Doctor Who 30.12,13 Stolen Earth / Journey’s End (2008, TV) – 7/10

Doctor Who 30.12,13 Stolen Earth / Journey’s End (2008) After the scare of Rose’s inter-universe message of “Bad Wolf”, the Doctor and Donna arrive on Earth to find all is well. Until the planet violently disappears from around the TARDIS leaving the pair floating in a space where Earth used to be and no way to find it. 7/10 Opening with an impressively impossible sky scene, it quickly becomes clear that this is going to be one of Russell T. Davies’ infuriatingly inconsistent Who’s. Weak acting (Bernard Cribbins, Penelope Wilton, and Billie Piper has definitely had a stroke or something or the makeup people at the BBC hate her), worthless sacrifice, impactless death, there’s almost certainly a kitchen sink in here somewhere. However, the intial “exterminate” refrain is surprisingly chilling, enjoyed the doctor casually ‘just going in to get the key’ (when being ordered to lead an intergalactic war) and the episode 12 cliffhanger is a doozy (probably the best since Star Trek: The Next Generation’s season three The Best of Both Worlds; you could hear 8 million British jaws drop simultaneously). There’s also a lot of fun, a lot of ideas, and, in part two Journey’s End, a lot of genuine emotion (thanks in no small part to composer Murray Gold) and it ends this season appropriately. This Doctor Who episode contains extremely unpleasant scenes, fantasy death ray violence.