‘THE STOLEN EARTH’/’JOURNEY’S END’
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Davros and the Daleks with the Children of Time
‘THE STOLEN EARTH’ (Part 1)
Wow! This ‘Doctor Who’ story is amazing! It’s got to feature one of the biggest casts in ‘Doctor Who’ history. There’s more than just David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Billie Piper in this two-part story.
There’s also Freema Agyeman as Martha, John Barrowman as Captain Jack and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane. There’s also Eve Myles as Gwen and Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto from ‘Torchwood’ in this!
There’s also Tommy Knight as Luke and Mr. Smith (voiced by Alexander Armstrong) from ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’. This two-part tale features the first crossover between three ‘Doctor Who’ shows.
There’s also Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred and Jacqueline King as Sylvia (Donna’s family); Noel Clarke as Mickey and Camille Coduri as Jackie (Rose’s family) and Adjoa Andoh as Francine (Martha’s mum).
And there’s Penelope Wilton who returns as Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister. And there’s Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks in this as well as the Judoon. I’ve run out of breath here! 😀
The story itself is incredible! The Doctor and Donna return to Earth to find that it gets stolen and taken thousands of light years to the Medusa Cascade where twenty six planets have also been stolen.
These stolen planets include Callufrax Minor, Jahoo, Woman Wept and Clom. There’s also Adipose III (‘Partners In Crime’), Pyrovillia (‘The Fires of Pompeii’) and also the Lost Moon of Poosh (‘Midnight’).
They’ve all been stolen to form this engine of power to spread across the universe. Stolen by whom? You guessed it! The Daleks! Soon the stolen Earth gets invaded as the Daleks attack the continents.
But the Daleks are not alone. As well as being led by the blood-red Supreme Dalek, they also have their lord and creator – the Kaled scientist Davros, played magnificently by Julian Bleach in this story.
Davros first appeared in ‘Doctor Who’ in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ with Tom Baker. Sarah Jane is horrified when she hears Davros’ voice. I love that moment as it gave me the chills when I first saw this.
Julian Bleach is absolutely tremendous as Davros. He’s very scary, playing to same level as Michael Wisher and Terry Molloy. His ranting and raving match superbly to his calculating and quieter tones.
The make-up of Davros is truly sensational, matching to the make-up that was for Michael Wisher in 1975. Julian plays Davros well with such enthusiasm and I’m sure he scared the children watching this story.
There’s also the return of Dalek Kaan who escaped at the end of ‘Daleks In Manhattan’/’Evolution of the Daleks’. Kaan did an emergency temporal shift and he went into the Time War to rescue Davros.
As a result, Kaan became deranged and manic as he could see into the future and tell prophecies of what was to come. He also has the knack of giving off hysterical laughs which were creepily eerie.
Soon, Harriet Jones manages to get the team of companions together via a sub-wave network. Together, the ‘secret army’ (or ‘the children of time’) use their skills and resources to contact the Doctor.
The Doctor and Donna soon receive contact and enter the Medusa Cascade to find the 27 planets. It’s now a race against time as the Doctor has to reach Earth before Davros and the Daleks stop him.
As the Doctor and Donna arrive on Earth, they soon find Rose Tyler waiting to meet them. The Doctor is overjoyed as he and Rose run to meet each other and be reunited. But this gets short-lived.
A Dalek glides along and shoots the Doctor on the spot with its death-ray. It’s one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the series and it got me on edge. The Dalek got blown up by Captain Jack.
The Doctor and Rose have a momentary reunion before it transpires that he’s dying and about to regenerate. Jack orders Rose and Donna to get the Doctor into the TARDIS before more Daleks come.
The first episode’s cliff-hanger has to be one of the best and most ‘nearly on the edge of your seat’ moments. We have three endings. Sarah Jane is about to be exterminated and the Torchwood Hub gets invaded.
Inside the TARDIS, Donna, Rose and Jack watch as the Doctor explodes and is about to regenerate. This had me panic. It seemed that it was going to be the end, as David Tennant regenerated into M-
The DVD special features on this episode are as follows. On Disc 5 of ‘The Complete Series 4’, there’s a trailer for this episode and a commentary with David Tennant, writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies and executive producer Julie Gardner. On Disc 6, there’s the ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ episode ‘Friends and Foe’.
‘JOURNEY’S END’ (Part 2)
No, no…Wait, wait! The Doctor’s not changing. He’s sent his regeneration energy into that severed hand given to him by Captain Jack in the TARDIS. He is still David Tennant! Thank goodness for that!
The Doctor and Rose reunite together and hug, which made me happy. Donna wants a hug from Jack too. The Torchwood team gets out of their mess and Sarah Jane gets rescued by Mickey and Jackie.
Martha Jones has an adventure of her own, as she uses U.N.I.T’s new teleport ‘Project Indigo’ to make for Germany, outside of Nuremberg. She has to avoid the Daleks there, also speaking German.
I found it amusing hearing the Daleks say “Extermineiren! Extermineiren!” Martha is good speaking German too when she arrives to enter the Osterhagen station and use the ‘key’ to save the world.
Soon we have the final showdown, as Davros and the Daleks capture the Doctor and his companions in the vault below the Crucible. Davros barks to ‘detonate the reality bomb’ and destroy everything.
It seems rather hopeless until the TARDIS arrives, presumed destroyed by the Daleks. From the TARDIS steps out…another Doctor! Yeah, I know! This other Doctor looks exactly like David Tennant!
But this Doctor was grown from the severed hand containing regeneration energy, touched by Donna Noble. It caused an instantaneous metabolic crisis and this Doctor has only one heart in him.
This makes him half human, half Time Lord. The new Doctor’s also got some of Donna’s lip, going “Oy!”; “No way!” and “Isn’t that wizard?” This was the daftest but ingenious idea ever made by RTD.
The human Doctor tries to stop Davros, but he gets zapped by his metal hand. He also electrocutes Donna. This seems to be the end of Donna as well as the end of the universe with the reality bomb.
But the countdown stops as does the detonation of the reality bomb. Who’s done that then? It’s Donna Noble! She’s managed to stop the reality bomb and disabled Davros and the Daleks in a flash.
It’s all because she’s now got the mind of the Doctor’s, following that meta-crisis business. She talks like the Doctor; even acting and sounding him. She is part Time Lord; part human – the DoctorDonna.
I found this amusing and Catherine Tate does a good David Tennant. Now there are three Doctors in this episode. If your head’s scratching, I tell you now I am not surprised. Don’t let this bother you. 😀
This gives the chance for the Doctor and his companions to fight back and work together to stop Davros and the Daleks. This gave me great moments of happiness as I was seeing this band of heroes.
Pretty soon, the 26 planets get sent back to their times and places by the two Doctors and Donna, except for Earth. The blood-red Supreme Dalek blows up the equipment before it’s blown up by Jack.
The human Doctor fulfils Dalek Kaan’s prophecy by committing genocide for all the Daleks and destroys the Crucible. The ‘real’ Doctor’s not happy and every one of the heroes gets in the TARDIS.
The Doctor calls out to Davros to save him. But Davros curses the Doctor ranting and branding him ‘the destroyer of the worlds’ before he gets enveloped in a fiery inferno. Is this the end of Davros?!
The two Doctors and their companions have to pilot the TARDIS and take the Earth back home. And they’re not alone! They enlist Torchwood’s help as well as Mr. Smith and K-9, voiced by John Leeson!
The Doctor gets his companions, except Jackie, to pilot the TARDIS using the six sections of the console. What follows is a lovely sequence of the complete Tenth Doctor team journeying to Earth.
They eventually bring the Earth back to its proper place and time and the Doctors and companions are thrilled and overjoyed. It was one of the happiest and thrilling moments I have ever seen in this story.
Soon the Doctor says goodbye to his friends. Sarah Jane goes back home to her son Luke, Jack goes back to Torchwood, Martha back to U.N.I.T. and Mickey decides to live a new life on the ‘real’ Earth.
The Doctor also takes Rose and Jackie back to Bad Wolf Bay in Norway on the parallel Earth. He leaves them with the human Doctor, as he tells Rose that she can spend the rest of her life with him.
This was the kindest thing RTD did for Rose, as she can live happily ever after with a human Doctor that looks like David Tennant. The real Doctor and Donna leave and head off back to their universe.
This story however has a tragic end for Donna Noble. I don’t know why but I honestly thought she was going to carry on into the next series. But Donna has now got the Doctor’s mind inside her head.
It begins to kill her as there’s an information overload and her brain starts to burn. The Doctor knows what’s happening and he can’t let Donna die. Donna begs him not to, but he wipes her memory.
Donna blacks out and the Doctor takes her home. He tells Wilfred and Sylvia what’s happened and instructs them not to tell Donna anything about him or the TARDIS, since her mind will burn and die.
It’s tragic and a harsh thing for RTD to do with Donna. Donna is now reverted to that absorbed, annoying, trivial character before she met the Doctor. She doesn’t even recognise him which is sad.
The Doctor leaves the Nobles with Wilfred telling him he’ll watch out for him. The Doctor’s grateful as he returns to the TARDIS and is so saddened with the loss of Donna. He’s now alone all over again.
The DVD special features on this episode are as follows. On Disc 5 of ‘The Complete Series 4’, there’s a trailer for this episode and a commentary with David Tennant, Catherine Tate and writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies. There’s also ‘David Tennant’s Video Diaries’ and ‘The Journey (So Far)’ featurette.
There’s also a deleted scene of ‘Journey’s End’ to be found on Disc 4, introduced by Russell T. Davies. On Disc 6, there’s the ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ episode ‘End of an Era’.
Series 4 has been a tremendously, brilliant collection of ‘Doctor Who’ episodes and is my favourite of the new series. The last two stories have been brilliantly written by Russell T Davies and brilliantly directed by Graeme Harper. They encompass all I love about the Russell T. Davies/David Tennant era!
I was getting a sense that this era of ‘Doctor Who’ was coming to an end. But it was great to celebrate one of the well-loved eras of ‘Doctor Who’ as a whole, especially in these episodes of Series 4. I highly recommend these stories from the Russell T. Davies era. You’ll be excited and engrossed!
‘The Stolen Earth’/’Journey’s End’ rating – 10/10
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