Journey's End the review. Spoilers alert!

[galadriel1010]

 

One week on from the three massive cliffhangers, each bigger than the last and it’s time our questions were answered. The show started with a recap of the key moments: Sarah Jane Smith about to be exterminated, Gwen and Ianto going out in a blaze of bullets and the Doctor regenerating.

 

The first thing we get explained is the regeneration, the Doctor siphons off the regenerative energy into a hand receptacle, the first of the bad puns, and stays looking remarkably like David Tennant. He explains at 100 mph how he did it whilst his companions look on in bemusement (brilliant reaction from John Barrowman here, he just stares at the point where the Doctor was as he moves off, and wouldn’t you?) and then the Doctor and Rose are finally reunited. He’s the same as he was last time she saw him, he’s still him. So it’s hugs time! Even Donna wants in on the action, but with Captain Jack, who looks amused and mildly scared. There’s a distinct lack of reaction between Rose and Jack, who thought the other was dead or trapped, surely they would be happy to see each other?

 

The next question to be answered was “how on Earth is Sarah Jane going to make it to the start of the next series of Sarah Jane Adventures?” The answer… Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler. Rose’s ex and her mum arrived just in time to shoot the ugly little tin dustbins and save her so they could ask her where they could find Rose.

 

And the final question, what will happen to our Welshpersons? The surviving members of Torchwood are still the surviving members of Torchwood, thanks to Toshiko Sato, the late technician who died in the finale of the spin-off. She created a time bubble lock thing, which trapped Gwen and Ianto in the hub and trapped the Dalek outside, keeping them safe but dependant on Jack. Thank you Tosh, you are sadly missed! Not only did it save Jack’s team, it also created a really cool effect of the bullets suspended in mid air. One of the best effects I’ve ever seen, but then I like glittery things.

 

Then the daleks find the TARDIS and put it in a temporal prison (another, there’s time shifts all over the place now!) and transport it to the crucible complete with the Doctor, Donna, Rose and Jack. My ideal TARDIS crew actually.

 

Now it was time for our first visit of the evening to Miss Martha Jones who is taking her orders from UNIT (code for uh-oh) and uses Project Indigo to teleport away from her mum. She’s still refusing to tell us what the Osterhagen Key is, but does tell her mum that she loves her. So that’s OK then…

 

She teleports to a castle about 60 miles from Nuremberg, and as we’re in Germany the daleks, naturally, are speaking German. What a stroke of Genius!

 

Back to the TARDIS where Rose and the Doctor are explaining what’s going on with the stars going out. Rose has to tell him about her Dimension Cannon and is slightly reluctant to state the bleeding obvious that it was built to get her back to him. Lovely little moment, “So I could come back… Shut up”. It all looks so perfect at this point, they’re back, Jack’s back, everyone’s safe. Oh, apart from the daleks taking them to the crucible, whatever that is. Rose also explains about the way the timelines are converging on Donna, who emphasises that she is a temp from Chiswick. That’s been said rather a lot, and temp means time so… that could be interestingly significant.

 

As they talk, Donna phases out like Professor Yana (the Master) did and we hear a heartbeat in the background. Spooky, scary and very exciting.

 

Jack, Rose and the Doctor exchanges “here we go again” glances which leave Donna looking a bit left out. The Dalek survivors group are united in fear, you can tell that even Jack who can’t die is scared, the false joviality just draws us all in brilliantly. Speaking of brilliant, apparently the three companions are brilliant. Blimey!

 

There’s that heartbeat again, there’s definitely something going on. More importantly, Mrs Doctor (the TARIDS) appears to go temperamental again and slams the door on her, trapping her in the TARDIS as the Supreme Dalek sends it hurtling down the chute the engine’s heart of Z neutrino technology that will tear the TARDIS apart, which it did. Donna doing her screamy thing again, the one where she gets completely hysterical and we feel her fear. And have an overwhelming urge to laugh. Sorry Donna

 

Heartbeat, hand, heartbeat, hand, what is going on? Obviously it’s stored regenerative energy from when the Doctor hurled his regeneration at the hand. Donna touches it, there’s a weird glowing energy transfer and we are treated to a delightfully naked second Doctor. Bloody hell the rumours were true!

 

As the countdown to total TARDIS destruction begins, Doctor 2 crawls up to the console and presses buttons. Outside view again and Doctor 1 is told to watch the TARDIS get destroyed. He begs with the Supreme Dalek to save Donna, to let him take her place, but to no avail. We watch as it vanishes at the 0 countdown. Was it a success, did they get out or was that TARDIS destruction?

 

The Supreme Dalek taunts the Doctor, earning him a chastising glance from Jack, who soon loses his temper completely and yells at the Dalek before shooting it. Naturally, he gets shot and Rose finally shows some emotion for him as she gets very upset at his death. The Doctor, naturally, pulls her away and tells her there’s nothing they can do, but he’s careful to watch for the wink that Jack gives him as they were led away to the Vault. Whatever that is…

 

Doctor 2 is as mad as our Doctor has ever been, as Donna quickly points out. Suddenly though, the Doctor is talking like Donna. He’s taken her voice! He has Donna’s mind, but with his face and his intelligence – part Timelord, part human – it was his heartbeat she heard resounding back through space because he is such a complicated event of time. Completely unique, never happened before, but the cause of much amusement, especially “Oi, watch it Spaceman!” “Oi, watch it Earth girl!”

 

But with her mind in his head, he now understands her, how she tries to be loud and lippy and shouts at the world because the world’s not listening. He tells her how special she is, to try to combat her deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy. Mid spiel, however, he realises exactly how wound together they have been, how she arrived in the TARDIS, then found him again and even parked behind his car. That sounds more like destiny than coincidence, but as Donna says, “That doesn’t exist.” Does it?

 

Back to Germany and Martha, where we get a fairly interesting exchange in German that could really do with subtitles. It’s not essential, but really annoying if, like me, you speak a bit and get very confused with the bits you can understand. This is our first introduction to a batty German woman who recognises Martha’s accent as London. Once inside the castle Martha goes about her business whilst the German woman tells her about when she was in London and heard about the Osterhagen Key. She’s clearly scared of the Key and what it does, so scared that she lapses into German and we’re crying out once again for subtitles. She even threatens to shoot Martha, who calls her bluff, and then watches her go with the words, as far as I can tell, “We’re going to hell.” Or even “You will burn in hell.” Something like that, I could be completely wrong but that’s the gist of it. I think. Subtitles people!!!

 

Jack, still doing his celebrated impersonation of a dead man, is loaded into an incinerator to be disposed of. Fortunately the daleks lose interest instantly and he is able to crawl out of a panel that opens very conveniently. And his greatcoat isn’t even smoking yet. Phew, wouldn’t want that to get damaged… So now Jack is wandering round the Crucible.

 

Back to Martha in Germany, a brief clip of her sending out a message from Osterhagen Station 1. Are there other Osterhagen stations? How many? Where? No answers yet though.

 

Another short clip shows Sarah Jane Smith, Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler arriving on the Crucible with a load of other prisoners, one step closer to the Doctor.

 

An update on locations: Doctor 1 and Rose are in the Vault, Jack is wandering loose and Jackie, Mickey and Sarah Jane Smith are prisoners, all on the crucible. Doctor 2 and Donna are in the TARDIS being as quiet as spanners. Martha is at Osterhagen Station 1 with the Osterhagen Key, which instils fear into everyone who knows about it, whilst Gwen and Ianto are sealed in a time bubble back at the Torchwood Hub, courtesy of Tosh. Last but not least, Luke Smith, yet to make an appearance is, we must assume, still at home waiting for Sarah Jane to return, protected by Mr Smith, the computer.

 

The Doctor and Rose are now in the vault talking to the insane Kaled scientist Davros, a wonderfully evil and mad character from the old days of Classic Who. He puts them in neat force field holding cells, yet more cool graphics, and proposes a catch up of the intervening years since his last appearance 20 years ago. The Doctor doesn’t want to go down memory lane though and is determined to find out what’s going on in the here and now. He remembers the Supreme Dalek calling this the vault and taunts Davros, who, as he correctly assumes, is at the very least a prisoner. What other words can he use, servant, court jester, pet? He does, to great effect; that’s if his intention was to wind Davros up (probably was).

 

Now Rose is introduced to Dalek Caan, who spouts his mad prophesies all over the place. Rose’s coming was foretold, and we are told that she is the most faithful companion, apparently. Cold darkness and everlasting flame is coming, a slight oxymoron. We are reminded of Gallifrey, an eternal planet which burnt. Are the rumours right? Is Gallifrey coming back? Dalek Caan kindly tells us how he saw time, and foresaw what would happen, the Children of Time uniting at the end of everything. One of the Children of Time will die, but that’s the future tense and he thinks that Donna is dead already, or does he? Does he know something that he’s not telling Davros?

 

The Doctor asks yet again what’s going on and is told as if he should have know, “The reality bomb.” Yes, thanks Davros; that explains everything. Course, should have guessed.

 

Back to Sarah Jane, who uses a brief Dalek distraction to get to a door and unlock it with her sonic lipstick. Mickey makes it to the door with her, but Jackie is trapped with the other prisoners who are about to be tested on. It looks like the end for Rose’s mum, could she be the faithful companion? She’s definitely a Child of Time; we know that because she’s here.

 

Z Neutrino energy comes back into it, blazing through the 27 planets. Both Doctors figure out what’s going on at once, but don’t explain what’s going on of course. No, cos that would only be helpful, to quote the late great Owen Harper.

 

Just in the nick of time, Jackie and Mickey’s teleport devices finish their recharge. She is able to teleport out and survives, whilst the rest are burnt up – their atoms are separated by the Z-neutrino energy. Finally Davros and the Doctor tell us what’s going on. The 27 planets become a transmitter for a wave of energy that reverses the energy holding every atom together, thus destroying the whole universe and all parallel universes through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade – Yes, Davros is completely cracked. Should have guessed I suppose

 

Jackie, Mickey and Sarah Jane are looking shocked at the effects of the reality bomb test when there is an enormous crash from behind them and in pops our favourite Captain. He and Mickey have a cheerful exchange, which almost confirms the rumours that Noel Clarke is moving to acting on Torchwood (he has previously written for it), with the wonderful line, “Says you Captain Cheesecake!” “That’s Beefcake!” “And that’s enough hugging.” He’ll be a welcome addition to the team.

 

Back to the plot, Sarah Jane brings out a Warp Star necklace, which Jack describes as an explosion waiting to happen… But they have to do something, Luke is only 14!

 

Suddenly there are lots of explosions waiting to happen, as Martha gets in touch with the Dalek Crucible, prompting a comment about the changing of time from Dalek Caan, and explaining all about the Osterhagen Key at last. Even the Doctor doesn’t know about the Osterhagen key, it’s to be used to destroy the Earth in the case that there is no other option. And now the daleks need Earth, she has leverage. The Doctor doesn’t look too happy about it mind, but shuts up when she tells him to. Martha is happy that the Doctor and Rose found each other, we think; she only has one expression really.

 

Incoming internal communications, “Calling all Dalek boys and girls…” Who could it be other that out dearest Captain. Rose is shocked to see him alive again, but there’s no time for that. Jack has a warp star and is not afraid to use it! Explosions galore, that’s two potential ones, now we need to see what Doctor 2 has been planning.

 

For the moment, however, we get another face off between the Doctor and Davros. He compares the daleks to the children of time, his creations against the Doctors, all prepared to kill. He talks about the sacrifices, informing him of Harriet Jones (former Prime Minister)’s sacrifice. The Doctor is horrified has descends into self hate and we all want to yell at him - Please Doctor, keep fighting, they died to save the world because they know you would. You are their hero and everything they want to be. But Davros is the one getting through to him, telling he is the man who keeps on running, who doesn’t look back because he dare not. Channelling Blon Filth Fotch Passameer Day Slitheen there. 

 

The Supreme Dalek gets bored of all the talking and engages the transmat to bring everyone in. Just like the Doctor they talked too much, giving them a chance rather than kill them immediately. So they missed their chance, that’s very Doctor.

 

One more confirmation: Davros is INSANE, with a headache by the looks of things, is it significant or just a sign of his madness? He gives a truly mad scream of happiness, or pain at his headache, hard to tell really.

 

He’s convinced that nothing can stop him. Of course, he doesn’t know about Doctor 2 and the survival of the TARDIS, complete with a Z-neutrino reversal DNA gun thing. Apparently that’s impossible, yeah but the Doctor likes to do 3 impossible things before breakfast, so it shouldn’t be too surprising. What is surprising is that Doctor 2 gets shot, again. He’s survived 900 years, then gets shot twice in two episodes; you’d think he would have learnt the first time.

 

Donna grabs the gun as the Doctor drops it, but doesn’t know what to do with it, so she gets shot too. It looks like curtains for our favourite temp from Chiswick, is it really?

 

Davros rants about what is happening, finishing on the wonderful line, “And, oh… the end of the universe is come.” Like you could forget that small detail.

 

Alarms are suddenly going off everywhere, so everyone’s confused. Who is it, who’s put the sonic screwdriver in the works? It’s Donna! We love you Donna, but what the hell are you?! She’s talking very technical at 100 mph, and she can’t even change a plug. Who is she?!?!?!?!

 

She’s part Timelord, part human. It was a two-way matter crisis transfer, which means that she has “the best bit of the Doctor, his mind”. We have the DoctorDonna as foreseen by the Ood back in episode 3, but we are reminded (on our own, they don’t give us a hint) of the ending of the Doctor’s song. Donna reverses all sorts of polarities and releases the Doctors, then yells at the “skinny boys in suits” to do their thing. She has what looks like a great time playing with the Daleks, “And back the other way…”, and explains that the Doctors were lacking the little bit of human, the little bit of gut instinct that gave her the ideas they could never have. The universe has been waiting for her! 100 wpm indeed

 

The Dalek Supreme can’t see what’s going on so demands an explanation, the daleks are unable to answer because they are spinning round too fast, but the basic answer seems to be “We’re getting very dizzy!”

 

The daleks seem to be a bit in the way now, Jack has the most style and kicks them out of the way, whilst Rose and Sarah get rid of one down a corridor between them and Martha gets rid of another. Jack grabs two guns and tosses one to Mickey (yes, he’s well in at Torchwood), who promptly and efficiently threatens Davros.

 

Finally it’s time to explain what the hell is going on, especially the three doctors thing. Jack’s reaction is priceless and predictable, “I can’t tell you want I’m thinking right now… mainly because we’re on prime time TV”. Naughty boy, but so funny. So now we know how he is the threefold man that Dalek Caan prophesised. Speaking of the ‘Dalek freak show’, the Doctor and Davros are both leaping to the same conclusion, he knew all along what would happen, he has actually been helping it along. He’s actually a hero! Is HE the most faithful companion? (I’m going OTT on this aren’t I?)

 

Donna and the two Doctors put the planets into reverse and send Clom, the Lost Moon of Poosh, Pyrovilia, Adipose 3 and all the others back to their original positions. Unfortunately, the Supreme Dalek descends to the Vault and attempts to kill the Doctor. He misses but destroys the machinery leaving one planet in position, no prizes for guessing which one. Jack finally shoots the Supreme Dalek properly, “Feel this!” Dalek Caan tells Doctor 2 that the prophecy must be completed and the Dalek empire must be destroyed. Doctor 2 does something with the Dalekanium feed (you don’t expect me to keep up with him, do you?) and destroys them, then gets thoroughly yelled at by Doctor 1. Davros yells at Doctor 1 through the smoke and tells him that he destroyed the Daleks, and names him the destroyed of worlds. More words of wisdom from Dalek Caan, “One will still die”. Please no… Please?

 

Everyone unites in the TARDIS, safe from the pretty effects of the Crucible exploding. Torchwood are called in to loop the rift around the TARDIS to tow the Earth back into position. The Doctor recognises Eve Myles from when she played Gwynedd in the Unquiet Dead, but puts it down to temporal genetic something with Gwen’s family having lived in Cardiff since the 1800s. He then gets in touch with Luke and Mr Smith to complete the towrope. They need the TARDIS base code, which will take “a while” to send. Thank God for K9, showing that the time lock is properly broken because he can get back in, who transfers the necessary code.

 

So now it’s time to fly home. We find out a little gem, the TARDIS is designed to be flown by six pilots, and normally there’s only one. So now we have the nine of them, with three standing out, Donna, Jackie and Doctor 2, and what sounds like a fantastically fun score from the choir providing the best music heard on Doctor Who in a long time. Donna’s still flirting with Jack, sorry Miss, he’s spoken for!

 

In the end, it was a total Deus ex Machina, a God in a Machine, quite literally.

 

Wonderful shots of the people left behind clinging on to things, Luke laughing his head off as he clings to K9, Gwen and Ianto screaming in excitement and they cling to a random frame and almost fall off it again, Martha’s Mum under the table. The there’s the crew in the TARDIS, just beautiful, all 9 of them together bursting into celebrations. Earth is back in place, no one died (yet). Sarah Jane is thrown away from Jack so Donna can get a hug in in a truly classic moment. For one moment, everything is perfect.

 

They return to Earth to the sound of church bells (The striking’s good) in a playground. Surprised Donna doesn’t recognise it, it’s where she saw Miss Evangelista in the Library episodes.

 

Sarah Jane points out that he has the biggest family on Earth – and we all love him, then runs back to her son. Jack and Martha leave together, Jack getting told off again for his teleport. The Doctor asks Martha to get rid of the Osterhagen Key to save the world one more time. Jack suggests that maybe UNIT are a bit dodgy and she should perhaps find something else to do. I think we’ve found the medic to fill Owen’s shoes. Mickey also leaves the TARDIS in search of a new life and goes chasing after Martha and Jack who accept him happily. The new Torchwood team is formed I think.

 

Then the return to Bad Wolf Bay. Rose has a baby brother called Tony (not Doctor). Rose has to stay behind though, she came so far but she has to stay. Naturally she’s gutted, but she has a purpose. To look after the other Doctor, who committed genocide – “He needs you, that’s very me.” I think that’s the best you’ll get from him love.

 

Lots of faffing around the point, will he ever get around to saying it? “Rose Tyler… I can spend it with you, grow old together.” Tell her already!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Does it need saying?” Yes you STUPID MAN!!!!!!! So to Doctor 2. Out loud please, we want to hear it! But I think he said it, they’re snogging fairly passionately. So all is well, Rose gets her Doctor, Doctor 2 gets a normal life and Doctor 1 has the DonnaDoctor to keep him company.

 

But he doesn’t. Donna’s going mad, chattering like he does, but she can’t cope. She wants to stay for the rest of her life, but how long is that going to be? He takes her memories to keep her safe. He explains to her mum and Wilfred how that version of Donna is dead, if she remembers for a second she’ll burn up. “There are worlds safe in the sky because of her, there are people in the light singing songs of Donna Noble. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. For one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole universe”

 

He does what we’ve always wanted to do ourselves and tells her mother off for not telling her how special she is. Sylvia doesn’t take kindly and asks him frostily to leave. Donna reappears in the doorway and is back to how she was in the Runaway Bride, all online dating sites and scepticism, not the Donna we’ve come to know and love.  In the words of the Doctor, talking about the rain, “It’ll pass, everything does.” And our lonely angel is lonely once again.