Doctor Who Logo 'Journey’s End'
(Story Code 4.13)

by Russell T. Davies
The Doctor and the 'Children of Time'

“People, planets and stars will become dust. And the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory Doctor: the destruction of reality itself!” – Davros

Inside the TARDIS, Donna, Rose and Captain Jack watch as the Doctor regenerates. However, this Time the Time Lord does something different: after using the regenerative energy to heal his injured body, he then channels the remainder of the power into the nearest suitable biomass: his severed hand. In her car, Sarah braces herself as the two Daleks prepare to open fire, when suddenly Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler materialise out of thin air and destroy the creatures with their guns. At the Torchwood Hub, Gwen and Ianto prepare to go out fighting, only to watch as their bullets freeze in mid-air in front of a strangely immobile Dalek; Ianto realises that the experimental time-lock developed by their late colleague, Toshiko Sato, has activated, sealing them safely inside a time bubble. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose enjoy a long-overdue hug. However, outside, four Daleks converge on the TARDIS and initiate a temporal prison around it, deactivating the ship’s internal power systems; at the Dalek Supreme’s order, the TARDIS is then drawn up into the sky, on a course for the Crucible. Learning that Mickey and Jackie’s dimension jump devices need thirty minutes to recharge, Sarah convinces them of an alternative plan to get to the Doctor: by surrendering to a Dalek patrol. Using Jack’s amended base code, Martha reprograms her teleport device; saying goodbye to her mother, she then teleports to Germany, arriving at night in the middle of a Dalek-filled wood, sixty miles outside Nuremberg. Inside the deactivated TARDIS, the Doctor and his friends find themselves on course for the Crucible, the massive Dalek spaceship at the centre of the newly created planetary system. Knowing that time passes faster on Rose’s parallel Earth, the Doctor asks her what is to come; she replies that the effect of the Crucible was known as ‘The Darkness’ – and that it destroyed all the stars in their universe. With all the other alternate realities collapsing from the effects of the Darkness, as well as the Void that exists between them, Rose’s colleagues in Torchwood built a dimension canon so that she could find the Doctor. Rose also reveals that many parallel worlds have been destroyed, as well as the void between them – and that, for some reason, all the timelines converge on Donna… As the TARDIS is drawn into the enormous sphere that is the Crucible, the Daleks disable its shielding and then teleport it into the Dalek Supreme’s control room. The Doctor, Rose and Jack bravely step outside and are immediately confronted by Daleks; however, before Donna can leave, she hears a strange heartbeat sound and the TARDIS seems to call to her – and then the time machine’s door slams shut, locking Donna inside. Ignoring the Doctor’s protestations, the Dalek Supreme orders the destruction of the ship; as the Time Lord and his friends look on helplessly, the TARDIS is sent plummeting down a shaft towards the core of the Crucible, a seething, boiling inferno of Z-neutrino energy. As the interior of the TARDIS erupts in violent explosions from the assault, Donna is drawn towards the Doctor’s severed hand, which is bubbling furiously away inside its tank; as Donna touches the jar with her own hand, a flash of energy engulfs her and the severed limb, and the glass shatters. As the Doctor’s hand hits the decking, it begins to regenerate – and before Donna’s astonished eyes, another, naked, Doctor grows into being. With the TARDIS plummeting into the Core of the Crucible, the Dalek Supreme gloats in triumph at his prisoners’ distress. Aboard the TARDIS, the new Doctor activates a control on the console, dematerialising the ship at the very last moment before its destruction. Believing the time-space ship to have been incinerated, the Dalek Supreme fails to notice that the Doctor senses his TARDIS has somehow been saved. Jack is furious at Donna’s apparent death, and he opens fire at the Dalek Supreme, only to be gunned down by one of its guards. Rose is horrified at Jack’s death, but as she and the Doctor are escorted by Daleks to Davros’ Vault, the Time Lord looks back and sees that the indestructible captain has already returned to life. Aboard the TARDIS, now using silent running to hide amongst the stolen planets, a now suitably-dressed ‘Doctor 2’ tells Donna that he is the result of instantaneous biological metacrisis, triggered when she made contact with his hand; however, he is not a perfect duplicate of the Doctor: not only does he have some of Donna’s characteristics, but he only has one heart – the beating heard by Donna as it rippled back through time… this new Doctor is part Time Lord, part human. Despite Donna’s protestations, Doctor 2 insists that she is special, hypothesising that somehow they were destined to be drawn together… In Germany, Martha arrives at a remote castle, where she identifies herself to a German woman, the last remaining member of the U.N.I.T. personnel stationed there. Entering the building, Martha activates a hidden hand-scanner that opens the door to a secret lift; however, as Martha steps inside the German woman pulls a gun on her, ordering her not to use the Osterhagen key; but Martha calls the woman’s bluff, knowing that she must carry out her orders. Activating the lift, Martha arrives in an underground control room, where she inserts the key into a control console… Aboard the Crucible, two Daleks place Jack’s body into an incinerator, but the resourceful captain manages to escape before he is burnt to a crisp. Elsewhere, Sarah, Mickey, Jackie and a group of human prisoners are brought aboard the space station. Down in the Vault, the Doctor and Rose finally meet Davros, who places them inside holding beams of light. Davros is delighted to have his old enemy in his power, but the Doctor observes that the Daleks’ creator is far from in charge: instead he is merely a servant of the Dalek Supreme. Davros shows his captives Dalek Caan, the last of the Cult of Skaro, now nothing more than a babbling, insane creature in a shattered casing, a result of his experiences during the horror of the Time War, and from seeing the future... Davros taunts the Doctor on the Time Lord’s involvement in the war, observing that he was responsible for butchering millions, and is no better than the Daleks. Davros then prepares to give the Doctor a demonstration of his crowning achievement: the Reality Bomb. Daleks herd Sarah, Mickey, Jackie and the prisoners into a testing chamber, its roof filled with a gigantic circular energy projector; seeing a chance for escape, Sarah slips away and uses her sonic lipstick to open a nearby door; Mickey follows her, but Jackie is too late, and she is forced to remain amongst the prisoners as the test begins. In the control room, the Dalek Supreme orders the alignment of the planetary field, so that its power will focus the Z-neutrinos in the Crucible’s core into a single stream of energy; as the testing room powers up a fierce light bathes the prisoners below. Sarah and Mickey look on helplessly as Jackie’s fate approaches… but then Mickey’s dimension buckle beeps – the device has recharged! Frantically gesturing to Jackie, Mickey tells her to activate her own teleporter, enabling Jackie to join her two friends just as the deadly beam stabs down in the main room, atomising the captive humans. As the Doctor and Rose watch these events on the Vault’s monitor screen, Davros proudly explains how his Reality Bomb cancels out the electrical fields that hold atoms together – he has the power to destroy all matter in the universe. With horror the Doctor and Rose realise that the Reality Bomb causes the Darkness, and it is this that has been destroying every parallel world in existence. The Dalek Supreme gives the order to prepare for universal detonation, and then instructs all Daleks to return to the Cruciform to shelter from the forthcoming cataclysm. Making his way through the space station’s ventilation system, Jack finds himself in the same area as Sarah Jane, Jackie and his old friend Mickey; after a manly reunion, Sarah tells Jack that she has a weapon with her: what appears to be a diamond necklace, a present from a soothsayer for “The End of Days”, is in fact a warpstar: a warpfold configuration trapped in a carbonised shell – literally an explosion waiting to happen. While the Dalek fleet leaves Earth and withdraws to the safety of the Crucible, aboard the TARDIS, Doctor 2 finishes the construction of a device that will cause the power of the Crucible to backfire into Davros and his Dalek creations. Meanwhile, in Germany, Martha makes contact with the U.N.I.T. officers at two other Osterhagen stations; she then contacts the Crucible and gives Davros and the Dalek Supreme an ultimatum: unless they stop their plan she will use the Osterhagen key to activate Earth’s final option, twenty-five nuclear warheads buried in the Earth’s crust that will completely destroy the planet rather than allow it to fall into enemy hands. The Doctor is appalled, but he is interrupted by a second transmission from Captain Jack, Sarah and Jackie, who now have the warpstar wired into the Crucible’s mainframe. While Rose is astonished to see her mum and Mickey, Davros is delighted to see Sarah, another of his old enemies. The evil creator gloats with glee at the situation, pointing out to the Doctor that he has turned his Children of Time into killers, just like he has with his creations, the Daleks. By reminding the Doctor of all those who have died in his name, Davros has achieved his final victory: he has shown the Doctor his true self. Martha makes to activate the key, only to be teleported by the Daleks to the Vault, along with Jack, Mickey and Jackie. Then Davros orders the Dalek Supreme to activate the Reality Bomb – and all across the Medusa Cascade, the twenty-seven stolen planets begin to realign… The Doctor tries to reason with Davros, but his efforts fall on deaf ears – the evil scientist has been driven insane at the prospect of the imminent culmination of his plans. At that moment the TARDIS materialises inside the Vault, and before everyone’s astonished eyes, Doctor 2 rushes out with his anti-Dalek device – only to be immediately struck down by an electrical blast from Davros’ hand. Donna runs out of the ship and tries for the gun, but she too is blasted back by the evil scientist, while the gun is destroyed by one of the Dalek guards. Imprisoned within a holding beam, Doctor 2 gives his other self a quick account of his creation, but both Doctors are powerless as Davros instigates the end of the universe. However, as the Daleks’ countdown reaches its conclusion it suddenly stops, throwing the Daleks and Davros into confusion – until Donna’s voice rings out, explaining that she has stopped the Reality Bomb. Davros tries to electrocute Donna, but she activates a control on the console before her, inverting the evil scientist’s energy discharge back on him; Donna then sends out a signal that prevents the guns of the Daleks in the room from working. Donna now sounds and acts differently to her usual self: she is more confident, and her mind is as clever as the Doctor’s. Donna explains that the metacrisis in the TARDIS was two-way, and after being given a final push by Davros’ electrical blast, she has now become part human and part Time Lord – “The DoctorDonna”, as the Ood predicted many adventures ago. Releasing the Doctor and his companions from their holding beams, Donna disables the Daleks’ systems, throwing the evil creatures into disarray; while Rose and Martha happily deal with their powerless captors, Mickey grabs a gun and trains it on Davros. The Doctors and Donna reverse the Crucible’s Magnetron system, enabling them to begin sending the stolen planets back to their correct solar systems. Davros is furious with Dalek Caan, demanding to know why the creature failed to foretell these events; however, the Doctor opines that Caan did know – the creature has been deliberately manipulating the timeline to ensure Davros’ downfall, because it objected to his insane plan. At that moment the Dalek Supreme arrives in the Vault and opens fire, destroying the Magnetron before the Doctors can send the last planet – Earth – home. After Jack blasts the Supreme Dalek into pieces with his Defabricator gun, Doctor 2 uses Donna’s idea of reversing the Dalekanium power feeds to make every Dalek in the fleet to explode, including the one in the Torchwood Hub; Dalek Caan is delighted, as his prophecy that death will come has been fulfilled, but the Doctor is appalled at his other self’s act of genocide. As the Crucible begins to fall apart around them, Doctor 2 urges everyone inside the TARDIS; the Doctor tries to save Davros from the flames now raging throughout the Vault, but Davros refuses to be saved by his enemy, and in his anger names the Time Lord ‘The Destroyer of Worlds’. Retreating into the TARDIS, the Doctor dematerialises his time-space ship just as the Crucible is destroyed in a colossal explosion. Contacting Torchwood and Mr Smith, the Doctor instructs Gwen and Ianto to use the Rift manipulator to send all its power to the TARDIS, and then tells Sarah’s computer to loop the energy around his ship so that he can tow the Earth back to its rightful place. When Mr Smith asks for the TARDIS’ base code, Sarah calls on her faithful friend K-9, who materialises in the loft next to Luke and then provides the computer the necessary data. Finally able to pilot the TARDIS with the correct number of people, the Doctor operates its controls with the help of Rose, Martha, Jack, Mickey, Sarah and Doctor 2 – but not Jackie! – and together they pull the Earth through a space tunnel, before finally emerging into real space in the middle of the solar system. With the Earth now safe, a serious amount of hugging goes on in the TARDIS! Meanwhile, having endured a somewhat bumpy ride home, the people of Earth rejoice at their salvation, and joyful celebrations take place all across the world. Some time later, the Doctor begins the task of taking his friends home: Sarah thanks him for saving them all, and then rushes off to rejoin Luke; Jack isn’t greatly pleased to have his wrist device deactivated once more, but still salutes the Doctor earnestly, while Martha says goodbye to the Doctor a third time, and then receives an offer of a new job from Jack. With his nan now dead, Mickey has no reason to return to the parallel Earth, and so, having said his farewells to Jackie and the Doctor, runs off after Jack and Martha. The Doctor then transports the TARDIS to the parallel Earth, materialising the ship on the shore of Bad Wolf Bay in Norway. Jackie voices her annoyance at being left so far from her husband, Pete, and her baby, Tony, Donna explains that with the destruction of the Reality Bomb the walls of reality are closing down, the Doctor states that he must leave Doctor 2 in the parallel universe – after his act of genocide against the Daleks, the hybrid Doctor is too dangerous to be allowed to travel in the TARDIS. When the Doctor tells Rose that she can help change his other self, Rose objects, as she wants to go with her Doctor. When Doctor 2 tells Rose that his partial humanity means that he can spend the rest of his life growing old with her, Rose is uncertain, torn between the two versions of the man she loves. Rose asks both Doctors what his reply would have been when they last said goodbye – only Doctor 2 can give her the answer his other self never could. As they two of them kiss, the Doctor quietly ushers Donna back into the TARDIS, and together they leave the parallel world, Rose, Doctor 2 and Jackie forever. Back in the control room, Donna is looking forward to continuing her travels with the Doctor when she is suddenly overloaded by all the complex thoughts blazing through her mind. Knowing that he cannot allow Donna to stay part Time Lord, the Doctor tells her that he has no choice but to wipe her mind. Breaking down into tears, Donna protests – she wants to keep travelling with the Doctor for the rest of her life; but with mounting horror she recalls the rest of the Oods’ prophecy: that the song of the ‘DoctorDonna’ must end. Touching Donna’s forehead, the Doctor removes all memory of their adventures together; as Donna collapses, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to his companion’s home in Chiswick, where he calls on her family for help. While Donna lies unconscious in her bedroom, the Doctor explains to Wilf and Shirley that she must never remember him, or else she will burn up from the power hidden within her – the Donna who travelled with him is, to all intents, dead. Filled with both sadness and pride, the Doctor tells Wilf and Shirley that there are people and worlds in the universe that owe their lives to Donna Noble. Just then Donna enters the room, back to her old, abrasive self. Barely acknowledging the Doctor’s presence, Donna leaves to phone all her friends, stubbornly refusing to listen to their talk of planets in the sky. As the Doctor leaves Wilf promises to remember him on Donna’s behalf – every night he will look at the stars and think of the Doctor on his travels. Bidding goodbye, the Doctor returns to his TARDIS, alone one more…

David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Martha Jones), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Adjoa Andoh (Francine Jones), Julian Bleach (Davros), Valda Aviks (German Woman), Shobu Kapoor (Scared Woman), Elizabeth Tan (Chinese Woman), Michel Price (Liberian Man), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek Voice), Barney Edwards, Nick Pegg, David Harkinson, Anthony Spargo (Dalek Operators), John Leeson (Voice of K-9), Alexander Armstrong (Voice of Mr Smith)

Directed by Graeme Harper
Produced by Phil Collinson
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production


TX:
5th July 2008 @ 6.40 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Tenth Doctor, Donna, Rose, Martha, Captain Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Sarah, Luke, Mr Smith, K-9 Mk IV, Mickey and Jackie

*Part three of a three part story

*Instead of the usual forty-five minute duration, this season finale is sixty-five minutes long

*As well as David Tennant and Catherine Tate, Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman and John Barrowman are also credited during the main titles

*Noel Clarke, Camille Coduri, Adjoa Andoh, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd were credited over the following scene, prior to Phil Collinson as Producer

*The end credits were followed by a teaser for the Christmas Special, featuring the return of the Cybermen...

*The episode was the most-viewed programme of the week (the first 'Doctor Who' episode ever to receive this rank), watched by 10.57 million viewers, giving it a 45.9% share of the total television audience