Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: Graeme HarperCast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna), Billie Piper (Rose), Freema Agyeman (Martha), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah-Jane Smith), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Bernard Cribbins (Gramps), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Adjoa Andoh (Francine Jones), Julian Bleach (Davros), Michael Brandon (General Sanchez), Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones), Andrea Harris (Suzanne), Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells), Richard Dawkins (Himself), Paul O'Grady (Himself), Marcus Cunningham (Drunk Man), Jason Mohammad (Newsreader), Paul Kasey (Judoon), Kelly Hunter (Shadow Architect), Amy Beth Hayes (Albino Servant), Gary Milner (Scared Man), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek, voices) & Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith, voice)
When the Earth is transported to a mysterious celestial location, The Doctor and Donna travel to the Shadow Proclamation for help, as earthbound former-companions try to defeat the Doctor's greatest nemesis...In typical Russell T. Davies fashion, "The Stolen Earth" is about as subtle as a kick to the face; riddled with illogical moments, grating comedy and a handful of performances that beggar belief. It's also a stupendous amount of fun, once it manoeuvres around the silly reactions of people as another alien disaster rocks their world. If there's one thing Who's had problems with since it returned, it's how it fails to make these earth-shattering events plausible during, and after, they happen. Next season we'll meet a contemporary human who doesn't believe in aliens, trust me!
"The Stolen Earth" finds The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) returning to Earth fresh from their BAD WOLF scare from Rose (Billie Piper), bemused to find no danger whatsoever. However, seconds later, the entire planet is whisked to a secret celestial location, leaving the TARDIS hanging in empty space with them still aboard...
As the perplexed Doctor travels to the oft-mentioned Shadow Proclamation for help (revealed to be a rather disappointing asteroid-base, populated by an elderly lady and some Judoon), the episode spends most of its time showing us the fallout from four terrestrial perspectives: New York-based UNIT employee Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman); the Cardiff-based Captain Jack (John Barrowman), Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) and Gwen (Eve Myles) of Torchwood; Ealing-based Sarah-Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and her son Luke (Thomas Knight); and the inter-dimensional Rose, who rather conveniently stumbles upon Donna's mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) and her Gramps (Bernard Cribbins).
Of course, it's no secret that the culprits who've plucked the Earth from orbit, and deposited it amongst 25 other planets, are the notorious Daleks. Arriving in waves of B-movie flying saucers, the Daleks ravage the planet in a few impressive CGI sequences, before proclaiming a total victory – their dynasty restored thanks to rogue Dalek Caan (last seen teleporting to safety in season 3's "Evolution Of The Daleks" cliffhanger). It transpires that Caan meddled with the timeline and, at the price of going totally insane, resurrected the creator of the Dalek race, Davros (Julian Bleach).
It takes awhile for "The Stolen Earth" to settle into itself -- afflicted by RTD's predilection for unsubtle excess, cheesy dialogue, clunking comedy, and ridiculous cameos. Shoehorning chat-show host Paul O'Grady into proceedings was eye-rolling stuff that took you out of the reality presented – as if the TV schedules would trundle on as usual when the night sky fills up with alien worlds!
The crossover appeal was generally good fun, but only effective regarding the Torchwood team's involvement – who you can believe they exist alongside Doctor Who, because crossovers for Captain Jack and Martha Jones have laid some foundations. Less successful is Sarah-Jane's presence; her kid-friendly spin-off sitting awkwardly in the context of its parent series.
Martha Jones, having been re-branded as a UNIT super-soldier this season, is better utilized -- but it's amazing how much affection for Martha has dissipated since she left Who as a regular. Her scenes alongside UNIT superior General Sanchez (Michael Brandon) are written very broadly ("gentlemen, we are at war!"), and require suspension of disbelief when she acquires top-secret access to "Project Indigo" and is given a secret "key" that will likely come in handy for next week's conclusion. Meanwhile, Rose marches around London with a Men In Black-style gun, intentionally kept out of the loop until the last 10-minutes, an explanation for her inter-dimensional travel still unforthcoming.
The long-awaited return of Davros is curiously matter-of-fact, after some shadowy teasing. His arrival isn't a disappointment, it's just exactly what you'd expect -- and nothing more. It's a testament to Classic Who that Davros' design and prosthetics haven't been updated much (like Terry Nation's pepperpots), and actor Julian Bleach (also the villain in Torchwood's "From Out Of The Rain") does a marvellous job of complimenting the three previous Davros actors; Michael Wisher, David Gooderson and Terry Molloy. His synthesized voice is quietly malicious, spine-tingling stuff to give kids the creeps.
With so many superficial treats for the fans in this whirlwind of an episode, the spectacle of Davros' return doesn't stand apart as anything truly special. Still, season 4's foreshadowing of missing planets and bees got a decent pay-off, and the sense of expectation for the "God"-like Doctor to find the missing Earth and swoop in to save the day (after receiving mobile phone "prayers" en masse) worked very well, and built some genuine excitement into the last 15 minutes.
And then, there was the unexpected emotional gut-punch of the cliffhanger. I'm not going to spoil things here, but suffice to say the Doctor and Rose's eventual "reunion" was perfectly handled, with a shocking sting in its tail that will leave fans gobsmacked and speculating madly 'till next week. The cliffhanger is one of Who's finest, and my jaw was on the floor as the credits rolled.
Have the producers managed the impossible, and kept you-know-what a secret all these months? Or will there will be a cop-out solution to the frankly stunning last shot -– probably involving Donna (are we still in a parallel universe?), or the Doctor's hand in a jar? "Journey's End" can't come soon enough for the answers to be revealed.
Overall, if you're being critical and evaluating everything separately with a level-head, this is a solid but unremarkable episode. It's enthusiastic, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink plot will have fans and especially children salivating, while the final 10 minutes are admittedly perfect big-scale, big-stakes storytelling.
It's too cluttered and crazy to be truly affecting, but I certainly enjoyed the ride after the initial bumps and can't wait for next week's conclusion. For sheer indulgent joy, "The Stolen Earth" is heartily recommended – but I wish RTD would craft stories that are logical, consistent and not riddled with plot-holes. Still, he clearly adores unashamedly huge, broad, kid-friendly, emotional, dumb, silly, extravagant, excessive stories – and on that level, this is a pinnacle.
28 June 2008
BBC1, 7.10 pm
I was surprised by how rushed it all felt, even with the extended running time. Davros sort of got lost in it all, trundling on to spook the Doctor but not doing much else. Which is a real shame, as the idea of a resurrected Dalek empire built upon the work of an insane Dalek Caan was great (although essentially a reworking of the insane Dalek Emperor from series 1). Hopefully we'll get some juicy Doctor/Davros scenes next episode.
And the cliffhanger didn't really work for me. The Torchwood lot have a new series coming up, so they're safe. Ditto for Sarah Jane. And isn't Tennant known to be appearing in the specials next year?
I foresee a rather clumsy resolution to the "regeneration".
And why isn't DW Confidential up on iPlayer yet? Did it accidently reveal something it shouldn't have? I missed it due to someone phoning me up and asking if I knew what happened next.
The hand has to be involved in some manner. There have been panning shots of it in just about every single interior shot of the TARDIS. It's not be subtle like the planets disappearing either, I've noticed it every single time it's happened and wondered "What's the hand got to do this season?".
As for the episode itself, I really enjoyed it. But I also really enjoyed the penultimate episode of every season and then I was let down by RTD's amazing ability to write himself into a corner before resolving events with the old Deus Ex Machina/Magic Button.
Here's my hope, that the "regeneration" results in the Doctor splitting into three Doctors, Peter Davies, Tennant & Sylvester McCoy (who were all in confidential) and then resulting in an utter of fan-gasam cast overload.
Yes, I didn't see Confidential myself -- but I heard McCoy was spotted in it! Maybe the 4 specials in '09 will have a connected theme (set up in next week's finale) of a multiple Doctor storyline for Davison, McCoy and Tennant to star in. Maybe even McGann, too?
Or maybe DT *will* regenerate into someone new (!) but the timeline will be altered (as Dalek Caan managed) to restore Doctor #10 by the end? A lot of theories on this! I also reckon Donna's still in her paralle universe (hence the back comment and presence of Rose), so RTD will "reset" the finale's events like he did s3's -- as none of it ever *really* happened, and only Donna will know it did?
Before I read the review (which I'll do a bit later), the continuity chump on the version of BBC1 I was watching said, "Sorry to interrupt the music, but..."
Yeah, in the same way that some people say, "I'm not a racist, but..." and then you know exactly what's coming(!)
Why can't those morons ever shut up?
To give people another little reason to buy the DVDs? Just be glad the BBC don't have "BBC" stamped onto the screen :)
New trailer on DW website.
Quite carefully gives nothing away though.
Still no sign of DW Confidential on iplayer though.
Just had a read now. 4/5 sounds rather generous given the criticisms that I agree with. I'd give it 2/5 at best, given that it replaced any coherent plot with either iffy CGI or things we'd seen a million times before.
I could see Robert Mugabe watching the Daleks' 'house clearance' and thinking, "Tsk! Copycats!"(!)
As for the ending, at first I thought, "Blimey, they kept THAT quiet!" (for a change) and then realised that, logically, given what we know about the future of casting, it's frankly impossible, so I just know that RTD is going to pull another deus ex machina out of his backside and I'll be throwing the remote at the screen once again!
And I'd happily stamp all over certain people at the BBC! :)
With DW reviews, I tend do the star-rating based on pure enjoyment-levels. And I enjoyed this a lot, despite its obvious problems (especially at the beginning). If I decided the star-ratings with the same critical eye as when reviewing, say, Mad Men, Who would only have a handful of 4 or 5 star episodes. It's always tricky doing the star-ratings on things anyway, but I think 4/5 sums up how happy *most* people would be after seeing this.
Taking a cue from something that happened last year, when 2010 comes round, as soon as the last 2009 special has ended, can everyone chant "Moffat.. Moffat.. Moffat.. Moffat.." and it'll make the last few years of Russell T Davies scripts disappear without trace :)
I can see what you mean re: enjoyment levels. Turn Left was rather like that for me, and then I picked holes in it after, but until the very end there was nothing that made me think "Wow!"
It was great to see Michael Brandon in the trailer, but that was about all he did in the episode, and as Matt M says above, the Dalek Caan thing was just a reworking of the Dalek Emperor. I just hope that 15 minutes from the end next week he doesn't just get out his random number generator to think of an ending like he often does.
It was preposterous over-indulgence with a TARDIS-full of flaws, but the sweep of everything, the all-or-nothing mentality, and a frankly superb cliffhanger were its saving graces. I'll stick by that.
After watching it again on BBC3, it's very entertaining and (personally speaking) I have a childhood "trauma" that means any regeneration scene on DW chokes me up even as an adult! There. Admitted it. LOL. People can grumble incessantly if part 2 fails spectacularly to pull it all together, though :)
It certainly shocked me when I wasn't expecting it, and regardless of the outcome I'll give them their due for keeping it quiet, but - since my memory's a bit hazy - am I right in thinking that when Christopher Eccleston turned into David Tennant, we knew that episode would be the last for CE (as we'd known that after the first episode), but we didn't know that it would be Tennant?
And isn't it time we had a female Doctor? :)
I think we DID know it would be Tennant. I remember thinking it was a great choice (having seen him in Blackpool and then RTD's Casanova), before the s1 finale aired.
Not to be sexist, but it wouldn't be the same with a female Doctor. Hope that never happens.
And also hope that DT's REAL regeneration scene is just as surprising, as that's a standout moment RTD has kinda stolen from Moffat. Although I suspect Moffat can top it. Might be nice to have The Doctor willingly sacrifice himself for a companion, for added heroics.
A less noisy regeneration would be better next time... with added BBC Radiophonic Workshop sounds :)
Interesting that the three new-Who regenerations we've seen have been quite "upbeat" -- in that they involve the "deceased" standing in ecstatic rapture as vibrant light burns them into someone new immediately.
I remember Classic Who being a lot more depressing, with a genuine "death" for a Time Lord... and the regeneration only kicking in a few seconds later. I wonder if that's been intentional, to spare the kids some tears?