The End of the World

Hey everyone.  Our journey through the world of The Doctor continues with Episode 2 of the first season, "The End of the World."
Just saying this is an in depth look at the episode so there will be tons and tons of spoilers. If you have an allergy to those, watch the show first and then come back and catch my blog.  Totally worth it.
It starts just after episode 1 and the Doctor asks Rose where she wants to go. He shows off a bit by leap frogging through time, but they finally end up in the year 5.5/apple/26. 5 billion years in the future.
What's up with "apple"? Several seasons in the future River Song sticks "Acorn" in some coordinates.  I can't find it on line. Does anyone know?
So they get to a place called "Platform 1" where the doctor announces that this is the day that the sun expands and destroys the Earth. He's not going to do anything about it because all of the people are off of the planet.
I find Platform 1 very interesting. Apparently it moves from "art event" to "art event" and people pay for the privilege of enjoying it's safety and climate control so that they can watch planets explode and things like that.
Upon arriving on the station, a female voice announces that weapons, teleportation, and religion are forbidden on the premises.  Presumably the first two are outlawed for safety reasons. I think its interesting that religion is outlawed.  Religion is a very personal thing and its its regulation by law usually coincides with some pretty serious human rights violations.  So, in this futuristic and high-tech society, there is religious persecution and restriction of thought. Interesting.
The doctor explains that very rich aliens have come to the observation deck to watch the Earth Explode.  Apparently the "National Trust" whatever that is in 5 billion years, has paid for the Earth's tectonic plates to be shifted to 21st century positions and now that the money has run out, it is time for the old planet to be destroyed.
At last the other guests arrive and everyone is introduced.
Tree people who seemed to have evolved from Terran forests are represented, followed by a blue guy,  followed by the appearance of the Repeated Meme. A bunch of other people follow in succession. Other aliens of note are The Face of Bo (I will definitely have a blog just on him in Season 3 so stay tuned) and Cassandra the Last Human (A face tied to a trampoline. She is arguably one of the funniest characters on the entire series. She is what happens when Narcissistic Personality Disorder is allowed to run a muck on steroids.  She is bragging about the fact that as a slip of skin, she looks very thin and dainty and that she has had her chin removed. As a woman who struggles with weight issues, I find her hilarious.
Apparently the aliens are exchanging gifts. The Doctor and Rose are technically party crashers so they don't have any gifts. The Doctor decides to gift party guests with air from his lungs. The scary thing is that the Tree Lady likes it and hits on the Doctor.  Rose is totally shocked by the whole thing - especially when she asks if Rose is a concubine.  As she points out she is standing right there!!!
One of the other guests is giving the gift of bodily saliva's and spits it right into Rose's face. This has gotta be total culture shock for her. The appearance of the repeated Meme just hands everyone metal spheres.
Disgusted by her surroundings and by the Tree Lady's behavior, Rose goes for a walk. She meets up with a blue-skinned lady who works as a plumber. The Plumber tells her that she has to be given permission to speak. Again, the future society doesn't sound like a very nice place to live. Working class people aren't allowed to speak to people "above them?" Ugh!
While talking to the Blue Lady, Rose becomes more and more uncomfortable. Graffalo isn't from a planet. She's from a "Convex". This is never really explained to us either. Then Rose reflects upon how she doesn't really even know who the doctor is. He's a complete stranger and she just ran off with him. She becomes frightened when she really thinks about her situation. She walks away.
Graffalo continues her job, but is killed by metal spiders.  No one is really safe in Doctor Who -- and they think George R.R. Martin is the worst character serial killer?
Next the Steward of the observation station is roasted alive in his office -- another metal spider pushes the button that kills him.
Now we meet Rose again, sitting alone on some steps looking out on the Earth. She tries to talk to the cutting of the Tree-Lady's grandfather, but then scolds herself for talking to a tree.
Rose then talks to the Doctor about how different the Aliens are from her and then freaks out a little about the fact that the Tardis gets into her brain and translates for her. Then she starts drilling the doctor about where he's from and he gets angry. She quickly apologizes.
I have to say I really like this sequence with Rose. A lot of time in fantasy, the foreign character just seems to accept the alien surroundings with little question. I like the fact that they had her freak out a little bit. That seems real.
Then the Doctor fixes her phone so she can call home billions of years ago.  Jacquie is doing something really exciting -- laundry.
The doctor apologizes for the future "bill". Wow.
So the tree lady and the doctor go to. Check out the coolant systems in the space station because it is getting hot.  Rose goes to talk to Cassandra. She claims that she was a little boy on Earth. Apparently her plastic surgery has included at least one sex change. She says that the other humans have "mingled" with other species and are no longer real, pure humans. She's had 709 operations. Rose tells her that she would rather die. Rose tells Cassandra that she's really the last human because Cassandra is just lipstick and skin and not really human.
The Tree Lady tells the Doctor that she can't even believe that he is alive after the other Galifrayans were killed during the time war and that her instruments wouldn't even believe that he was alive.
There is really a lot of information given to the viewer in this episode. Its a lot to take in on a first viewing. It doesn't seem to get in the way of enjoyment though.  Still I think you have to watch the ep several times to catch all of the bits and pieces of information.
Now rose gets conked on the head and drug away ... hmmm...
Cassandra starts playing a "traditional ballad" on the juke box.  Silly choice. She should at least be playing something Celine Dion.
The sun filter starts to descend in the room where Rose is locked.  The Doctor fixes the problem with some difficulty, but it seems clear that someone has it out for Rose.  I wonder who could be mad at Rose?
So the Tree Lady announces that the spiders have taken over Platform 1 and that the Steward is dead. The Spiders seem to belong to the Appearance of the Repeated Meme, but The Doctor says that is too obvious.  He reveals the real owner of the spiders is Cassandra. She reveals that she had planned to create a hostage situation and then get lots of compensation for herself.
Once she's found out, she decided to kill everyone and then have herself teleported off the platform.
The computer and the Tree Lady go to fix the problem, but Tree Lady sacrifices herself to save everyone else.  It does fix the problem, but the death toll on this show is getting pretty high.
He pulls Cassandra back through her teleportation feed.  Cassandra dries out and explodes.  The doctor refuses to help her because she says that everything has its time and everything dies.
So the Earth has exploded and everything is gone. Rose is depressed because everyone was so busy that no one saw it destroyed. The Doctor and Rose go back to the 21st century. Rose seems bewildered by her whole experience.
The Doctor finally admits to Rose that his Planet has exploded like the Earth because they had lost a war.  He tells her that he is the last of the Time Lords and that he travels alone.  Rose points out that he's not alone when she's with him, but that she's not sure if she wants to go with him or not.  She asks her to buy him some chips, but he says he's broke. She says she will buy him chips instead.
Like I've said, there is a lot of information handed to the viewer in this episode.  Its fun to watch, but I think that the audience has to watch the show more than once to get every piece of information that is offered. I like how the show used guest characters to help provide the information and back story instead of the Doctor giving another long monolog.
Cassandra was my favorite part of the entire episode. She's hilarious and a villain that you love to hate. We'll see her later in the series.
Altogether I give this show a 4 out of 5 just because of all the information dropped on the audience at once.  Its a strong one though and one of my favorites.