Review - Doctor Who: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End (2008)

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and we inch ever closer to 12 Reviews of Christmas, I would like to, once again, talk about Doctor Who. And this time, we'll be actually talking about a two-part episode that I'm a particular fan of: The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. Released in 2008, as the two-part finale of Season 4, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End was penned by show runner Russell T. Davies, and served not only as the finale of a great season of Doctor Who, but as the ultimate culmination of the entire Russell T. Davies era, crossing over with the two spin-off shows at the time: The Sarah Jane Adventures, a family friendly show starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, and Torchwood, a more adult oriented series starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness. This two-parter stars David Tennant as the Doctor, along with the likes of Catherine Tate, Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman, Elisabeth Sladen, and Billie Piper as returning Companions Donna Noble (the main Companion of Season 4), Martha Jones, Captain Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane Smith, and Rose Tyler. Also featured in the two-parter are the likes of Noel Clarke, Camille Codouri, Bernard Cribbins, Jacqueline King, Michael Brandon, Penelope Wilton, Thomas Knight, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, and Julian Bleach. 

         So, The Stolen Earth starts off with the Doctor and Donna landing on Earth after Donna had an encounter of showcasing an alternate reality where she never met the Doctor (during the previous episode Turn Left), and the Doctor is concerned that the walls of the universe are starting to break down as, during her tenure in the alternate reality, Donna met Rose Tyler. After both the Doctor and Donna return to the TARDIS, a massive earthquake ensues, and upon looking outside, the Doctor notes that the Earth has disappeared. Desperate for help in finding a missing planet, the Doctor and Donna head to the Shadow Proclamation, which is essentially a cosmic law enforcement agency. 

         Meanwhile, Earth has found itself in another part of space, surrounded by twenty-six other worlds, all inhabiting a region of space known as the Medusa Cascade. In New York City, Martha Jones and U.N.I.T. prepare themselves as Geneva declares a Code Red. Meanwhile, Captain Jack Harkness and his Torchwood team of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones run spacial scans of what's going on outside, as do Sarah Jane Smith and her son Luke, along with the A.I. unit Mr. Smith. Rose makes her way back from the parallel world she'd been trapped in since the finale of Season 2, and Wilfred Mott desperately tries to call Donna's cell phone on the TARDIS. 

         Further complicating matters, a massive object at the heart of the web of twenty-seven planets has a massive fleet of warships bound for Earth, all transmitting a single word repeated over and over: Exterminate. Martha, Jack, Rose, Sarah Jane, and General Sanchez of U.N.I.T. all realize what this means: Earth is about to be under attack by the Daleks. 

         Back with the Doctor and Donna, we arrive at the Shadow Proclamation, where the leader of the Proclamation reveals that multiple worlds had been taken from their homes, including Earth. The Doctor is shown the list of twenty-four planets that all vanished at once, and after Donna mentions other missing planets such as Pyrovillia and the Adipose Breeding Planet aka Adipose 3, the Doctor realizes that the planets aren't just being stolen from across space, but across time as well. Projecting the missing planets into a 3D projection, the Doctor adds in Pyrovillia, Adipose 3, and the moon of Poosh, and all twenty-seven planets realign themselves into perfect balance. After Donna mentions another detail, one of disappearing bees, the Doctor gets the idea of microbees using a traversal scale known as the Tandocca Scale to return to their home world of Melissa Majoria, and whoever stole the twenty-seven planets used the Tandocca Scale to do the same thing with the stolen planets. The Doctor recreates the trail to find the Earth, and is pointed to the Medusa Cascade, which prompts him to take off with Donna and find the missing planets. 

        Back on Earth, the airship known as the Valiant is destroyed, Daleks land in Japan, the air force is taken down over Africa, and Jack, over the phone, urges Martha to get out of New York, as they'll be the next target of the Daleks, who are primarily attacking military bases. General Sanchez urges Martha to follow him to activate and use a device called Project Indigo, and to take another device called the Osterhagen Key as a last resort. Jack warns Martha not to use Project Indigo, but Sanchez reminds her that she takes orders from U.N.I.T. and not Torchwood. Martha uses Project Indigo despite Jack's objections, and when asked by Gwen about it, he reveals that Project Indigo is an experimental transport device salvaged from the Sontarans (who U.N.I.T. had help from the Doctor in dealing with during the two-parter The Sontaran Strategem and The Poison Sky), but without coordinates or stabilization, Martha is gone, scattered into atoms. 

        After more attacks by the Daleks, all under the orders of a much larger Supreme Dalek, Jack and his Torchwood team, along with Sarah Jane and Luke, get contacted by Harriet Jones, previously an ally of the Doctor and formerly Prime Minister of England,.who is utilizing the Subwave Network to contact all of the Doctor's allies. Harriet then sets it up for everyone to speak to each other. It's here where we learn just how powerful Project Indigo is, as we see Martha Jones is back at home with her mother. It's also revealed why Harriet used the Subwave to contact everyone who could help reach the Doctor: the Daleks pulled everything in the Medusa Cascade a second out of sync with the rest of the universe, making contact between Earth and the TARDIS impossible. So, a plan is formulated: Martha provides the phone number to contact the TARDIS, Jack and Torchwood use the power of the Rift to boost the signal, and Sarah Jane and Luke use Mr. Smith to get every phone across the globe to call the numbers provided by Martha. However, Ianto points out the only flaw in the plan: if the Subwave is opened up to mask the work to bring the Doctor through, it will become detectable by the Daleks, who will trace it back to Harriet. She confirms this, but reveals that she's willing to lay down her life to save the Earth. 

          Jack, Sarah Jane, and Martha act quickly to put their plan in motion, and even Rose, who is currently with Donna's mother, Sylvia, and grandfather, Wilfred and they all call the number as well. This works, as the signal makes it through to the TARDIS, which is brought through a second into the future, and the twenty-seven planets are all there. The Daleks, of course, pick up the Subwave signal, and backtrace it to Harriet, sending three units to kill her, but not before she's able to transfer the Subwave Network to Torchwood. 

         The TARDIS also picks up the Subwave signal, and is able to be in contact with Jack, Sarah Jane, and Martha. Back on the Dalek ship in the center of the web, dubbed the Dalek Crucible, a mysterious figure demands access to the Subwave, and he reveals himself to the Doctor. It's here where, for the first time in modern Doctor Who, we're introduced to Davros, the genius madman who created the Daleks. It's from Davros that we learn that Dalek Caan, last surviving member of the Cult of Skaro, used an Emergency Temporal Shift to travel back into the Time War itself, rescuing Davros at the cost of his own sanity. It's then that Davros used his own body to grow new Daleks, this amassing this new army of Daleks. The Doctor then heads to Earth, where he reunites with Rose and Jack, but is struck by a stray blast from a patrolling Dalek, which is destroyed by Jack. Meanwhile, two other Daleks intercept Sarah Jane, who takes off to find the Doctor, leaving Luke under the watch of Mr. Smith. At the same time, a single Dalek leads to the Torchwood hub in Cardiff to take out Gwen and Ianto, who defend themselves with machine guns. Lastly, back on the TARDIS, Rose, Donna, and Jack watch as the Doctor begins a Regeneration cycle, ending the episode as he begins Regenerating. 

            It's here where we start the finale, Journey's End. Mid-Regeneration, the Doctor siphons off the remaining energy into his severed hand from The Christmas Invasion, and is able to keep the same face. We later learn in a later special, The Time of the Doctor, that this still counted as a Regeneration cycle, but we'll get to that in a later review. Anyway, back at Torchwood, Gwen and Ianto learn that a defensive bubble has activated and created a Time Lock on the Torchwood hub, meaning there's no way in or out, not without releasing the Dalek in the hub. Sarah Jane is rescued by Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler, both of whom showed up to help Rose and the Doctor. Sarah Jane, Mickey, and Jackie witness the TARDIS being transported to the Crucible, and the three surrender to the Daleks to be taken aboard as well. 

           On the Crucible, the TARDIS is sent into the core, which is made of zed-neutrino energy, to be destroyed...with Donna still in the TARDIS. Jack is shot by the Supreme Dalek, and the Doctor and Rose are taken to the Vault to be prisoners of Davros. However, the TARDIS and Donna survive, as she reaches out to the severed hand, which is overflowing with Regeneration energy, thus growing a second Doctor. Human-Time Lord Biological Meta-Crisis. 

         In the Vault, Davros reveals his ultimate plan, and the reason for the twenty-seven planets: it's a Reality Bomb. The function of the Reality Bomb is to cancel out the electrical energy that holds matter together, separate matter into dust, then separate the dust into atoms, and finally separate the atoms into nothing. While we see the Reality Bomb tested on the prisoners aboard the Crucible, save for Sarah Jane, Mickey, and Jackie, Davros elaborates that full transmission will spread across the universe, and traverse through the Rift in the heart of the Medusa Cascade and enter every parallel dimension and do the same thing. This is Davros' ultimate plan: the end of reality itself, with only the Crucible and the Dalek fleet surviving the cataclysm. 

            Martha, back on Earth, has used Project Indigo to teleport to Germany, where she accesses the Osterhagen Station there, and she, along with two other U.N.I.T. officers activate a total of three stations, and prepare to use the Osterhagen Keys to activate a last resort weapon of ultimate destruction: dozens of nuclear warheads planted in strategic points beneath the crust of the Earth, destroying the Earth. Jack, back on the Crucible, meets up with Mickey, Sarah Jane, and Jackie. It's here where Sarah Jane reveals another ultimate weapon: a warp star, which is an explosive held in a tiny shell. Both Martha and Jack play these two trump cards simultaneously, and we see the Doctor emotionally destroyed, realizing that his allies, the ones he tried to make better, are ultimately weapons fighting in the Doctor's name, and so many have died for him over the years. Davros even refers to him as the man who keeps running, never looking back as he dare not out of shame. Having enough of things, the Supreme Dalek orders a transmat activation, bringing Martha, Jack, Sarah Jane, Mickey, and Jackie into the Vault, and Davros orders the detonation of the Reality Bomb. 

          Meanwhile, Donna and the Meta-Crisis Doctor have reactivated the TARDIS, and they land in the Vault, with the Meta-Crisis Doctor getting placed in a holding cell, and Donna getting zapped with electricity. However, this kicks in the Regeneration energy inside of Donna, giving her the knowledge of the Doctor, this allowing her to stop the detonation, render the Daleks powerless, and freeing both Doctors. So, Donna and the two Doctors begin the process sending all the planets back home, and Davros realizes that Dalek Caan planned this, finally brining an end to the Daleks. The Supreme Dalek descends to the Vault, destroys the console, and is himself destroyed by Jack. The remaining Daleks, including the one trapped in the Time Lock inside of the Torchwood hub, are also destroyed, and the Doctors and their allies board the TARDIS, fleeing the Crucible as it's destroyed. Unfortunately, one planet was left to be returned home. So using the energy of the Cardiff Rift, as well as TARDIS base codes provided to Mr. Smith by the robotic dog K9, the Doctors and their allies use the TARDIS to manually fly planet Earth back home. 

           The human race celebrates all across the globe as Earth is returned home, and Sarah Jane, Jack, Martha, and Mickey depart the TARDIS. The Doctor takes it to the parallel Earth, dropping off Jackie, Rose, and the Meta-Crisis Doctor, whom Rose begins a relationship with. Donna, unfortunately, has to have her mind wiped as all of the Time Lord knowledge in her brain will burn her brain up and kill her. So, after wiping her memories of him and their adventures, the Doctor returns Donna to her family and explains the situation. The Doctor leaves, and Wilfred promises to look up at the stars and think of him and the TARDIS on Donna's behalf, ending the episode and the fourth season. We then get a teaser for the 2008 Christmas special, which teases the return of another of the Doctor's most notorious enemies: the Cybermen. 

        So, what's there to say that hasn't already been said? Honestly, seeing all of the David Tennant era Companions gathered together is just awesome. Rose, Donna, Jack, Sarah Jane, Mickey, and Martha. Seeing them all is just a dream come true. Even having both U.N.I.T. and Torchwood be featured prominently is awesome. And I will say, I did enjoy Michael Brandon as General Sanchez of U.N.I.T. in the episode The Stolen Earth. 

         I really enjoyed that Russell T. Davies decided to make this two-parter a crossover event as well, and getting to see the casts of both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood play a decent role in this two-parter is really smart. Now, obviously both shows had other characters, but let's just say that the second season of Torchwood had just wrapped before the debut of The Stolen Earth, so they had to keep continuity from season 2 finale of Torchwood. I do appreciate, though, that the two Torchwood characters we don't see, Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato, at least get a mention. So, yeah, cool. Big kudos to both Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd for their performances as Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones. 

          But the biggest draw here is the return of the Daleks. Honestly, if there's one thing that Russell T. Davies was great at, it was writing great Doctor Who stories centered on the Daleks. And in my opinion, this was the best of his Dalek centered stories. Why is that? Because we also got the return of Davros, the creator of the Daleks. Julian Bleach did an excellent job with his portrayal of Davros, giving a very chilling performance almost reminiscent of Ian McDiarmid's Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars . Even his master plan to use twenty-seven planets to transmit a wave that would destroy all of creation was just haunting, and I love it. 

        All in all, of all of the two-parters during the era of the Tenth Doctor, this is definitively my favorite. I don't think it's a secret, but I'm giving The Stolen Earth and Journey's End a rating of 5/5. Now, I'll be taking a break from talking about Doctor Who until 12 Reviews of Christmas, but I may have another review or two before the official start of 12 Reviews of Christmas next Tuesday. What will those reviews be? You're just going to have to tune in to find out. 

       Anyway, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time.