what a Time Lord can actually do - the 'slowing of time' so he could get past the last barrier to the computer switch.

There are some interesting issues raised if all other Time Lords are gone in a way that can't be resolved using time travel! You are, of course, right about Romana - she must be around somewhere/when.

I think Russell T. Davies has worked wonders.

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

It just has to be the Daleks, doesn't it?

And no doubt events will unfold that will enable the Doc to go back in time and save Gallifrey....

I mean, he has a bloody tardis at his disposal!

[polidori.livejournal.com]

Yes, the revelation that Gallifrey is dead came as quite a shock to me, but, once it sank in, the possibilities of this as an overarching background plot is endless.

The Daleks are the obvious choice as the cause of this destruction: the Time Lords identified them as the biggest threat in the galaxy which is why they sent the 4th Doctor to destroy them.

The Time Lords usual means of defence is to meddle with an enemy's time stream, but, as the Dalkes had begun to master time travel themselves, they may have got in a deadly blow first (hence Gallifrey died "before its time").

In such a major war, even renegade Time Lords such as The Rani and The Monk (remember him?) would fight for their home. The Master was illed when he was sucked into the Eye of Harmony (his intended fate for the Doctor, which would have destroyed his soul).

There was obviously more than one race involed in the war. The Nestene consciousness' reaction to a Time Lord was very negative, suggesting that they were also involved, and lost out badly.

It does give the Doctor the ability to try and change history again, and save Gallifrey, not easy if the Daleks are now Master of Time...