The End of the World (Doctor Who)
Written by executive producer Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn, the episode was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 April 2005 and was seen by approximately 7.97 million viewers in the United Kingdom.
In the episode, the alien time traveller the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) takes his new companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) five billion years into the future where many rich alien delegates have gathered on a space station called Platform One to watch the Sun expand into a red giant and destroy the Earth, but the human guest Lady Cassandra (Zoë Wanamaker) is plotting to profit from the event by fabricating a hostage situation.
The guests include Lady Cassandra, who is billed as "the last human" but is actually a face on a large sheet of skin that must be continually moisturised.
Meanwhile, the gifts brought by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme contain robotic spiders that immediately work at disabling functions on Platform One.
Cassandra admits to being the saboteur: her original plan was to create a hostage situation (with herself as one of the "victims") and profit from the compensation she would have had, but now intends to gain money from her stock holdings in the companies of the guests' competitors to increase in value after they die.
In the elevated temperature and without moisture, Cassandra's body creaks and ruptures, snapping from her frame, despite Rose's request that The Doctor save her.
The Doctor explains to her, now free from the observation room, that he is the last of the Time Lords, and that his planet was destroyed in the wake of a great war.
[3] The episode features the first appearance of concepts such as the psychic paper, the Time War and the words 'Bad Wolf', which would go on to form a story arc throughout the series.
"[2][6] Originally, Cassandra was intended to have collected pieces of human history, such as Magna Carta and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
[10] Camille Coduri's scene as Jackie Tyler was shot in advance during the first production block because of commitments for the film The Business that would make her unavailable.
[14] To help with the convenience of locations, the scenes with the Doctor and Rose on present-day Earth were shot during the third production block on 9 November.
[15] The filming of screens with Cassandra proved to be difficult, with one crew member comparing it to pushing around a faulty shopping trolley.
[18] In the episode, Cassandra unveils an "iPod" (actually a Wurlitzer jukebox), that plays "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell and later "Toxic".
[27] Arnold T Blumburg of the magazine Now Playing gave "The End of the World" a grade of "A−", praising the spectacle as well as the performances of Eccleston and Piper and their developing characters.
[21] SFX called it a "brave episode to air so early, but it works", praising the way the alien concepts were reminiscent to the classic series.
However, the reviewer wrote that "the full drama of the event is never quite captured" and "the murder plot...never quite takes flight, but it provides the framework for some brilliant scenes".
[29] Burk's co-author Robert Smith added that the episode allowed Eccleston to shine by offering the Doctor a wide range of emotions.
[30] Despite their positive reviews, Burk and Smith noted that the switch at the end of the hallway with giant fans was "contrived" and "silly".
[31] In 2013, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times felt that the episode had everything to be expected from Davies' Doctor Who: boldness, camp, and emotional and character drama.
