Doctor Who Season 1

The End Of The World Part 1

(Rose)

The Doctor and I stood inside the TARDIS. 

"Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me, where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time? It's your choice, what's it going to be?"

I thought for a second. What an impossible decision to make. "Forwards."

The Doctor flicked two switches. "How far?" 

I thought again. I could choose any time in the future that I wanted. "100 years."

The Doctor turned  a wheel, pulled  a lever and fiddled with something else. "There you go. Step outside those doors. It's the 22nd Century." 

"You're kidding me."

"That's a bit boring though. Do you want to go further?"

"Fine by me," I smiled. 

The Doctor played with a few more things. "10,000 years in the future. Step outside, it's the year 12,005. The New Roman Empire." 

I shook my head. "You think you're so impressive."

The Doctor looked hurt. "I am so impressive."

"You wish," I grinned. 

"Right then, you asked for it," The Doctor said. "I know exactly where to go." He played with more switches. "Hold on," he said as the TARDIS started to shake. 

I grabbed on to the centre console while the Doctor kept playing with more switches. Finally he rang a bell and the TARDIS stopped shaking. "Where are we?" I asked. 

The Doctor pointed to the door. 

"What's out there?" I asked, excitedly. 

He just smiled and pointed to the door again. 

Slowly, I walk to the door and opened it, sticking my head outside. We were in a large room with large steps that shone and scanning machines on the walls. At the end of the room was a large window. When I walked closer, I realised that the window was looking out at Earth. 

"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids," the Doctor said quietly. "But you never take time to imagine the impossible. And maybe you survive. This is the year 5.5/apple/6. Five billion years in your future. And this is the day, hold on," he looked at his watch and then back at the window where the Earth had just been covered in red light. "This is the day that the sun expands." He looked at me. "Welcome to the end of the world."

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The Doctor and I walked down a corridor. A speaker sounded overhead. "Shuttles five and six, now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth death is scheduled for 15:39 followed by drinks in the Manchester suite."

"So when it says guests, does that mean people?" I asked. 

"Depends what you mean by people," the Doctor replied. 

"I mean people. What do you mean?"

"Aliens."

"What are they doing onboard this spaceship?" I asked. "What's it all for?"

"It's not really a spaceship," the Doctor told me. "More of an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn."

"What for?"

"Fun." We walked into a large hall area. "Mind you, when I say the great and the good, what I mean is the rich."

"But hold on, they did this once on NewsRun Extra. The sun expanding? That takes hundreds of years."

"Millions," the Doctor corrected me. "But this planet is run by the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved." He led me to another window. "See down there?" He pointed to a satellite. "Gravity Satellite, holding back the sun."

"The planet looks the same as ever. I thought the continents shifted and things?"

"They did, and the Trust shifted them back. That's the classic Earth. But, now the money's run out, nature takes over." 

"How long's it got?" I asked. 

The Doctor looked at his watch. "About half an hour, then the planet gets roasted."

"Is that why we're here?" I asked hopefully. "Is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?"

"I'm not saving it," he answered. "Time's up." 

"But what about the people?" I insisted. 

"It's empty, they're all gone."

"Just me then," I sighed. 

"Who the hell are you?" Someone asked from behind us. We turned around to see a blue man with black markings on his face. 

"Oh, that's nice, thanks," the Doctor replied. 

"But how did you get in? This is a maximum hospitality zone, the guests have disembarked, they're on their way. Any second now-"

"Oh that's me," the Doctor interupted. "I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Look there, you see it? It's fine, see? The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor. This is Rose Tyler. She's my plus one. Is that alright?" 

The man looked at us. "Well, obviously. Apologies, etcetera. If you are onboard, we better start. Enjoy." He walked away and the Doctor showed me the piece of paper that he had shown the man.

"This paper is slightly psychic, it shows people what they want to see. Save's a lot of time." 

"He's blue," I said.

"Yeah."