4.12. The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

Series 4 - 2008

Writer: Russell T Davies
Produced by: Phil Collinson
Director: Graeme Harper
Music: Murray Gold

Synopsis

The TARDIS materialises on Earth on a peaceful Saturday. The Doctor is concerned about Rose's ability to cross between dimensions; the walls between dimensions are breaking down, even though there appears to be nothing wrong. As the Doctor and Donna enter the TARDIS the Earth starts shaking. Inside the TARDIS the Doctor and Donna feel the TARDIS shake. When the Doctor opens the doors there is nothing but space. The TARDIS is in the same space, but the Earth has been stolen.

Donna is worried about her family, and the Earth. The Doctor doesn't know where the Earth has gone, or how. The Doctor has no choice to but to visit the Shadow Proclamation.

On Earth people are trying to work out what has happened. In the skies there are more planets, and an artificial atmospheric shell has been created. Torchwood are monitoring the new planets. In New York, UNIT are on high alert and Martha tries - unsuccessfully - to contact the Doctor. This is a worry because the Doctor can usually be contacted by mobile wherever he is in the universe.

On the streets people are panicking and looting thinking it's the end of the world. In the streets Rose appears and attempts to contact the Doctor. At the same time space craft are heading into orbit. There is a one word message that fills Rose, Martha, Torchwood and Sarah-Jane with more fear than most: Exterminate.

The Dalek ships enter battle formation and start firing at Earth, preparing to commence the human harvest. In the Dalek flagship - the Crucible - the Supreme Daleks announces that the Daleks are the masters of Earth.

The TARDIS arrives at the Shadow Proclamation and is met by a squad of Judoon. The Doctor says he had a missing planet, and Shadow Architect explains that there are 24 missing planets. While Shadow Architect lists the missing planets, Donna mentions Pyrovillia, a planet that disappeared 2000 years ado. Donna also mentions the lost Breeding Planet of the Adipose. The Doctor realises that planets are being taken out of time and space. Adding the lost moon of Poosh there are 27 missing planets. When they are added to a holographic representation of the planets, the computer re-arranges them into the optimum pattern.

In New York the Daleks are attacking. The UNIT General in charge takes Martha to activate Project Indigo. Captain Jack is in contact with her, and tells her not to use it as it's unsafe. The General says she takes orders from UNIT, not Torchwood, and orders her to teleport. Before teleporting the General gives Martha the Osterhagen Key, to be used as a last resort. When Martha teleports Captain Jack is under the impression that she is dead.

In the Crucible the Supreme Dalek reports that there is no news of the Doctor, and is certain the Doctor cannot stop them. But a broken, mentally and physically, Dalek Caan is uneasy. Dalek Caan prophesises that the Doctor is coming.

Back at the Shadow Proclamation the Doctor asks Donna if, last time she was on Earth, she can think of anything unusual. All she can think of is the bees going missing. Initially the Doctor mocks this idea, but then realises they went back home to Planet Melissa Majoria (or at least the non-native bees). The bees use a wavelength known as the Tandocca Scale to communicate. The transmat that moved the same planet used the same scale, and by following the Tandocca trail they can find out where the planets went. The Shadow Proclamation want to go to war with the Doctor, but he manages to slip away from them.

On Earth the Daleks start to round up the human populace. Wilf, with a paint-ball gun, and Sylvia are hiding behind a wall. When one family run back into a house the Daleks destroy it. Using the paint-ball gun Wilf fires at a Dalek eye-stalk, but this doesn't affect the Dalek. As it is about to fire it is destroyed - by Rose. They go back to Sylvia's house where Wilfs tells Sylvia about the Doctor and Donna's travelling.

The TARDIS stops at the Medusa Cascade, but there is no sign of the missing planets. There appears to be no help for Earth, and Earth surrenders. At Torchwood, 13 Bannermen Road and Sylvia's house someone is trying to get through - former Prime Minister Harriet Jones. Martha Jones manages to get through, having survived the teleport and making it home. Harriet Jones is using a sub-wave network to join everyone together.

Using the sub-wave network, and boosting the signal through the Torchwood rift, and Sarah-Jane's Mr Smith, all phones on Earth can call the Doctor. The signal would be detected by the Daleks, but signal will lead back to Harriet Jones. When all phones broadcast the Doctor is able to pick it up and follow it. The phone call is coming from one second in the future; a tiny pocket of time put the planets out of sync, and this had been hiding the planets. The Doctor manages to link up with Torchwood, Sarah-Jane and Martha. Only one person is missing - Rose. A fourth member joins the sub-wave network. The Doctor thinks it Rose, but it is someone else... Davros, original creator of the Daleks.

The Doctor directs the TARDIS to Earth, and the Daleks head to locations in the sub-wave network. First point of call - Torchwood. Captain Jack uses Martha's Indigo teleport control to reset his teleport, and vanishes from Torchwood, leaving behind Ianto and Gwen. Sarah-Jane also heads off to find the Doctor. Rose asks Control to use her teleport onto the TARDIS, which has materialises in a darkened street. At the end of the street Rose appears, and the Doctor and Rose run to each other. A Dalek is close by, sees the Doctor and fires, hitting the Doctor.

Captain Jack appears and destroys the Dalek. Rose reaches the Doctor, and she and Captain Jack get him into the TARDIS, where be begins to regenerate.

Instead of fully regenerating the Doctor is able to repair his body, and send the remaining energy into a genetic substitute - in this case his originally severed hand.

Outside Sarah Jane almost runs in to two Daleks. As they prepare to fire Mickey and Jackie appear with weapons and destroy the Daleks. In Torchwood, the base has been time locked, meaning the Daleks cannot get in, and Ianto and Gwen can't get out.

The Daleks locate the TARDIS, and teleport it, along with Rose, Captain Jack, Donna and the Doctor inside, to the Crucible. Jackie, Mickey and Sarah-Jane need to get to the Crucible, and they surrender where they will be taken there. Martha uses her teleport, but no to the Dalek ship.She lands in Germany.

In Rose's dimension, which is ahead in time, saw stars going out, and the Torchwood there build a dimension cannon to send Rose between dimensions. It began to work when the walls between dimensions began to collapse.

When the TARDIS arrives at the Crucible, and the Supreme Dalek orders the Doctor to leave the TARDIS. Despite all the shielding the TARDIS has, the Doctor explains that these Daleks are a ful battle fleet, and they have the power to break through a TARDIS. There is no option but to leave. As Donna leaves she hears a beating in her head and pauses. The TARDIS doors close, trapping her inside. The Supreme Dalek says they didn't close the doors. Thinking it is a Time Lord trick, and aim to destroy the TARDIS by dropping to the heart of the Cruicible where Z-Neutrino energy will destroy it - especially with the shields down.

Inside the TARDIS, which is being torn apart, Donna reaches out to the Doctor's hand as the jar breaks. The regenerative energy escapes into the TARDIS, and a new, naked, Doctor appears. The new Doctor restarts the TARDIS, and it begins to materialise. On a screen in the Crucible the TARDIS appears to have been destroyed.

Captain Jack fires at a Dalek, and is exterminated. The Doctor and his companions are taken away to Davros. Rose is unaware of Captain Jack's regenerative capabilities.

Inside the TARDIS, which is on silent running to avoid detection, the new Doctor is trying to work out who is he. He has come about due to a meta-crisis. He only has one heart, and his speech is similar to Donna's. The new Doctor realises that something has been drawing Donna and the TARDIS together.

On Earth Martha makes her way to a German castle and meets up with a woman. Inside Martha unlocks a hidden door. As she opens it the woman starts talking about the Osterhagen Key, and pulls a gun on Martha in an attempt to stop her using it. Martha calls the woman's bluff, and she is unable to fire as Martha goes into a hidden room. Inside Osterhagen Station One Martha calls out to other stations.

In a vault the Doctor and Rose are restrained in holding cells whilst Davros deals with them. But the Doctor wants information about what is happening. They are in a vault, meaning Davros is also a prisoner of the Daleks. Davros begins to taunt the Doctor, and says that testing is to begin - of the Reality Bomb.

A group of prisoners, including Mickey, Jackie and Sarah-Jane, has been taken to a separate room. Mickey and Sarah-Jane manage to break away and watch from behind a door as device begins to power up. The planets begin to align together. The two Doctors, independently, begin to realise what is happening as the Z-Neutrino energy will be flattened by the planets into a single strand. At the last minute Mickey signals to Jackie that her teleport is working, and she teleports as the device fires, and the prisoners are atomised, leaving nothing left. The test was only focused on the prisoners. When fired for real the Reality Bomb will cancel out the electrical field of every object in the universe, atomising all matter. And through the Medusa Cascade this will filter out into every dimension, leading to the destruction of reality.

Captain Jack makes his way through the Crucible and meets up with Mickey, Jackie and Sarah-Jane. Sarah-Jane reveals she has a Warp Star that is capable of destroying the Crucible. Inside the TARDIS the new Doctor creates a weapon that is able to lock on to Davros's genetic code, and destroys it. As all Daleks are created from Davros, this would destroy the Dalek. Back on Earth two more Osterhagen stations are online, and three are all that is needed. Marha contacts the Crucible and tells the Daleks to leave otherwise she will use the Osterhagen Key. This would cause 25 nuclear devices to explode which would rip Earth apart.

The Doctor hangs his head in shame as the truth is revealed: Although the Doctor abhors violence and doesn't carry guns he instead uses other people - his companions - to do this instead.

The Supreme Dalek has had enough of the talking, and teleports Martha, Mickey, Jackie, Captain Jack and Sarah-Jane into the vault before any of the weapons can be used. Davros orders the Reality Bomb to be fired, and the device is scheduled to fire in 200 rels (just over 3 minutes).

Everyone in the vault is surprised when the TARDIS appears, and even more so when the Doctor appears. The new Doctor fires at Davros, but Davros fires a beam first which knocks the new Doctor down. Donna appears and picks up the weapon, and Davros fires at her, knocking her behind a control panel. The countdown for the Reality Bomb reaches zero, but nothng happens. Donna appears, and has stopped the weapon. Donna keeps pressing buttons, causing Daleks' weapons to be deactivated. Donna normally can't even change a lightbulb, but the new Doctor's meta crisis was two way. It made the new Doctor part Tme Lord part human, and Donna part human and part Time Lord, creating the "Doctor Donna" that the Ood had foretold on the Oodsphere.

Donna deactivates the holding cells, and as the Doctors escape Donna makes the Daleks spin round when the attack. The Doctor, new Doctor and Doctor Donna uses the Magnetron to send the planets home as Captain Jack, Mickey and Sarah-Jane deal with the Daleks.

Davros asks why Dalek Caan did not see this, but Caan reveals he saw the truth of the Daleks, and betrayed them, setting up events so they would lead to this.

The Supreme Dalek descends to the vault and destroys the Magnetron with only one planet left to return. The new Doctor realises that escaping is not enough, and feeds Dalekanium back into the system, destroying all Daleks. As the Crucible starts to break up the Doctor gets everyone inside the TARDIS - even extending the invitation to Davros (who makes no attempt to do so). As the Crucbile explodes the Doctor uses the TARDIS, using the Torchwood rift manipulator as a form of tow rope, to pull Earth back to the proper place in the Universe.

Captain Jack, Sarah Jane, Martha, and Mickey, stay on Earth. The Doctor takes the new Doctor, Rose and Jackie to the parallel Earth.

Afterwards, inside the TARDIS, Donna starts stuttering and behaving oddly. The metacrisis is breaking down. There is only one course of action the Doctor can take: to erase her memory of him, and reverse the metacrisis. The Doctor returns an unconscious Donna back to Wilf, and explains what happened to Sylvia and Wilf. He also tells them that they can never tell Donna about the Doctor, or else her mind will burn.

Regular Cast

  • Donna Noble: Catherine Tate
  • Martha Jones: Freema Agyeman
  • Captain Jack Harkness: John Barrowman
  • Rose Tyler: Billie Piper
  • Sarah Jane Smith: Elisabeth Sladen
  • Mickey Smith: Noel Clarke (13)

Guest Cast

  • Harriet Jones: Penelope Wilton (12)
  • Jackie Tyler: Camile Coduri (13)
  • Francine Jones: Adjoa Andoh
  • Gwen Cooper: Eve Myles
  • Ianto Jones: Gareth David-Lloyd
  • Luke Smith: Thomas Knight
  • Wilfred Mott: Bernard Cribbins
  • Sylvia Noble: Jacqueline King
  • Davros: Julian Bleach
  • General Sanchez: Michael Brandon (12)
  • Suzanne: Andrea Harris (12)
  • Trinity Wells: Lachele Carl (12)
  • Himself: Richard Dawkins (12), Paul O'Grady (12)
  • Drunk Man: Marcus Cunningham (12)
  • Newsreader: Jason Mohammad (12)
  • Judoon: Paul Kasey (12)
  • Shadow Architect: Kelly Hunter (12)
  • Albino Servant: Amy Beth Hayes (12)
  • Scared Man: Gary Mlner (12)
  • German Woman: Valda Aviks (13)
  • Scared Woman: Shobu Kapoor (13)
  • Chinese Woman: Elizabeth Tan (13)
  • Liberian Man: Michael Price (13)
  • Dalek Operators: Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, David Hankinson, Anthony Spargo
  • Dalek Voice: Nicholas Briggs
  • Voice of K-9: John Leeson (13)
  • Voice of Mr Smith: Alexander Armstrong
Uncredited:
  • Milkman: Andrew Bullivant
  • UNIT Soldiers: Nathan Williams, Mike Freeman, David Creed, Natalie James, Danielle Saunders, Sean Saye
  • UNIT Workers: Martine Bavetta, Natascha Motee, Natalie Danks Smith, Michael Bouhdlen, Becky Jones, Michelle Stone
  • Double for Luke Smith: Joshua Hughes
  • Neighbours: Bernie Hodges, Sam Walsh, Kee Ming Wong, Kadeem Sinclair, Claire Cattrall, Susan Cecil, Jon Cecil, Gary Devonish, Ling Cheung, Ruth Webb
  • Teenager: Daniel Radbourne
  • Public: Robert Quinn, Joe Malik, Gemma Hobbs
  • Looters: Ollie Bryan, Alex Lucas
  • Panicked public: Andrew Reynolds, Nick Madge, Kristin Elharti, Nathan Whittaker, Rupert Randle, Laura Savickas, Amy Woodsend, Sonya Hardy, Victoria Akers, Laura Aberdeen, Lucy Harvey, Matthew Cox, John Sinclair, David Ulett, David Mullaney, Timothy Driscoll, Michael Williams, Adrian Walker, Delta Hubbard, Marcus Maggio, Alphonso Archer, Anne Lyken Garner, Dave James, Kadeem Sinclair
  • Albino Servant: Hayley Jones
  • Judoon: Rauri Mears, Adam Sweet, Richard Tunesi, Jon Davey, Andy Jones
  • Judoon Voice: Nicholas Briggs
  • Scared Man's Son (Simon): Ethan Smith
  • Scared Man's Wife (Laura): Jennifer Faubel
  • Children: Matthew Caan, Megan Gwen Davies, Leilah Hughes, Aimee Herbert, Shaheen Jafargholi, Carys Williams, Loius Morgan, Emily Morgan, Alexandra Beatty
  • Hostages: Thomas Rosser, Will James, Robin March, Tracy Scott, Nick Rogers, Carolyn Jolliffe, Rhys Thomas Oxenham, Tosin Aikomo, Sue Weston, Louise Jeffrey, Clayton Planter, Paul Burling, Tom Coppin, Brian Bowen, Oliver Hopkins, Nadia Teer, Carlisle Antonia, Oliver Tommy, Natalie Dimeo, Dertinder Regazzoli, Meryle Buxton, Kwesi Gepi Attee, Melanie Allen, Simone Bennett, Rahana Davis, Chris Shalders, Christopher Finch, Chris Lee, Jim Fox, Paul Fullerton, Rachel Bright, Rita Birchall, Chloe Hallinan, Sally Miller, Channon Jacobs, Abigail Creel, Rhianwen Bailey, Ikay Agu, Taylan Anar, Alison Ball, Nicola Bates, Max Cahn, Daniella Cheung, Levi Crosdale, Nikola Derewicz, Matthew Doman, Abdelmajid Elharti, Amie Elharti, Kay Garrod, Jocelyn Guy, Jeremy Harvey, Ceri Hopkins, Christopher Hoskins, Dion Jackson, Tat Wa Lay, James Mustoe, Ian Newbury, Marina Penhallurick, Nick Pree, Christian Rae, Peter Sheward, Bianca Cochrane, Gemma Cooke, Aimee Dewitt, Carol Ann Firmin, Jaleelah Galbraith, Matthew Harries, James Hyett, Hazel Robinson, Michael Stewart, Hannah Warren, Dominik Sacchetti
  • Double for Sarah Jane Smith: Abbi Collins
  • German woman (OOV): Anita Love
  • Double for Rose: Toni Rice
  • Dalek Operator: Gethin Jones
  • Double for the Doctor: Collum Sanson-Reagan
  • Stunt Double for Donna: Sarah Franzi
  • Crowd / Additional Dialogue Recording: Nicholas Wilkes, Paul Ganney, Paul Sparrowham, Nicholas Cater, Daryl Adcock, Lindsay Hollingsworth, Jane S.R. Kyte-Hunt, Nicole Casey, Holly Cracknell, Hannah Welch

Original broadcast on the BBC

Channel Title Date Viewers Rating
BBC 1 12. The Stolen Earth Saturday, June 28, 2008 7:10 PM - 8:00 PM 8.8M 91
BBC 1 13. Journey's End 1 Saturday, July 5, 2008 6:40 PM - 7:45 PM 10.6M 91
1: This is the first time Doctor Who has been the number one rated programme across multiple channels

Click here to show repeat broadcasts on the BBC

Studios

  • C2 News Studio, Broadcasting House, Llantrisant Road, Cardiff
  • Southbank Studios
  • Upper Boat Studios, Treforrest

Outside Locations

  • Alpha Steel, Corportation Road, Newport
  • Brook Street, Riverside, Cardiff
  • Castell Coch, Tongwynlais, nr Cardiff
  • Clinton Road, Penarth
  • Computing Wales, Market Street, Pontypridd
  • Cwrt-Y-Vil Road (Lower), Penarth
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  • School of Optometry, Maindy Road, Cathays
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  • Traffic Management Wales Centre, Coryton, Cardiff
  • Wales Museum Collection Centre, Heol Crochendy Parc, Nantgarw
  • West Mound Crescent, Church Village, Tonteg