Series 1 (2005)
Episode title: The End of the WorldFeaturing: Ninth Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler
First shown: 2nd April 2005
Related articles: Cassandra, Face of Boe
Guide: The second episode of the revival series of Doctor Who starts with the Doctor and Rose onboard the TARDIS discussing where they should go first. They ultimately decide on the year five billion, to witness the end of the Earth. In the year five billion, Earth was owned and maintained by the National Trust, though the planet is devoid of life, and money has run out to protect it from the expansion of the sun, which was being done by the use of gravity satellites. The Steward questions the Doctor and Rose as to their being on the space station orbiting Earth to watch its final moments, but the Doctor uses psychic paper to convince the Steward that they are supposed to be on board. The arrival of the fellow elite extraterrestrials causes much wonder for Rose as the other guests arrive, including: the Hoy Plyeen brothers, Cal ‘Sparkplug’ MacNannovich (plus guest), Mr and Mrs Pakoo, chosen scholars of Class Fifty-five of the University of Rago Rago Five Six Rago, Ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light, the Moxx of Balhoon, the Face of Boe, representatives of the Forest of Cheem, Adherents of the Repeated Meme and Lady Cassandra (who billed herself as the last living human).
All of these new encounters causes a bit of a fluster for Rose, who goes to an observation deck to collect her thoughts. The Doctor tries to cheer her up by modifying her mobile phone, allowing her to phone home across the time gap, but this only serves to upset her more. Some of the guests aboard Platform One brought gifts to the others, which included a jukebox from Cassandra and metallic spheres from the Adherents of the Repeated Meme. The metallic spheres contained robotic spiders that immediately began working to disable the security systems aboard Platform One. The Steward finds that something is wrong but before he can do anything about it, the spiders lower the solar filter in his office, exposing him to the powerful solar radiation, killing him. The Doctor, with the assistance of Jabe, one of the representatives of the Forest of Cheem, goes to investigate, and discover the Stewards body and the spiders. Rose meanwhile was attempting to learn more about the future from Cassandra but ends up getting annoyed with Cassandra’s arrogance and walks away, but is knocked unconscious by members of the Meme. She wakes up in the observation room with the sunshields slowly lowering themselves and calls out for the Doctor to help her, but while he can raise the sunshields, he is unable to open the door and so turns his attention to the other guests.
The Doctor uses the spider captured from the Stewards office to determine who their owners are. Although the spiders go to the Meme first, the Doctor reveals that they are merely empty shells being controlled by Cassandra. Cassandra admits the claims, stating that she intended to produce a hostage situation in which she could then claim compensation to continue to pay for her repeated operations to keep her alive the way she was, but now aims to just profit from the stock increases of the competitors of the other guests on board once the other guests are dead. Following her announcement, Cassandra transmats to her ship and leaves the spiders to lower all of the sunshields as the gravity satellites are turned off. The direct solar radiation cause the solar filters to crack, killing numerous guests in the process and leaving Rose scurrying for cover in the observation room. The Doctor and Jabe venture into the bowels of Platform One to restore the sunshields manually. There, they find a switch that will reactivate the sunshields, but to get there one of them must travel across a bridge with spinning blades above them. Jabe, who recognises the Doctor as the last Time Lord after the Time War, sacrifices herself to push the switch to slow down the blades and allow the Doctor to manually restore the sunshields. Jabe is killed by the increasing heat in Platform One, causing her to burst into flames as she was made of wood. The Doctor reactivates the systems just before the expanding Sun hits the space station and destroys the Earth.
Rose, freed from the observation room, joins the Doctor back in the main room with the other guests, where the Doctor uses a device to reverse the transmat and bring Cassandra back to the space station. Without moisturising in the elevated temperatures, Cassandra begins to dry out and crack. She begs for mercy from the Doctor but he refuses to listen or grant it, and Cassandra ruptures. Rose laments that due to the commotion, no one actually noticed the Earth’s last moments. Back on Earth in the modern day, the Doctor tells Rose about the loss of his planet, Gallifrey, in the Time War and that people tend to forget that things do not last forever. Rose sympathises with the last of the Time Lords as they enjoy some chips in London.