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The Stolen Earth Format Reviewed: TV Review The Stolen Earth marks the start of the last two part story of the fourth series of the new television adventures of Doctor Who. Despite the stories having been leading up to this for some time, you always got the impression until now that the end was still around the next corner. But, as has been previously announced, this is the last end to a series that Russell T Davies will write, unless he gets roped back into the fold at some point in the future of course! For this, Davies has sought to make this end very spectacular, more so than previous series, and essentially make it a bookend to his regular work on a week-to-week series. The Doctor and Donna return to Earth, and find anomalies. They then find the Earth vanishes while they are in the TARDIS, and they go to the Shadow Proclamation to enlist their help. This fails as they ask The Doctor to lead them against the Daleks, once it is established that they are the ones behind this. Meanwhile, all of The Doctor’s new series companions are reacting to the Earth having been forcibly moved to a very different part of the universe. A Dalek ships then descend, after a warning, and attack all the military strongholds, meaning UNIT and Torchwood as well. Torchwood is protected by an energy field, and Martha is whisked away to go to Project Indigo. Harriet Jones on Earth gets a comms link with Captain Jack, Sarah Jane and UNIT, and they hatch a plan to contact The Doctor, which they manage, allowing him to track them to a precise point in the Medusa Cascade. Rose, also on Earth, is trying to join in the conversation, but fails. Harriet Jones then passes control of the comms subnet to Torchwood, shortly before she is found by the Daleks. When The Doctor arrives and joins the video conversation, they all reunite before Davros cuts through and reveals himself to have rebuilt the Dalek race in his image. The Doctor then lands on Earth, and eventually finds Rose, only to be shot by a Dalek running towards her. Jack kills the Dalek, and they struggle into the TARDIS before The Doctor starts his regeneration cycle. Much of this episode is establishing how the series is going to end the in the following episode, but there is a lot to consider. The return of Davros has been well realised, although more akin to the original story than how he became later in the series. With all the previous companions, and many of their family, returning, it makes for a very crowded set of performers for a 45 minute show. This is achieved by giving The Doctor and Donna less screen time, largely bumbling about unnecessarily at the Shadow Proclamation. Then we come to the plot of the Daleks, and Davros. Some of the continuity, i.e. making Davros not held as ruler amongst the Daleks, is really warming to see as it harps back to some excellent stories in the 1980’s. This is in contrast to the prattling whimsy of the Dalek Caan creature that Davros seems to revere which doesn’t seem quite right somehow. Finally, with Davros being much more akin to his original self in Genesis of the Daleks, rather than his later, Terry Molloy portrayed stories that developed Davros past much of the languid verboseness that hee seems to now possess once more, you wonder why this choice was made. In a way, Davros of the later classic stories is more akin to the Dalek Emperor from Series 1, in that he is a bit mad, clever, but still a bit mad compared to ‘regular’ Daleks. The cast for this story is too vast to mention them all individually, so I won’t. Tennant gets less screen time here to accommodate the entirety of his recent companions, and does well. The companions are good to greater or lesser degrees, with Freema Agyeman and Catherine Tate the highlights as Martha and Donna respectively. The real highlights in the cast though were Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones, Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott and Julian Bleach as Davros. Wilton, in reprising her role, shows just how good she has always been and sparkles throughout with inner determination. Cribbins is always a delight when he is on screen, such charisma, and Bleach gives a wonderful performance in bringing Davros back to our screens. His performance is very reminiscent of Michael Wisher’s original portrayal as Davros, something that later incarnations were often criticised for not doing. This does however mean his performance is not really in continuity correctly, but this is a production fault not one of Bleach who is marvellous. The main thing that strikes you about this episode is that Russell T Davies seems to be lining up so much from the previous 4 series to give the whole of his main tenure a send off, that this is a bit distracting. He naturally includes the Daleks. He includes all past companions. He reintroduces Davros into the equation. We have some continuity with Rose being impossibly returned. I am a little non-plussed by the whole this, as it also seems that Davies believes that each series needs to have a bigger send off than the last. My personal preference is just to tell good stories, whether they be more spectacular than before or not. This would give the opportunity to tell eight or nine terrific stories each series, rather than some good stories, always leading towards a bigger bang than the previous. I also dislike parading all your wares at once, as if to give them all a send off. Quite why this is necessary is beyond me. Overall, The Stolen Earth does largely what is says on the tin. It builds up the story for the season finale, and brings together a lot of the elements Russell T Davies has introduced since the show returned to our screens. We have returning aliens, the Daleks once again, and this time with age old creator Davros brought back too. We also have a glut of returning companions, with near enough every one of the former regulars guesting. There are some lovely touches, but the whole thing seemed slightly too contrived, and more of a personal highlights reel for Davies to take to bed at night and watch.  |