My favorite gift that's given is the ostrich egg, because "legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet, and blew fire from it's nostrils," but the "iPod" is pretty funny too. It makes you wonder what historical inaccuracies we've made- maybe what we think are ancient pots are really toilets. On the subject of funny stuff, one joke that I enjoy is when Rose is trying to use her cell and says they're "Out of range. Just a bit." A bit? Sure. We're only outside of that time. Walk a few steps to the left and I'm sure you'll get service. And then the Doctor performs some "jiggery pokery" and her phone works. Ta da! Another funny is when Jane tries to figure out what Rose is to the Doctor- his wife, partner, concubine, prostitute? Rose, saying that "Whatever I am, I must be invisible. Do you mind?" heads off to talk to "Michael Jackson-" the Lady Cassandra. They promptly disagree, mainly about Cassandra's many (seven hundred eight) operations.
I'm glad that Rose eventually has a freak-out moment when she begins to realize that she is surrounded by aliens, her only way home is in a strange blue box that is bigger on the inside and gets inside her head so that she can understand and speak in alien languages, with a strange man that she's known for less than a day, and that everyone she's ever known is dead. It's completely justified- in fact, if she hadn't freaked out, I would probably say she was a Dalek in disguise.
First off, though, I hate how Rose went from heroic human to helpless damsel in distress in two episodes. In Rose, she saved the Doctor's life, rescued all of London from certain doom, and then boldly went where no man has gone before (none from our century, anyways). And then, in The End of the World, she has a mental breakdown, gets trapped and almost killed, and is mostly useless and cumbersome throughout the episode. I mean, honestly?! What brought about this sudden changed from "hero to zero?" -to incorrectly paraphrase the Muses from Hercules. I guess it's meant to show how, even though Rose is awesome, she has her limits and "is only human."
And then there's the dramatic death of Jane. She really didn't have to die- if the Doctor had moved faster through the slowly rotating turbines of decapitation- because they're moving so fast they're obviously going to kill him *not*- she wouldn't have caught on fire. But no, there had to be a meaningless sacrifice. Pffft.
The main thing that annoys me here, however, is when the sun filter is descending. The temperature outside is extremely hot, yes? Of course it is, the freaking sun is exploding. So the glass of Platform One is breaking, allowing pretty little beams of sunlight to stream through... and not cook anyone unless it touches them. Uh, hello? Anyone in a, say... twenty foot radius of one of those beams would be fried instantly! Not to mention the great big gaps in the glass! If the external shields are down, and the glass is broken, is the air going to stay inside the ship? I THINK NOT.
I think the best part about this one isn't the wit or the plot or any of that; I think it's the moral. Life doesn't last forever- nothing does. We need to cherish each and every day we're given for the gift that it is.
Overall, this is a fairly good episode. I mean, come on. It has the Face of Boe! If you haven't watched all of season three then you won't understand why the Face of Boe is so great, but for the rest of you...
Stay geeky (and nerdy if you're a nerd as well),
-A fellow Whovian
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