Doctor Who S04E13-Journey's End

Having barely survived a surprise attack from the Daleks, The Doctor, Rose, Donna and Jack find themselves prisoners of Davors and his Dalek Empire. The Doctor’s remaining companions: Sarah Jane, Martha and a recently returned Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler, each form alternative plans to save the Earth, but at equally devastating costs. The final showdown is set and more is at stake than ever before. Can The Doctor do what he does best only better? And when the dust finally settles what will the final cost of such a desperate victory bring for the last of the Time Lords?

Be warned…This is going to be a pretty lengthy entry with plenty of spoilers just because I can’t give a proper review without revealing a few things. Stop now for spoiler risk, otherwise continue reading.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s all take a quick second to give a round of applause for Russell T. Davies. I have said it before and I will most certainly say it again, he is the science fiction writer extraordinaire equivalent of Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Next Generation) for London. A man who can skillfully and successfully tie together four years of mythos aplenty and give it a proper send off deserves all of the upmost respect and congrats.

I hope that fans of the series will feel as I did when I finished viewing this episode, greatly rewarded and very sad. “Journey’s End” marks the end of an era for the revived series. Enemies have been dealt with (for now), characters are moving on to better things (and back to their own spin offs), and others are, well, at least making it home alive in one piece.

Incase some were too blind to notice, in this epic two part finale plenty of characters from Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures got some screen time and all were given something important to do, be it taking the fight to the enemy head on (a la Jack, Gwen and Ianto) or giving their family silent support from the sidelines (a la Martha’s Mom and Jackie). Heck, even out beloved tin dog K9 makes a surprise return to help The Doctor.

Let me at least get this out of the way. I am so happy that David Tennant will be sticking around for more time traveling/space faring fun (he even says himself “Why change?”) He has truly become my Doctor in the last three years he’s played the role. Many may have their own favorite Time Lord persona (be it Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker amongst many, both good choices) but David Tennant has been from the beginning and always will be my most beloved of the ten Doctor’s thus far. And come on, any one who can play the same Doctor with two different personalities, I’m of course talking about the second Doctor Donna creates, has got to be quite the capable actor. Props David Tennant, props all around.

The reunion between The Doctor and Rose was as emotionally filled as we all expected it would be after the amount of time these star crossed lovers had been apart. What kind of sucks is the fact that at the end of the epic, they kind of finds themselves right back where they left off at the end of Series 2. I know there will be many of you who will be down right furious that Rose will not be staying with the real Doctor, but rather trapped again on a parallel Earth with the other, half human Doctor (I kind of fit this category). However, at least she is not without a Doctor she can live to the end of time with. And yes, we do get that little “Does he love her?” question cleared up. The answer…you better believe he does. Oh well, it was good to see Billie Piper back while it lasted.

And then there’s Donna. Donna. Donna. Donna. She finally gets to save the world and now she must forget everything she knows about The Doctor in order to save her own life. It’s a very, very sad ending for someone I never really thought I’d end up liking. We all thought of Donna as that loud mouth and extremely annoying tag along that wouldn’t shut up. But here, Davies does a complete 180 with her, giving Donna a strength she never even knew she had. I never thought I’d ever end up saying this, but she is going to be missed, especially by The Doctor whose look of sadness and despair is hard to look at because we are all feeling the same. Donna Noble, rock on girl.

Throw in the return of the Daleks and Davros (a villain I saw in one of the Tom Baker serials “Destiny of the Daleks”) and you’ve got one perfect recipe for awesomeness. Bringing Davros back cleared up some questions about the Time War such as The Doctor’s genocidal and war like actions which killed both the Time Lords and the Daleks at its climax. And here I thought that only The Master could really push The Doctor’s buttons, boy was I wrong. I haven’t seen The Doctor this pissed off EVER. Great stuff. I wouldn’t count The Daleks out at all. Maybe Davros, but the Daleks will always be around so long as Doctor Who continues to air. And maybe one day we will finally see the Time War itself and get the full mystery of its chaos cleared up at last. Steven Moffat, get to writing man.

I guess the big question now is, what next? Well: Jack will return to Gwen and Ianto (with Martha and Mickey as possible new teammates); Sarah Jane will go back to Luke and his friends; Rose, Jackie and the other Doctor are stuck on parallel Earth again; and The Doctor is on his own again, a position that he never wants to be in, but is. The series will continue in 2010, but don’t think that there’s going to be a big two year wait for more of The Doctor. I’m sure we’ll have Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures back eventually, but don’t count The Doctor out completely. You never know when he’ll turn up again.

Until then, thank you very much Russell T. Davies and crew for a truly amazing finale. Series 4 may have been a bit uneven throughout, but this series wrapped up with all barrels blazing. Again, everyone still reading, a round of applause please.

Next Time: The Cybermen are back…December 25, 2008. C ya at Christmas.

Rating-10/10