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Doctor Who – 4x13 – Journey’s End (Grade/Discuss)

Grade Journey's End


  • Total voters
    239
Just a quick thought. Why didn't the Doctor give Rose the choice of returning to her own Universe? She may not really have wanted to spend the rest of her life in a parallel universe (she was trapped there against her will the first time). She would likely have friends and other relatives in her own reality. Mickey's allowed to come back, but the Doctor pushes Rose out to babysit his other self without giving her the option of coming home.

Isn't that a bit cruel?

These two things really bugged me too. Donna deserved better. I know she wasn't planning to return next year, but sheesh.

What he did to Rose just sucked.

I wonder if the reason the Doctor didn't give Rose an option was that she was already proclaimed dead in our universe. As far as the relatives and other people know, seeing Rose again for the first time in years after thinking she was dead might be a real shock to the system.
 
^ Are you talking to me, biotech? :confused:

No WillsBabe, I was typing my reply at the same time you were making yours, I was referring to someone a few pages back.

Sadly its a phenomenon that's becoming more and more prevelant around here.
 
Another thing - towing a planet through space, uh, wouldn't the people sort of freeze to death??
There was a shield put around the Earth by the Daleks.

What he did to Rose just sucked.

No. Pete was back in alt.uni. with his and Jackie's baby. Jackie wanted Rose with her. And Rose has her own Doctor to heal.
 
My big problem was Donnas fate. We’ve been building up to this all season. The Ood were mournful about it. The girl at the Shadow Proclamation was apologetic about it. River Song dismayed over it. And this terrible, terrible fate? She became an ordinary Londoner again. :eek: I think I feel mildly insulted!:lol:

I'm sorry you don't appreciate the tragedy of the situation. Take your absolute favorite set of memories. A long trip, a time at school, a friendship, or a lover. And then imagine having those memories completely wiped from your mind. And then throw in the fact someone who knows you knows you had these memories but can't tell you them or otherwise you would die. I would say that sucks pretty big.

True. The problem is from my perspective, I wouldn't bother* me, because I wouldn't remember it. You can't miss what you've lost if you can't recall it in the first place. Donna was returned to a comfortable, middle class life with a loving family, many friends in one of the worlds wealthiest cities. Look at the way she was laughing into the mobile in the kitchen. She never laughed that way with the Doctor, in fact she was usually in tears. She seemed happier in this life and that for me undermined the tragedy.

I also found it a bit of a mental gearshift to go from the over-the-top, high drama attitude of the rest of the episode to the understated-ness of this scene. It was like the scene was from a different episode, and didn't really fit. Thats my failing though, not the episodes.

I also had a problem with the fact the Doctor said that you must never mention me to Donna, and then walked into the kitchen to say goodbye! Because saying Doctor is dangerous (The NHS is the biggest employer of temps in Britain. This may prove problematic for Sylvia and Wilf, if they wish to protect Donna.), but the sight, sound and smell of someone you spent a year of your life with won't trigger any memories at all. An unsaid goodbye would have suited the episode better.

(*Sorry, last chance I had to do that, so I though I'd take it)
 
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To me it seemed like this episode was more or less treated as the final episode. Tying off all the loose threads, and concluding RTD's time at Doctor Who... I know he has 5 specials yet, but I assume they're going to be standalone affairs.
He did say in an interview that he doesn't want to be a ghost that haunts the place. While he was referring to returning to write episodes, I also think he meant he wanted to leave a clean slate for Moffat to start with too, none of his old plot threads left dangling in a way where they had to be addressed, but can be revisited if Moffat thinks of a good story for them.
 
Over the top, self-indulgent twaddle.

Encore! Encore!

Not sure how they'll ever be able to top that.


Oh, and Rose's teeth are seriously annoying me now.
 
So is your ability to take a joke, or spot an obvious hyperbole.

You're not a Time Lord, so I'd drop the pretense of being able to see the outcome of multiple timelines. Honestly, it's embarrassing.

Actually the only thing here which is embarrassing is that you've seem to forgotten that a joke is supposed to be funny and I don't see the funny here

Because you're a humourless oaf?

Well done on ignoring the rest of my post btw, expertly played. :rolleyes:
 
I voted Below Average, but I feel like it could have been poor.

*I've only watched nWho(S1-4), none of the old stuff. I've watched some episodes of Torchwood ( and I found S1 to be atrocious while S2 to be mostly good)*

I understand that Doctor Who is supposed to be a non-serious Sci-Fi show, but the whole RTD finales are ridiculous. I don't know about general fandom consensus, but I hated series three's finale. John Simms acting crazy was the only saving grace. The plot of having the energies of the humans being channeled in the doctor is just crazy plot device which can't be predicted. It felt like a really cheap way to reset everything...

And this episode was the same.

Davros' plot doesn't really make sense scientifically. The whole 27 planets thing making a reality bomb is a joke. Alright, it is a fictional show, and the Daleks are apparently very technologically savy... I suspend my disbelief and accept this. They did afterall stalemate the Time Lords in the Great Time War. The Doctor even mentions that these Daleks are at the height of their power.

Good.

So where were the Dalek's force shield?

I don't know if I can take this specie seriously ever again. They were pretty lame and pathetic before, essentially silly looking single-catchphrase trashcans, and they're even more pathetic now. Were these guys supposed to be threatening ever? It seems they're always doomed to failure whereever they go... by an unarmed but brilliant humanoid.


How is it that they're so pathetically disabled by one switch on the computer console?

Doctor Donna: I really didn't care for this bit. This was a cop-out ending to the Dalek threat, and she did it in the most annoying manner.

I confess that I largely didn't like her character and her acting this season. I felt like she overplayed her "doctor" parts.

I would have been severely disappointed if it ended right there (at 46 minutes), but this was an extended episode.

There's the oblig farewell to jack/martha/mickey. This is interesting. I look forward to seeing them again.

Sarah Jane, I don't really care for. I just don't have the background necessary to really feel anything.

The Donna bit was kind of sad, but she's not really dead like the promos hinted. Alright, so no memory pretty much = dead, but why didn't they kill her? I was getting really emotional when the Doctor was talking to grandpa and ma, but then Donna woke up and she reminded me why I hate her again. The Doctor leaving alone was a good way to end the show. I agree that the whole "What? WHAAAT? " ending of the previous series was dumb.

I really like the grandfather character the most. I like him waaay better than Donna. I hope he shows up again in the future.

Summary: Daleks suck and have ridiculous plans. I dislike Donna and therefore Doctor Donna. Main threat is too easily resolved in an anticlimatic way. Doctor leaving alone is sad.

Christmas Special: Cybermen again? Ugh.
 
I went with FANTASTIC since there isn't anything higher, this was GREAT two parter it might've felt alittle rushed but then they all haad something to do, Catherine Tate was fantastic and I LOVED the reunion of all of the companions, they hit this out of the park! :cool:
 
Gwen and Gwyneth apparently are connected in some wibbly wobbly timey wimey way. I wonder if Tosh and the pig doctor and Martha and the Torchwood employee are?

Well, it's not really timey-wimey, Gwyneth is Gwen's Great Grandmother, or something.

It was revealed in Torchwood that Tosh was the pig doctor. It was supposed to be Owen working undercover for Torchwood, but he had a hangover, and Tosh covered for him by taking his place.

And yes, Adeola, who died at Canary Wharf, was Martha's cousin.

Seem to be in a minority here, but I could have done without the Gwen-Gwyneth link. I mean, in the middle of a crisis the Doctor stops to indulge in a spot of fanw--k? It's not as if he doesn't run into the same actors all the time without remarking on it?
Or maybe not noticing it's a flaw which should have be corrected in earlier episodes. For instance:

City of Death: "Count Scarlioni, last of the Jagaroth? Really, I could have sworn you were King Richard the Lionheart."

Lazarus Experiment: "Martha, forget about your cousin at Torchwood, your mother would be a dead ringer for this cat nun I knew if you just gave her a shave. The cat nun, that is, not your mother - please don't hit me too."

Genesis of the Daleks: "Davros, did you know you look exactly liek this BBC3 newscaster who'll cover the British space programme. I mean you'd ned to grow a beard and lose the third eye, but otherwise..."

Edit: Actually, they did do it, back in Dalek Masterplan - the Doctor insists that he met a minor character back in the marketplace at Jaffa (the actor having earlier appeared in The Crusade). But that episode was supposed to be a silly (100% silly, not just occasionally silly mlike mosty Who).
 
Obviously the episode was totally awsome but I have one question:

Since i've never watched the childrens TV show 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' I dont have a god damn clue who that machine 'Mr Smith' is. Can anyone actually tell me what it is and where it came from?
 
"-Like I said before, I missed the quiet moments. I think this episode was trying to be more epic and ended up forgetting that it was an episode of a television series that prides itself on those quiet moments.

-I really didn't like what happened with Rose and Donna. I'm fine with the cloning thing, and even Rose and the Doctor clone being together, but where was that special moment between our doctor and Rose. Why couldn't we really get a goodbye that knocks our socks off on Bad Wolf Bay. Hell, a hug would have been much better than what we got. I really wish Rose was used better because the show prided itself on Billie Piper being back, but it ended up in disappointment."


These are my sentiments exactly Tomalak. The show has gone out of its way this season to build dramatic tension surrounding the return of Rose. In series 3 there was that sense of the Doctor longing after his lost companion. And yet when she does return, she doesn't have a single meaningful conversation/reunion or goodbye. There was more emotion written into Martha's being reunited with the Doctor mid-season (and she'd only been gone a few episodes!). I understand from the Confidential that the Bad Wolf Bay scene was supposed to show the Doctor again making a personal sacrifice. But why? He didn't need to be on his own again. The need for him to give up Rose once again was not explained or arrived at through the rest of the story. Rose going off with a clone in this context was just creepy. Her return was handled no differently to that of Captain Jack, Sarah Jane et al (and many of these returning cameos were just distracting).
 
There was every reason for him to be on his own. Davros has just shown him the consequences of him having companions, he has just seen this happy bunch of people stand around the console of the TARDIS, everyone of whom has had their life, their families, all they care for held in the balance and put at risk because of the Doctor. And yet, each and everyone of them, even Jackie, would give up their lives to protect the Doctor. I think we could be in for a Doctor who refuses to have a companion (which would be easily done through the specials) because of the cost to whoever he would pick up and take on those adventures. Rose wasn't leaving him, he was leaving Rose, for her own good.
 
Voted Above average. The finale is clearly trying too hard to be epic but it fails in some aspects. K-9's appearance to give the TARDIS basecode to Mr Smith for example, is just a worthless plot device. As is the appearance of all the extra companions. I think the whole finale could have done well without them. Jackie with a big gun shooting a Dalek? I don't buy it for a second. But I enjoyed watching all those characters again (except for K-9).

That said, I loved the whole TARDIS scene, being piloted as it was meant to be and just for that, I forgive you, Russell.

What refrained me to vote Fantastic is the Bad Wolf Bay scene. Didn't work for me at all.

As the Fourth Series is closing and an era is coming to an end (while eagerly waiting for the next!), I want to thank RTD, as he resurrected the Who franchise and I would have missed a great deal of fantastic scifi without him.
 
Just think we could have had Davros for companion in the X-mas special.
Like The Master last year. Hell, I wanted to see that with The Master and was terribly disappointed to see them chicken out.

Sadly its a phenomenon that's becoming more and more prevelant around here.
I wouldn't say it's prevalent (or becoming more prevalent). Most of the forum is still very upbeat and open-minded about other people's opinions.
 
Average for me. I love this show and I loved all the previous finales, but this one was just too much.

I also fail to see the point to Davros' plan to destroy everything. Suppose he succeeded - what then? What's the point of Daleks' existence if they don't have anything to conquer and exterminate?
 
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