N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End contains the heady mix of brilliance, bombast and bollocks we’ve come to expect from these end-of-season finales. As with the Series Three ender (notwithstanding the efforts of Derek Jacobi there), it’s the second and third of those qualities that take precedence, especially in the final episode.

“Someone tried to move the Earth once before.”

Doctor, The Stolen Earth

But there’s still lots to like. Donna, of course. And Wilf, who’s still calling everyone ‘sweetheart’.

There’s plenty of fan service here too. If it were a comic book, The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End would be classed as a cross-over event, meaning if you hadn’t been keeping up with spin-offs, you’d wonder how come Sarah Jane had gained a teenage son in the two years since School Reunion or if you’d skipped Season Two of Torchwood, as my son did, what happened to Tosh and Ianto, or if you’d not watched Torchwood at all, why is Cap’n Jack hanging out with in Cardiff?

Throw in Daleks speaking German, Martha Jones, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler (but no Pete), Harriet Jones (“former Prime Minister”) and even K-9, and, alongside references to other stories too numerous to mention, there’s something for every nu-Who fan. I will mention that I did like the Doctor and Rose remarking that Gwen looked remarkably like Gwyneth from The Unquiet Dead and I also couldn’t help feeling slightly gratified that Sarah Jane was also getting sick of Mr Smith’s fanfare.

I still think the Doctor dumping the blue-suited Meta-Crisis Doctor on Rose is a bit off, though. It’s not as if he gives Meta-Crisis Doc a choice! Nor Rose for that matter, really! But since I never truly did believe in the Doctor / Rose love story, all the moping around we’ve had since Doomsday has always seemed a bit bizarre to me.

And as big and as bold a cliffhanger as that Stolen Earth ending is, I can’t help but feel it cheapens the idea of regeneration somewhat, not to say that it’s going almost certainly to cause Doctor-numbering problems further down the line!

“Every night, Doctor, when it gets dark, and the stars come out, I’ll look up on her behalf. I’ll look up at the sky, and think of you.”

Wilf, Journey’s End

And yet, for all the things I dislike – which, in truth, is most of Journey’s End – I don’t hate this finale anywhere near as much as I do Series Three’s. Mainly, I admit, because of Donna. Given the number of returning companions on screen, she perhaps doesn’t have as much to do here as she has done in previous episodes, but what she does have to do is critical.

And of course, the end of the DoctorDonna really is a terribly sad one for Donna. She doesn’t even get to remember the single adventure with the Doctor that Jamie and Zoe were left with at the end of The War Games.

While in Doctor Who terms, Donna Noble’s fate may not be an original one for a companion, it’s no less powerful for it. Still, I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve seen of her.

These are my potential Target Library titles for The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End:
— Doctor Who and the Stolen Earth
— Doctor Who at Journey’s End
— Doctor Who and the Hand of the DoctorDonna