This is a hit and miss episode. But it has my favorite moment for the Ninth Doctor: when he's with Jade, & Jade has figured out what he is. While he's working, Jade apologizes & comments on what it must be like to be the last of a species. He's completely stone-faced for the entire scene, but you see EVERYTHING in his eyes. It's such a strong moment, & its a great acting moment for Eccleston

I think all of Nine’s episodes are tied directly to Earth because he asked Rose if she wanted to travel to alien worlds and she turned him down so he proposed time travel and she said yes. So he’s considering where she wants to go. There’s also an argument to be made that the Doctor continued to do this even after becoming Ten. Even though they did go to alien worlds it was always along the timeline of the human race, new earth, a human colony etc.

For tennant, just get his trainers and spend the whole review with your feet up

Are you telling me that Toxic won't stand the test of time? Well, now I'm upset.

I'm in the minority, but I actually preferred the dynamic between the 9th Doctor and Rose over the 10th Doctor and Rose.

Christoper Eccleston is my doctor. He caught so much hell at the time but he was really good. He had the whole reboot on his shoulders and made it fun again.

That is a fantastic outfit you're wearing!

this is honestly one of the best episodes in my opinion. Epic setting, fab costumes and Eccleston is on point as always.

Christopher Eccelston said in an interview that he wasn't happy with how he played the comedy as he felt it was too over-the-top. And sometimes he has a point but it's a little sad that he had some great dry delivery of his lines. The "jiggery-pokery" line is one but this does have some goofy moments like bobbing his head to Cassandra's "IPod" playing Tainted Love or the line "What are you going to do, moisturize me?" But that has always been part of the charm.

I have such fond memories of Season/series 1 back in 2005 ... RTD truly did play a 'long game' with Doctor Who. The entire first season felt like a reintroduction to this universe, easing old and new viewers back into the adventure with a steady pace. Looking back from 2018 several of the episodes DO look a bit cheesy and tame now, but at the time we knew the Daleks were on the horizon, and episodes like this just built the excitement with the whole 'Bad Wolf' arc. At least that's how it felt to me. Eccleston and Piper were HUGE stars in England for different reasons, and everything about the return of the show was carefully planned to have maximum impact and to make sure it would survive and continue to just get bigger.

I actually think the the "Toxic" joke was more about the fact that they're so far into the future that Earth's culture and history are murky at best. It goes hand in hand with the jukebox/iPod joke. Maybe in 30, 40, 100 years no one will know who Brittany Spears is, but the joke will still work in a "an ancient Earth composer, kust be one of those great names, right?" sort of way.

I like how the Face Of Boe was a minor character in this episode. You get the feeling Davies has some good story ideas for his “New Earth” trilogy in advance. My only gripe is that in the episode itself, the Face Of Boe isn’t memorable for me outside of future relevance.

The lack of other planets in Ecclestons series was a budget constraint. I think there are 3-4 episodes in that series that use the same set just redressed for different time periods in order to save costs. In this first season they were budgeted the same as any other BBC drama series and I think I've heard Russell T Davis talk about fans of the old series giving extra minutes of CGI and alien costumes / practical effects that were outside their budget range. So it was fans who owed their interest in Special Effects (and subsequent careers) to watching Dr Who as a child, all working to make the show look better than it had any right to out of love for old series. Due the first seasons rating success the Tennant era had a budget bump - and the scope of the episodes increased accordingly - and kept going up from there.

“If you think that’s amazing you should see the bill”

One scene I love in this episode is when the tree lady sympathises with the Doctor's loss of his home and his entire race. The emotions on Eccleston's face are both subtle yet tragic; you can really see the Ninth Doctor trying to fight back his despair in that moment. Overall, the main plot and the villain are pretty underwhelming, but this story excels at giving good character moments between the Doctor and Rose, especially at the ending. I tend to feel this way with New Who vs. Classic Who. New Who excels at heartfelt character moments while Classic Who is better at giving engaging stories. Not saying that either one can't do the other (because they certainly can), but they have their different strengths.

Love the jacket

I think it's important that Cassandra is a bigot, and that her bigotry is what led to her current condition. I presume she basically had to inbreed to maintain her 100% Human DNA, and that she couldn't have any DNA treatments that would prolong her life and make her less Human in her eyes, since they would invariably come from longer lived non-humans. I think that goes a long way into why we don't feel sorry for her.

Also, unpopular opinion: Rose had better chemistry with Nine than with Ten.

SUCH a wrongly ignored/maligned episode. Love-it-to-bits! Got some of Eccelston's best acting beats and some genuinely touching moments.

Rose calling Cassandra a bitchy trampoline is actually one of my favourite lines from Dr Who.

intelligent plant life does make for some good stories. (Terror of the Vervoids, Seed of Doom.) It is something Dr Who could do more with.

I always thought that Rose bonding with the maintenance worker was kind of part of the class commentary stuff around her character, like Rose never mingles very easily with high society but she bonds pretty quickly with working class characters and people who haven't been treated right by their betters

This was actually my first episode of Doctor Who, which is funny because when I was 9, I had heard the classic knock-knock Doctor Who joke so many times, and I eventually asked my dad who was this Doctor, and he gave an explaination I can't remember, and then like less than week later Doctor Who returned to TV in 2005, and I sat down and watched this episode a week later. I have no idea why I skipped Rose, but I did. I have a real soft spot for this episode because it got me hooked on the idea of far flung humanity, mostly Post-Earth, which is why I'm kinda disappointed that post-RTD doesn't visit civilisations after the Sol system is basically left uninhabitable, and see the consequences of the cradle of humanity no longer existing. I also like the line from Jade which implies that because of the vastness of time we're dealing with here, that trees on Earth could evolve sentience and bipedalism, either that or human technology is so far advanced that we've uplifted trees as well.

The monsters and villains handbook explains more about Cassandra’s early life and the fact she was trans, but it is apparently not considered canon by the Tardis Data Core site.

While Rose was a good hook this was the episode that really sold me on the show. "Everything has its time and everything dies" that was how I knew I was going to really like this character because he clearly doesn't take shit.

Keep the series going! I am loving these reviews!

Love this new series you’ve made

This episode is underratedddd

I'm loving these! Thanks for going back to these episodes =)

End of the World is one of my favorite episodes of the entire franchise

So yeah, my bookshelf just exploded in the middle of the night, books everywhere, me jumping out of bed when I heard the crash, so it's actually really fortunate that you uploaded just in time for me to have something to listen to while I put it back together again. Good timing, and a good review. Thanks!

just remember , Fezz's are cool

Just found these reviews, love it going to watch all of them through my own rewatch of the show. I am up to the Cyberman 2 parter in series 2. And, for my money, they used 'Toxic' just for the line "A guy like you should wear a warning. It's dangerous, I'm falling." Which about sums Rose up in two lines...

3:55 Similar to the current season. 6:11 Something that I noticed about my latest rewatch is that the first song that plays is meant to reflect how Rose is reacting to everything.

Love the jacket!

Totally agree with you, one of the best of the series with some heart felt moments when side characters meet their end, you kinda want to know more about them. A good old romp and I liked rewatching it

I do think if you're showing someone season 1, you should show them 'Rose'. You may not love the episode (with some of its cheesy plotlines and special effects) but what I think it does well is introducing the Doctor. I love that whole part where Rose is investigating him and visits Clive, it's a really nice way of getting into who the Doctor is and what he does (travel in time).

I like this episode. Fun space romp. Right balance of comedy and darkness. Lovely sensitive moment at the end when they are back on earth and the doctor gives the lines about living and everything having its time and then they go for chips. Thats kind of sweet. Btw the tree lady is called Jabe with a b not Jade with a d. Hate to be nit picky but i noticed it.

RE: Introducing someone to Doctor Who. I agree w/ skipping Rose if you've already showed them an episode, because the main thing it does well is to introduce The Doctor. I had already showed a non-fan Empty Child/Doctor Dances based on what I knew she'd like. When she wanted to see more, I went for End of the World next. To this day I don't think she's ever seen Rose...

It was implied 9 and Rose went to a different planet off screen in the 2005 Children in Need special where they were hopping for their lives.

I absolutely love this episode, one of my all time favourites.

I haven't watched this episode in a really long time, but I have extremely fond memories of it. Dare I say it, it's one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who - if simply just because it was the very first episode of Doctor Who I ever saw. I really should revisit it, but I'm somewhat afraid it won't hold up.

That hat really fits the ninth!

Jacket looks good on you, Nathaniel. I'm gonna buy one.

I've this friend I try to watch doctor who with and I started with blink too, thanks to your recommendation. But I'm not sure what to watch next. We did watch Rose and the end of the world. But I don't want to watch everything with him because we don't have that much free time. So anyone have recommendations on which episodes we should watch from the first two seasons?

It's a sensitive area and I'm not trying to be an SJW fun sponge but that plot point about Cassandra seems to reinforce the stereotype that transgender people are elective/cosmetic surgery addicts ( "Amanda Lepore" types (not that I'm judging her)) when gender reassignment surgery is part of some member's transition process and considered to be analogous to reconstructive surgery. Also it continues the long line of gender-fluid/transgender as sociopathic villains (Buffalo Bill, Sleepaway Camp, Sean Young in Ace Ventura). Seems like a line to be cut in 2018.

I really am quite fond of the first series there is a real sense of thematic links between the different stories and a much more consistent quality in the script writing (well except Father's Day which for me is the worst thing Paul Cornell ever written which strange because I used to really like when I was younger). My problems with the revival start with the Christmas Invasion and the fact that most of following series feel like they just repeating series 1 but worse each time.

ooooooh i love your jacket

I love this outfit. This is a great idea for a second episode of a new old series. I completely agree with the chemistry w the dr being none romantic w 9.

Love that ring though!!

6:10 I feel like I'm experiencing the Mandela effect right now, I could bet my head they were playing Tainted Love and not Toxic in that scene. I feel mad! Time to rewatch I guess.

This episode isn't my favorite, but it does a pretty good job of establishing what to expect from the series & fleshing out the Doctor & Rose while still keeping that tether to what people are already familiar with.

Bare in mind that this “classical music” came from 4 billion 999 million 997 thousand 995 years ago in that time

Nice review! I think I just noticed the pink fingernail polish...Fab

Cassandra being a little boy gives new context to the "Lady Cassandra, you are beautiful" scene in the episode she appears in later, no?

Is it just me that not visiting any of the aliens in the end of the world planets is a massive missed opportunity.

Great review again. Like I said last week - we are working on the same reviews at the moment. When they launch you may wanna check ours out for a different take on this episode because.... I hated it.... I won't dwell on why - you will have to wait until we launch it to find out :)

Quick question if dr who is moving to Sunday evening are you keeping doctor who time Sunday morning

Okay, you got my curiosity going... Can I please get a link to that Orphan Black video you referred to?

Love that jacket

Love Your videos. You make me couriouse about Orphan Black. Could You give me the link?

I think I got what Dr. Who was with this second episode. I loved Eccleston in the first episode but got paused by Rose not seeing that something was wrong with plastic Mickey. I thought "Maybe this show is a little too silly for me". But The End of the World was just the right kind of silly.

If you want tennent a doctor like cartoon character, he stars in a season in the teenage mutant ninja turtles 2012 cartoon, the best turtles show i have seen, in one season. As a robotic professor, and the turtles have to travel back in time as his companions, they have zany adventures in space and tennant emulates the doctor while being this character, who has an arc and is his own character, but references.

Funny enough, this was my first episode of Nu Who, too, and I really liked it. I've only seen it once, though, but I think I'd like it well enough if I watched it again. You bringing up the tether actually boosted it in my eyes; that's a cool thing I didn't notice at the time. Something odd, when people mentioned Cassandra's little boy line, I had no idea that was even in the episode. Maybe the Sci-Fi channel cut it (which feels a little odd, given their treatment of the other episodes they aired), maybe it just got past me, I had no idea it was in there. I actually noticed the religion prohibition more and actually remember laughing at just how arbitrary and unenforceable that sounded.

Why do you show Blink first? It barely has The Doctor in it. It really isn't indicative of what the show is about. I've heard many people say that they show people Blink to introduce them to it, I just don't get it.

You could always dress up as the Doctor in the beginning of End of Time, with a lei, a straw hat and sunglasses. Or you could mix it all up and dress up as companions/recurring characters such as WIlf (but not all the time so we can see your fabulous hair once in a while).

Cassandra calling herself a little boy I would think is just another way to show how little she knows about earth culture. She has changed and distanced herself so much from what humans used to be that she no longer knows some of the basic language like pronouns.

I'm pretty sure that RTD actually blew a lot of the budget on this episode, not just with the actual "end of the world" but with the alien designs; he wasn't familiar with how to do a sci-fi series at the time, and this was the result. Which is probably why a lot of the CGI later this series is so bad, and also why the two-part finale was so low-key (compared to later series in the RTD era). Davies definitely got better at managing this during the Tennant seasons (I think even by his own admission), but one has to admit that yes, the first impressions of this episode AND the opener are crucial in hooking the viewers; I would of course have preferred that monsters like the Jagrafess (NOT trying for the whole thing, don't even know if I spelled THIS right) and the Time Reapers be kept to a minimum (or used practical effects) in turn, but the whole thing was worth it in the long run. Besides, when you get to "The Empty Child" (where we see the horrifying transformation of an individual into a "gas mask zombie") those effects STILL hold up really well and are STILL freaking chilling to watch in progress... So, yeah, DW definitely benefitted from having a strong entrance into his more esoteric adventures (even if, as you and others point out, it's weird on a meta level that he never visits another planet - one of the EU novels released in 2005 actually had the Doctor and Rose land on an alien planet and POINT THIS OUT, almost poking fun at the fact!)

You look fantastic! Omg. There's a glow to your skin and the all black really works for you. I love this look!! I am not as fond of series 1 as I used to be but still love this episode. It was a 'deep end of the ocean' kind of way of getting Rose acclimated to what it would be like traveling with the Doctor. I agree that using Toxic was a bit misplaced. I 100% agree The Forest of Cheem was a missed opportunity. Would love to see more sentient planet life forms. I loved the banter between Rose, Jabe, and The Doctor. Omg. That was funny to me. Rose referring to Cassandra as Michael Jackson still tickles me in a way I think will send me to hell. I love Michael and shouldn't laugh like that, but it's hilarious. Then there's Cassandra. Omg.. one of my favorite Doctor Who villains because of its parallels to reality. Some people really do take things way too far in that search for the best of themselves only revealing the worst. Maybe it's my hope we, as a species, get there one day that I keep leaning towards the positive when they reference sexuality, but it's Doctor Who. Millions of years in the future. I took her comment of being a boy just as a reference that gender is no longer then what we see it to be now. That far in the future, we might be asexual, or able to genetically structure our offspring, but we may still have insecurities. It made me feel normal. Gonna start rewatching for the 7th. I hate rewatching Clara episodes but I will push through. Great video today.

isn't that more like body dysmorphia? not that i particularly understand the issue

And now people are really annoyed that BBC uses pop music in trailers. Difference is they used enjoyable music here.

I didn’t know about Doctor Who before the reboot. I really liked the first episode but this episode initially almost made me write the show off as “not for me”.

I'd love to hear what your Orphan Black complaints were. Looked but couldn't find that video. Personally I loved that show it thought it was strongly progressive and brilliantly acted. But I'm not one of those "I shake my fist at you if you see things from another angle" fans

I get what you're saying about providing the tether for the audience, but do you think that 9's closeness to the Time War and losing his home may play a factor in his tendency to stay close to Earth? As 10 said, he was made homeless and Earth was sort of there...I'm probably reading way too much into this and obviously using clues from later on, but I think it's an interesting thing to consider.

funfact: I live about 10 minutes away from a place called Cheam

Great cosplay!! I know it's an easy look to pull off but fantastic (pardon the pun) nonetheless!

How does this episode makes sense alongside utopia?

I want your leather jacket. Where did you get it from?

and Rose was the tether for us human viewers to the world of doctor who (:

Think that reference of Cassandra being a little boy just shows how far we've come in only 13 years. It was a joke but it would never have been written today. Like in "the end of world" when rose calls the daughter gay in reference to his 'infearia masculinity' was only 13 years ago and when I 1st watched it I didn't bat an eye. Now it makes me uncomfortable every time I watch that scene.

They're not human like aliens, they're timelord like aliens. Humans look like timelords. :)

I really liked this episode, especially when I first watched it, because it was completely different from anything I'd watched before, and the dynamic between The Doctor and Rose was really growing on me. I agree about Cassandra's death, it was unnecessarily gory. About the inclusion of "toxic" and "tainted love", I actually liked that for the way it was included. I do agree about pop culture references in doctor who, that they can feel cheap and take you out of the moment. However, in this case, I just loved the juxtaposition. Rose is in outer space, in a completely unfamiliar environment and so far from home, and yet she hears outdated pop songs from her home planet, which just feels really ironic and confusing emotionally for her character. At least that's how I felt it. Also, I love the jacket.

you really pull that outfit off.

It's a shame so many of these alien species were never seen again, especially the Forests of Cheem. . Moffat even went to the effort of introducing an entirely different race of blue people during Capaldi's run - why not just bring back these ones?

How did Casandra speak she didn't have vocal cords?

It's the end of the world as we know it!

So... there’s a new trailer out

Now that you bring it up, I suppose the whole thing about being in orbit around the earth and even the cellphone as "tethers" not just for rose, but for the audience as well, was a good thing in so far as this 2nd episode goes to keep things grounded and easy people into the insanity of what adventures with the Doctor can be. Having said that, looking back retroactively, I still can't help seeing it all as setting a bad precedence, one that I feel NewWho still struggles. This notion of having the Doctor tethered to the earth by way of the companion, or more explicitly this notion of the companions always trying to split time between adventures in time and space while taking breaks in between to keep up with their "normal" life. That more than just about anything else is something I always hate about NewWho. I mean, sure, even in the classic era a disproportionate number of adventures where set on earth, or otherwise involved human space colonies and such. The difference to me really is in the perspective of the companions, because in classic who being the Doctor's companion was a full time commitment. That's just something I always miss, and even if Rose was maybe an okay introductory companion for a new series, I still have trouble not hating her in retrospect for setting this new precedent.

Again, like Rose, not a perfect story, but what it gets right, it nails, and in my opinion even better than Rose did. Off topic, did you see the new series 11 trailer?

I wouldn't mind that link to your video regarding orphan black and the trans/ftm episode...

You watch Orphan Black too?? What's your video on that again, mate? 😊

I like The End of the World overall, It's a good solid episode, although not the very best of NuWho. My one issue with the story is that Cassandra's scheme strikes me as pretty superficial, and shallow for a Doctor Who villain when compared to someone like Davros or the Master. She's merely doing what she does out of financial greed. I do get however, that Cassandra's death could potentially be seen as needlessly gruesome, and sometimes what's left to the imagination works so much better, but it's more of nitpick rather than anything else and didn't really bother me all that much in the grand scheme of things. Rose being able to call Jacky in 2005 was a nice little touch, and the whole paradoxical nature of her being able to talk to her Mum, who is now in the present future setting where Rose now, would be dead. I think that kind of troubled her a bit more than she would have liked it to have, and Billie Piper really handles that moment well. Plus the nature of the relationship that develops briefly between Jabe and the Doctor is neatly handled, and how sympathetic she is towards him when she discovers he is a Time Lord, which is of course the first time in the new series, we hear what species of alien he is. It's what makes her eventual death and self-sacrifice all the sadder as it was noble. And while I was never the greatest fan of Ecclestone in the role, he wasn't terrible, merely passable, but his rage after Jabe dies is well played by him, and I really like how he just coldly lets Cassandra die when she pleads with him to save her, but to no avail. This is a different Doctor than the ones that have come before, and I think shows how much the Time War had a palpable emotional effect on him, because there's clearly a lot of anger in him because of what the Daleks forced him to make him do, or at least so he thought. Overall, a decent outing but not an absolute classic. It's certainly better than the lackluster, Rose that unfortunately opened the new series.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE TRAILER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Orphan Black fan here. I don't like all the decisions they made with that show, but i don't think that by making some clones gay or transgendered they were trying to say that sexual orientation or gender are a choice or based on environment. The clones are genetically different from each other in other ways, e.g. Cosima wearing glasses and Sarah and Helena being able to have kids. Also the clones are way more different personality wise that i think is realistic if they were genetically identical. I think they chose to make the clones very different from each other because they meant for the show to celebrate individuality and also to make the show less boring which it could have been if the clones were too much alike. Still i get why you find that aspect of the show problematic.

This is probably too much work for just a reviewseries: But it would be fun if you dressed in a feminine version of the clothes of whoever is the Doctor in the episode you review! And perhaps too ”Vera Wylde” for the style you want on this channel, but I wanted to send the idea anyway!

The takeaway I had with Rose’s interactions with Raffalo, the maintenance worker, and Cassandra was two-fold. First, there is a definite class dynamic. Rose has been established as, for lack of a better term, “blue-collar”. The aristocratic, entitled arrogance of Cassandra felt like it was turned Rose off. With Raffalo though, this was a person that Rose could identify with, alien or not. The feeling I got was that Rose knew people just like Raffalo, those that keep society going even when they have to deal with entitled jerks. As for the jukebox and Cassandras ramble… Honestly, I took the first as a riff on the farther you are from a time you are trying to explain, the more you are going to get it wrong. The second, Cassandra is an untrustworthy narrator. Based on how old she claims to be, the airs she puts on, and her motivations, you can’t much, if any, credence to what comes out of her mouth. Overall, when I first saw “The End of the World” when it first aired on the CBC, there were a lot of moments I had to “Run” and “I’m the Doctor by the way. What’s your name?” “Rose” “Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life!” from “Rose”. I was gleefully thinking “It’s back, really back, and they nailed it.”

This episode is good but the giant turbine fans conveniently blocking an essential mechanic in the ship and the Doctor magically walking through it was pretty bad.

A better song to troll us with would have been one of Billies songs as an in joke.

I guess you'll have to get it then :)

Oh, these were the days when Doctor Who was still great entertainment!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not the overblown trash Moffat gave us the last 8 years.