The Doctor and Rose arrive on the orbiting Platform One in the year Five Billion. Some of the richest beings in the universe have gathered there to watch the destruction of the Earth, as its Sun erupts into a red giant. While Rose grapples with the implications of her decision to travel in the TARDIS, an army of robotic spiders takes control of the space station. Is the mastermind Jabe, the serene Tree from the Forest of Cheem? Cassandra, the last pure human in existence? The diminutive Moxx of Balhoon? Or the impassive Face of Boe? And whoever it is, can the Doctor stop them before Platform One perishes along with the Earth?

Rose, the first episode of Doctor Who's twenty-first-century revival, had been firmly set on modern-day Earth. But executive producer Russell T Davies wanted to quickly establish the breadth of settings which the programme offered. In his pitch document of December 8th, 2003, Davies indicated that episode two would be called The End Of The World, and take place in the far future on the precipice of the Earth's destruction. He began working on his script during February 2004, and was strongly influenced by the Academy Awards ceremony on March 1st. Observing the parade of grotesquely skinny celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Davies took this to its logical extreme by developing Cassandra, the last human, who would be little more than a paper-thin flap of skin in a frame, with two eyes and a pair of lips.

Davies wanted The End Of The World to boast a variety of alien lifeforms. Amongst them, the Moxx of Balhoon was originally envisaged as a puddle of blue fat. However, such a creature would have to be realised through computer animation and, when effects house The Mill observed that the script already included a number of computer-generated elements, it was agreed that the Moxx would instead be a practical costume. Davies also changed the setting of the final scene from Piccadilly Circus to an unspecified thoroughfare which could be shot in Cardiff, sparing the necessity of an extra trip to London. Davies eventually decided that he preferred the anonymity that this provided the setting.

There was a lack of short-statured actors to play the Platform One staff

Of the first five scripts for Season Twenty-Seven, only The End Of The World and the third episode, The Unquiet Dead, did not take place on modern-day Earth. As a result, they were paired to form Block Two of the recording schedule. The director would be Euros Lyn, who had been a fan of Doctor Who during his childhood. After the September 2003 announcement of the programme's return, he had contacted Davies and executive producer Julie Gardner to offer his services. One issue confronting Lyn was the lack of short-statured actors to play the Platform One staff, since many such artistes had been hired for the movie adaptation Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, which was also in production. It was finally agreed to cast children instead, some of whom were relatives of dialogue editor Paul McFadden.

Block One was still in production when Lyn recorded the first scene for The End Of The World. This was Jackie Tyler's half of the phone conversation with Rose, recorded on September 7th at Doctor Who's studio home of Unit Q2 in Newport. Originally, this scene had been foreshadowed in Rose when Jackie mentioned the call to her baffled daughter, but the material had been dropped from the script. The same venue hosted the TARDIS sequence on September 23rd, and scenes in the ventilation chamber on October 4th and 5th. Meanwhile, on September 28th, it had been announced that Mal Young, the BBC's Controller of Continuing Drama Series, would be leaving the Corporation at the end of the year. As a result, his involvement with Doctor Who as an executive producer would also cease.

Virtually all of the location work for The End Of The World was conducted in Cardiff. The majority of the sequences aboard Platform One -- including those set in the Manchester Suite, the Steward's Office and various corridors -- were taped at the Temple of Peace, from October 6th to 8th and from the 11th to the 14th. The last day also saw segments set in the maintenance corridor completed at BBC Broadcasting House. Scenes in the viewing gallery were recorded on October 15th at Unit Q2. At an early stage, Davies had hoped that this set would be able to tilt during the story's climax, threatening Rose not only with the sun's deadly rays but also with a long fall onto the glass as she clung to a balustrade. However, this effect was deemed too expensive, and the action was simplified.

Lyn next spent several days concentrating on inserts and pick-up shots: at Unit Q2 on October 18th, at Headlands School in Penarth on the 20th, and then back at Unit Q2 on the 22nd. The major outstanding sequence was the Doctor and Rose returning to modern-day Earth. It was filmed in Cardiff during Block Three, at Helmont House and along Queen Street on November 9th. Lyn also taped some additional material in the ductwork at Unit Q2 on November 26th. Meanwhile, the production team was feeling very encouraged by how work on Block Two had progressed relatively smoothly, after struggling mightily through Block One.

During post-production work in early 2005, the computer artists at The Mill discovered that animating Cassandra was more challenging than they had anticipated. As a result, the number of shots in which she was visible would have to be curtailed. The major casualty was a lengthy conversation with Rose about the fate of humanity. Here Davies had incorporated oblique references to the future history of Earth as seen in earlier Doctor Who stories, such as the pioneers of serials like 1971's Colony In Space, the Earth Empire depicted in 1972's The Mutants, and the mammoth space arks from 1966's The Ark. With The End Of The World now running short, Davies created a new character in the form of the plumber, Raffalo. Her scenes were taped at the Temple of Peace on February 19th. Additional dialogue recording also gave Davies the chance to insert the Moxx's line about “the Bad Wolf scenario”, to tie The End Of The World into the season's overarching Bad Wolf storyline.

The Doctor Who revival would continue without Christopher Eccleston

Some thought was given to airing The End Of The World immediately after Rose on March 26th, but Davies objected that this would push the episode too late into the evening. Instead, The End Of The World was broadcast a week later, on April 2nd. Following the enormous success of the season premiere, Doctor Who remained squarely in the public eye. With Rose having secured an audience more than half again what the BBC had expected, Controller of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter confirmed on March 30th that both a Christmas special and a second season had already been commissioned. It was also announced that Billie Piper would return to play Rose Tyler. But, just hours later, the BBC acknowledged that the Doctor Who revival would continue without Christopher Eccleston. Initial reports, apparently released to head off a leak to the tabloids, suggested that the series star was concerned about the gruelling recording schedule, and feared becoming too associated with the role of the Doctor.

On April 4th, however, Tranter admitted that the BBC had not consulted with Eccleston before preparing the press release, and that the reasons cited for his decision were inaccurate -- without specifying what his real motivation actually was. In fact, Eccleston had become very unhappy with the way in which the Doctor Who cast had been treated during the difficult days of Block One. His relationship with Davies had never entirely recovered and, by January, he had made up his mind to leave Doctor Who. Tranter apologised to Eccleston for the misattribution, as well as for failing to follow through on a promise to keep his departure a secret. Not for the first time, controversy was stalking Doctor Who behind the scenes, even as the programme flourished on television.

• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #11, 31st August 2005, “Fact File: The End Of The World” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #48, 2016, “Story 158: The End Of The World”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Inside Story by Gary Russell (2006), BBC Books.