Also In This Section: Doctor Who

 

Having gained a new traveling companion, the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) gives his new friend Rose (Billie Piper) the option of the future or the past. Setting out for the future, they make a few brief stops before settling on a time near the year five billion.

The TARDIS arrives on Platform One, a sprawling observation platform that travels between stars run by a vast corporation hosting glimpses of 'artistic' events. The Doctor shows Rose her homeworld; Earth is abandoned, run by the National Trust, while today is the day that the planet will be destroyed forever. They are greeted by the Steward (Simon Day), who operates the platform, but a quick plan by the Doctor (using 'psychic paper' as his credentials) allows them to stay as honored guests. The Steward presents the reception, which includes such dignitaries as representatives of the Forest of Cheem, a race of tree-people led by Jabe (Yasmin Bannerman); the Moxx of Balhoon (Jimmy Vee), a diminutive blue solicitor; hooded aliens called the Adherents of the Repeated Meme; the Face of Boe, a glass-encased head; and Lady Cassandra O'Brien, a hideously mutilated survivor of the human race who exists only as a layer of skin with a brain tank.

While the Doctor and Jabe exchange gifts and platitudes, and the assembled guests mingle, Rose panics, not used to the alien cultures she faces. While wandering the station, Rose meets Raffalo (Beccy Armory), a servitor of the station who is repairing the temperature controls. Unfortunately, Raffalo meets an untimely end as she is the first to discover a strange brand of metallic spiders who have infested the ventilation system. Meanwhile, the spiders begin popping out of metallic eggs given to guests as gifts of the Repeated Meme, unknowingly getting into the walls and electronic systems of the station. After the Doctor has his TARDIS parked (and gets a parking ticket!), he checks up on Rose, who doesn't understand why he won't tell her more about who he is or where he comes from. In order to help her deal with the fact that the Earth is coming to an end, the Doctor does something to her mobile phone, allowing her to talk to her mother Jackie (Camille Coduri) through aeons of time separation... an action which eases Rose's mind and allows her to see the Doctor's point of view.

The Steward discovers the presence of the spiders, but he's too late: one of them lowers the sun shields that exposes him to searing temperatures, killing him, and starts tampering with the gravity shields that keep the station free from harm. Rose takes a disliking to Cassandra while the Doctor and Jabe explore the machinery ducts attempting to find out why the gravity shields are collapsing; it is there that Jabe confronts him with the knowledge that she knows who and what he is, and offers her consolation for his suffering. Rose is knocked unconscious by the Repeated Meme and placed in an observation room; later, the sun shields start to fail in there. The Doctor is barely able to rescue Rose before the sun shields fail completely and kill her. Unfortunately, the damage is done; the gravity shields have failed, and after discovering that the Repeated Meme are no more than androids, the Doctor discovers the true culprit behind the problem: Lady Cassandra, who owns controlling shares of the companies the dignitaries on Platform One represent, and will stand to make a fortune to continue her surgical experiments on herself.

Cassandra escapes, the shields collapse, and the Doctor and Jabe scramble to the engine room to repair them. Unfortunately, the rising temperatures from the sun are too much for Jabe to bear, as she explodes into flames; however, the Doctor is able to get to the switch in time to raise the shields again as the sun explodes and Earth is destroyed in the explosion. The Doctor is able to use Cassandra's teleport technology to bring her back to the station, but not her assistants, so the lack of proper moisturizing makes her wither and snap like a sheet of paper.

Later, the Doctor explains his true identity: he's a Time Lord, and his homeworld is gone, destroyed in a war -- while Rose is the last human here in this era, he is the last of his kind, forever. The Doctor takes her home, back to London in her own time, where he shows her how everything here is transitory, and should be appreciated because one day it won't be here anymore. Her faith restored, Rose decides to stay with the Doctor after all, and the two set off for a snack before their next adventure.