When Doctor Who Did 'Infinity War' (But Better)

[Music] it's always difficult to craft a good doctor who's serious finale just ask chris chibnall there are so many things to pay off and a really blockbuster atmosphere to create russell t davies always managed to achieve this in his era of the show although some fell short in varying ways however it's undeniable that the biggest and most ambitious finale is the two part of the stolen earth and journey's end which brings back almost all of the main recurring characters of that era along with familiar monsters and their very creator of the daleks themselves davros their previous finales had upped the ante each time so realistically the next step was to create a universe ending threat to truly feel worth it leading to the villains stealing entire planets to fuel their reality bomb weapon ultimately requiring three doctors and countless companions to save the day and stop the daleks for good finally stopping this ongoing threat throughout the era the series 4 finale is a very divisive one amongst fans because its ambition is considered its biggest weakness the second part heavily disliked for how it pays off the incredible first part however when you consider how much the story had to juggle and how much it paid off is the ambition actually worth it even with its shortcomings does it serve as a satisfying conclusion to series 4 and the russellty davies era as a whole or is it just a disorganized mess that tries too hard to do too much all at once it's only just beginning the opening of stolen earth is admittedly a step down from the incredibly high stakes dramatic ending of turn left we've been live to believe the universe was ending and everything was doomed but when they land in this episode everything is normal it is worked into the story well because even the doctor is a bit concerned about this but it is still a letdown it's good that we get a moment to reflect on how the doctor is kind of excited at this chance to see rose again even with the doomsday scenario it entails at the end of turn left he was terrified at the prospect but he still cares deeply about her and hates how their time was cut short so it's not surprising that he'd be happy to reunite with her just like how the audience would be because for some absurd reason she's most people's favorite companion then the tardis ends up in the middle of space because the earth itself has disappeared which is a brilliant hook for the episode everything had seemed so normal and quiet but suddenly the entire planet the main setting of the show has just vanished into thin air and even the doctor can't explain it he's hopeless and lost for worse this understandably makes donna very scared and shaken by the prospect of her family and friends being dead this is exactly why human companions are great for modern doctor who because they often have something or somebody back on earth to anchor them to the setting usually their family i always liked how dave has incorporated these families into the companion's fears and motivations despite donna's hard exterior she's a deeply compassionate character who cares a lot about the people in her life whilst we the audience know wolf and silvia are alive donna doesn't her entire world has blinked out of existence so you can really relate to her anguish and emotional struggle here something very smart series 4 did was introduce and reintroduce a number of earthbound characters it seemed normal at first but this episode more than explains why because we suddenly cut back to worth showing another perspective the ground view of the characters this planetary shift is affecting we see martha in new york captain jack and cardiff and sarah jane in london all faces we recognize either from the main series itself or the two spin-off shows airing at the same time it's a brilliant use of doctor's shared universe bringing these characters into the fold whilst the doctor is lost in space i've spoken so many times before about the importance of showing the personal effects when earth is targeted and this is probably the best example because of how many familiar characters there are in the sequence it's gone dark it's them aliens i'll bet my attention we get to see how they react all having a common shock regarding the sky it culminates in that beautiful moment of rose teleporting to the stream the camera panning up to show those planetoids in the sky this is one of the best most ambitious cold openers in the show a magnificent way to introduce all these characters and establish the scope of the episode rose coming back isn't even the main hook for the opening because the visual of all those planets ups the ante so dramatically and effectively i also can't help but comment on the title sequences of this two-parter so many names racing across the screen up to this point though most there had been were three but this story just throws out the window and has almost a ridiculous amount i love it since it reflects how much ambition the story has although it's a shame that characters like harry jones and francina spoiled with the post-intro credits another thing davies always does very well in the stories is incorporating pop culture and news channels to reflect the wider atmosphere of events it features heavily in pretty much every present day story he wrote and it appears again here using news and richard dawkins for exposition about how many planets there are and that earth travel to them it's a clever way to slip in important exposition because it's so much more natural than the doctor standing there and saying it all to donna however much like the previous two finales there are also comedic cuts to pop culture adding levity whilst reflecting this wider impact on the mainstream world rather than just our important characters who are desperately trying to work out what's going on it's no surprise that the people of earth are looting and going nuts because if 26 planets suddenly showed up in the sky you'd immediately think it was armageddon so i like the sharp contrast to how calm the tv coverage was there's a good build up as our spin-off teams find a space station mixed in with all the planets although the more pressing issue is the 200 spaceships heading for earth i would say it's a bit of a letdown that had martha in new york and not with the unit people we met in the center and two-parter but it doesn't matter too much however what does matter is that her phone can't call the doctor as we saw in 42 in the centaurus strategy this phone can call anywhere in the universe without fail the latter episode a clever setup to show her direct link to the time lord but it not working really adds another layer to the already stacked tension of the episode then comes one of my favorite moments in all of doctor who but it's bittersweet because it's one of the last times the daleks were scary the spaceships start to send a message through the simple dalek catchphrase of exterminate this leads to some good use of these familiar characters sarah jack and martha have all had direct dealings with the monster jack even haven't been killed by one so he knows they can't be stopped they all know what the daleks being here means all with those experiences of the evil of the daleks i said this way back when i made my original video about this story but elizabeth sladen is the best part about this scene she perfectly sells sarah's raw fear and horror the simple sound choking up because she can't save her son the most important person in her life when she last met the daleks it was right at their genesis and they weren't even defeated just sealed inside a bunker so she also knows how impossible it is to fight them it goes without saying but the music is also absolutely stellar the dark and endless dark knight blasting in all of its glory as the ultimate dark invasion begins all these hardened and experienced heroes trembling in fear the doctor nowhere to be seen ugh it's just the pinnacle of daleks and knew who the best the monsters have ever been their mere presence having this dramatic horrifying effect and gravitas it's kind of like passing of the ways but turned up to 11 because this time we have so many people down on the planet we're not distant like the characters in that story were as the viewer we see the action below and all the people affected as they mount their futile fight back it's utter perfection in every sense and i can't overstate how much i adore this sequence especially when things like the valiant are easily wiped out as the daleks destroy all military locations on the planet because martha is part of the unit she is also a target her superior officer forcing her to use project indigo and giving her the mysterious osterhogen key which she doesn't want to take even in this desperate situation this key is a great sinister mystery running throughout the story because it comes up again later when harry jones orders martha not to use it under any circumstance remember this is the same woman who ordered the massacre of the sycorax so her being so against his offspring keeps says a lot the two-parter puts martha in a more militaristic role almost making her more of a torchwood one figure than a unit medic because she has to kind of replicate her dangerous quest from the series 3 finale it's great that they have her on the phone with jack during this invasion because he knows about project indigo and how risky it is they're good friends and he's incredibly knowledgeable so his concern and anger at her using this sells the implication that she's now dead because their teleportation is too unrefined to work it's probably the millionth dagger to the back of the viewer another way to beat you down and make everything more hopeless for the protagonists however there is a ray of hope because wolf clocks onto the eye still weakness even though he just has a paintball gun indeed the paint just dissolves and proves to have no effect on the dalek but it's all good because rose blows it up to save them wilf delivering one of his best lines do you wanna swap rose saving wolf is probably one of the few good things she does so good on you rose thanks for saving our lad i still don't like you though but in case you thought you might at least have one brief moment of hope davies doubles down on the hopelessness by teasing davros the very creator of the daleks themselves similar to the master in utopia nuhu fans wouldn't really understand how weighty this appearance is but the episode is able to achieve that balance of introduction and reintroduction classic few fans who know about davros would be gleefully squirming in their seats the prospect of this villain getting the new treatment but it also allows newfound fans to get an understanding of his significance especially with the brilliant theme sounding like something out of a japanese horror movie [Music] we then reunite with dalek khan who we last saw slipping out of the doctor's grasp in evolution of the daleks however this time khan is a babbling and insane dalek mutant inside his casing this is so striking because it's such a far cry from his last appearance where he spearheaded a mutiny against darlik sack but now he is the abomination it turns out that khan broke through the time lock and entered the time war to save davoros losing his mind in the process i really like this establishment because it once and for all explains why the doctor can't just fly back and save gallifrey it is possible to break into the conflict but it's too costly and dangerous which khan represents although he has become big brains seeing all of time at once just like rose could when she absorbed the heart of the tardis it's also through khan that we get a lot of seeding regarding the metacrisis doctor and the doctor donna predicting the three-way split at the end of this story [Music] this revelation of khan rescue and davoros from the time war is a remembrance of the power of the daleks this lone soldier breaking the time lock where so many others failed and allowing davos to resurrect the daleks achieving his perceived destiny of creating a new pure dalek race from his own flesh a new genesis for the monster like the doctor said in evolution they always survive when i lose everything it seems like everyone he doesn't want to have escaped the time war has whilst he remains alone with his guilt and anguish speaking of the doctor during all this chaos he takes donna to the shadow proclamation which had been mentioned a couple of times before but never really stated what it is the fact that the doctor has to go to them for help speaks volumes about how helpless he is it's like when the second doctor had to call on the time laws at the end of the war games reluctantly having to bow to a higher authority because they have nowhere else to turn visually the location looks incredible this unnatural asteroid formation with spires straight out of minis morgul internally it's nothing that special but that kind of external visual is what we need a lot more of in the show because it screams science fiction the jejune showing up also furthers this ambitious crossover event by bringing back another familiar part of the show but i mainly love this moment for donna's bemused reaction to the doctor conversing with the space rhinos however the more important conversation comes next because the doctor finds out just how many planets have been taken this expands the scope for our main duo we know how much the time lord loves the universe so finding out this event is a universal crisis rather than simply another earth crisis is the logical progression of his end of the story giving him even greater cause for concern this scene also shouts out some familiar planets like klum and woman wept this perfectly straddles the line of keeping a massive scale without devolving into star wars levels of everyone and everywhere being related we never actually saw any of these planets they were simply mentioned in previous episodes they called it women wet the planet was actually called women wet however more importantly the planets mentioned without series 4 itself which allow the doctor to complete the puzzle it's a clever story arc throwaway lines suddenly becoming crucial despite what i said in my series 2 review i don't think this arc was too obvious it's more of an oh that makes sense now sort of arc even though lost moon of push suddenly becoming relevant after an innocuous conversation at midnight did they ever find it the last moon of push no not yet wow i also like how the doctor has three suspicions as to who could be behind this none of them good he mentioned someone trying to move the earth before which narrows it down to either the time lords who moved the planet in trial of a time lord cybermen who piloted mondas in the 10th planet and lastly the daleks who tried to pilot earth in the dark invasion of earth unless you also want to count the captain from the pirate planet but it's definitely not him obviously we know it's the daleks but he doesn't so the fact these are the main suspects really scares him because they all should be impossible so that truly means it would be the end of the universe much like the missing planets even the vague real world references to bees disappearing becomes a crucial plot point because their migration allows the doctor to follow the path of earth it's an unconventional plot development but it's a good way to explain how the doctrine and donor find where the earth is supposed to be something very minor that didn't seem to matter to the wider scheme yet kept getting brought up just like the planets i think it's a great turn of events when they show up at the medusa cascade and there's no sign of those planets just when they thought they had the answer they're pegged back yet again completely back at square one this allows for a wonderful character moment for both the doctor and donna since as she points out he never gives up this is a character who would go through hell without a second of hesitation if it meant there was even a chance of saving one person's life but here he's resigned himself to failure without any hope or belief the doctor has failed we had had previous episodes like midnight and science in the library where the doctor had lost but it was never on this scale before he'd at least fought until the end here however there's not even a glimmer of hope in those eyes anymore which does a brilliant job showing how severe this all is this colossal failure across the board has all the characters give up crushed and hopeless without their figurehead to save them like the doctor himself they've run out of fight even though it's half an hour into the first part of a two-part story it really feels like the end a crushing defeat for the entire human race it's the day of the daleks now however just as everything seems lost a beacon of hope calls out to our broken and dejected protagonists none other than harriet jones former prime minister yes i know who she is her appearance really drives home just how much for crossover this all is the others were spin-off teams and companions but harriet on the other hand was a side character who appeared twice and was deposed from her position as prime minister by the doctor himself so it's a real deep cut to bring her back but a welcome one just as welcome as the revelation that martha jones is still alive much to rose's dismay who's she i wanna get free yeah rose you were replaced by someone better take that i'm glad you get locked out of this call especially with your petty remarks throughout indeed martha teleported home reuniting with her mother even at the end of the world well the subway network is cool and all i'm not really sure it makes a whole lot of sense with the sentient technology seeking out people who know the doctor surely there'd be a couple hundred people on this call when you consider all the companions still on earth at this point also if the aia is so powerful that concerns me because sentient tech never goes well in doctor who and yes i know the subway network was funded by the mr copper foundation originally davies wanted to bring back copper himself but actor clive swift decided to be an awful person in an interview so great job i think it's a great touch that the plot point of harry being deposed comes up again here using these events to justify her decision back then it's clever to do this because she does have a point she told him they couldn't always rely on him but he still destabilized her government for simply doing what she believed was right the christmas invasion was a very similar situation to this the entire planet under attack without the doctor there to save them they were helpless and lost it wasn't a case of if the doctor isn't there again it was more when the doctor isn't there again exactly what we see in this episode and turn left just an episode earlier all three groups on this call died in the name of the doctor so as a viewer we also know harriet is kind of right her presence in this episode is almost like her redemption in the eyes of the audience the last we saw of her she was very much presented as a monster for what she did so this makes her a good character again allowing her to die for the doctor who she still respects and forgives for what he did ironically it makes her similar to him in a way even until the end she wants to do what's best for her people without caring about her own life she puts herself in a doctor-like role to shape this organized unit no pun intended allowing them to give the doctor a signal and bring him back to earth in the grand scheme of things it's harriet jones who saves the day because without her the doctor would have never found the planet it truly shows that hope is in the most unlikeliest of places however rather annoyingly russell t davies later wrote a poem explaining that harris somehow escaped and didn't die i think it's a huge shame because she has this redemption arc after all that happens she goes out like a hero standing up to the dalek threat and accepting her death in a really powerful scene especially how the pale of her occurring gag is used to show courage and strength in the face of these monsters oh you know nothing of any human and that will be your downfall her death is honestly the most underrated part of this episode no one really talks about it but it's a really poignant piece of television making good use out of her inclusion even with such a short part within the episode it's a stellar example of great character evolution building upon her previous appearances to redeem her the doctor and honor finally break through to find all the planets hidden a second out of time from the rest of the universe it's a smart explanation for how these planets are lost in time and space although as is typical of doctor who it doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense but we can overlook that his virtual reunion with everyone on the subway network is such a triumphant moment filled with hope and optimism in spite of everything that's happening he's just blown away to see all these friends waiting for him so many people believing in him and pulling him across time even though they're begging him for help and trying to explain what's going on he can't help but smile at how brilliant all these people are for what they've been able to accomplish even without him it's kind of like school reunion if it was filmed in 2020 however despite this happy moment being all smiles and fun davros hijacks the call the great creator addressing his nemesis face to face to taunt him i love the creeping dread on the doctor's face as he recognizes the voice this slow look of despair also shared by sarah jane who met davoros all those years ago believing he'd died but now she's having to see this sick monster again it's simply perfect how david tennant sells this reunion such a drastic contrast to seeing his friends frozen in terror something that never happens like sarah he believed davos was dead destroyed in the time war and the jaws of the nightmare child lines like these show the power of russell t davies world building such simple lines conjure up endless wonder and speculation the nightmare child had me fascinated for years as i imagined some kind of lovecraftian cosmic horror only to find out it was just the type of dalek how disappointing armed with a newfound optimism and hope our characters start to pick themselves back up the doctor heading towards earth with jack fixing his vortex manipulator to find him although the daleks start to close in on the torchwood hub and sarah jane is caught by the monsters it's this weird mix of hope and terror which kind of sums docked you up in a way it climaxes in that beautiful moment of the doctor looking around to see his old companion rose's theme chiming in as i have this star-crossed reunion even though i don't like the 10 rows pairing i can't deny this moment is truly special it's the culmination of countless episodes throughout series 3 we were constantly reminded of rose and series 4 showed her breaking through to find the doctor there's so much groundwork making this moment what it is so it feels special no matter what your thoughts are on the pair however everything comes to a screeching halt is a random dalek passing by blast the doctor just when everything seemed to be on the up this comes in to shutter everything this ending is one of the absolute best moments in doctor history especially if you are fortunate enough to experience it upon broadcast nobody at all expected this sudden death it was hidden so well by the production team especially because it wasn't known yet that tenant would be leaving the role at least not this soon it's clever to have rose and jack here during the scene because they know about regeneration whereas donna doesn't some members of the audience would be in the same shoes as the current companion no knowledge of this time lord death so having these former companions allows the episode to explain regeneration this is the closest doctor you will ever get to a surprise regeneration of the main character it's a remarkable way to close the episode probably the single most memorable cliffhanger in doctor's long history as he shoots out those recognizable golden beams i remember there being so much speculation in the media and among the public everywhere you went people were wondering what would happen in the next episode there was such a buzz it felt like the longest wait between episodes because there was no sign of what to expect the anticipation was amazing and i will never forget what it was like to experience this shock as it happened the pinnacle of doctor who as event television what a final impression however at the beginning of journey's end this massive groundbreaking cliffhanger is resolved instantly the doctor is simply channeling all his regeneration energy into his dismembered hand which he's been conveniently carrying around in his tardis since last of the time lords simply healing himself without changing now a lot of people hate this and i totally understand why the cliffhanger was almost too ambitious and shocking for its own good because anything other than a proper regeneration would have been a disappointment it almost makes you wonder why the doctor doesn't just cut off their hand every time they regenerate so they can just cheat the change like this however i do think the solution ultimately ends up satisfactory because it becomes a major plot point but with how the cliffhanger was set up it's understandable everyone reacted like wait that's it indeed basically nothing from that cliffhanger has any consequence because everyone makes out alive sarah jane conveniently getting saved in the torture team in a time lock to save them being killed there's an air of disappointment about how it all gets resolved which i think accidentally sets the tone for the entire episode the daleks then teleport the titus up to the death star i mean the crucible with sarah jackie and mickey surrendering to follow them essentially ending the pair's contribution to the episode because they don't really do anything after this mickey deserved better man i spoke before about davey slipping in exposition through clever means but here we get the opposite rose monologue into the doctor to explain everything about the dimension cannon and the stars going out i know there's a lot of law that needs to be established for this episode but i think it's done badly in this scene just a shameless exposition dump i simply feel as though there could have been so many better ways to do this however i do like that when they get to the crucible the doctor is forced to admit defeat back in parting of the waste as the tardis was invulnerable but a quick way to tell the viewer these new daleks are more of a threat is to remove that invulnerability which is exactly what happens and it achieves this purpose quite well in my opinion there's no way for the protagonist to escape their only option is to face the dalek threat so i like this marching to death so to speak the doctor giving that short speech to his companions reflecting on their good times and how they were all brilliant when you really look at it it's a veiled admission of defeat he has no cars up his sleeve and he knows the daleks won't spare them it's the end of the line so this is a nice moment to reflect courage in the face of death itself however donna hesitates to leave allowing the tardis door to suddenly lock for reasons unknown to both the doctor and the supreme dialect it kind of mirrors parting of the ways where neither the time lord nor the emperor knew the true symbolism of bad wolf instead blaming it on each other this ultimately leads to the tardis being dropped into the crucible's engine to destroy it i love the chaos and intensity of this moment donna is trapped and facing certain death in what was previously the safest place in the universe whilst the doctor is forced to watch on powerless as his companion and precious ship burn up the doctor doesn't do weapons but the tardis is the constant companion all he has left of his people and there's nothing he can do to save it the daleks know how important it is to him so they're assessing their dominance and pushing him to a breaking point throughout the two parts adorno has been spacing out to the sound of a heartbeat this sound draws her to the hand itself which she reaches out for the body part suddenly forming a brand new doctor out of nowhere pushing a button to save the time machine just as the actual doctor believes it burns up i feel like this is in the wrong order the moment would have been a lot more powerful if the audience hadn't seen the tardis survive but because we know about the naked doctor saving the ship we know there's nothing to worry about so we aren't able to feel the doctor's pain and anger as effectively as we would have otherwise so it's a bit of a disappointment in the editing department jack then gets himself exterminated as part of a wider plan since he knows the other two can't escape which i think is a clever use of this gimmick especially because rose doesn't know which is ironic as she gave him this power in the first place although i do think his resurrection here is weird because he's able to stay completely still rather than basically every other time where he comes up gasping for air i just think it's a bit of a weird plot hole that isn't really consistent with his other resurrections floating in the relative safety of space the metacrisis doctor explains his existence to donna with a good bit of comedy now that he has a sass and snarkiness indeed it turns out this new doctor is actually part human and part-time lord i guess you could probably say on his mother's side because donna was involved in his creation he has part of her inside him so he can see through her eyes and understand why she's the way she is episodes like planet of the huge showed us there's a real compassionate undercurrent to donna her aggressive front is just that a front however the doctor can clearly see just how little she thinks to herself despite her being special it's a cathartic moment because it's kind of like agatha christie and unicorn on the wasp where the writer held herself in such a low esteem believing she was a failure and she wasn't special even though the audience knew she was this is similar here because as the viewer we've seen all the special things donna has done all the reasons she should be proud of what she's accomplished but she still can't see it i think it goes all the way back to how donna was raised as shown in series 4 and specifically turned left sylvia has always been the one putting donna down and giving her this feeling of inferiority so it's a good way to illustrate just how far the companion has come and developed over a time in this hardest although i really don't like that they then act like a life of the doctor was destiny why can't things just be coincidences every now and then meanwhile martha reluctantly teleports to germany with a mysterious osterhogen key and i'll always love how goofy is that the daleks speak speaking german [Music] kind of taking the whole nazi allegory a bit too far but it's just so totally off that i can't help but love it martha then has a conversation in the native tongue with the last guard to have stayed at her post i think it's a fantastic touch that this whole conversation is in deutsche and not english because neither the doctor nor the tardis is there to do the translation wizardry we're used to seeing it also shows how great martha is because she's fluent in his foreign language it most likely derives from her time travelling the world between sound of drums and loss of the time lords she walked across the entire planet so she'd have learned some languages to help spread her message also it's yet another reason she's a million times better than rose who can only speak english whilst martha probably knows multiple languages by this point i mentioned earlier in the review about the mysterious osterhagen key which struck fear into the hearts of martha and harriet jones but we get another sense of its terror here as the german woman begs her not to use it even trying to hold her at gunpoint all these reactions to the key do a wonderful job setting up what it is really establishing that this is a last resort option with very bad implications so it keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what this all means davoros then rolls up to taunton the doctor only for the timer to mock him for being relegated to the basement whilst the supreme dalek runs the show even at the end with his tardis and companion seemingly lost he can try to fight back with his words although davros easily shrugs this off because he knows the doctor's tricks all too well before he weirdly says rose is his to do as he pleases that's not a visual i want thanks russell i'd even take jabber and leia over this because jabber is one sexy beast you have to admit the doctor and rose are reunited with dalek khan now this insane oracle i really like how khan is used in the story not only did he break the time lock as established earlier but he also has this undeniable knowledge of events to come like rose in turn left his prophecies have already started to come true so you take stock in his prediction here about a death to come all these events cause the doctor to show his anger which davos again taunts him with davos knows his adversary well he saw the rage of the time lord in the time war aware of the anger he so desperately tries to hide from his companions time after time the doctor had angry outbursts in this era of the show and this is a good way to build upon that how he's hiding his true colours so to speak this whole setup is revealed to be the so-called reality bomb which the daleks are testing on humans including a group jackie is stuck in sarah and mickey unable to rescue her what a bold move to kill off such a big character in this episode a massive series finale like this always needs at least one main character to kick the bucket so i really appreciate them doing it here adding another death to the toll started with harriet jones wait what's that jackie jackie just teleports out and survives only to contribute literally nothing to the rest of the episode oh right okay even though the reality bomb doesn't claim the life of a single important character i like the dramatic weight these striking visuals of all the planets are lighting up the doctor begging davos to stop as all these innocent people are disintegrated and reduced to well not even atoms the cgi hasn't aged well for the actual disintegrations but the planets all look incredible the reactions of both doctors selling the sickening reality of the weapon it kind of shows the predicament davies had put himself in with his trend of upping the ante every single finale he ended up at the point where the only way to increase the stakes was to threaten all of reality itself which is almost too big of a threat it would always be so hard to pay this all off for some reason the daleks have incinerators which captain jack manages to escape from meeting up with his old friend mickey smith proving to be the best body cop duo we never got i just love these two together and it's a huge shame they only had sparse interactions big finish i'm begging you why make lady christina when you can make mickey and captain jack or mickey and the preachers or mickey and torchwood damn i i just want more mickey however sarah then brings out a warp star which she was told she could use for the end of days no not not the tortured episode this is a weapon our protagonists have to fight back an explosion waiting to happen it's a good way to involve this group in the story actually giving them something to do although yeah jackie doesn't really have any reason to be involved and on top of this weapon even the metacrisis doctor is tinkering away making his own piece of kit to utilize the sacred power of gun like davoros and khan say these are the children of time the doctors warriors similar to the warp star the osterhagen key will detonate a chain of conveniently placed nuclear bombs to rip the earth apart essentially the old trick of you can't kill me if i kill myself first whilst this concept seems a bit ridiculous i think it does a lot to show how truly hopeless the situation is there's literally no other way to fight back so they have to turn to such a dramatic last resort i also appreciate martha's spin on the plan since destroying earth would be a way to stop the reality bomb if only for a short while because it would prevent them reaching full power the groups come onto the intercom and i love the confrontation between sarah jane and davros the latter taunting her because this is too perfect for him the cherry on top because he gets to vanquish this woman who helped stop him right at the beginning i guess you could say everything's coming up davros we then get the highlight of this second episode davros exposing how the doctor is all pacifist and anti-weapon yep uses others to do it for him this is one of those amazing moments where the villain is completely right revealing how the doctor has turned all these companions into soldiers donna mentioned it in santorum's strategy but it's here that we see the true extent of it just how many people have become weapons for him even sarah jane who claimed to avoid torchwood because of the guns has produced this doomsday weapon jack is now brandishing like harriet jones said they're the doctor's secret army this scene always gives me chills dream of a normal death playing as the doctor remembers everyone who has died in his name from the forest of sheen to the hostess in midnight everywhere he goes someone sacrifices themselves for his cause this war by proxy almost usually i hate flashbacks and this is one of the most flashback heavy moments in doctor history but it is a strong use of them driving home the loss and sacrifice the sheer scale of it all obviously the doctor doesn't want these people to sacrifice themselves but the character can't help it it's the effect they have and they continue to be guilty of it to this day davoros is completely right and that's the scariest part of this moment highlighting just how dangerous the doctor can be even though they fight in the name of morality and good however to stop the moral conundrum of these doomsday weapons they're all just taken prisoner it makes everything seem so hopeless as the reality bomb gears up ready to destroy all of existence itself nothing the doctor says can stop this as davos manically revels in the ultimate victory of the daleks it's a very strong moment even the sudden appearance of the metacrisis doctor and honor comes crashing down as davros shoots out force lightning at them both finally eliminating anyone who can possibly chase him down now wait but what's that by god it's dodo here to save the day the subway network contacted her wow jokes aside this is where the episode starts to really fall apart in most people's eyes they built the stakes up so high and took away all strategies and weapons to fight back this powerful sense of dread has all seems lost just for donna to press a button and shut the whole thing down this isn't even an exaggeration she literally says i often try to go against the grain when it comes to hated things like this but i have to agree with the masses here this is an incredibly weak solution it was always going to be tough to stop a threat established as well unstoppable but this oversimplifies it far too much because even the doctor has to put in more effort than this why would one random button in the vault be able to stop the entire reality bomb davos has no power or actual influence down here so why would he have a big cancel button it makes no sense it's not even an explainable deus ex machina like the space jesus stuff in series 3. this is just there completely out of nowhere it's fun that donna easily dispatches of davros and his dalek cronies cheerfully spouting technobabble but again there's no logic here why would this console control so much why can it completely immobilize the daleks it just makes no sense even with catherine tate being a joy to watch in this moment it's still a bit ridiculous because it's bordering on absurd i'm also in two minds about her being the other half of the meta crisis taking the time lord side on the one hand it's a great escalation of the power of the companion paying off the whole doctor donna thing and planet of the eud but it also devalues donna's own agency she stops being special because she's donna noble now suddenly being special because she's the doctor donna i just personally feel as i wish to step back for a character journey however this scene does mirror the earlier scene where she accidentally explained how she could save the day i'm just attempt sure i'm fine 100 words per minute if i look at those now did i ever tell you best champion chizik wonderboys per minute it's cathartic as all the characters mount a proper fight back this time each contributing something well unless you're jackie who just kind of stands there it's all very triumphant captain jack getting to blow up the supreme dalek just like that one dalek he blew up in parting of the ways it also turns out that khan has been manipulating events the entire time betraying his own kind because he's seen the horror and destruction they've always caused this is essentially him admitting he was wrong to overthrow the hybrid sec sex developed a similar disdain for the species how their pursuit of purity would only ever leave them in darkness khan didn't see it at the time but his eyes well eye has been opened now that his travel through the timelock showed him the entire history and future of the daleks he realized the truth about them fittingly decreeing a statement which would come back and force with the war doctrine day of the doctor five years later the true last two survivors of the time war both stumbling onto the same conclusion declaring death to the daleks and time lords alike indeed the metacrisis doctor decides the only solution is mass genocide blowing up every stinking dalek despite donna's protests this is a very shocking moment reflected by the actual doctor's anger and disgust it's no lie that something needs to be done about this new dalek empire but the metacrisis doctor didn't even give them a choice no offer or bargain like the doctor had offered in evolution where he planned to take the hybrids to create their own planet of the daleks i've said this before but i feel as though this stems from the timing of the hand being cut off since it wasn't that long after the 9th doctor was faced with a similar opportunity hearkening back to that incarnation and how his time wore memories influenced him you were born in battle full of blood and anger and revenge [Music] remind you of someone even though the metacrisis doctor has all the current memories of the doctor i've always believed he still has that time or desire to finally destroy his arch enemies this way the actual doctor has grown and somewhat moved on but the metacrisis doctor maintains the rawness of the time war fueling his choice here along with that humanity preventing him from rising above this extinction it's also phenomenal that davoros names the doctor destroyer of worlds holding him accountable for what the meta crisis doctor did because at the end of the day it is still him so davos is again right yes the doctor has unraveled the dalek's master plan but he has caused even more death and destruction another genocide to add to the list and the character will always have to deal with that you made me however despite sending almost all of the planets back to their places and times earth still remains because of course it does this means the doctor has to personally tow the earth back leading to one final great usage of the ensemble cast each person having a part to play even the spin-off teams on earth who had literally zero presence in the second part until now this all leads to one of my favorite moments of the davies era as all of these faces we've come to love over the course of three years fly the tardis together song of freedom playing it's just so happy it always chokes me up because it shows how far the show has come since that opening sequence in rose back in 2005 it's a personification of the joy and togetherness the show brings this celebration of the era itself a truly beautiful and special visual this was doctor who my doctor who i grew up with all these characters rattling around the universe in their own ways and here they are at last all together the story itself didn't really have much to do with most of these characters but it's all worth it for this final flight this acknowledgement of the show being what it is i know it's a cheesy scene but regardless of what your thoughts on journeys end it's impossible to not simply adore this climax because it's incredibly heroic in every way like i said this was doctor who for me so it's always incredibly powerful to revisit this scene essentially my entire childhood summed up in one single sequence and also i think sarah sums up the magic of the show with this one line you act like such a lonely man but look at you you've got the biggest family on earth the doctor then watches all of his friends ride off into the sunset since they all have their own lives now back in stolen earth he was so happy to see what these people did without him but now there's a bit of sweet hinge to it because he knows he doesn't belong in their lives anymore sarah has luke jack martha and mickey have torchwood rose and jackie have their family in their own world they don't need their old friend anymore and he knows he'll have to set off again all alone and you can see in his eyes like the title of the episode says it's journey's end the most underrated departure is mickey who has nothing in pete's world anymore i guess he fell out with jake then this is a character who constantly faded into the background because everyone else was written to be more important but he was always such a strong character who had a clear journey he never needed the doctor to realize his worth quietly becoming the biggest badass of them all which the doctor respects in the end a real look of pride at seeing how much the young man has developed and achieved it's nice to see him return to the prime universe especially because he runs to catch up with jack and martha joining torchwood i'll never stop asking big finish to release box set set between this and children of earth where martha and mickey are part of the team god damn it nick bricks do it i'm begging you then the tardis returns to bad wolf bay to take rose and jackie home a mirror of doomsday the old companion once again having to say goodbye to the doctor forever as she's left behind in this parallel world however this time there's the metacrisis doctor who they can't leave unsupervised because of their good old war crimes much like everything else regarding metacrisis doctor i'm in two minds about all this on one hand allowing rose to finally settle down with the doctor is the completion of her arc a second chance with him where they can have the life they wish they could have had able to grow old together you can see how much the actual doctor loves rose for bringing him out of the darkness of the time war so he knows she can redeem the metacrisis doctor who still has that darkness that's me when we first met and you made me better it wraps up their relationship but that's where the other hand comes into play i don't like their relationship davies proved to be the biggest 10 row shipper of them all confirming the doctor loves her back answering the lingering question fans had at the end of doomsday it's a bit of a cop-out to create an entire incarnation of the doctor just so rose can have a happy ending really taking a roundabout way of closing her storyline but i at least like how the actual doctor has to face the pain of that not being him when you think about it he's basically cocking himself with himself something moffatt would be very proud of however this happy ending gives way to an overwhelmingly sad one donna continues to actual time lord the doctor looking on with that tragic sad look in his eye you immediately know there's something off about the situation which is confirmed when donna's mind just breaks the superseding the binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary i'm fine i love how catherine takes cells this moment almost like someone with extreme adhd because donna has all these time lord thoughts racing too quick for her to keep up with you can see her pain because they both know she shouldn't exist is physically impossible this moment has always been critically lauded and it's definitely justified it's one of the most tragic companion departures of all time because it's a fate worse than death she's losing her identity you can understand why she pleads so desperately to escape this like we saw at the end of doctor's daughter she wanted to travel forever but now she's being forced to go back to that life she hated so much no longer having any memory of the woman she became it undoes her character development and that's the beauty of it she came so far as a person and became someone truly special and amazing but here she loses it all back to that life of temping and feeling inferior she saved entire civilizations but she'll never know and that's the tragedy of it all dalit khan foretold a companion dying but this is much worse a complete loss of self and there's nothing the doctor can do in fact he's the one that has to do it which makes it so much more painful for him almost like he's executing his own companion although i will say it was sad when this all happened to jaime and zoe that was a lot better because the doctor had even less power in that situation and it wasn't like donna where it was absolutely necessary because they could have still survived with these memories the knife is twisted further into your gut once the doctor has to explain everything to wilf and sylvia if he had managed to stop crying once the memory wipe happened wolf's reaction starts those tears right back up again because he points out that loss of character development i've said a number of times throughout these reviews but wolf is donna's biggest fan he never gives up on her and always sees the potential within he could clearly see how much better she was with the doctor and now he'll have to always watch her if she lives that old life and this truly pains him which cribbins reflects perfectly here it's also great that the doctor shuts down sylvia who has constantly been insufferable throughout the series he finally gets that moment to silence her she was the most important woman in the whole world she still is then maybe you should tell her that once in a while the doctor then sadly leaves as donna returns to her usual obnoxious self it's here that the doctor reflects upon how everyone else has someone now he's all alone again despite what sarah says he is the loneliest man and losing donna didn't really help that wolf again steals the scene with his heartfelt promise to look up every night and think of the doctor of seleucing his friend goodbye it always brings a tear to the eye because wolfe is so pure and lovable you hate to see him upset but here he is with his eyes watering and you just can't help but feel so sad for him the doctor then stands in his tardis all alone a contrast from the packed and friendly atmosphere of the towing scene it's the first series finale where the character is truly alone and there's no distraction in doomsday donna appeared seconds later and just after martha left the space titanic crashed into the ship but here there's nothing just loneliness it's so much more powerful than the original ending of cybermen appearing in the ship because it's the perfect illustration of that deep loneliness of the 10th doctor a wonderful way to close out this blockbuster final series finale for him the series 4 finale is a tricky one because it's a game of two halves one half is absolutely incredible and the other is messy and inconsistent you won't win any prizes for guessing which is which that being said i don't think the two-parter is as bad as a lot of people say it's so high stakes and intense throughout setting the bar for the most ambitious story the show has ever crafted paying off a lot of plot threats not just a series 4 story arc it has to be commended because of the sheer scale of it all the stolen earth is the perfect first part building the daleks up incredibly well however the second part is a disappointing payoff not really reaching the same heights it's for this reason i'd have to give the two-parter an a on a series four tier list if it was individual stolen earth would be an s but journey's end is more of a b so it mixes together for that a rank there's still a lot to like about journey's end some absolutely wonderful character moments and that incredible ending but the solution to the reality bomb is a letdown and davos doesn't really do a whole lot in the story coming across a bit too much like a traditional shouty villain there's almost too much going on so i feel like a three-parter would have served the finale a lot better just like my main criticism on the series 2's finale however the best thing about this story is that it just screams series finale everything about it is event television from the music to the directing along with all the returning monsters and characters it's spectacular to behold and i think the length of this video reflects just how much there is stuffed into this climactic story donna's exit is handled superbly in my opinion along with the ending wrapping up the davies era sending all these characters off now they have their own lives without the doctor it's not just a series finale it's an era finale in a way taking this gigantic scale so the end of time could have the freedom to be a bit more character based this series 4 finale attempts to sum up and define doctor who which sometimes it excels at and sometimes completely fails at ultimately the biggest strength of the two-parter is also its biggest weakness because it's too big for its own good but i sure as hell enjoy it nonetheless no matter the shortcomings and i'd just like to give a very special thank you to my gold level patrons alex marston calvin daniel shilito franz horn aka line vortex john ross stephanie never miller and william jewell thank you so much for your support you

Channel: Harbo Wholmes

Views: 301,173

Keywords: weeping angels, harbo wholmes, doctor who, harbo wholmes doctor who, doctor who season 4, doctor who series 12, doctor who 2005 series, doctor who 2008 series, dr who, doctor who series 4, doctor who donna, doctor who series 4 finale, doctor who rose, doctor who finale, best doctor who finale, worst doctor who finale, doctor who crossover, doctor who metacrisis doctor, doctor who best ending, doctor who best endings, doctor who daleks, doctor who reality bomb

Id: -TnCPuNGCBg

Length: 49min 44sec (2984 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021