After a quite solid start, the new Doctor Who series hits the jackpot already in its second episode. Much of its appeal is on show in the teaser, where the Doctor asks Rose if she would like to go forwards or backwards in time (space travel is not contemplated as of yet). She enthusiastically goes for "forwards" and in order to impress her big time the Doctor makes the TARDIS go further than ever before. As they arrive, they find themselves on a spaceship from which Planet Earth is perfectly visible. What's so special about it? Well, the time is five billion years from Rose's time, and more precisely it's the day the sun expands and ultimately destroys the Earth. As the Doctor coolly quips: "Welcome to the end of the world.".
The spaceship, it turns out, is a gathering place for all those who wish to look at Earth when it gets scorched. Guest of honor is the last "human", Cassandra (Zoe Wanamaker from My Family), actually little more than a skin trampoline after hundreds of surgical operations. As the end approaches, though, everyone quickly realizes something is wrong: someone is plotting to make sure no one leaves the ship alive. And once again, the Doctor is the only one who can save the day.
The major improvement on the previous episode is the mastering of the visual effects: all the aliens and the images of a doomed Earth look absolutely amazing. Then there's Wanamaker's fun vocal cameo, the first of many quality guest appearances in the series. And then there's the exceptional pairing of Piper and Eccleston, with the latter getting more to do than last time and the first vital piece of information regarding his character's back-story revealed (the word "Time Lord" is used for the first time since 1996). It might be the end of the world, but it's also the proper beginning of the Doctor's full-time return to television.
