Series 4 Boxset:
Series 4 Part 2:
Series 3 Boxset:
Director:
Graeme Harper
Screenplay:
Russell T. Davies
Cast:
The Doctor: David Tennant
Donna Noble: Catherine Tate
Rose Tyler: Billie Piper
Martha: Freema Agyeman
Sarah-Jane Smith: Elisabeth Sladen
Mickey: Noel Clarke
Jackie Tyler: Camille Coduri
Captain Jack Harkness: John Barrowman
Gwen Cooper: Eve Myles
Ianto Jones: Gareth David-Lloyd
Luke Smith; Thomas Knight
Gramps: Bernard Cribbins
Sylvia Noble: Jacqueline King
Davros: Julian Bleach
German Woman: Valda Aviks
Scared Woman: Shobu Kapoor
Chinese Woman: Elizabeth Tan
Liberian Man: Michael Price
Francine Jones: Adjoa Andoh
Dalek, voices: Nicholas Briggs
Synopsis:
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 fooling around will
fly around for days, 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.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Series 4 Boxset:
Synopsis:
Davros reveals his master plan, as the Doctor's companions race to prevent
the destruction of reality itself...
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.
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...
