The Stolen Earth (TV story)
Welcome to my new Empire! It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection, and the triumph, of Davros. Lord and Creator of the Dalek Race!
Synopsis
When the Earth is stolen from its orbit and placed in another galaxy with 26 other stolen planets, the Doctor's secret army of allies comes together to defend the Earth from the new Dalek Empire. With battles raging on the streets and in the sky, the Doctor and Donna confront the Shadow Proclamation to find the truth; however, a fearsome old enemy waits in the shadows.
Plot
The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble arive on Earth immediately following the events of Turn Left. They rush out of the TARDIS to find the Earth as normal. They ask a nearby milkman the day and ascertain nothing is wrong.
They re-enter the TARDIS to try and work out what caused the Bad Wolf warnings to appear. Whilst inside the TARDIS shakes violently and the Doctor rushed to the door and opens it to find the TARDIS is now floating in outer space, the TARDIS has not moved however, the Earth has been stolen from underneath them.
Meanwhile on Earth, the Doctor's companions, Sarah-Jane Smith, Torchwood, and Martha Jones all look to the sky outside and see 27 planets all orbiting a common centre of mass inside a nebula in space.
Meanwhile the Doctor and Donna travel to the SHADOW Proclamation, manned by Judoon and humanoid females with white hair and red eyes. Whilst there the Doctor discovers that 24 planets have disappeared immediately before their arrival. Donna remembers a number of other planets and moons which they were told had disappeared in earlier adventures.
One of the humanoid femailes provides Donna with refreshment and cryptically tells her she is sorry for her future loss. Donna and the Doctor ascertain that in the time before the Earth being stolen, bees were disappearing from the planet which emitted carrier waves to where the planet would be taken to. The Doctor then runs to leave in the TARDIS whilst one of the Humanoids orders the Doctor to surrender the TARDIS to them so that he could lead them to war. The Doctor escpaes before the SHADOW Prolamation to commandeer the TARDIS.
On Earth all of Rose Tyler appears in a high street where chaos is in progress. She enters a computer store and hacks into UNIT computer systems. UNIT detects 3000 space ships approaching the Earth and the UN in Geneva declares an "Ultimate Code Red" as the ships transmit a message to Earth composed of only the word "Exterminate!".
Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood 3 calls Martha Jones in New York with UNIT whilst her commanding officer orders her to initiate the "Indigo Project". They leave just in time to avoid extermination by the Daleks which have arrived on Earth and have begun attacking military installations. Martha escapes to a back room and is orderedto put on a harness which is apparently the work of the "Indigo Project". She is given a chip and ordered to activate the device. She does so and disappears immediately before her commanding officer and his aide are exterminated.
Donna Noble's mother and grandfather are hiding in a back alley, armed with a paintball gun, as they watch the Daleks order everyone in the street from their homes. One family refuses to comply and retreats backs in to their home. Three Daleks converge and destroy the house, presumably with the family inside. Donna's family retreat to their own home but are stopped by a Dalek on the way. Donna's grandfather shoots the Dalek's eyestalk with the paint gun, but the Dalek vapourises the paint declaring "My vision is not impaired!". And prepares to exterminate him. However immediately before it can, Rose Tyler destroys the Dalek.
They retreat to the Noble's house as a laptop crakles in to life with former Prime Minister Harriet Jones comunicating with all the Doctor's Companions on Earth by a sealed psychic network. Torchwood, Sarah-Jane (via Mr Smith) and Martha Jones all communicate via a conference video call. Rose Tyler can only watch however as the Noble's never bought a webcam for their PC.
They establoish that everyone with superphones have been unable to contact the Doctor. They together come up with a plan to boost the signal using the power of the rift and the coordination of Mr Smith to break through whatever the interference with the signal is.
Meanwhile the Doctor in the TARDIS has followed the trail to it's end and arrive at the Medusa Cascade, apparently with no way to follow the signal further, the Doctor concludes that there is no way to find where all the planets have gone. The signal from the superphones breaches the barrier however and begins to ring the Doctor's superphone. He uses the signal to trace where the Earth has been taken to and sends the TARDIS back to the source. He concludes that the Cascade has been placed 1 second out of phase with the rest of the universe and the 27 missing planets appear in front of them.
Meanwhile a shodowy figure incside the Daleks central command orders the Supreme Dalek to patch hin to the psychic network after sending Daleks to the source of the network at Harriet Jones's house where it appears she is exterminated. Davros appears on the screen in the TARDIS and declares to the Doctor that Dalek Caan arrived on his ship in the time war after his emergency temporal shift despite the Time War being time locked, succeeding where the Doctor had failed.
The Doctor abrubptly cuts the transmission and dematerialises the TARDIS and lands on Earth. Captain Jack gains some information from Martha Jones about the Indigo project which he uses to reactivate his wrist device. He then teleports to the TARDISs location but not before telling his Torchwood colleagues that he'll be back for them. He leaves and a Dalek breaks through into the hub as Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper fire machine guns to defend themselves.
Rose communicates to Torchwood in her own universe and tells them to transmat here to the Doctor's location. Rose arrives as the Doctor and Donna steps out of the TARDIS and the two see each other. As they run towards each other a Dalek emerges from behind a van and shoots towards the Doctor. It is only a glancing blow but some of the beam hits his arm and sends the Doctor to the ground. Captain Jack materialises and destroys the Dalek with his gun. Together they drag the Doctor into the TARDIS and the Doctor proclaims he is beginning to regenerate.
Cast
- The Doctor - David Tennant
- Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
- Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
- Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
- Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
- Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
- Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
- Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
- Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
- Davros - Julian Bleach
- Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
- Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
- Harriet Jones - Penelope Wilton
- Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh
- General Sanchez - Michael Brandon
- Dalek (voice) - Nicholas Briggs
- Judoon (voice) - Nicholas Briggs
- Judoon Captain- Paul Kasey
- Paul O'Grady - Paul O'Grady
- Richard Dawkins - Richard Dawkins
Production crew
to be added
References
- General Sanchez is heard saying "Ladies and gentlemen, we are at war." This was last said by Captain Jack Harkness in The Parting Of The Ways.
- Russell T Davies's pattern of using the same surnames is the most notable in this episode with Martha Jones, Francine Jones, Harriet Jones and Ianto Jones. Francine and Martha are related (mother and daughter).
- Wilf uses a paintball gun as a weapon against the Daleks by shooting paintballs at their eyestalks, referencing the popular method of incapacitating a Dalek: blinding them. However, it seems that the Daleks have been redesigned with this weakness in mind as the paint simply melts off the eyestalk after coming into contact with it.
- The Red Dalek serving under Davros could possibly be a nod to the 1965 movie Dr. Who and the Daleks. Though the movie is not considered to be canon, a Red Dalek is seen to be a member of high status in the Dalek hierarchy in the film, mirroring the power of the Red Dalek in the episode.
- The Dalek phrase "resistance is useless" echoes the Vogon guards in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Story notes
This episode was the last of Series 4 to have its title revealed.
- This is the third time that the Daleks have returned with a leader in a finale. In the 2005 finale, The Parting of the Ways, the Daleks were led by the Dalek Emperor and in 2006 finale, Doomsday, Dalek Sec led the Cult of Skaro. The Other Dalek two parter in 2007 Series was shown as the 4th & 5th Episodes of the Series (Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks). The Daleks were the Cult of Skaro.
- Davros refers to Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Rose Tyler, and possibly the minor companions as The Children Of Time.
- Sarah Jane Smith has already had past experience in dealing and/or fighting against Davros with The Doctor, albeit in his fourth incarnation. However Sarah Jane could be the one with the knowledge about how to destroy Davros and the circumstances on which he came to Earth. She may prove vital in the battle to come.
- In the preview shown, Upon hearing the Dalek Message, Jack and Sarah Jane both become very emotional, with Jack declaring that he can't do anything, and that they will die, (except Jack since he can't die).
- This is the second time that the Judoon have been seen in the series. The last time was in the previous series in Smith and Jones.
- The One Show presented a clip featuring Wilfred Mott and Sylvia Noble being confronted by a Dalek on Earth. Wilfred is shown holding a paintball gun as the Dalek shouts,"Exterminate". Bernard Cribbins, after the clip stated that he was glad it ended where it did. This could mean that either Wilf or Sylvia gets killed.
Also the clip shows that the Daleks can dissolve substances that block their vision. They were able to dissolve the paint that Wilf used by his Paint ball gun that was covering their eye.
- The official BBC website has a script extract which in which the Doctor says he can't get any readings, from the 'fearsome technology' so he and Donna go to the Shadow Proclamation for help.
- The BBC website also identifies the red dalek as 'Supreme Dalek' and has a picture of a badly damaged dalek in surroundings similar to those seen in the episode 'Dalek'.
- The Doctor starts to regenerate yet again, making a Cliffhanger.
- The Doctor first went to the Medusa Cascade when he was a child at the age of 90.
- Davros and his command ship was lost in the first years of the Time War but Dalek Caan managed to save him
- The To Be Continued is different from the others, it also doesn't have a sneak peek of the next episode.
Ratings
To be added
Myths
To be added
Filming Locations
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
The Tardis didnt translate the 'Judoon-speak' (this could have been similar to the Hath). I think this was done to give a bit of humour to a much serious episode. Later in the episode we can understand the Judoon, maybe it just takes time to work
Continuity
The Valiant last appeared in The Poison Sky to help UNIT with attacking the ATMOS factory. In this episode it is seen being swarmed and subsequently destroyed by a huge group of Daleks using "maximum extermination".
The bright purple marks seen on the Sontaran ship in the 2 parter The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky can be seen again on a monitor in this episode.
The gun that captain jack used to kill the dalek was the same gun he used from The Parting of the Ways
DVD and Other releases
- This is due to be released in the Series 4 boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
- It will be released as part of Series 4 Volume 4 alongside Turn Left and Journey's End in September 2008.
See also
External links
To be added
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