SciFi Friday: Journey’s End On Doctor Who For Russel T. Davies, Billy Piper, and Catherine Tate

Russell T. Davies brought together all of The Doctor’s companions from the past four years as he concluded his final regular season as show runner in Journey’s End. This post contains many spoilers and I advise those watching on the Sci-Fi Channel to hold off on reading until they have aired the episode.

The episode was written as a vehicle to bring together the various companions, and tie up at least one loose end. It concentrated far more on creating a series of big scenes as opposed to a really coherent story. There was a tremendous number of faults, from the Daleks not noticing their captives escaping to the earth being literally dragged through space. There were scenes of Daleks attacking the earth but it turned out that they were irrelevant once their final plans were revealed. There was no need to be attacking in this manner when, if their plan succeeded, all non-Dalek life would have been exterminated when the reality bomb was activated.

The cliff hanger from The Stolen Earth was along the lines expected but the specifics were different from what many predicted. The Doctor did not regenerate into a new form as he used the severed hand to the regeneration once he was healed. While the possibility of two Doctors being created was considered, it was a surprise to see both of them being in the form of David Tennant, with one being half-human. This did serve as a conclusion for the love story which gradually developed between Rose and The Doctor as Rose would now be able to have a half-human version of The Doctor who could both return her love and grow old with her. American audiences are now seeing Billie Piper (and quite a bit of her) on the Showtime series Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Donna’s fate was not as happy. She had several minutes of glory as a Time Lord but she had to have her memory of her time with The Doctor erased.

Elisabeth Sladen has stated she believes this will also be the last time she will be appearing on Doctor Who, but she will be continuing on with The Sarah Jane Adventures.  The episode ended with Martha and Mickey leaving with Jack. Jack did offer Martha what he billed as a better job than returning to U.N.I.T. Perhaps Martha, and possibly Mickey, will join Torchwood following the death of two regulars at the end of last season, assuming Freema Agyeman’s new role does not interfere with this.

Next season David Tennant will be appearing in Hamlet with Patrick Stewart and instead of a regular season there will be four Doctor Who specials, beginning with the usual Christmas episode. Teasers airing at the end of Journey’s End reveal that it will feature the Cybermen. Being free from a weekly series, Russel T. Davies can move on to other projects, as he told The Daily Mirror:

“I have got about 27 ideas boiling in my head and that is the main reason why I’ve left,” he says. “I love Doctor Who and I never want to go off it or get bored. Right now I want to go and work on series five, but I know that means it is the right time to leave.

“I get a lot of people who want me to come and make a family drama for them. But having done Doctor Who I have done the best – anything else would pale in comparison.

“I have almost got to go and do adult stuff, something a bit cheeky or sexy.

“I will just see which thing comes to the front of my mind first and start with that.”

7 Comments

  1. 1
    Mutt says:

    You might like to note that it’s Billie Piper (Rose) not Catherine Tate (Donna) who appears in the Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    I added that line after the post was orignially written, and put in the wrong spot. It is now moved to the correct spot (and I added a link to myi previous post on Secret Diary of a Call Girl).

  3. 3
    Doctor John Smith says:

    I dont want Doctor Who to end, it will leave all of the other shows without there main purpose… i always thought that the purpose of Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures was to reunite with the doctor and if Doctor Who ends that will never be 🙁

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    Doctor Who isn’t ending. It will be limited to specials for a year, and then will be returning full time.

  5. 5
    Barbara Walker says:

    Watched the first episode of Dr.Who and hope to live to see the last.Im now 62???LOVE IT

  6. 6
    Ron Chusid says:

    Barbara,

    If you have just watched Doctor Who for the first time you have a lot to catch up on. It won’t take too long to catch up with the revived series considering that BBC seasons are much shorter than American television seasons but there are also old seasons going back to 1963.

    I hope that Doctor Who keeps going forever, and therefore neither of us will ever see the very last episode, unless we also become immortal. The format of the show, in which The Doctor can regenerate to new forms, allows it to keep on going indefinitely. (Technically there is a limit on regenerations but I have no doubt they will write in a way around it for him if the show is otherwise doing well.)

  7. 7
    abbie says:

    i miss billie in doctor who because shes beter at acting then freeda bring back billie

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