1. Summed up in one sentence
The one in which a thin blanket of skin sabotages a spaceship to blow up to get the insurance money.
2. The Doctor
We get to see a plethora of sides to the Doctor in this episode, which is nice because he was mostly an unknowable enigma in the previous episode.
Surprise number one takes place when he absconds with a lovely tree lady to investigate into the strange happenings within the spaceship. During this time, the lovely tree lady (Lady Groot?) finds herself intrigued with the Doctor, just as Rose was in the previous episode. She’s so interested that she uses a clever creepy device that allows her to scan anyone and that device discloses all the information on that person/species? (Basically a pokedex, or a very effective way to stalk someone)
Anyway, disregarding any discussions on consent, she uses this device on the Doctor and finds out he is part of a species that was believed to have all died out.
She brings this finding up with the Doctor while he fiddles with something using the sonic screwdriver. She expresses her condolences for the genocide of his people. When I first saw this episode I thought that he would rebuff her. But whether he decides to be more vulnerable with Tree Lady, or he experiences such a magnitude of emotions that can’t be held back, we see the Doctor cry, and they have a tender moment of understanding.
Surprise number two happens when the villain is apprehended, and said villain comes into danger of self-destructing, AND THE DOCTOR DOESN’T SAVE HER. The danger is eliminated and the villain is retrieved from her escape, so I’m thinking the Doctor will want to keep her alive for a trial or something.
But no.
He is out of patience, and allows her to die, pretty gruesomely, even with Rose telling him to save her.
I’m like, DAMN DOCTOR. That’s cold. We see that he clearly has a dark side. And looking ahead to future episodes, it’s only a peek of what is to come.
I ask myself, exactly why is this darker side brought out at this time? The only answer I can come up with is that perhaps he was triggered (forgive my millennial language) by the conversation he had with Sexy Tree Lady about his people dying, and he was overcome with an urge for revenge, since the opportunity to avenge his people wasn’t afforded him.
Just a thought.
3. The Companion
A lot is going on with Rose in this episode as well. She starts to show some misgivings (and possible regrets?) about following a man she doesn’t know into a strange world of time and space travel. Her feelings are compounded by the fact that the Doctor goes off with Sexy Tree Lady without Rose, leaving his companion alone as she experiences understandable culture shock.
But she does her best with what she’s given. She overcomes her initial discomfort at being around aliens that look completely different from her and socializes with them. She even puts the villain (unknown at the time) Lady Cassandra in her place when she’s being a snooty bitch (but she’s such a lovable snooty bitch to her credit).
4. The Villain
Lady Cassandra!!! We all love Lady Cassandra, the literal trampoline of skin that represents the extreme of humans altering their appearance for aesthetic value. It’s really hard to hate her, making it all the more uncomfortable when the Doctor just lets her explode, due to a lack of moisture of course.
We’ve all been there.
You at least gotta love her for thinking “Toxic” is a classical ballad of Earth.
5. The Score
8/10
Not only are the story arcs of the Doctor and Rose fascinating, but the setting is already much more thought provoking than the previous episode. We can sympathize with Rose as she gazes upon Earth in its final moments, our minds being boggled at billions of years that have passed since her present day, and you wonder to yourself, what would it really be like if you were able to travel that far into the future? Would you see anything familiar? Would Britney Spears truly be preserved for the generations to come?? These are the important questions to ask ourselves.
6. The Very Whoiest Part
For this episode, I picked the moment near the end, after the dust settles (or rather the flabs of skin and sprays of blood settle). In an effort to make it up to Rose for abandoning her during much of the episode, the Doctor makes an improvement on her cell phone that allows her to call her mum, as she is still alive in Rose’s present day, and not billions of years into the future where they currently are. It’s a brain breaking and touching moment, as Rose is staring at the burning earth below her, she can still reach out to her mom when the world was still very much alive.
Very cool moment.
Again, thanks for reading this! Stay tuned for episode 3.
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