”It was late in the evening when we came at last to our journey’s end.” (Journey’s End, RC Sherriff).
Well, the suspense is now over. It was the best of times, worst of times for Donna Noble. And who woulda thought it…the temp from Chiswick saves the universe from that pesky Davros and the Daleks…and what a boost to her self-esteem and confidence. The Dr didn’t regenerate. Sarah-Jane Smith was saved by Mickey and Rose’s mum. Martha Jones has the mysterious Osterhagen key in her hands.
Tardis is clapped in irons known as a temporal prison and transported to the Daleks place known as the Crucible. The Tardis is destroyed with Donna inside but ….. due to some clever science fiction she is able to clone a Dr. He’s half Time Lord and human and she the same. And time to kick Dalek ass. Davros wants to destroy all forms of matter, or as he shrieks with joy, “Destruction of reality”..by something called a reality bomb.
You see, it is all about destiny, sacrifice and prophecy. And all the Dr’s assistants all plan to stop Davros and the Daleks with violence (either using nukes or blasting holes in the universe) much to the time lord’s consternation.
Davros exposes the heart of the Dr and his loathing of violence, violence begets violence. With the help of Dr Donna and the cloned time lord, they defeat the Daleks by destroying them. Davros is betrayed by Dalek Caan who has had enough of the ways of the Daleks and has been indirectly helping the Dr. But Dalek Caan warns the Dr (the real one) that one of his assistants will die. They are able to realign earth …hooray..
In a nutshell, none of do die, well, in human terms. They all go their separate ways. The Dr sends Rose, her mum, and cloned Dr back to this alternate universe as he’s a war criminal because he destroyed the Daleks (wonder if there’s room for Messrs Bush and Blair?). Rose gets her Dr, well half human and half time lord with one heart. Oh well, better than nothing….
Dr Donna’s brain is being fried by this overload so the Dr clears her mind and sends her back to earth. She recalls nothing. And can I be bovvered to retell the rest? It got all drippy saccharine like, running out of steam (it was tugging at the heartstrings background muzak) towards the end and with stating the obvious…the Dr is alone.
There was a deep and meaningful truth in the story somewhere but I was too busy being distracted by the fast frenetic action…though they really do need to spend some cash on decent special effects. But, like I said, it was all ’bout the lexicon of being human, sacrifice, destiny, prophecy, loneliness, courage and …Donna winning the day. And that there was more to Donna.
I was disappointed that even though Donna was centre stage, the other women were still in the background. They all played their part and were significant but they could have been utilised better. It was a bit of a wasted opportunity especially for strong and vibrant characters like Martha, Rose and Sarah-Jane.
Overall, the series has been patchy and inconsistent. We have seen the Adipose (the potato shaped aliens), Pompeii burning, the Ood, warmongering Sontaran versus pacifist Dr, ass kicking terraformed acrobatic Jenny, daughter of the Dr (the extra twist is that Jenny is played by Georgia Moffett who is, fifth Dr Who, Peter Davison’s real life daughter). Awfully fun jolly japes, along with Agatha Christie with the murder of Professor Peach in the library by some gigantic wasp. An invisible entity possessing a passenger on the shuttle bus to Midnight that leads to deep psychological fear, mistrust and suspicion of the unknown.
And my favourite two-parter, solving the mystery of the disappearances in the universe’s largest library with the Vashta Narada lurking in the shadows along with space suited scientist who seems to know the Dr and a populated virtual world that Donna literally falls into. I found that the Steven Moffat written episodes are reminiscent of his previous award winning story, Blink.
The Journey’s End episode is also a reference, possibly, to the fact that Russell T. Davies is handing over the executive producer role to Steven Moffat but he hasn’t gone completely and is still involved. Well, with Steven Moffat at the fore and with some sparkly gems under his writer belt, I hope that this is the shape of things to come…..
Posted by harpymarx 
