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 the TARDIS and its quirky history; it also gave us a glimpse into the Doctor’s darker side.

While it’s no surprise that Doctor Who has evolved considerably since the ’60s, the revival’s second episode, “The End of the World,” proved that the show—and the Doctor—weren’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 Earth—all 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.Δ17 (pronounced “dot-delta-17”), the last living human in the galaxy.

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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. 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 station and 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 (though one Doctor Who comic recently hinted that the Time Lords may not have been wiped out).

The Doctor’s choice to condemn Cassandra to die at the end of the Doctor Who episode 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 mind while 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.”

Doctor Who

Release Date

2005 – 2022-00-00

Directors

Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy

Writers

Steven Moffat, Russell T. Davies

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  Jodie Whittaker

  The Doctor

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