Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: Graeme HarperCast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna), Billie Piper (Rose), Freema Agyeman (Martha), John Barrowman (Captain Jack), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah-Jane Smith), Noel Clarke (Mickey), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Bernard Cribbins (Gramps), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Adjoa Andoh (Francine Jones), Julian Bleach (Davros), Valda Aviks (German Woman), Shobu Kapoor (Scared Woman), Elizabeth Tan (Chinese Woman), Michael Price (Liberian Man), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek, voice) & Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith, voice)
Davros reveals his master plan, as the Doctor's companions race to prevent the destruction of reality itself...A cloud of secrecy descended on Doctor Who this week, as viewers were left shell-shocked by the apparent regeneration of David Tennant as the cliffhanger ending to "The Stolen Earth". Voracious speculation sent forums and blogs into meltdown, while the nation's kids were left on the precipice of bereavement for their hero. But, as predicted by those aware of the various "get-outs" available to Russell T. Davies, the popular Tennant lives to regenerate another day...
"Journey's End" continues the story with the exact same temperament; furiously paced, mostly illogical, and continually threatening to disappear up its own backside. Still, with your brain disengaged and focused on the sweeping emotion of everything, this conclusion was easy to enjoy and got enough right to make the journey worthwhile.
Perhaps inevitably, the solution to The Doctor's life-or-new-life crisis is solved within seconds -- a simple transference of his regenerative powers into the hand lopped off in "The Christmas Invasion", after his wounds have been healed, but his bodily transformation had yet to begin. From there, the storyline once again splinters into various strands: The Doctor, Captain Jack (John Barrowman) and Rose (Billie Piper) brought aboard the Dalek Crucible mothership by Davros (Julian Bleach); Donna (Catherine Tate) trapped aboard the TARDIS as it's sent to a fiery destruction; Martha (Freema Agyeman) teleporting to Nuremburg to use the Osterhagen Key as a last-ditch effort to save the planet; and Sarah-Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) teaming up with Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri) and Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) aboard a Dalek detention centre...
For a 65-minute episode, events fortunately didn't drag as badly as the similarly-long "Voyage Of The Damned" special, as Russell T. Davies clearly uses this episode to bring a sizeable number of plot-strands to a close – stretching right back to season 1. Primarily, Rose's love for The Doctor is imaginatively brought to a close, thanks to the arrival of a Human-Doctor hybrid clone, grown from The Doctor's dismembered hand after Donna touches it...
While the plausibility of nearly everything is stretched to breaking point, the greatest success of "Journey's End" is a central gambit – with Davros taking perverse delight in demonstrating to The Doctor how his "children of time" have learned nothing – ready, willing and able to destroy billions of people on Earth for a kamikaze-style victory. The scenes between a captured Doctor and Davros are amongst the best, as Tennant is finally able to face-off against a villain with an interesting viewpoint, beautifully performed by a rasping Julian Bleach.
The sheer volume of returning characters means most suffer: particularly Jackie Tyler (used purely as comic-relief), Mickey (always irritating, and now palmed-off into Torchwood – god help us), Sarah-Jane (whose history with Who mythology continues to be her only interesting aspect), Martha (who came across as a reckless idiot who's learned nothing), Captain Jack (a character who rarely operates above gun-toting cheeseball), and the pointlessness of Gwen (Eve Myles), Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) and Luke Smith (Thomas Knight).
Fortunately, the actors that count got interesting stuff to do: David Tennant was relegated to standing around watching others try to save the day at times, but was never anything less than compelling otherwise (and got a fun dual role as a Doctor tinged with Donna's impertinence); Billie Piper was lost in the mix for awhile, but the poignant beach-set resolution to her affection for The Doctor worked better than it should have; but Catherine Tate stole all the memorable stuff – "mothering" a cloned Doctor, being endowed with The Doctor's knowledge (and mannerisms), before ending the season on a bittersweet note. Bernard Cribbins had very little screen-time as her Gramps, but showed his experience by tugging at the heart-strings with greater ease than everyone else put together.
In terms of production, the special FX were excellent throughout – the Dalek Crucible was incredibly detailed and well-designed, scenes of flying Daleks were free of digital judder, and epic shots of multiple planets and ships evidenced the money lavished on these last episodes. If anything, it's hard to imagine the visuals getting any grander, or the stakes being raised any higher than the total destruction of reality itself, so I'm guessing future-boss Steven Moffat's automatically going to employ a "less is more" tactic when he takes over...
Overall, if you enjoyed "The Stolen Earth" you'll definitely enjoy this, and vice-versa. It's every bit as questionable and freewheeling as last week, but doesn't contain anything to rival events in the juicier set-up. Still, everything drew to an effective conclusion and left 2008/9 a clean slate for the 4 specials before Steven Moffat inherits the show in 2010.
There are plenty of nitpicks (Sarah-Jane just happened to have a necklace-bomb?), lots of silly moments (German Daleks!), and accusations of RTD overstepping the mark will fly around for weeks, but this was still an entertaining series swansong. The strong performances from Tennant and Tate (the latter of whom earned a turnaround in feeling about her casting), helped pull you through moments of silliness, and a storyline that felt half-improvised. And I liked the scene of The Doctor and his companions piloting the TARDIS back home – perfectly reflecting the episode's theme of friends working together to save the day.
'Till Christmas, then...
5 July 2008
BBC1, 6.40 pm
