The ending approaches... People and planets and stars will become dust. And the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become... nothing. This is my ultimate victory! The destruction of reality itself!!
This is the 13th and final episode of Series 4 and will feature 6 companions of the Doctor. It is a continued on a cliffhanger from Episode 12.
Synopsis
The entire universe is in danger as the Daleks activate their masterplan, and enslave 21st century Earth. The Doctor is helpless, and even the TARDIS faces destruction. The only hope lies with the Doctor's secret army of companions– but as they join forces to battle Davros himself, the prophecy declares that one of them will die.
Plot
Following on immediately from the end of "The Stolen Earth", The Doctor is regenerating inside the TARDIS while Donna Noble, Captain Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler watch in horror. However, the Doctor transfers his regenerative energy into the container which carries his severed hand. He has healed himself, but chosen not to change his appearance.
Elsewhere, Sarah Jane Smith is rescued from a Dalek patrol by Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler. Torchwood Three is under attack by an incoming Dalek, but Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are saved from extermination when the Hub initiates a "time-lock", suspending the Dalek in time. Gwen and Ianto discover that this defence mechanism was installed by the late Toshiko Sato before her death. Meanwhile, Martha Jones transports to a hidden base in Germany.
Just as Sarah Jane, Mickey and Jackie locate the TARDIS, the Daleks transport the time and space machine, along with its occupants, to the Crucible, the Dalek command ship. Meeting the Doctor and his companions, the Supreme Dalek drops the TARDIS down a chute leading to the Crucible's core, where it will be destroyed in the blazing power source. Donna is still onboard and touches the hand-container, which shatters and releases the Doctor's stored energy. While the energy briefly engulfs Donna, the hand extends, producing a copy of the Doctor. However, the clone is partially human; he has only one heart and has inherited many of Donna's mannerisms.
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
- Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
- Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
- Luke Smith - Thomas Knight
- Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
- Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
- Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
- Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
- Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh
- Davros - Julian Bleach
- Dalek Voice - Nicholas Briggs
- Voice of Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
- Voice of K9 - John Leeson
- German Woman - Valda Aviks
- Scared Woman - Shobu Kapoor
- Anna Zhou - Elizabeth Tan
- Liberian Man - Michael Price
- Dalek Operators - Barney Edwards, Nick Pegg, David Hankinson, Anthony Spargo, Gethin Jones
Production crew
References
Story notes
- According to DWM this is the biggest finale of Doctor Who ever.
- Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones operates a Dalek in this episode, returning to Doctor Who since his brief appearance as a Cyberman in The Age of Steel.
- This will be the longest series finale at 65 minutes long, longer even than most of the Christmas specials, except for Voyage of the Damned, which was 71 minutes.
- Dalek Caan refers to the Doctor as a 'threefold man'. The meaning becomes clear in this episode with both the copy of the Doctor and 'Doctor-Donna'.
- This episode marks the first series finale to show a preview of the upcoming Christmas Special. After the credits the Cybermen are said to return in the episode.
- This episode tells us that Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, actually died in the previous episode.
- Davros named the Doctor 'The Destroyer of Worlds' and maybe a reference to Fires of Pompei when it was said the Doctors name was sealed in the Cascade of Medusa herself or to the Doctor being the Ka Fariq Gatri.
- The Osterhagen key would destroy the Earth, Osterhagen just happens to be an anagram of Earth's gone
- This episode introduces an alternative to regeneration for Time Lords called Meta-Crisis.
Ratings
to be added
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
- Since the Doctor went through the whole regeneration process, is he now in his eleventh incarnation or did feeding off the energy to his hand allow him to still have three regenerations left? A Meta-Crisis appears to be an alternative form of preventing death while at the same time preventing regeneration, therefor the Doctor still has three regenerations left since he prevented this one. By feeding the regeneration energy into his severed hand the Doctor healed his wounds without regenerating. Meta-Crisis's would mostly likely be rare occurrences with Time Lords since they require a severed appendage. -One other possibility to consider. This is now the Doctor's first regeneration. You may recall on the Valiant the Master took away the Doctor's regenerations and put all years of the Doctor's previous incarnations onto the current incarnation. When the Doctor was restored by the psychic net, were his 12 regenerations not also restored? The Master didn't take his regenerations away, he only aged the Doctor while suspending his ability to regenerate. The psychic energies only gave him the power he needed to undo the changes the Master had done.
This is actually a moot point - we already know that at the end of a Timelord's last life they can still regenerate, they just don't survive. Either the Timelord has only a limited number of bodies or a limited number of energy cycles, if the former is true then the Doctor has not used one of his possible incarnations - he still has the same body - or he has used the extra, otherwise wasted energy cycle. Either way he would still have all of his incarnations left.
- If the TARDIS's power had gone how does the monitor screen work? The heart of the TARDIS was still beating, which could have supplied some power.
- When Martha teleports and hears the German Daleks why does the TARDIS not translate the German? The TARDIS wasn't anywhere near her... Also, she understood German, so it wouldn't have needed to be translated. Also, the TARDIS had just 'switched off'. It wouldn't have worked.
- Because he regenerated, then wouldn't he now technically be the eleventh Doctor? Why didn't he do this every other time he regenerated? Because he hasn't always had a dismembered limb of his own body near by.
- The Daleks were maintaining the atmosphere around the Earth - probably from the Crucible. However, when the Crucible was destroyed and the TARDIS pulled the Earth back to where it should be, shouldn't the atmosphere have disappeared, killing everyone on Earth? The Doctor takes over and maintains the atmosphere from the TARDIS. He says this when he tows the Earth back
- When the Doctor wiped Donna's mind, it looked like he only wiped the memories of the her time with the Doctor. Couldn't he have just wiped the Time Lord stuff that was overloading her brain? No, as if she remembers the Time Lord stuff she will burn up, and it would be easy to remember if you're travelling around with one!
- Wouldn't the Nuclear Warheads placed under the crust have melted? Well, UNIT most likely would have thought about this, and provided some sort of way to protect them. They do have a vast arsenal in their power after all.
- When we see Martha saying goodbye to her Mother, the laptop in the background cycling through number continuously, but when we have the close-up of Martha, the numbers have frozen but we can still hear them.
- If Donna, a human, can't live with a Time Lord's mind, doesn't that mean neither can the human Doctor? The human Doctor was half Time Lord, the mental half Time Lord, such as mind, but the physical part human (like Jenny), such as aging. Jenny was full Time Lord, but your point stands. He was simply a different part human. Donna is physiologically fully human but is carrying the Doctor's mind within a human brain - the half-human, half-Time Lord Doctor, while not being able to regenerate and only having one heart and probably having some other human physical characteristics, evidently has a Time Lord brain which can safely carry a copy of the Doctor's mind.
- What was the point of the doctor deactivating Jack's wrist teleporter if he can just put the numbers back in again. He may have locked it so only he can reactivate it. Or changed the numbers required to something more complex.
- We didn't find out who was controlling the Daleks if Davros was called a "pet". It is assumed to be the Red Dalek, as he was the one seen giving most of the orders in this and the previous episode.
- Why did Martha have to travel to Germany to activate the Osterhagen key when the other soldiers were in pods in their home countries? The UNIT base in New York - as we saw - was destroyed by the Daleks. The nearest Pod, would have been in Germany. - Or possibly the main pod was in Germany. Martha states that she is in Osterhagen 1, so we can assume that she was indeed in the main pod.
- Dalek Caan stated that a companion would die. However no-one actually died, as Donna just lost her memory of the Doctor.Dalek Caan was talking in riddles just as many prophets in the Doctor Who universe do, which means not everything they say happens in the literal sense. With Rose's prophesized death it was actually revealed that she was merely listed amongst the dead in her native universe. With Donna the person she had become while traveling with the Doctor had been wiped away.
- In the flashbacks of people who have died for the Doctor, it shows many of the cast of Love & Monsters, however by the time the Doctor appeared in the episode many of them had already died. How did the Doctor knew who they were? It can be assumed that when the Doctor attempted to help Elton Pope and Ursula Blake that they related the story of LINDA to him. Also, in Time Crash the Fifth Doctor indicates that his past incarnations have also met and interacted with them.
- The moon remained in position when the Earth had moved. The moon should have locked onto the strongest gravitational force (the Sun) and been pulled towards it. How does one move a planet millions of miles? Assume there's jargony pseudoscience involved.
- So do humans finally know the truth about alien life in the universe or will they find some excuse to explain the situation like after the Christmas invasion and battle of Canary Wharf. The Doctor says it will be treated as "just a story", as always. Think Sunnydale Syndrome.
- Why do the Daleks stationed in Germany go to the trouble of translating their orders into fairly comprehensible German, but use the made-up word 'extermenieren' instead of the verb 'ausrotten', which is the true German translation for 'exterminate'? Because it's fiction, duh. Extemenieren sounds cooler. Daleks will exterminate!
- The Doctor Who Paul McGann movie asserted that the Doctor was already half-human yet here we have a truly "half-human half-Time Lord" Doctor who is quite different since he only has one life and one heart. This seems to confirm the belief that the Eighth Doctor's claim of being half-human was actually an elaborate trick to fool The Master in The Enemy Within. Agreed, many fans already see the Doctor's claim to be non-canon by common consensus.
- In the previously mentioned flashback of people who have died for the Doctor, it shows Ursula Blake and Jenny, who are later resurrected from the dead. How come it did not show Jack Harkness, who also died for the Doctor and was also resurrected?
- The Earth was never brought back in time the one second that Davros had rushed it forward to keep it out of sync with the rest of the universe. Therefore it shouldn't be moved back with the moon or the solar system, as the Earth is still ahead in time. History would also be changed as humans from Earth would never be able to react with any other alien species.
Continuity
- Those shown in flashback who died for the Doctor are Harriet Jones, Jabe, The Controller, Lynda Moss, Robert MacLeish, Mrs Moore, Colin Skinner, Bliss, Ursula Blake, Face of Boe, Chantho, Astrid Peth, Luke Rattigan, Jenny, River Song and the Hostess.
- When the Doctor sees Gwen Cooper for the first time, he asks if she came from long line of family from Cardiff. This is because the similarity between Gwen and Gwyneth (DW: The Unquiet Dead), both who are played by Eve Myles. The Doctor and Rose both recognize the uncanny family resemblance.
- This is the first episode where the TARDIS is fully-staffed with six pilots, and the first time it is noted definitively that it was designed for six, after various mentions about it being made for more than a single Time Lord.
- This episode marks the last appearance of the Tenth Doctor's severed hand which first appeared in "The Christmas Invasion".
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 The Stolen Earth on 1st September 2008.