REVIEW:
Another season comes to a close in typically epic fashion. Every finale has been bigger than the last, and this one is certainly the grandest of all: stolen planets, hordes of Daleks, and the return of many familiar faces.
Out of four seasons, the Daleks have now featured in three season finales, besides also appearing in a few other stories. The danger is always there that this overreliance on them will decrease their effectiveness, and there have been instances where the Daleks weren't used all that well. Fortunately they are used well in this story, they make sense as the villains rather than having to create some brand new alien race that we've never heard of before. The Daleks were totally integral to the story, and not tacked on as a means of having the largest fanwank battle ever (see the finale for Season 2).
An essential part of the new series has been to reintroduce and reinvent a monster or villain from the classic series in each season. The Daleks returned in Season 1, Cybermen in Season 2, and the Master in Season 3. For Season 4, it was time to bring back the greatest villain in the series' history: Davros.
Created by Terry Nation for the 1975 serial Genesis Of The Daleks, Davros is a genius scientist determined to save his race, the Kaleds, from the millennium-long war between them and the Thals. But Davros' genius is twisted by megalomania, and rather than finding a way to save his people from the long-term effects of radiation, he instead accelerates the mutation, creating what would become the Daleks. The Daleks were a way for Davros to fulfill his god-complex; he wanted to create a lifeform that would go on to become the dominant race in the universe, subjugating all others. If the Daleks can be compared to the Nazis, then Davros is their Hitler. He can switch easily from a quiet menace to a psychotic rant.
For his return, the production team didn't want to reinvent Davros, as much as refurbish him. While his Dalek-chair has been updated and made to look heavy and more armored to match the redesigned Daleks, he is in all other respects the same person. Julian Bleach was cast to play the character in this story, having previously done the Ghostmaker in the Torchwood episode From Out Of The Rain. He is perfectly cast here, matching the performances of Michael Wisher (the first to play Davros) and Terry Molloy (the longest-serving actor in the role). Bleach hits every note and doesn't miss a beat, from the calm menace he displays in The Stolen Earth, to ranting mania in Journey's End.
Possibly the biggest element of the story that overshadowed everything else was the cliffhanger for Episode 12. There had been no announcement that David Tennant was going to leave the series, and in fact what was in the news was that he would be filming through 2009, having just completed work on the next Christmas Special. Having him shot by a Dalek and start to regenerate made for what will go down as one of the, if not THE, most shocking cliffhangers ever in the series. Of course, they resolved it using the "handy" plot device of his severed hand, but this is the only time they'll be able to do that.
The next big factor of this finale was the inclusion of so many past companions and other characters. The story's roster was chock full, and it could have easily bogged it down, but in the end it was able to fit in all these characters and still maintain a nice pace. Besides Jack, Martha, Sarah Jane, Mickey, and Jackie Tyler, you also had the surprise return of Harriet Jones. Her warning to the Doctor that he would not always be around to save the day proves true, at least at the beginning, but she still holds on to the belief that she did the right thing when she ordered the destruction of the Sycorax ship in The Christmas Invasion. Harriet becomes the lynchpin in bringing together the Doctor's "secret army", and manages to hold on to her dignity until the end. Of course, they still had to include the running gag of her introducing herself to everyone - "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister" - with the typical response of "Yes, we know who you are," even from the Daleks.
This is also something of a landmark story, featuring the first official crossover between Doctor Who and it's spin-off shows. While Jack and Martha have jumped between Doctor Who and Torchwood, no overt crossovers were ever done, and the Doctor was never even mentioned by name until the end of Torchwood's second season. This time around, the two remaining Torchwood characters of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones feature prominently in The Stolen Earth. At the same time, while more overt mentions of the Doctor and other elements of the series have been mentioned in The Sarah Jane Adventures, this is the first time the characters of Luke Smith and the supercomputer Mr. Smith have been seen in Doctor Who. Even K9 got to have his few seconds in the limelight.
The final piece of the puzzle is once again Rose. She is finally reunited with the Doctor, but doesn't actually play as big a part as you might expect, since the narrative has to be distributed between so many other characters. She gets to do the Ripley thing, walking around for much of Part 1 toting a giant Dalek-buster gun. Her reunion with the Doctor is suitably touching, and for a brief while heartbreaking as it seems he's about to regenerate just as she's finally found him again.
There are some things that unfortunately feel glossed over in the mad rush that's going on around everyone. Rose and Jack never display much surprise at seeing each other, despite the Doctor having told Jack in the previous season that Rose was trapped in a parallel world, and from the other perspective Rose not knowing what happened to Jack after he was left behind on the Gamestation at the end of Season 1.
The ending to Rose's story is likely to be one of the most controvertial and debated items in fandom for some time. The creation of the Human Doctor allows her to have her happy ending, and allows the Doctor to finally let her go and hope that she will be happy without the pain he would have to go through of seeing her grow old and die while he continued on, unable to grow old with her. There is that feeling of uncertainty in the last shot on the beach of Bad Wolf Bay. Rose can be happy, but is she willing to move on and accept this other man who still is the Doctor and yet not at the same time?
Of course, this story sees the final adventure of Donna. Once again Catherine Tate puts in her all in the performance, especially relishing her Doctor lines in Journey's End. Donna is given the most sad departure of any companion so far, as she is not even allowed to remember the Doctor and any of the amazing places they went or things they did together. It's heartbreaking to see her back to the shallow, vain harpy she started out as when we first met her all the way back at the beginning of The Runaway Bride.
It was also nice to keep the ending sad and poigniant, rather than throw something oddball in at the very end that would lead into the next Christmas Special.
CONCLUDING THE STORY ARC:
Everything wraps up:
- The missing planets.
- The significance of the Medusa Cascade.
- The missing bees mentioned in several stories.
- How Rose was able to find the Doctor.
- We finally get our official introduction to the Shadow Proclamation, which has been mentioned several times over the last four seasons ever since the very first episode.
A few surprises are thrown in as well, such as the DoctorDonna in Planet Of The Ood actually being a subtle foreshadowing of things to come.
REACTION:
The best finale since Season 1. This is about as epic as you can get, with the entire universe, indeed all universes in danger. It could have just fallen apart so easily, but it manages to hold itself up very well even under the weight of so many plot threads and characters. There's no Daleks vs Cybermen fanwank that brought down the Season 2 finale, and no magic-button sollution like at the end of Season 3.
The return of Davros was a triumph. He really is the best villain of the whole series, way better than even the Master. He is an insane, out of control genius, and there's nothing more dangerous than that. I hope he comes back again eventually, and that Julian Bleach will play him again.
I also like the sublte references to several stories from the classic series. I enjoy it when they can throw in a nod to continuity that older fans will get without alienating new viewers.
Oh, and hearing Daleks in German... pricelessly funny.
After Donna, I think Martha had the best story of any of the other companions, having to bear the burden of saving the world by destroying it with the Osterhagen Key if it came down to it.
It felt good to finally be shown what the Shadow Proclamation was all about. It's been mentioned numerous times, and due to it's name I always assumed it was some universal code of laws, but it is also the police force that adjudicates those laws. I wouldn't mind seeing more of them in the future.
Of course, just as in every finale before this, we're given more tiny, tantilizing glimpses into the Time War. The Doctor mentions having seen Davros' ship destroyed at the Gates of Elysium, flying into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. They'll probably never reveal evrything that happened in the war, but the few glimpses we are given are both exciting and creepy.
After the cliffhanger to Episode 12, rumors as to what would happen ran rampant, and at the resolution we were given the Human Doctor. I'm sure many Doctor/Rose shippers weren't happy with it, but I think it's a decent enough way to close the book on Rose's story and still allow her room for a happy ending.
I'm very torn over the way Donna left. I feel as if her dying heroically would have been better, rather than being forced to forget everything. It's just incredibly frustrating to see all that emotional maturity she gained, all that lovely character development, just thrown away. She was my favorite companions of the new series. It just doesn't seem fair
And so we come to an end. This is more than just a season finale, it's the closing of a chapter in the history of the program. These four seasons can be seen as all of a piece. Next year we only have four specials due to David Tennant's commitment performing in Hamlet this year, so Season 5 is a bit farther off on the horizon. We come to the intermission before the next act. Let's hope it continues to build on the excellence the show has risen to so far.
