15th | Top titles of works based on Shakespearean phrases |
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Journey's End | |
Series: | Doctor Who - TV stories |
Series Number: | Series 4 |
Story Number: | 198b |
Doctor: | |
Companions: |
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Enemy: | |
Setting: | |
Writer: | Russell T Davies |
Director: | Graeme Harper |
Producer: | Phil Collinson |
Broadcast: | 5th July 2008 |
Format: | 1x65 minute episode |
Prod. Code: | 202 b |
Previous Story: | The Stolen Earth |
Following Story: |
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Contents |
Every universe is in danger as the Daleks activate their master plan to destroy reality itself. 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.
The Doctor, after being shot by a Dalek, is regenerating inside the TARDIS while Donna Noble, Captain Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler watch. However, the Doctor transfers the regeneration energy into the container which houses his severed hand. He has healed himself, but chosen not to change his appearance. The TARDIS is transported by the Daleks to the Crucible and rendered powerless. The Doctor, Jack, and Rose leave it, but Donna is distracted because she is hearing the sound of a heartbeat and while looking back, the TARDIS door slams closed. Before the Doctor can free her, the Daleks dump the TARDIS into a waste chute where it will be destroyed in the centre-core of the Crucible. As the TARDIS interior explodes around her, Donna collapses near the severed hand, she hears the heartbeat again and while touching the container energy flows between it and her. The hand bursts out of the container, and forms as a new Doctor, although this Doctor has only one heart and has picked up some of Donna's mannerisms. With his help, the TARDIS escapes destruction and gives the new Doctor and Donna time to come up with a plan.
In Torchwood Three, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones find themselves safely in a time lock created by Toshiko Sato, preventing the Dalek from entering but also preventing them leaving. Sarah Jane Smith is saved from two Daleks by Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler, but in order to follow the Doctor, they lay down their guns and allow themselves to be captured, taken to the Crucible. Martha Jones says her goodbyes to her mother and makes for an abandoned castle in Germany where one of five Osterhagen stations is hidden, and waits for contact from the other bases.
Aboard the Crucible, Jack creates a distraction by shooting the Supreme Dalek with his revolver, but is exterminated by the Daleks; as the Doctor and Rose are taken to the Vault where Davros is held, Jack's immortality allows him to escape. With the Doctor and Rose contained, Davros explains that the 27 planets form an energy pattern that is then amplified into a "reality bomb", able to break apart the forces holding everything together. Mickey, Jackie, and Sarah Jane escape a test chamber just in time where this effect is shown to the Doctor. Both Doctors realize how it works. Jack finds his way to the three, and with a Warp star from Sarah Jane, creates a device that will implode the Crucible. Meanwhile, Martha makes contact with two other bases in China and Liberia. The Chinese counterpart wants to get it over and done with, but Martha, knowing the Doctor, first broadcasts a signal to the Crucible to give them (probably both Earth and the Daleks) a second chance, promising to use the Osterhagen key to detonate 25 nuclear warheads under the Earth's crust to destroy it and disable the reality bomb. However, the Daleks manage to lock onto their positions and transports Martha, Jack, Mickey, Jackie, and Sarah Jane, with the Transmat to the Vault where the Doctor and Rose are also being held captive.
The Daleks prepare to activate the reality bomb that will wipe out all matter in this and every parallel universe through the rifts in the Medusa Cascade, but the new Doctor and Donna arrive in the TARDIS. Both attempt to destroy Davros and the Daleks using a weapon created by the new Doctor but both are stunned by shots from Davros robotic hand before they can use it. The reality bomb countdown reaches zero, but nothing happens; Donna has manipulated the controls to disable it. The Doctor recognises that the creation of the new Doctor has had an unintended side effect: Donna is now half Time Lord herself, sharing the Doctor's intellect. Donna and the new Doctor free the others, and with the help of the original Doctor, disable the Daleks and start to send the planets back to their proper time and space. Before Earth can be sent, the machinery is destroyed by the Supreme Dalek, who is then destroyed by Captain Jack. The original Doctor races into the TARDIS to replace the functionality of the broken machine. Realising that Dalek Caan has seen the end of the Dalek race and has been manipulating time to achieve this, the new Doctor (probably not kept back by guilt due to the influence of Donna's personality) uses the remaining machinery to destroy all of the Daleks and their fleet. The rest of the companions flee to the TARDIS, and while the Doctor offers to save Davros, he refuses, and gesturing at the destruction around them, bellows "Never forget, Doctor, YOU DID THIS! I name you FOREVER: YOU are the Destroyer of Worlds!", while Caan ominously predicts one of the Doctor's companions will die. Unable to save either of them, the Doctor flees into the TARDIS just before the Crucible is destroyed.
The Doctor enlists the help of the other companions, making contact with the Torchwood base, and with Luke Smith, Mr. Smith and K-9, help use the TARDIS to return the Earth to its proper place. Sarah Jane says her goodbyes, as well as Jack, Martha, and Mickey, who has decided to stay in this universe. Using a retroactively closing rift, the Doctor returns Rose and Jackie to the alternate dimension and leaves the new Doctor with her. The Original Doctor explains that by destroying the entire Dalek Race, the new Doctor has committed genocide.
Rose asks both Doctors the words that the Doctor was unable to say to her when they last parted. The "Human Doctor", having the same memories and feelings as the proper Doctor, whispers into Rose's ear, and then they kiss.
Returning to their universe, Donna finds she begins to have trouble thinking; the Doctor explains that the human mind cannot take in the Time Lord mental abilities. To save her, he wipes her mind of all her encounters with the Doctor, returning her home and explaining to her family, Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott, that she must never be reminded of her time with the Doctor or else she will die. As Donna recovers consciousness, she shows no interest in the Doctor; he leaves, though Wilfred promises he will look out for the Doctor every night while he looks at the sky. The Doctor then returns to the TARDIS alone.
Journey's End was viewed by 9.4 million viewers overnight, and gained an overall viewing figure of 10.57 million viewers in its first airing. This placed it as the No. 1 program of the week, beating the Wimbledon finals and episodes of Coronation Street and Eastenders. This makes Journey's End the highest rated episode in the 45-year history of Doctor Who, surpassing Voyage of the Damned and The Stolen Earth, both of which ranked second in their respective weeks.[1] However, the episode is not the most-watched episode of the revived series; that distinction belongs to the 13.31 million viewers obtained by Voyage of the Damned (the most-watched episode of all time remains City of Death Part 4 with 16.1 million viewers in 1979, although it only ranked 16th for the week it aired). The episode also achieved an Appreciation Index rating of 91, tieing with The Stolen Earth, a number considered unprecedented for a mainstream network drama production.[2]
Despite the initial acclaim from watchers, critics gave it a mixed reception and the story has been, over time, heavily critisised.
Journey's End was broadcast on the CBC in Canada on 12th December 2008 in an extensively edited version, created in order so that the episode, which ran appoximately 65 minutes without commercial interruption on the BBC, could fit into a standard 60-minute time slot with commercials, meaning the episode itself had to be whittled down to approximately 44-45 minutes. The deletion of approximately 20 minutes of scenes renders this version of Journey's End one of the most extensively edited Doctor Who episodes in the entire history of the franchise. The CBC subsequently made an unedited version of the episode available, but only on its website (and the broadcast occurred after Series 4 had been released to DVD in that country).
A partial list of the major edits can be found on the Doctor Who Information Network website here. It was subsequently announced that the CBC was discontinuing its broadcasts of Doctor Who, with the competing network, Space, taking over broadcasts of the series beginning with The Next Doctor and continuing into 2010.[3]
BBC America also aired an extensively edited version of the episode in February 2009.
Series 4 |
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Mini-episode: Time Crash • Christmas Special: Voyage of the Damned
Partners in Crime • The Fires of Pompeii • Planet of the Ood • The Sontaran Stratagem • The Poison Sky • The Doctor's Daughter • The Unicorn and the Wasp • Silence in the Library • Forest of the Dead • Midnight • Turn Left • The Stolen Earth • Journey's End Christmas Special: The Next Doctor • Mini-episode: Music of the Spheres |
Dalek television stories |
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Major appearances: The Daleks • The Dalek Invasion of Earth • The Chase • Mission to the Unknown • The Daleks' Master Plan • The Power of the Daleks • The Evil of the Daleks • Day of the Daleks • Planet of the Daleks • Death to the Daleks • Genesis of the Daleks • Destiny of the Daleks • Resurrection of the Daleks • Revelation of the Daleks • Remembrance of the Daleks • Dalek • Bad Wolf/ The Parting of the Ways • Army of Ghosts/Doomsday • Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks • The Stolen Earth / Journey's End |
Minor appearances: The Space Museum • The Wheel in Space • The War Games • The Mind of Evil • Frontier in Space • Logopolis • The Five Doctors • The TV Movie • Human Nature • The Waters of Mars |
Non-canonical: The Curse of Fatal Death |
• Complete List of Appearances • |
EPISODE | |
Journey's End | |
Attribution | |
Series: | The Next Generation |
Story by: | Shawn Piller & Antonia Napoli |
Teleplay by: | Ronald D. Moore |
Directed by: | Corey Allen |
Production information | |
Episode no.: | 7x20 |
Production no.: | 272 |
First aired: | 26 March 1994 |
Chronology | |
Date: | 47751.2 (2370) |
Contents |
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published order | ||
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Previous episode: Genesis |
TNG episode produced | Next episode: Firstborn |
Previous episode: Genesis |
TNG episode aired | Next episode: Firstborn |
chronological order | ||
Previous Adventure: The Best and the Brightest (Year Two) |
Next Adventure: Blood Oath |
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Previous Adventure: Whatever You Do, Don't Read This Story |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) |
Next Adventure: Firstborn |
The Journey's End provides seaworthy transportation between Butcherblock Mountains and Nektulos Forest.
Captain: unknown
First Mate: unknown
Helmsman: unknown
Crew and Passengers: unknown
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