“The Stolen Earth” is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by showrunner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first episode of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is “Journey’s End”. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 June 2008.
The finale’s narrative brings closure to several prominent story arcs created by Davies during his tenure running the show. In the episode, contemporary Earth and twenty-six other planets are stolen by the Daleks, aided by their megalomaniacal creator Davros and a shattered but precognitive Dalek Caan. As the Doctor (David Tennant) and his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) try to find Earth, the Doctor’s previous companions Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) convene to contact him and mount a defence against the Daleks. At the end of the episode, the Doctor is hit by a Dalek death ray and begins to regenerate.
The episode marks the first appearance of Davros since the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks; he is portrayed by Julian Bleach. It also marks the return of several recurring characters, and crosses over with Doctor Who’s spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. It is the first Doctor Who appearance of Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper; Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones; Tommy Knight as Luke Smith; and Alexander Armstrong as the voice of Mr Smith. Adjoa Andoh and Penelope Wilton reprise previous supporting roles as Martha’s mother Francine Jones and former Prime Minister Harriet Jones respectively. Paul O’Grady and Richard Dawkins make cameo appearances as themselves as television personalities attempting to assuage public fear during the episode’s narrative.
The two-part finale’s epic scale and underlying plot was first conceived in early 2007 as the last regular-series story for departing producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, and Phil Collinson: the fourth series finale is the last story produced by Collinson; and Piers Wenger and Steven Moffat will replace Gardner and Davies as executive producer and showrunner respectively in 2010. Major concepts were already specified by July 2007. The script of “The Stolen Earth” was written in December 2007; Davies began on the 7th and finished on the 31st. Filming for the finale took place in February and March 2008, and post-production on the episode finished in mid-June 2008, only two weeks before the episode aired. To conceal as many plot elements as possible, “The Stolen Earth”’s title was not disclosed until sixteen days before broadcast, preview DVDs of the episode omitted the scene where the Doctor regenerates; the last scene is the Doctor being shot by a Dalek, and the episode aired without a preview trailer for “Journey’s End”.
The episode was reviewed positively by the audience and professional reviewers. The Audience Appreciation Index was 91: an unprecedented figure for Doctor Who and one of the highest ratings ever given to a television programme. On its original broadcast, the episode was viewed by 8.78 million viewers and was the second most-watched programme of the week; at the time of broadcast, it was the highest ranked position Doctor Who had ever reached. Critical reaction was overwhelmingly positive: Nicholas Briggs and Julian Bleach were commended for their portrayal of Dalek Caan and Davros respectively; and most aspects of Davies’ writing were applauded: most notably, the twist ending of the episode was universally appreciated. The shock regeneration at the end of the episode created an unprecedented level of public interest in the show, which continued until the transmission of “Journey’s End”.
Plot
At the beginning of the episode—which immediately follows the episode “Turn Left”—the Earth is teleported out of its spatial location shortly after the Doctor (Tennant) and his companion Donna Noble (Tate) arrive to investigate Rose Tyler’s (Piper) warning. The Doctor contacts the Shadow Proclamation, a universal police force, to find Earth. They determine that twenty-seven missing worlds—including Earth, Adipose III, Pyrovillia, and the Lost Moon of Poosh—reorganise when placed near each other. Donna mentions the disappearance of bees on contemporary Earth; this allows the Doctor to trace the planets to the Medusa Cascade, an inter-universal rift.
On Earth, a Dalek force, led by their creator Davros (Bleach) and the red Supreme Dalek, quickly subjugate Earth. Military bases, including UNIT’s headquarters in New York City and their aircraft carrier Valiant, are destroyed. Davros, who was thought to have perished at the beginning of the Time War, was saved by Dalek Caan, who entered the conflict after performing an emergency temporal shift. The power needed to enter the Time War—which is “time-locked”, preventing time-travellers entering the conflict—caused Caan to become precognitive, but at the cost of his sanity.
The Doctor’s former companions Captain Jack Harkness (Barrowman), Martha Jones (Agyeman), Sarah Jane Smith (Sladen), and Rose Tyler—who have all encountered the Daleks before—hide in various places: Jack takes refuge in the Torchwood Hub (51°27′50″N 3°09′51″W / 51.4640°N 3.16415°W / 51.4640; -3.16415 (Torchwood Hub, underneath Roald Dahl Plass, Cardiff Bay)) with his team Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper; Martha uses Project Indigo—an experimental teleport device scavenged from the Sontarans—to escape UNIT with the “Osterhagen Key”, a device designed to be used as a last resort; Sarah stays in her home with her son Luke Smith (Knight) and supercomputer Mr Smith (Armstrong); and Rose tracks down Donna’s mother Sylvia Noble (Jacqueline King) and grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins). They are contacted by former Prime Minister Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) through a secret “sub-wave network” designed by Mr Copper—a humanoid alien who met the Doctor in “Voyage of the Damned”—to contact the Doctor’s companions in an emergency. They attempt to contact the Doctor by amplifying the sub-wave signal; Sarah uses Mr Smith’s computing power and Torchwood manipulates the spatio-temporal rift in Cardiff. The Doctor and the Daleks receive the transmission and trace the signal: the Daleks exterminate Harriet Jones; and the Doctor is able to locate Earth in a temporally desynchronised pocket universe.
At the end of the episode, the Doctor travels into the pocket universe and receives transmitted images of his companions in the subwave signal. After Davros hijacks the signal and taunts the Doctor about his resurrection, the Doctor breaks communication and attempts to convene with his companions, landing on a street where Rose is waiting for the Doctor. He runs to embrace her, but is shot by a Dalek. Jack promptly destroys the Dalek and helps Rose and Donna carry the Doctor into the TARDIS, where the Doctor begins to regenerate.
Production
Early development
“The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” are the culmination of all four series of Doctor Who since its revival in 2005 and showrunner Russell T Davies’ work in reviving the show. Davies stated the story arc for the fourth series comprised “an element from every episode–whether it’s a person, a phrase, a question, a planet, or a mystery [that] builds up to the grand finale”, and the finale “[had] been seeded for a long time, with small but vital references going all the way back to Series One”. Several of these thematic motifs are used as major plot points: the significance of disappearance of bees, the Medusa Cascade, and the Shadow Proclamation are explained in the episode. The episode is the first major crossover between Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Davies compared the crossover’s conception to a typical child’s imagination of a crossover between the Doctor Who and Star Wars universes:
When you see the story, it’ll make so much sense that all these characters are involved. It’s simply doing what kids do in their imaginations: they’re experts at crossovers and would think of nothing of having their Dalek toys battling Star Wars droids. Why not have all the factions of the Doctor Who universe going into battle together?
—Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Magazine issue 397
The fourth series finale was first planned in early 2006. Its epic scale—including the threat of the destruction of reality and large number of guest stars—was required to compensate for Doctor Who’s reduced airtime in 2009 and the imminent departure of producers Davies, Julie Gardner, and Phil Collinson: the fourth series finale is the last story produced by Collinson; and Piers Wenger will replace Gardner and Steven Moffat will replace Davies as executive producer and showrunner respectively in 2010. The episode’s story was defined in early 2007, when Davies disseminated his summary of the fourth series to the production team. In his brief, he described the finale—already titled “The Stolen Earth”—as:
The season finale. Earth is transported halfway across the universe as part of a Dalek plot. These episodes feature Martha, Captain Jack, Sarah Jane, Elton, and Rose. Jackie and Mickey? Also, can I have the Torchwood team, just for a couple of days? Plus, a futuristic space station complex where lots of alien races are gathering for a conference. CGI: Bane, Krillitanes, Gelth, Isolus, everything we’ve got in the computer.
Prosthetics: Judoon, Slitheen, the Graske, the Moxx of Balhoon, Sisters of the Wicker Place Mat, plus a new female alien, a wise old counsellor, head of the space conference. Lots of gunfire and exterminations. And the biggest Dalek spaceship interior ever – more like a Dalek Temple. Christ almighty! The skies over the Earth need to be changed to weird outer space vistas. Also, visible in the sky, a huge Dalek ship interior. The size of a solar system! This will probably explode. Like they do.
And Davros.
—Russell T Davies, Series Four Breakdown
Donna and Midshipman Alonzo Frame (Russell Tovey)—from “The Runaway Bride” and “Voyage of the Damned” respectively—were also planned to make cameos in “The Stolen Earth”: Donna was planned to appear before Catherine Tate agreed to reprise the lead role for the entire fourth series—the main companion in the fourth series was planned to be a similar character called Penny Carter—and Frame was present as part of the Shadow Proclamation in several drafts of the episode. Piper’s appearance was almost cancelled when filming was originally scheduled during her honeymoon in January 2008.Freema Agyeman was similarly contracted to appear in the finale when she accepted the role of Martha Jones in 2006.
Major concepts of the finale were already developed in March 2007. Davies explained the Medusa Cascade—first mentioned in dialogue between the Master and the Doctor in “Last of the Time Lords”—to Radio Times and Doctor Who Magazine journalist Benjamin Cook—who he frequently corresponded with when he wrote the fourth series—as “just an area of space” near an inter-universal rift. The rift allowed Rose to return to the show for the fourth series. He sent Cook an email several hours later explaining Dalek Caan’s role in the finale and Davros’ resurrection from the Time War. The Doctor’s regeneration was conceived in two separate parts in mid-2007: Davies outlined the concept of two Doctors in “Journey’s End” in late April 2007; and using a regeneration to end the episode was originally conceived on 12 July 2007.
Writing
Davies started writing “The Stolen Earth” on 10 December 2007. He had spent the previous day formulating Martha’s appearance in New York City. He had considering destroying the city, but decided against it:
I spent today considering one tangible thing: whether to destroy New York in 4.12. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? The idea came from the fact that all the Doctor’s companions are found in England. I’ve a chance to expand on that, create a bigger world. [...] But destroying New York has its problems: it leaves heavy repercussions for the rest of Doctor Who history, because there’s no reset button. I worry about that. Series Five is bound to have episodes set on modern-day Earth – and that might be hard to establish, because it’d be a very wounded world. [...] These emails do influence things, definitely, because I’m thinking, no, destroying New York is a bad choice.
—Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook, 9 December 2007.
Several days before he started writing the episode, he received a call from Bernard Cribbins, who proposed a scene in which his character, Wilfred Mott, would fire a paintball pellet at a Dalek’s eyestalk. He proposed it as a reference to the Peter Cushing Dr. Who films and thought it would provide comic relief in between heavy exposition. Cribbins explained that impairing their vision would be “common sense” owing to the Daleks’ lack of limbs and cycloptic nature. The Dalek’s response—evaporating the paintball and replying “My vision is not impaired”—inverted the recurring phrase spoken when a Dalek was blinded, and removed a weakness the Daleks had exhibited since their first appearance in the 1963–1964 serial The Daleks. The line was added after Cook reminded Davies that using it was “obligatory”. Wilfred’s reaction to Rose blowing up the Dalek threatening him—asking Rose if she wanted to swap weapons—was likewise added by Cribbins; he ad-libbed the line during filming.
Davies’ first drafts of the Dalek invasion and the Shadow Proclamation were fundamentally different to their broadcast counterparts. Instead of the repeated cry of “Exterminate”, Captain Jack and Sarah Jane reacted to the sight of Dalek saucers. One saucer would descend towards Whitehall, destroying Big Ben in transit, and assassinate the Prime Minister, Aubrey Fairchild—a name later used for a character in “The Next Doctor”. The Shadow Proclamation—defined in the script as an intergalactic police force occupying a “huge installation, metal sci-fi towers ranged across a series of linked asteroids, hanging in space, like a Roger Dean painting”—originally featured “every creature [the revival of the show] ever had” and a cameo by Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day “Margaret Blaine” Slitheen (Annette Badland) as a Jingatheen (a Raxicoricofallapatorian family) toddler:
47: INT. Shadow Proclamation lobby: Night.
Close on the Doctor and Donna—who’s recovering, brave face on—both stepping out…
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The Doctor: …right, the first thing we’ve got to do is…
Stops dead, as a platoon of Judoon march past, big, heavy boots stomping, left to right, the Doctor and Donna nipping through a gap in the formation, pushing forward…
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The Doctor: …whoops, ’scuse me, sorry…
FX: Three Krillitanes swoop down, the Doctor and Donna brushing them off, still pushing forward…
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Donna: Oy! Get off!
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The Doctor: Keep your wings in, you lot!
…then stopped by two Vespiforms buzzing right to left…
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The Doctor: …oh, mind those stings, thank you…
The Doctor and Donna then stopping to look properly. Gulp.
FX: Wide shot. Big, white open smart-sci-fi-building. Filled with crowd multiplication Judoon, crowd multiplication Slitheen, a few Hath, two helmeted Sycorax, and crowd multiplication space-extras: some in big opera cloaks; Sisters of the Wicker Place Mat from 1.2; plus a lot of monks and nuns. Also, Shadow police: like Judoon, but Human, in big stompy black uniforms. Flying through the air: Krillitanes; Vespiform; and Gelth. And in one corner, a huge 15ft Adipose, mewling. All busy, chaotic, emergency!
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The Doctor: Tell me, what’s everyone doing here?
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Slitheen: The whole universe is on red alert! Planets have disappeared! We have lost Clom!
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The Doctor: Clom’s gone?!
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Slitheen: Clom’s gone!
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Donna: What’s Clom?
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Slitheen: Our twin planet! Without it, Raxacoricofallapatorius will fall out of the sky! [turns to go] We must phone home… [to Baby Slitheen] …this way, Margaret.
Baby Slitheen talks with the voice of Margaret Blaine:
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Baby Slitheen: Take me home, Daddy, I don’t like the nasty policemen!
—Russell T Davies, ”The Stolen Earth” draft script, Friday 14 December 2007.
The number of monsters and the Proclamation’s bureaucratic nature would anger the Doctor and cause Alonzo Frame—now employed as a “Shadow Soldier”—to aid him in filling out paperwork. Frame would be killed by the Daleks later in the story.
A week after he had written the Shadow Proclamation scenes, Davies decided to rewrite the scenes heavily because of monetary and script constraints. Tovey’s cameo was replaced with a scene featuring the “Chief Constable” because Tovey was unavailable for filming. The Dalek invasion was also rewritten to the version broadcast after he decided the Daleks deigning to assassinate the Prime Minister personally was uncharacteristically “diplomatic”. Davies expressed doubts in an email to Cook about the Shadow Proclamation; he thought the Chief Constable was “terribly stripped down”, but admitted the Shadow Proclamation was a vital element of the plot. He decided to correct the faults in the Chief Constable by renaming her the “Shadow Architect” (Kelly Hunter):
I went back and fixed the Chief Constable. Her main problem was being a Chief Constable, so I decided … that if she has to say lame sci-fi lines, she can only work if she’s a sci-fi creature. I’ve renamed her the Shadow Architect, made her albino and weird (hair scraped back into a black snood, red eyes, solemn, swathed in black robes), and given her a slight mysticism—not hermit-in-a-cave mysticism, just an albino freakiness—so she’s sort of interesting now.
—Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook, 23 December 2007
Davies kept the Shadow Proclamation scenes set before the introduction of the Shadow Architect until early February 2008. The scenes were linked by a scene involving the Doctor and the Judoon: the Doctor argued with the Judoon about the Earth’s disappearance, but the Judoon kept insisting the Doctor wait in a queue to report the disappearance. The Doctor would win the argument by overloading the Judoon’s translator machines—the TARDIS’ translator circuits allow the Doctor to “speak six million languages simultaneously”—and order the Judoon to allow him to see the Shadow Architect on behalf of the universe’s inhabitants. Davies’ submitted script was over the budget afforded for special effects, so he was required to cut the scene, even though Annette Badland had already recorded the voice-over for her cameo. The rewritten—and eventually broadcast—scene had the TARDIS “land directly in the Shadow Architect’s office” with four Judoon guards.
Davies wrote former Prime Minister Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) into the script on 22 December—before Wilton was approached about reprising the role—because Gardner and Collinson wished for the character to have a satisfying and redemptive conclusion; her previous appearance, “The Christmas Invasion”, depicted her facing a vote of no confidence in Parliament after shooting down a fleeing Sycorax ship. Harriet Jones’ story arc thus formed a tripartite storyline consisting of an introduction, animosity towards the Doctor, and redemption. Davies was aware that Wilton was “very hard to book” and restricted her appearance to one scene to make negotiations easier; had Wilton declined, Davies planned to replace her with either Donna, Mr Copper (Clive Swift) from “Voyage of the Damned”, or Elton from “Love & Monsters”. Wilton accepted unconditionally because she “would do anything for … Davies” and she wished to act in Phil Collinson’s last filming block as producer; her first appearance in “Aliens of London” was filmed in the first production block of the first series. Collinson and Davies lamented the character’s death: Collinson “[couldn't] bear the thought she’s dead” and argued that she escaped death; and Davies generally stated in Doctor Who Magazine issue 397 that “when [significant characters a writer creates] have to die, it’s a genuinely emotional time”.
Davies’ scriptwriting was affected by him developing a head cold and overrunning the script constraints; he was annoyed that he had written “dialogue [he had] been dying to write” with a “faint heart” because he would have to cut it. Because he was behind schedule, he was forced to cancel plans to attend Piper’s wedding and almost cancelled plans to celebrate the New Year with his boyfriend. These problems affected his first draft of the Doctor’s conversation with his companions and encounter with Davros; he dismissed it as “lame shit” which would waste licence-payers’ money, and replaced it with a different version hours later. The conversation features all of the Doctor’s companions talking to the Doctor simultaneously; Tate, Tennant, and director Graeme Harper made the creative decision to have the Doctor ignore any mention of the Daleks because they thought the Doctor’s joviality in the scene would be otherwise inappropriate. Davies finished the script at 1am on New Year’s Eve. Cook reviewed the last pages of the script and requested that the episode should air without a trailer; Davies agreed by noting that “[the BBC] never send out preview discs of the last episode” and that any advertisements for “Journey’s End” could “just show lots of Daleks and a repeat of “I’m regenerating”.” The episode was officially submitted on 7 January 2008: the preparation date for “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End”.
Davies discussed the episode’s climax in detail in the show’s companion series Doctor Who Confidential. The climax—the Doctor being hit by a Dalek extermination ray and consequently regenerating—was written by Davies as a pastiche of romance fiction. He compared the reunion between Rose and the Doctor to “the biggest romance [the viewer] has ever seen”—joking in Doctor Who Confidential that seminal romance films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Gone With the Wind, and Notting Hill should have ended with the protaganist being shot by a Dalek—, and intensified the scene’s emotional impact through Piper’s cameos throughout the fourth series. Tennant described the Doctor’s extermination during his reunion with Rose as a “moment of high emotion” and lamented that “[the Doctor] can’t have a happy moment, especially with a cliffhanger needing to be written”. The episode ended during the regeneration because Davies wanted to create the “biggest, most exciting cliffhanger in Doctor Who” and to differentiate the scene from previous regenerations; regenerations were always completed at the end of serials. He considered its resolution—the Doctor halting his regeneration and siphoning the excess energy into his severed hand—legitimate because the hand was an important plot device in “Journey’s End”’s climax. The production team realised the halted regeneration and creation of a new Doctor would create a debate amongst fans regarding whether one of the Doctor’s twelve regenerations were used up. The production team originally declined to comment to avoid the debate; Davies later said that he believed that because the process wasn’t completed, the Doctor did not use one of his regenerations.
Casting
The finale contains nineteen principal cast members, sixteen of which appear in “The Stolen Earth”. As a consequence of the episode’s crossover nature, the episode is the first appearance of Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones and Tommy Knight as Luke Smith in Doctor Who. Eve Myles, who previously played Gwyneth in “The Unquiet Dead”, makes her first appearance as the Torchwood female lead Gwen Cooper. The episode features many returning characters: Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman, Adjoa Andoh, John Barrowman, Nicholas Briggs, Elisabeth Sladen, and Penelope Wilton reprise roles for “The Stolen Earth”. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and comedian Paul O’Grady make cameo appearances on Torchwood’s television screen; cameos by celebrities such as Davina McCall, Derek Acorah, and Ann Widdecombe had been a part of each penultimate episode since the show’s revival. O’Grady was given a cameo after Davies heard that he was a fan of the show; and Dawkins was added to the script by Davies when Cook suggested him to portray the “elderly professor” on a Newsnight-style television programme. Dawkins accepted because of his existent association with Doctor Who; his wife Lalla Ward portrayed the second incarnation of the Time Lady Romana between 1979 and 1981. Gary Milner was cast as the extra “Scared Man” after misreading the callsheet as “Sacred Man” and creating a “priest-like” portrayal of the character. Andrew Bullivant—who portrayed the Milkman in the episode’s cold open—was given a role in the The Sarah Jane Adventures serial The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith because of his performance in “The Stolen Earth”.
Davros
A side-by-side comparison of Davros in Destiny of the Daleks (portrayed by David Gooderson) and “The Stolen Earth” (portrayed by Julian Bleach). The visual design of Davros in “The Stolen Earth” is nearly identical to the design for Genesis of the Daleks and Destiny of the Daleks; the only major difference is a robotic right hand.
“The Stolen Earth” is the first appearance of Davros since the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks. Davies postponed Davros’s return as he thought that “Davros would dominate the Daleks… like plain robots, instead of the scheming geniuses that they are”, and used the previous series to establish the Daleks’ individual intelligence. Davros was kept as a contingency plan for several occasions: the character would have appeared in “The Parting of the Ways” if the Emperor Dalek prop was too expensive; and Davros was “even a possibility” to reside in the titular prison in “The Satan Pit”. Davies wrote an origin story for Davros to clear up the character’s convoluted backstory; the scene was eventually cut because of time constraints.
Davies cast Julian Bleach to portray Davros after his performances in his Olivier Award-winning play Shockheaded Peter and as the Ghostmaker in the Torchwood episode “From Out of the Rain”. To keep the return of Davros secret, the character was referred to as “The Enemy” or “Dave [Ross]” among the crew and was kept anonymous on the shooting scripts as much as possible; however, the Radio Times called the secret “one of the worst-kept … in television history”.David Tennant liked Davros’s “Hitlerian megalomaniac” attitude and the nostalgic feeling Davros created; Tennant’s first memory of Doctor Who was Davros’s debut in Genesis of the Daleks, describing himself as being “absolutely captivated by [the] extraordinary creature”. Conversely, Tate—who had not watched the show during her childhood—initially confused the character with Harry Enfield’s fictional character Stavros. To prepare for his role, Bleach reviewed Genesis of the Daleks, one of his favourite serials, to remind himself of Davros’ voice. Bleach described his interpretation of Davros as that of “[a] twisted megalomaniac, [a] mad scientist, [and a] misguided genius” at the same time. He described the character as “a cross between Hitler and Stephen Hawking” whose “nihilistic desires” made the character “extraordinary”, and used the German leader’s oratorical skills and his “dogmatic speeches” as a reference point.
Davies, prosthetics designer Neill Gorton, costume designer Louise Page, and concept artist Peter McKinstry met to discuss the design of Davros for the episode. They agreed to keep the visual design of Davros faithful to that shown in his debut Genesis of the Daleks; Davies thought it was an “excellent design”. The only major change was to replace the hand destroyed in Revelation of the Daleks with a weaponised robotic version. McKinstry aimed to make Davros “bigger and scarier” by updating the “flimsy” design of the classic series:
We wanted to get away from the slightly flimsy look of the earlier series. So I beefed Davros up, made him more sturdy. I also think that the reinvented Davros is unusual for the new Doctor Who because he is genuinely grotesque. Sometimes we’ve held back a bit with the ugliness of the monsters. But Davros is a very unpleasant looking character, which makes his return all the more powerful.
—Peter McKinstry
The team made two minor changes to the design: they removed Davros’ microphone and completely redesigned Davros’ headpiece. The team felt that the microphone was redundant because Davros did not “speak in a whisper and need something to make him more audible”, and originally intended to leave Bleach’s voice unaltered in post-production: the decision to treat the voice was not made until late May 2008; and Gorton thought the original headpiece “always seemed particularly weak” for “such a powerful character”. After being informed that the production designer for Genesis of the Daleks wanted the headpiece to resemble a medical brace, Gorton redesigned it to appear to be “screwed directly into [Davros'] head”.
Page and Gorton contemporaneously collaborated on Davros’ upper body. Page designed the leather tunic—which Gorton thought was “a beautiful piece of costume … which echoes the classic design”—and Gorton designed the ribcage. Davies explained the use of the leather tunic and the exposed ribcage in Doctor Who Magazine issue 401:
Seriously, Davros is meant to be horrific, and we’ve had so many withered geniuses in sci-fi lately—like Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars—that I needed something to make everyone sit up and realise that this man is the King of Horror: the original and the best! And he’s been through so many physical changes over the years, I wanted to add one of my own. I asked Louise to give him the new jacket buckles, because I wanted it to look like a straitjacket. It just seemed to fit, cos he’s so insane!
—Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Magazine issue 401
Daleks
“The Stolen Earth” is the first appearance of the Daleks since “Evolution of the Daleks”, which was filmed eighteen months prior to the episode; consequently, the prop controllers experienced difficulty re-adapting to their roles. Davies’s inclusion of the Daleks as part of the crossover was intended to create a “charged atmosphere” for the protagonists: Jack was killed by the Daleks; Rose and Martha were present at two of their apparent extinctions; and Sarah was present at their creation. The animatronic of the Dalek mutant had to be recreated for the episode; the previous prop that was used in “Dalek” and “The Parting of the Ways” was irreversibly water-damaged during filming of the latter. “The Stolen Earth” features two new variants of Daleks: the Supreme Dalek, colored red as an allusion to the Peter Cushing film Dr. Who and the Daleks; and the partially-destroyed Dalek Caan. Caan was described in the shooting script as:
…open, gutted, and melted, its harsh lines now curved and warped… in the middle of the warped, open shell sits a Dalek Mutant, tentacles stirring. This creature is more distorted than ever, its skin bubbled. One blind eye staring out; voice ancient, sing-song, mad.
—Russell T Davies, Shooting script for “The Stolen Earth”. Transcribed by Andrew Pixley of Doctor Who Magazine.
Voice actor Nicholas Briggs adopted a different voice for each model: he adopted a grandiose voice for the Supreme Dalek to fit his perception of the character as egotistical; and he adopted a sing-song voice for Caan to reflect the character’s insanity as a result of entering the Time War and saving Davros. Briggs explained that “[Caan] can’t tell when he’s happy or sad, his emphasis is very strange and he finds things funny when things aren’t funny”, creating a soothsayer personality with an “almost pure” mind. An expanded theory was published in Briggs’ interview with Doctor Who Magazine in July 2008:
My theory on Caan is that being sucked through the Time War and blown out the other end has kind of reverse-wired—or random-wired—his brain, so all his neurons are firing in constantly changing, random, insane ways. That’s why he doesn’t really know what’s funny or serious. He just knows the truth, and it blurts out in this odd, cryptic way. I think he’s frozen in a moment of excrutiating ecstasy. When any emotion surges up inside him, it makes him laugh, whether its appropriate or not.
—Nicholas Briggs, Doctor Who Magazine issue 398
Briggs’ portrayal was well-received by the production team: Graeme Harper “loved Caan’s giggling” and requested “more … on every take”; and Davies described Caan as “the creepiest Dalek yet”. The finale also introduced minor changes to the Daleks: the characteristic Dalek “plunger” was replaced with a gear mechanism for scenes including Davros’ guard: the mechanism is used to control Dalek machinery aboard the Dalek flagship Crucible more efficiently than the plunger; and the Dalek eyestalk exhibits a minuscule twitch in scenes, a characteristic added by Graeme Harper to make them appear cautious and “on-edge”.
Filming
“The Stolen Earth” features the first external location shots of the Daleks since the revival of Doctor Who in 2005, and the greatest proportion of filming undertaken at night since the show’s revival: apart from the pre-credits sequence set in suburban London, all of the scenes set on Earth were filmed at night.
The two-parter took approximately six weeks in 2008 to film; regular filming began on 18 February 2008 and ended on 29 March 2008. The first scene shot for “The Stolen Earth”—a news report featuring Lachele Carl as Trinity Wells—was filmed on 31 January 2008 in a news studio at BBC Wales’ Broadcasting House. The first week of filming took place entirely at the show’s studios in Upper Boat, Rhondda Cynon Taff; most of the scenes set in the Torchwood Hub and the TARDIS—including the regeneration scene—were filmed in the period.
The filming schedule of the second and third week alternated between “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End”. Three days were allocated to filming for “The Stolen Earth”: scenes in Donna’s house were filmed on 26 February 2008 on Nant Fawr Road, Cyncoed, Cardiff; the Crucible Vault set in the Upper Boat studios was used on 3 March 2008; and scenes at the Shadow Proclamation were filmed at the School of Optometry at Cardiff University on 8 March 2008.
Filming for the episode’s outdoor scenes began in the afternoon of 11 March 2008, with filming of the cold open taking place on West Mound Cresent in Tonteg. Two scenes were filmed in Pontypridd on 12 March: exterior scenes of the Noble household took place on Hawthorn Road— rather than the usual location in Cyncoed—before relocating to Market Street in the town centre to film the scenes where Rose encounters members of the public looting shops. Tennant and Tate meanwhile filmed the trailer for the fourth series because they were not required on location.
The Doctor and Rose’s reunion was filmed on 13 March 2008 in Penarth town centre in front of two hundred people; consequently, the scene was leaked onto the Internet and reported in the next day’s edition of The Sun. Graeme Harper insisted that the scene appear “mystical” because the characters’ reunion was “the most magical moment” in the entire episode; and Ernie Vincze, the Director of Photography for the show, compared the scene’s feeling to 1980s science-fiction film Blade Runner. Exterior filming for the week finished in Brook Street and the adjoining Plantagenet Street in Riverside, Cardiff, for scenes depicting Daleks kidnapping humans for experimentation and Wilf shooting a Dalek with a paintball gun, respectively. Scenes in the UNIT headquarters in Manhattan were filmed on the evenings of 16 March and 19 March: the first night, depicting the Dalek invasion, was filmed in a traffic control centre on Junction 32 of the M4 motorway, with the actual Dalek invasion of the building filmed in six minutes at 5:30am the following morning; and the second night, depicting Martha’s escape from UNIT, was filmed in a warehouse in Nantgarw belonging to the National Museum Wales. Because of a traffic accident on the first night, the production team were prepared to postpone the shoot.
Penelope Wilton reprised her role as Harriet Jones to film a scene on 18 March 2008, in a cottage in Dinas Powys, Wales. Filming was stalled because of difficulty transporting the Dalek props into the cottage—specifically, the raised patio doors made it difficult to balance and maneuver the props. The remainder of the fifth week was used to film Dalek-only scenes at the Upper Boat studios, when the Vault set was redressed as the Crucible command deck. Scenes depicting Martha and Sarah in their houses were filmed alternately during the sixth week—the former in the previously-regular location of Lower Cwrt-Y-Vil Road in Penarth and the latter primarily at Upper Boat—, ending on 28 March 2008 with scenes of Sarah and Luke in their attic. The last exterior scene filmed for the episode was recorded on 25 March in the regular The Sarah Jane Adventures filming location of Clinton Road in Penarth, and consisted of external shots of Sarah’s house and Sarah being accosted by two Daleks en-route to meeting the Doctor. General filming for the episode—and the two-parter—closed with Dawkins’ and O’Grady’s cameos: Dawkins was filmed at Upper Boat after shooting finished in the attic set; and O’Grady was filmed on 31 March 2008 alongside an episode of The Paul O’Grady Show at The London Studios on the South Bank of the River Thames.
Post-production
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The episode was given to post-production team The Mill after filming concluded. The number of effects in the first draft was almost three times than broadcast; consequently, several scenes—most notably, all but one shot of the attack on the Valiant—were cut from the episode. The Mill created two notable effects for “The Stolen Earth”: the invasion of New York City and the planetary array at the Medusa Cascade. The invasion of New York City was realised by creating a 2.5D shot of the city utilising photos taken during the production of “Daleks in Manhattan”, and the Medusa Cascade and planetary array was a fully three-dimensional model.
Murray Gold concurrently composed the score for the episode. In conjunction with new cues composed for the fourth series, Gold used some of his earlier work, such as Rose’s and Harriet Jones’ leitmotifs, the Ood’s “Song of Freedom” and the appearance fanfare for Mr Smith, the latter being played in diegesis. Gold discussed the new cues in the release of the fourth series soundtrack:
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- “The Doctor’s Theme Season [sic] Four” is an orchestral and choral arrangement of the Doctor’s leitmotif from the first series. The original theme was a minimalist solo performed by Melanie Pappenheim. Davies and Collinson described the music as “President Flavia [from The Five Doctors] singing out of the Time Vortex” and was intended to be used when “things get too Time Lord-y”. An instrumental of the new arrangement was used at the end of “Forest of the Dead”, when the Doctor tries to save River Song (Alex Kingston). The rearrangement—and first full prolific use of the cue since “The Parting of the Ways”—specifcially represents Rose’s return and the four-series story arc’s cyclic nature.
- “The Greatest Story Never Told” is a cue used regularly in the second half of the fourth series. The cue evokes the scores of previous episode to represent the Doctor’s “past love”.
- “The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble” is a cue that first appeared in “Turn Left”. It represents Donna’s realisation of her grand destiny and her demises at the end of “Turn Left” and “Journey’s End”.
- “Davros” is the eponymous character’s leitmotif. Gold described Davros as having a “sound motif that underscored him” in addition to “the fingernails … voice … [and] face emerging from the shadows”. Part of the theme was taken from the score of “Midnight” to represent Dalek Caan’s prophecies.
- “The Dark and Endless Dalek Night” is the Dalek leitmotif for the series finale, featuring the BBC National Chorus of Wales. Orchestrator and conductor Ben Foster described the track as his “defining moment” of scoring the entire fourth series.
- “A Pressing Need to Save the World” is a rearrangement of a theme first used in the second series of Torchwood; Gold felt it “was appropriate to bring it back” for the series finale.
- “Hanging On The Tablaphone” is a tabla-centric cue that is played over scenes depicting the Doctor’s companions using the subwave network to reach him.
Because the episode was allocated a fifty minute slot on BBC One, the only cuts to the episode were minor pieces of dialogue. Post-synchronisation of crowd dialogue took place on 5 June and the episode’s final mix took place on 12 June 2008: the same day the episode was officially announced by the BBC.
Broadcast and reception
Partial media blackout, broadcast, and ratings
The title of the episode was the last of the fourth series to be revealed; in April 2008, when the other twelve episode titles were revealed, “The Stolen Earth”’s title was withheld because “it [gave] away too much”; its title was only revealed two weeks before broadcast. Like the second series finale “Army of Ghosts”/”Doomsday”, the final scene of “The Stolen Earth” was removed from preview DVDs sent to reviewers and a media blackout was imposed on “Journey’s End”.
Overnight ratings estimated that “The Stolen Earth” was watched by 7.4 million viewers, approximately 38.3% of the total television audience. The final viewing figure was 8.78 million viewers, the second highest figure of the week beginning 23 June 2008; the highest was the UEFA Euro 2008 Final, watched by 8.84 million viewers. Prior to the episode’s broadcast, only “Voyage of the Damned” had ranked as high; the record was subsequently broken by “Journey’s End” a week later. Consequently, rival channel ITV1 suffered its second worst average audience share in the channel’s history: the daily average was 10.2% compared to BBC One’s 26.9% average share. The episode received an Appreciation Index score of 91 (considered excellent), the highest rating ever received by the series and one of the highest ratings ever for a terrestrial television programme. The high Index rating broke the previous record of 89 shared by “The Parting of the Ways”, “Doomsday”, “Silence in the Library”, and “Forest of the Dead”. Including its viewership on the BBC iPlayer and the following repeats on BBC Three and BBC One, “The Stolen Earth” was eventually viewed by 12.86 million viewers: over two million higher than the series average of 10.59 million.
The episode depicted 07700 900461 as the Doctor’s phone number; the number is reserved by Ofcom for dramatic purposes. After transmission, approximately 2,500 viewers attempted to call the number; they received a network message explaining the number was not in service. Consequently, Ofcom released a statement saying that the calls were free because the number was not real.
“Doctor Who fever”
The airing of the episode—in particular, its shock regeneration—contributed to a public surge of interest, described by Daily Mail journalist Paul Revoir as “Doctor Who fever”. The regeneration prompted a large amount of speculation to Tennant’s replacement: actor Robert Carlyle was tipped by bookmakers to replace Tennant; and actors James McAvoy, Jason Statham, Alan Davies, and James Nesbitt were less popular predictions of Tennant’s successor. In his article about the public reaction to the cliffhanger, Revoir offered five popular theories: a botched regeneration resulting in two Doctors; the whole series being a dream sequence much like the ninth season of Dallas; Tennant’s successor being female; a normal regeneration; and a cover-up by the BBC to disguise the fact that “Journey’s End” would be Tennant’s last appearance; eventually, the first theory proved to be correct. The increase of public interest peaked in the two days prior to the transmission of “Journey’s End”: the day before transmission saw Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, Collinson, Davies, and Agyeman appear on separate daytime television shows; and coverage of the series finale was the top story in BBC News Online’s entertainment section several hours before transmission. Davies attributed the amount of interest the episode created—which was greater than he expected—and the success of the new series to the measures made in keeping plot details secret and creating a “live experience”:
It’s exciting… when you get kids in playground talking about your story, about who’s going to live or die, then I consider that a job well done, because that’s interactive televison, that’s what it’s all about: it’s debate and fun and chat. It’s playing a game with the country and I think that’s wonderful.
—Russell T Davies, “Struggle to keep Who secret, BBC News Online
Critical reception
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When I was a kid I loved those Marvel Comics team-ups when you’d have Spider-Man teaming up with Captain America and the X-Men. This is the Doctor Who equivalent and it’s pant-wettingly exciting. Some of the audience will never have seen Torchwood, some will never have seen The Sarah Jane Adventures, but it doesn’t matter. This is a celebration of where Davies has taken Doctor Who and just what has been achieved in four years. Doctor Who is literally a small television industry now, and it’s only right and proper that we get to see the spin-off shows brought together under the hospitable roof of the parent show.
—Mark Wright, The Stage
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The episode was well received by the episode’s viewers; most notably, the show’s teenage fanbase. In Doctor Who Magazine’s 2008 viewer poll, the episode won the awards for as “Best Story”, “Best Guest Actor” for Julian Bleach, “Best Monster” for the Daleks, “Best Music”, and “Best Villain” for Davros; the latter was won with a supermajority of the votes cast. The episode was the best-received episode of the fourth series among members of the Doctor Who Forum, with an approval rating of 92.4%.
The Guardian published three reviews of the episode. Sam Wollaston gave the episode a positive review; he thought it was a “wonderful episode” that “would be hard to top”. Wollaston joked in his review about Richard Dawkins’s cameo, comparing his anti-theological mannerisms to the Daleks.Gareth McLean described the end of the episode as a “genuine, jaw-dropping, outta-nowhere cliffhanger”. He commended the production team for successfully suppressing information about the regeneration in an industry often stifled by leaks. Stephen Brook of The Guardian‘s media blog Organgrinder, thought the episode was “unbelievably good” and “genuinely scary and exciting”. He theorised about the questionable regeneration: whether it was genuine and, if so, who would portray the next incarnation of the Doctor; and which companion will die in “Journey’s End”.
The Independent’s Thomas Sutcliffe gave the episode a negative review, expressing that the episode was “extermination without inspiration”. Before the episode’s transmission, he was excited about how Dawkins and O’Grady would appear, and was disappointed when they only appeared when Ianto was channel surfing. Sutcliffe expressed disbelief at the idea that O’Grady would continue to film his talk show, and with a studio audience, in the midst of planetary disaster, but nevertheless praised the cameos. After the cameos, he “began to lose interest” because he did not like the continuity and crossover elements of the episode. He criticised the re-occurrence of the lines “But… that’s impossible!”, “It can’t be!”, and “Exterminate!”. He closed his review by requesting the producers to “change the record”.
Mark Wright of The Stage posed the question: “How on Earth do you review that?”. Wright put the episode as “the most bonkers, delicious, audacious, brilliant, silly, exciting and scary piece of Doctor Who seen in the 45-year history of [the] TV series”, and described it as “Doctor Who at its most show stopping, entertaining and brilliant best.” In his review, Wright explained his love of crossover fiction, and commended Davies for the direction he took Doctor Who into becoming what Wright considered to be a “small television industry”. Wright complimented the way the episode was in-keeping with tradition, specifically aspects such as; “Daleks trundling around spaceships having shouty conversations with each other”; “UNIT [being] as useless as ever at repelling alien marauders”, and the visual appearance of Davros. He described Bleach’s portrayal as a “halfway house between the original version as played by Michael Wisher and the more exuberant…turn by Terry Molloy”. He also thought positively of the final scenes, commenting that “the most flint-hearted must have had a misty eye as Rose found her Time Lord again and they ran towards each other in candy box slow-mo” and he cheered when the “outpouring of romance was brought to an end, as it should be in Doctor Who, by a big Dalek gun”.
Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy gave the episode five stars out of five. In his review, he states that “‘The Stolen Earth’ does a fine job in weaving components from the current series, former companions, and Davros together.” He wrote that he admires Graeme Harper’s direction of the scene where Sarah and Jack receive the continuous “Exterminate!” transmission from the Daleks, stating that “Harper’s work … is worthy of the big screen in terms of its breathtaking visual elements.” He complimented the casting of Michael Brandon as General Sanchez, and expressed hope that Sanchez had survived the Dalek attack because he had the potential to be “the new Brigadier figure that UNIT so desperately needs”. Rawson-Jones thought Briggs, as the voice of the Daleks, did a “superb job with Dalek Caan’s crazy dialect, stemming from a very inventive and bold move by writer Russell T Davies to make this Dalek go doolally”. He praised Bleach’s performance as Davros, for his “controlled, sinister vocals” that “wonderfully evoke the brilliant but deranged mindset of the Dalek creator”. Upon closing, he commended Davies for being “an expert at delivering jaw-dropping finales that give each season a sense of cohesion and up the stakes to almost unbearable levels”, and thought that matching the episode’s quality would be a “tough task”.
Executive producer and writer Russell T Davies was widely commended for his work on the episode.
Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal was positive in his review. In his opinion, the episode never failed to deliver and “acts as a tribute to everything Russell T Davies put in place when he resurrected the series in 2005.” He described the storyline as “fast-moving, bursting [with] excitement” and said that it contained “everything you would expect to see from an adventure comprising of all companions and a new Dalek empire, the episode acts as the ultimate climax to four years of storytelling and will leave you with goose bumps for the full 42 minutes.” Blair was impressed about how Torchwood and Doctor Who crossed over when their original target demographics dictated it “should never have happened”. Scenes depicting Gwen’s concern for her husband Rhys, Ianto watching The Paul O’Grady Show, and Sarah’s and Jack’s emotional response to the Dalek transmission, were praised by Blair. Although his review was positive, he did criticise two parts of the episode: the concept of the Time War being “time-locked”, which was questioned because the Time Lords were annihilated in the conflict; and he complained that the Doctor’s phone number was out of service.
Dan Wainwright of The Express & Star in Wolverhampton, expressed feelings of denial in response to the episode’s ending. He asked: “Surely not even Russell T Davies, who seems obsessed with filling episodes with celebrity cameos and John Barrowman, wouldn’t be so maverick as to change his lead actor half way through a season finale?” In his review, Wainwright expressed feelings of amicability and hatred towards Davies for his role in reviving Doctor Who, particularly disliking Davies for romanticising the character. Although he admired Davies for making the series popular among children. Catherine Tuckewell, writing for Blogcritics, gave a positive review. She opened by saying “Russell T Davies has again extended the boundaries of most infuriating cliffhangers.” She commended the cast for “top notch acting” that brought “a whole new level of emotion to the series”, specifically Jack and Sarah’s reaction to the Dalek warcry transmission, which “brought tears to her eyes”. Tuckewell praised the production team for “the most beautiful [outer space shots] outside the Hubble telescope” and the direction which showed the Daleks “at their fearful best”.
Simon Brew of science-fiction blog Den of Geek commented that “If the aim of a really well done Doctor Who cliffhanger is to leaving you screaming ‘noooooooooo’ at the screen and frantically checking the calendar for the next episode, then it’s fair to say that Russell T Davies has just managed to tick that box.” His review both criticised and praised the episode: he summarised the episode as “bursting with a breathless ambition that papered over its occasional cracks”; but lamented that the plot detail felt “muddled” because of how many plot devices were compressed into the episode. Brew thought the ensemble of companions “separated the great actors from the good”: he complimented Sladen’s and Cribbins’s portrayal of fear; and he criticised UNIT, Torchwood, and the Doctor for uncharacteristically admitting defeat. Brew’s opinion of Davros and Caan was positive, commenting that “Julian Bleach nailed [Davros]” and the appearance of Davros was “very reverential” to the classic series and that Caan “[added] an interesting dynamic to the Dalek fight”. He closed his review by expressing hope that “Journey’s End” didn’t end like “Last of the Time Lords” and said:
To say that The Stolen Earth eclipsed the equivalent episode last year would be no understatement whatsoever, and to also note that it’s generated an enthusiasm and excitement for next week already would be showing yet more restraint.
—Simon Brew, Den of Geek
Charlie Jane Anders of the science fiction blog io9 called Davies “the gay Michael Bay” and “wished for the first time that Davies would stay on to produce a fifth season” of Doctor Who. She “loved all the silly plot devices and loopy plot twists” such as Project Indigo, the Osterhagen Key, the concept of using “every telephone in England” to call the Doctor, and the fact that Davros was unable to cultivate a Dalek army “without slicing his own torso up”. Anders in her review praised Bleach’s portrayal of Davros for capturing “the character’s mixture of curiosity, manipulativeness and mania better than anyone since …Michael Wisher”. She also commended the “super-heroics” in the episode, such as Wilf shooting a Dalek with a paint-ball gun, Gwen and Ianto’s final scene, and the “glowing nobility” of Harriet Jones’ sacrifice to help the Doctor:
Even though I was glad we’ll never hear anyone say “I know who you are” to her again, I was glad she was able to turn her usual schtick into a moving speech of defiance. It sorta reminded me of the Controller in “Day Of The Daleks”: “Who knows? I may have helped to exterminate you.”
—Charlie Jane Anders, io9
Closing her review, she expressed excitement for “Journey’s End”, saying the final scene left her with a “feeling like [she had] no clue how it could be resolved, even using crazy RTD logic”.
Dave Golder of science-fiction magazine SFX gave the episode four stars out of five. He noted that after two experimental and “edgy” scripts, “The Stolen Earth” used Davies’ regular style of “crowd pleasing script pyrotechnics”. He positively reviewed the special effects in the episode, Bleach’s acting, the pace of the episode, and the cliffhanger, but criticised the Shadow Proclamation for being “a severe disappointment after all the foreshadowing”, and some character moments for being “dropped into the action like little ‘emotion bombs’”, such as Jack and Sarah’s “melodramatic response” to the Dalek transmission. He closed his review by saying “there’s no denying [the episode is] all huge fun, like a tipsy romp on a bouncy castle with all the people you’ve ever loved.”
Travis Flickett of IGN gave the episode 7.6/10 (”Enjoyable”). He opened his review by discussing the concept of “fan service”:
The idea of “fan service” is always a double edged sword. It’s great to see all of the things you may like about a series come together on screen, but it so often works better in theory than in practice. It’s like those giant crossovers that comic books do all the time – where every cool character meets every other cool character. While it’s interesting (to a degree) that they’re sharing a page, everybody ends up getting short-shrift.
—Travis Flickett, IGN
His review focused primarily upon the Daleks. He initially criticised their appearance because of overuse; he discussed their previous appearances in Doctor Who since 2005: a singular enemy in “Dalek”; a Dalek empire against Rose in “The Parting of the Ways”; the Dalek Cult of Skaro against the Cybermen in “Doomsday”; and their appearance in 1930s Manhattan in “Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks”. He cited Davros and the “year-and-a-half” break as the reason their appearance “sort-of worked”; Davros’ appearance “[upped] the stakes”, but he criticised the character for “[doing] little to enhance the mythology” and Bleach for a “way over the top” performance. Flickett criticised Rose’s isolation from the other companions, but noted that she could defend against the Daleks on her own. He closed his review positively; he said “Whatever the conclusion of this season, Davies run on this series is an enormous achievement.”
Monsters Within analysis
Stephen James Walker published an extensive analysis and review of the episode in his “unauthorised guide to Doctor Who['s fourth series]” Monsters Within. He opened his analysis by comparing the finale to previous years; he noted that Davies was expected to make each finale more epic, and commented that Davies was unable to “outdo ["The Sound of Drums"] without completely going over the top”:
This is unquestionably the most epic episode that Doctor Who has presented to date, but also the most excessive. It appears that Davies has thrown in just about everything he could think of: [...] It is undeniably awe-inspiring to see all of these fantastic characters and thrilling elements brought together into what amounts to a valedictory celebration by Davies of the show’s greatest hits—a kind of new-era equivalent of the classic-era story The Five Doctors—, but the downside is that they are all sold rather short. With so many different ingredients to incorporate, much of the narrative of “The Stolen Earth” is given over simply to introducing each of them in turn and then manoeuvring them into the respective positions they need to occupy in order to propel the story forward to its conclusion in “Journey’s End”.
—Stephen James Walker, Monsters Within: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who 2008
Walker criticised the episode for its use of pyrotechnics and the emotional reaction of Jack and Sarah Jane regarding the Daleks: he wrote that Jack’s “fatalistic ‘I’m sorry, we’re dead!’ to Gwen and Ianto seems overly melodramatic” because it ignored Jack’s immortality; and he felt that Sarah Jane’s emotional breakdown at the beginning of the episode and frantic apology when she was cornered by the Daleks at the end of the episode ignored her previous encounters with the creatures and was “almost a betrayal of her character”. His second point of criticism was towards the use of subwave network: he thought it “failed to inspire” because it was too similar to the climax of “Last of the Time Lords”, when a weakened and elderly Doctor uses a global telephone network to return to his full strength; he considered the original scene to be unappealing. He continued by describing it as “a fairly obvious contrivance to allow for the Doctor’s companions to video-conference with each other”, and lamented the death of its maintainer, Harriet Jones.
Walker was more positive in the remainder of his analysis. He covered six more concepts of the episode: its supporting cast; Billie Piper; Davros and the Daleks; the two new Dalek variants; links to the classic series, most notably The Dalek Invasion of Earth; and the cliffhanger. Although he was critical of the fact that they received little airtime, he wrote that Gwen, Ianto, Luke, and Mr Smith “helped bring a pleasing sense of unity to the whole Doctor Who universe”. He highlighted the scene where Wilfred Mott shoots a paintball at a Dalek as one of Cribbins’ and King’s “fantastic scenes” and a “welcome continuation of the process begun back in “Dalek” of negating previously-perceived waknesses in the creatures’ design”.
A portion of his analysis was dedicated to Rose. Her exclusion from the subwave conversation was described as simultaneously “amusing and poignant” while it served the purpose of delaying her encounter with the Doctor. He discussed the romantic overtones between the two characters within the context of their reunion; he noted that Davies had, by the time he was writing the episode, “abandoned any attempt to disguise the fact that he is writing [...] an out-and-out love-story” and compared the couple running towards each other to “Cathy and Heathcliff running across the moors in some clichéd Wuthering Heights dramatisation”.
Walker was highly appreciative of the appearance of Davros in the episode. He wrote that “there is no doubt that Davros brings an extra dimension to Dalek stories, not least because he is able to engage in sustained dialogue and reasoned debate in a way his creations aren’t well equipped to manage [...]; and the benefits of this quickly start to become apparent in “The Stolen Earth”, despite the fact he spends much of his time lurking in the shadows”. Davros was applauded from several perspectives: Walker considered him to be “extremely well characterised” in the script; the prosthetic mask was lauded as the “finest piece of work they have ever done”, the general 1970s impression and 1980s modifications called the “perfect synthesis of the best features of both [versions]“; and Bleach was praised for his performance:
As for Julian Bleach’s performance in the role, it would be hard to overstate how impressive this is. Again, Michael Wisher’s original interpretation is the obvious reference point here, but it is far more than just an expert piece of mimicry; Bleach succeeds in bringing his own extra dimension of villiany to the part, invested the character with a degree of malevolence unmatched by any of his predecessors.
—Stephen James Walker, Monsters Within: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who 2008
Walker considered Dalek Caan to be “very well depicted and commended voice actor Briggs for his portrayal; in particular, the “creepy demented giggle and chilling prediction of ‘everlasting death’ for the Doctor’s ‘most faithful companion’.” He was more critical of the Supreme Dalek; he thought the red colour scheme was “bold and distinctive for a Dalek commander”, especially given as Dalek Sec, the leader of the Cult of Skaro, had already appeared in the traditional black Dalek Supreme livery, but thought the additions to the regular Dalek prop were “decidely ugly” and the latest in a line of attempts that were unable to “improve upon perfection”, specifically citing the “power-collection disks” the Daleks adorned in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. He gave several other examples of where “The Stolen Earth” alludes to The Dalek Invasion of Earth: he considered the Doctor’s allusion to the “Earth being moved once before” as a reference to the 1964 story, as opposed to the Time Lords’ action in The Trial of a Time Lord; Dalek dialogue—most notably their rejoice in becoming “the masters of Earth” and their order for “the males, the females, [and] the descendents” to leave their homes—was previously used in the story; the original “Second World War invasion imagery” was paralleled with the Daleks patrolling the streets; and the invasion proper by the Dalek saucers was reminiscent of the earlier serial, albeit with improved special effects.
Walker’s final point of analysis was the cliffhanger. He noted that the most notable preoccupation of the viewing public and media regarding the show was David Tennant’s imminent departure and replacement, and thought it was astute of Davies to “build the cliffhanger around a shock regeneration”, especially considering the media blackout imposed on “Journey’s End”. He closed his analysis by pointing out that the effectiveness of the episode and the cliffhanger “can be judged only in the light of how well, or otherwise, it is all resolved in “Journey’s End”.” Walker ranked the story as his tenth-favourite episode of the fourth series: between “The Sontaran Stratagem” and “Partners in Crime”.
