Doctor Who/The End of the World

The End of the World
Season 27, Episode 2
Airdate	April 2, 2005
Production Number	NCFR029Y
Written by	Russell T Davies
Directed by	Euros Lyn
← 27x01 Rose	27x03 → The Unquiet Dead
Doctor Who — Season Twenty-Seven

The End of the World is the second episode of the twenty-seventh season of Doctor Who, and the seven hundred twenty-first episode overall.

Once the premiere episode of the new Doctor Who series had wowed British audiences, the follow-up episode became crucially important. The second episode, set in the far distant future, would require the most special effects and CGI of the season.

Guest Stars: Simon Day (Steward), Yasmin Bannerman (Jabe), Jimmy Vee (Moxx of Balhoon), Zoë Wanamaker (Cassandra), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Beccy Armory (Raffalo), Sara Stewart (Computer Voice), Silas Carson (Alien Voices)

Plot Overview

For her first trip through time, The Doctor takes Rose five billion years into the future. Earth's sun is about to expand into a red giant, burning away what remains of the planet. The wealthiest and most influential beings in the universe have gathered to memorialize the event along with Cassandra, the last human in existence. Rose is deeply troubled by the strangeness, and begins to regret her decision to accompany The Doctor. Meanwhile, one of the guests has brought a dangerous gift, which puts the party in the path of the expanding star...

Notes

"Bad Wolf"

• This episode featured the first verified Bad Wolf reference, when the Moxx of Balhoun tells the face of Boe that being trapped on the exploding plaform one is "the classic Bad Wolf scenario."

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• According to the Doctor, the TARDIS is responsible for psychically translating all alien languages to English for Rose to understand.

Characters

• Jabe recognizes The Doctor as a Time Lord.
• The Doctor modifies Rose's cell phone so she can contact her mother from whatever time or other part of the universe she's in.
• The Doctor says he's the last of the Time Lords. His planet and the rest of his people were destroyed in a war.

Trivia

The Show

• The first appearance of The Doctor's "slightly psychic paper".
• This episode featured the first reference to "Bad Wolf", something which is mentioned or otherwise appears in most of the other episodes of the season. However, what or who "Bad Wolf" means is not revealed until the season finale.

Allusions and References

• The object Cassandra identifies as an "iPod" is a Wurlitzer jukebox. The two songs it plays during the episode are "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell and "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

• This episode features a group of aliens who appear to be a religious group and call themselves "The Adherents of the Repeated Meme". This is a reference to the meme theory suggested by biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene. Memes are units of cultural inheritance that replicate by creating copies in the minds of other people, Dawkins has described religion in particular as a viral meme. [1]

• The Doctor makes a reference to having been on an unsinkable ship once, but he ended up "clinging to an iceberg". This is an allusion to the sinking of the Titanic—a ship so advanced, it was believed to be unsinkable. However, it hit an iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912.

Memorable Moments

• The Sun goes supernova and the Earth is destroyed.

Quotes

• The Doctor: You lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you're gonna get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible. That maybe you survive. This is the year 5.5/Apple/26. 5 billion years in your future. And this is the day...hold on...This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world.

• Rose Tyler: Hello. My name's Rose. That's a sort of plant. We might be related. I'm talking to a twig.

• Rose Tyler: Tell me who you are!
  The Doctor: This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now and this is me!

• Rose Tyler: As my mate Shereen says, "Don't argue with the designated driver." Can't exactly call a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit.

• Rose Tyler: Five billion years later, my mum's dead.
  The Doctor: Bundle of laughs, you are.

• Jabe: The maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite. I could show you and...your wife.
  The Doctor: Oh, she's not my wife.
  Jabe: Partner?
  The Doctor: No.
  Jabe: Concubine?
  The Doctor: Nope.
  Jabe: Prostitute?

• Rose Tyler: I'm gonna catch up with the family. Quick word with Michael Jackson.

• The Doctor: I was on another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg.

• The Doctor: So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble, there's no one to help us out?
  Jabe: I'm afraid not.
  The Doctor: Fantastic.

• Rose Tyler: It's better to die than to live like you—a bitchy trampoline.

• The Doctor: Anyone in there?
  Rose Tyler: Let me out!
  The Doctor: Oh, well, it would be you.

• Rose Tyler: Help her.
  The Doctor: Everything has its time and everything dies.

• Rose Tyler: The end of the Earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking.

• The Doctor: You think it'll last forever—people and cars and concrete. But it won't. And one day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust. Before its time.
  Rose Tyler: What happened?
  The Doctor: There was a war, and we lost.
  Rose Tyler: A war with who? What about your people?
  The Doctor: I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left travelling on my own 'cause there's no one else.
  Rose Tyler: There's me.

• Rose Tyler: What sort of date are you?