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Warning: this article contains spoilers for Doctor Who Series 1After a 16-year hiatus,Doctor Who’s return to the BBC in 2005 brought action and excitement back to the decades-spanning series with Christopher Eccleston’s bold performance as the leather-jacket-clad Ninth Doctor.
However, the show’s energetic rebirth in the new millennium brought more to the table than the return of theTARDIS and its quirky history; it also gave us a glimpse into the Doctor’s darker side.
While it’s no surprise thatDoctor Whohas evolved considerably since the ’60s, the revival’s second episode, “The End of the World,” proved that the showand the Doctorweren’t afraid to get ugly at times.
In episode 2, the Doctor takes Rose (Billie Piper) five billion years into the future to witness the Sun destroy the Earthall from the comfort of an orbiting observation deck, no less.
However, once things go awry on the space station after robot spiders disable its protective force fields, the Doctor is quick to take action,revealing just how brutal and cynical his ninth incarnation can be.
The Ninth Doctor Coldly Letting Cassandra Die Was A Shocking Moment For Doctor Who’s New Era
Fans Didn’t Expect The Doctor To Be So Harsh
In “The End of the World,” the Doctor and Rose use the TARDIS to travel to Platform One, a decadent observation deck orbiting Earth in its final moments before being obliterated by the Sun.
On Platform One, a number of wealthy aliens have gathered to watch the Earth’s destruction, including Cal “Spark Plug” MacNannovich and the Moxx of Balhoon.However, one guest stands out from the others:Lady Cassandra O’Brien.17 (pronounced “dot-delta-17”), the last living human in the galaxy.
There are several episodes that are often mentioned as Doctor Who’s best effort, but season 15 has just canonized the only correct answer.
Cassandra has undergone extensive cosmetic surgeries (708 in total) that have reduced her to no more than a stretched-out piece of skin with eyes and lips that require constant moisturization.
An alien from the planet Gallifrey travels through time and space to explore, solve problems and fight injustice while also making friends with human beings. His spaceship, called TARDIS, resembles a police box, but it is much more than it appears to be.
It’s revealed later in the episode that the sabotage of Platform One’s force fields was organized by Cassandra so that she could profit from a hostage situation to pay for further cosmetic operations.
Though she attempts to escape via teleportation, her plan is thwarted by the Doctor, who brings her back to the stationand leaves her to shrivel up and die from the heat of the expanding Sun.
Why The Ninth Doctor Let Cassandra Die
Episode 2 Touches On The Doctor’s Past
The reason the Ninth Doctor is so brutal in “The End of the World” has to do with the trauma he is carrying from the Time War.
Though he’s often quick-witted and cocky, the Doctor’s pain resurfaces after Jabe, one of the guests on Platform One, discovers he’s a Time Lord and expresses her sympathy for the loss of his people (thoughoneDoctor Whocomic recently hinted that the Time Lords may not have been wiped out).
With the annihilation of his civilization fresh in his mind while face to face with Earth’s own destruction, the Doctor has little sympathy for Cassandra’s wails of agony.
The Doctor’s choice to condemn Cassandra to die at the end of theDoctor Whoepisode doesn’t come from his anger or a desire for vengeance; it comes from his suffering.
In his mind, she’s doing to the people on Platform One what was done to his people.With the annihilation of his civilization fresh in his mindwhile face to face with Earth’s own destruction, the Doctor has little sympathy for Cassandra’s wails of agony.
Instead, the Ninth Doctor leaves her for dead with one chilling final line: “Everything has its time and everything dies.”
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An alien from the planet Gallifrey travels through time and space to explore, solve problems and fight injustice while also making friends with human beings.
His spaceship, called TARDIS, resembles a police box, but it is much more than it seems to be.
