Doctor Who 4x12 - The Stolen Earth Review Post
So, in order to keep my anxiety about tonight somewhat at bay, I decided to focus my excess nervous energy on writing a 2800 word review of The Stolen Earth. I realise most everything's been said about it at this point, but here be my thoughts about it for posterity, anyway.
Underneath the cuts, there be spoilers for DW 4x12 - The Stolen Earth. No spoilers beyond that (and please let's keep it that way - I do NOT want to know what happens tonight in advance), no speculation, just many words of love.
Storytelling and continuity
I love how everything works and fits together so well in this episode, connecting not only everything in this series, but the everything in the history of New Who, including Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. I love that those characters not in the episode, few as they are, are not forgotten, but are neatly written into the epsiode in the same swift move as being cleverly written out of it. It takes all but two phone calls and a couple of lines to let us know why Rhys, Clyde, Maria and her Dad aren't there, and that they're safe; and yet, a lazier writer and most other shows wouldn't have taken the time to do this. I love it. I love that the people who make this show care.
Everything is connected so well. You'd think it would be really chaotic and confusing to hop from one setting to five others as they do, but everything just blends perfectly with each other. I'm just amazed and stunned and in love with how well this episode is crafted just from a technical, storytelling POV. Choosing the Daleks as the enemies, too - at each location, there is one key person who has been subjected to their terror and knows what it means that they're here: Rose got to know them - and the Doctor's history with them - very early after she started travelling with him in Dalek, and subsequently fought them together with the Doctor twice, turning them to dust with a wave of her hand in The Parting of the Ways and helping the Doctor to suck them into the void in Doomsday, so it only makes sense that she would be the one to carry the Dalek-blasting supergun; Jack faced them and was exterminated by them in The Parting of the Ways (only to be brought back to everlasting life by Bad Wolf!Rose); Martha fought them in Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, and looking back, maybe the entire point of that two-parter was to have Martha be in a position where she'd faced the Daleks and knows what their reappearance means; and Sarah Jane's terror is still evident a good 40 years after she's seen them last. It's just brilliant to insert all these people into their own parts of the narrative, to create a setting for each of them. Everything fits together. It's just a brilliant piece of writing.
The continuity of this episode as a whole is just completely mind blowing. Off-screen characters are referred to; the Judoon make a sense-making reappearance; pretty much every planet in the history of the show (not just in this series, but they all are there, as well, even the lost moon of Poosh) is among those that have disappeared, even Clom; the Valiant; teleportation technology salvaged from the Sontarans; Dalek Caan's emergency temporal shift and its consequences; Wilf's little red hat; Rose remembering Donna's family; reference to Donna calling her granddad on the phone when she travels, and Wilf saying she last called from Midnight; the Medusa Cascade; the Mr Copper foundation; Ianto helping Jack into his coat. Most of them are tiny little things, throwaway mentions that could easily be done without, but it's so gratifying that it's not. And then, emotional continuity as well (though I will get into that more in the character section): the friendship connecting Jack and Martha; the Doctor being asked to lead the battle and taking his legs into his hands, running as fast as he can; Donna still not thinking she's anything special deep down; this series' undercurrent theme of friendship and reconnection that culminates in everyone working together to find the Doctor, and of course in the Doctor and Rose finding each other again. Just. Love. LOVE.
Characters
Wilf
"They always want the wimmin!" Bernard Cribbins, can you please stop being so awesome? "Oh, where are you Donna? Where are you, sweetheart?" He kills me. And how much do I love that the whole paint gun idea and Wilf asking to swap guns with Rose was Bernard Cribbins' idea? :D Also, Wilf voted for Harriet Jones. Awesome.
Harriet Jones
I think that this was the only guest character I wasn't spoiled for before, and it was so awesome when I realised who she was. Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, indeed. You know, I didn't agree with her choice to shoot down the alien ship in The Christmas Invasion, but I admire her for having thought about it since, and for sticking to her opinion. It makes me love her even more. It's only because she did that that the Doctor's secret army can now communicate with each other, and later finally get through to him. She went down fighting, and I really believe that what she said is true: the Daleks know nothing of any human, and that will be their downfall. I'll miss you, Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister. Marvellous woman indeed.
Sarah Jane and Luke
Yay for Luke knowing what's going on. I love that he's so excited about "Spaceships!" Awwww. I vote Luke, Clyde and Maria for companions in a couple of years!
And that look on Sarah Jane's face as she realised what was happening was what really scared me. Liz Sladen really brought it home for me - Sarah Jane was so utterly, utterly terrified, tears in her eyes, shaking and all. I've never been afraid of Daleks, but Sarah Jane being so horrified when she realised sent shivers down my spine.
Jack, Ianto, and Gwen
I know I'm in the minority, but I really didn't care for his "It is funny though." It felt very forced and somewhat OOC to me, and just didn't flow with the overall dynamic very well. That said, he was lovely and awesome and Ianto throughout the rest of the ep.
"I love you, you big idiot." I... I don't really like Gwen, but I adore her in this. Jack promises to come back to them, and Gwen is so brave, and Ianto takes her cue and they send him off. "Well, I'm going out fighting. Like Owen, like Tosh. How about you?" -"Yes, Ma'am." It's just so them.
I love how Jack has grown, as well - getting to the Doctor is still his first priority, and you can tell how excited he is at the thought of seeing him again; but he takes tim to say his goodbyes to Gwen and Ianto, and he promises to come back. And then of course, at the end, we have TEAM AWESOME united in the TARDIS - the Doctor and Rose, Donna and Jack. Please, RTD, give us lots of screen time of these four tonight, okay?
Martha
Martha Jones, as a character, has been killed dead for me on many occasions. Actually, it's worse than dead - Martha Jones was never properly developed as a character in the first place. Time and again, I hoped that they would, because she does have her fleeting moments of awesome. But she keeps getting used as a plot device, and she never gets to be Martha a lot. We don't really know very much about her as a person. All she did both on Torchwood and Doctor Who this year so far has been to be a plot device. None of the spots she filled needed the person in them to be Martha Jones. I thought for a moment that maybe it didn't matter why exactly she was on Torchwood when she was; that the important thing was the bigger picture. In this case, knowing the Torchwood team saves some introductions, and her friendship with Jack provides the viewer with an important emotional connection to her when the Doctor is not around to make it. But Jack knew Martha before, so it still doesn't make much sense. All that said, I did like the way Martha was portrayed here. One of the few things we do know about her is that she loves her family, that she cares to make things right with her Mom before the universe ends. It might not be clever that she went home. It might not even be very likable. But what it is is this: it's true to the little we know of Martha Jones' character. It's honest writing for her as we know her, and I like that. (Francine still pisses me off, though. And people complain about Jackie clinging onto Rose? Seriously.)
Donna
I love how happy Donna is for the Doctor. I love that she knows how much Rose means to him, and that in the middle of the end of the universe, she takes time to talk to him about it and be happy for him. She looks so beautiful and radiant in that first scene, and I love her smile as she witnesses the Doctor and Rose find each other again. I am so, so, so happy that Donna was there with them, and I just love her so much for being so genuinely happy for them.
"Who is the female?" "Donna. I'm a human being. Maybe not the stuff of legend, but every bit as important as Time Lords, thank you." Oh, Donna. I love you so much. And she's clever, too. Unlike the Doctor, Donna remembers Pyrovilia and the Adipose breeding planet, and only then can the Doctor make his connection of planets being stolen both out of space and time. And oh, that look of loving pride that he gives her - I love how he loves her, how impressed he is by her. He has every reason to. I love how they love each other so equally. And yet, Donna still doesn't believe she's anything special, quite on the contrary. She's so strong, but sometimes, even Donna Noble isn't. She looks so sad and lonely on that staircase that I just want to wrap her up and give her soup and tell her everything's going to be fine, even though I'm so afraid for her.
Rose
Rose teleports in with her BIGASS GUN, which for some reason provokes me to yell "Rose motherfucking Tyler, bitches!" at the screen every time I watch that scene. The reason for this could be that it is Rose motherfucking Tyler. Also: hot. And she just misses the Doctor again, coming in at exactly the same spot the Doctor and Donna were in just seconds ago. Oh, Rose.
In her next shot, we see her very much the same way as we had left her in Turn Left - older, harder, apparently caring less for what is going on around her. But if you look at it, it's just something she learned from the Doctor - that sometimes, the bigger picture is more important. In that moment, the bigger picture is her mission of finding the Doctor - besides, what could she do under the circumstances anyway? And yet, she's not the Doctor. She's still Rose Tyler, and when she sees a couple of adolescents looting, she's not gonna let that happen. Because unlike everyone else who heard the window crash and didn't do anything about it? She cares. Rose Tyler is all about the small picture. She shoves her gun in their direction because she knows it will work, and she says "Do you like my gun?" not because she's a crazy gun-manic, but because she's still Rose Tyler, and even if the world is ending? She'll save it, and she'll stop some looters along the way, and she'll do all that with a spring to her step that may not be quite the same as the fun she was having saving the universe with the Doctor around, but it's still there.
I love Rose's interaction with Donna's family. It's almost like you can watch her unwrap her layers of Warrior!Rose. My heart just broke for her as she tried to get through to Harriet, who she was so genuinely excited to see, and failed. I felt for her so much as she just stands there with her phone, whispering "Find me, Doctor. Find me." And you just want him to, you know? You want them to find each other again so much. And the look on her face as she finally sees him, and yet, he doesn't even know she's there. "Doctor, it's me. I came back." Oh, Rose. Kudos to Billie Piper for still managing to break me. *wraps the Doctor and Rose up in each other*
The Doctor
Firstly, I would just like to say that I do not approve of the Doctor's hair in the opening scene. It has that thing with the sides being too short and the front being to spiky going on again. That is all.
"The thing is, Doctor, no matter what's happening - and I'm sure it's bad, I get that - but Rose is coming back. Isn't that good?" - "Yeah." And the Doctor's grin at this just melts polar ice caps across the universe, and will only be surpassed when he actually sees her again. She matters to him so much, and yet he will go through the events of this episodes the same way he has been going through his life for the last two years - always running, stomping, saving the universe, never stopping for breath, because stopping would mean remembering her and thinking of her. But she's too close now, and she is all he thinks of now. When he gets the subwave call, he misses her; it's Rose he hope is coming in as the signal that turns out to be Davros. Even if he still can't admit it, even if he still can't believe that she came back to him when she's standing right in front of him, light years away.
But then he does believe it, and they run towards each other, and it truly is like the biggest romance you've ever seen, only even better, and it's perfect. The way both their faces light up as they see each other - yep, I cried. I've seen that scene dozens of times now, and I still cry with happiness every time. I've never seen the Doctor run faster, ever, and the joy and the love in his face at seeing Rose again are just the most wonderful thing to witness. I totally give it up to David Tennant here. Rose's Theme plays as they run towards each other, and it's not just Rose's theme; it means home, and that's exactly what this is: they've found each other again, and they've finally come home, both of them.
The LOLS
Things that make me love this episode even more:
How many hours to go?
Underneath the cuts, there be spoilers for DW 4x12 - The Stolen Earth. No spoilers beyond that (and please let's keep it that way - I do NOT want to know what happens tonight in advance), no speculation, just many words of love.
Storytelling and continuity
I love how everything works and fits together so well in this episode, connecting not only everything in this series, but the everything in the history of New Who, including Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. I love that those characters not in the episode, few as they are, are not forgotten, but are neatly written into the epsiode in the same swift move as being cleverly written out of it. It takes all but two phone calls and a couple of lines to let us know why Rhys, Clyde, Maria and her Dad aren't there, and that they're safe; and yet, a lazier writer and most other shows wouldn't have taken the time to do this. I love it. I love that the people who make this show care.
Everything is connected so well. You'd think it would be really chaotic and confusing to hop from one setting to five others as they do, but everything just blends perfectly with each other. I'm just amazed and stunned and in love with how well this episode is crafted just from a technical, storytelling POV. Choosing the Daleks as the enemies, too - at each location, there is one key person who has been subjected to their terror and knows what it means that they're here: Rose got to know them - and the Doctor's history with them - very early after she started travelling with him in Dalek, and subsequently fought them together with the Doctor twice, turning them to dust with a wave of her hand in The Parting of the Ways and helping the Doctor to suck them into the void in Doomsday, so it only makes sense that she would be the one to carry the Dalek-blasting supergun; Jack faced them and was exterminated by them in The Parting of the Ways (only to be brought back to everlasting life by Bad Wolf!Rose); Martha fought them in Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, and looking back, maybe the entire point of that two-parter was to have Martha be in a position where she'd faced the Daleks and knows what their reappearance means; and Sarah Jane's terror is still evident a good 40 years after she's seen them last. It's just brilliant to insert all these people into their own parts of the narrative, to create a setting for each of them. Everything fits together. It's just a brilliant piece of writing.
The continuity of this episode as a whole is just completely mind blowing. Off-screen characters are referred to; the Judoon make a sense-making reappearance; pretty much every planet in the history of the show (not just in this series, but they all are there, as well, even the lost moon of Poosh) is among those that have disappeared, even Clom; the Valiant; teleportation technology salvaged from the Sontarans; Dalek Caan's emergency temporal shift and its consequences; Wilf's little red hat; Rose remembering Donna's family; reference to Donna calling her granddad on the phone when she travels, and Wilf saying she last called from Midnight; the Medusa Cascade; the Mr Copper foundation; Ianto helping Jack into his coat. Most of them are tiny little things, throwaway mentions that could easily be done without, but it's so gratifying that it's not. And then, emotional continuity as well (though I will get into that more in the character section): the friendship connecting Jack and Martha; the Doctor being asked to lead the battle and taking his legs into his hands, running as fast as he can; Donna still not thinking she's anything special deep down; this series' undercurrent theme of friendship and reconnection that culminates in everyone working together to find the Doctor, and of course in the Doctor and Rose finding each other again. Just. Love. LOVE.
Characters
Wilf
"They always want the wimmin!" Bernard Cribbins, can you please stop being so awesome? "Oh, where are you Donna? Where are you, sweetheart?" He kills me. And how much do I love that the whole paint gun idea and Wilf asking to swap guns with Rose was Bernard Cribbins' idea? :D Also, Wilf voted for Harriet Jones. Awesome.
Harriet Jones
I think that this was the only guest character I wasn't spoiled for before, and it was so awesome when I realised who she was. Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, indeed. You know, I didn't agree with her choice to shoot down the alien ship in The Christmas Invasion, but I admire her for having thought about it since, and for sticking to her opinion. It makes me love her even more. It's only because she did that that the Doctor's secret army can now communicate with each other, and later finally get through to him. She went down fighting, and I really believe that what she said is true: the Daleks know nothing of any human, and that will be their downfall. I'll miss you, Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister. Marvellous woman indeed.
Sarah Jane and Luke
Yay for Luke knowing what's going on. I love that he's so excited about "Spaceships!" Awwww. I vote Luke, Clyde and Maria for companions in a couple of years!
And that look on Sarah Jane's face as she realised what was happening was what really scared me. Liz Sladen really brought it home for me - Sarah Jane was so utterly, utterly terrified, tears in her eyes, shaking and all. I've never been afraid of Daleks, but Sarah Jane being so horrified when she realised sent shivers down my spine.
Jack, Ianto, and Gwen
I know I'm in the minority, but I really didn't care for his "It is funny though." It felt very forced and somewhat OOC to me, and just didn't flow with the overall dynamic very well. That said, he was lovely and awesome and Ianto throughout the rest of the ep.
"I love you, you big idiot." I... I don't really like Gwen, but I adore her in this. Jack promises to come back to them, and Gwen is so brave, and Ianto takes her cue and they send him off. "Well, I'm going out fighting. Like Owen, like Tosh. How about you?" -"Yes, Ma'am." It's just so them.
I love how Jack has grown, as well - getting to the Doctor is still his first priority, and you can tell how excited he is at the thought of seeing him again; but he takes tim to say his goodbyes to Gwen and Ianto, and he promises to come back. And then of course, at the end, we have TEAM AWESOME united in the TARDIS - the Doctor and Rose, Donna and Jack. Please, RTD, give us lots of screen time of these four tonight, okay?
Martha
Martha Jones, as a character, has been killed dead for me on many occasions. Actually, it's worse than dead - Martha Jones was never properly developed as a character in the first place. Time and again, I hoped that they would, because she does have her fleeting moments of awesome. But she keeps getting used as a plot device, and she never gets to be Martha a lot. We don't really know very much about her as a person. All she did both on Torchwood and Doctor Who this year so far has been to be a plot device. None of the spots she filled needed the person in them to be Martha Jones. I thought for a moment that maybe it didn't matter why exactly she was on Torchwood when she was; that the important thing was the bigger picture. In this case, knowing the Torchwood team saves some introductions, and her friendship with Jack provides the viewer with an important emotional connection to her when the Doctor is not around to make it. But Jack knew Martha before, so it still doesn't make much sense. All that said, I did like the way Martha was portrayed here. One of the few things we do know about her is that she loves her family, that she cares to make things right with her Mom before the universe ends. It might not be clever that she went home. It might not even be very likable. But what it is is this: it's true to the little we know of Martha Jones' character. It's honest writing for her as we know her, and I like that. (Francine still pisses me off, though. And people complain about Jackie clinging onto Rose? Seriously.)
Donna
I love how happy Donna is for the Doctor. I love that she knows how much Rose means to him, and that in the middle of the end of the universe, she takes time to talk to him about it and be happy for him. She looks so beautiful and radiant in that first scene, and I love her smile as she witnesses the Doctor and Rose find each other again. I am so, so, so happy that Donna was there with them, and I just love her so much for being so genuinely happy for them.
"Who is the female?" "Donna. I'm a human being. Maybe not the stuff of legend, but every bit as important as Time Lords, thank you." Oh, Donna. I love you so much. And she's clever, too. Unlike the Doctor, Donna remembers Pyrovilia and the Adipose breeding planet, and only then can the Doctor make his connection of planets being stolen both out of space and time. And oh, that look of loving pride that he gives her - I love how he loves her, how impressed he is by her. He has every reason to. I love how they love each other so equally. And yet, Donna still doesn't believe she's anything special, quite on the contrary. She's so strong, but sometimes, even Donna Noble isn't. She looks so sad and lonely on that staircase that I just want to wrap her up and give her soup and tell her everything's going to be fine, even though I'm so afraid for her.
Rose
Rose teleports in with her BIGASS GUN, which for some reason provokes me to yell "Rose motherfucking Tyler, bitches!" at the screen every time I watch that scene. The reason for this could be that it is Rose motherfucking Tyler. Also: hot. And she just misses the Doctor again, coming in at exactly the same spot the Doctor and Donna were in just seconds ago. Oh, Rose.
In her next shot, we see her very much the same way as we had left her in Turn Left - older, harder, apparently caring less for what is going on around her. But if you look at it, it's just something she learned from the Doctor - that sometimes, the bigger picture is more important. In that moment, the bigger picture is her mission of finding the Doctor - besides, what could she do under the circumstances anyway? And yet, she's not the Doctor. She's still Rose Tyler, and when she sees a couple of adolescents looting, she's not gonna let that happen. Because unlike everyone else who heard the window crash and didn't do anything about it? She cares. Rose Tyler is all about the small picture. She shoves her gun in their direction because she knows it will work, and she says "Do you like my gun?" not because she's a crazy gun-manic, but because she's still Rose Tyler, and even if the world is ending? She'll save it, and she'll stop some looters along the way, and she'll do all that with a spring to her step that may not be quite the same as the fun she was having saving the universe with the Doctor around, but it's still there.
I love Rose's interaction with Donna's family. It's almost like you can watch her unwrap her layers of Warrior!Rose. My heart just broke for her as she tried to get through to Harriet, who she was so genuinely excited to see, and failed. I felt for her so much as she just stands there with her phone, whispering "Find me, Doctor. Find me." And you just want him to, you know? You want them to find each other again so much. And the look on her face as she finally sees him, and yet, he doesn't even know she's there. "Doctor, it's me. I came back." Oh, Rose. Kudos to Billie Piper for still managing to break me. *wraps the Doctor and Rose up in each other*
The Doctor
Firstly, I would just like to say that I do not approve of the Doctor's hair in the opening scene. It has that thing with the sides being too short and the front being to spiky going on again. That is all.
"The thing is, Doctor, no matter what's happening - and I'm sure it's bad, I get that - but Rose is coming back. Isn't that good?" - "Yeah." And the Doctor's grin at this just melts polar ice caps across the universe, and will only be surpassed when he actually sees her again. She matters to him so much, and yet he will go through the events of this episodes the same way he has been going through his life for the last two years - always running, stomping, saving the universe, never stopping for breath, because stopping would mean remembering her and thinking of her. But she's too close now, and she is all he thinks of now. When he gets the subwave call, he misses her; it's Rose he hope is coming in as the signal that turns out to be Davros. Even if he still can't admit it, even if he still can't believe that she came back to him when she's standing right in front of him, light years away.
But then he does believe it, and they run towards each other, and it truly is like the biggest romance you've ever seen, only even better, and it's perfect. The way both their faces light up as they see each other - yep, I cried. I've seen that scene dozens of times now, and I still cry with happiness every time. I've never seen the Doctor run faster, ever, and the joy and the love in his face at seeing Rose again are just the most wonderful thing to witness. I totally give it up to David Tennant here. Rose's Theme plays as they run towards each other, and it's not just Rose's theme; it means home, and that's exactly what this is: they've found each other again, and they've finally come home, both of them.
The LOLS
- Saturday! Good. I like Saturdays. Hah! So do I, Doctor. So do I.
- "No broken bones. Slight loss of dignity. No change there, then." Oh Ianto, please never stop being snarky. On a more shallow note - GDL's got a bit of a chubby look going on there, doesn't he? I do not approve.
- "I wish you would just stop giving me that fanfare!" So say we all, Sarah Jane. So say we all.
- I kind of love that Richard Dawkins came on for his little stint. I mean, I think he's a bit crazy and I don't like him (and I am speaking as a firm atheist, people), but I kind of adore him for doing this.
- "Clom's gone? Who'd want Clom?" BWAHAHAHA!
- Davro's metallic claw. Awesome.
- Sylvia thinks a webcam is naughty. POOR WILF.
- Jack flirting with Sarah Jane, and Sarah Jane liking it. :D
- The subwave, and the TARDIS spinning through it towards Earth. Oh, Doctor Who, never change. NEVER CHANGE.
- "Ooh, he's a bit nice. I thought he'd be older." - "He's not that young." BWAHAHAHAHAHA! *pats Ianto*
- "And who's he?" -"Captain Jack. Don't. Just don't." People. He is actually shaking his finger at her.Oh Doctor.
- "I have only one thing to say to you... BYE!" ILU DOCTOR.
Things that make me love this episode even more:
- FAR ACROSS THE UNIVERSE... in moving typeface, like it's the most important thing in the universe. I love it.
- COMPANIONPALOOZA in the opening credits for the win! Man, I wish the Doctor Who opening credits would look like that for every episode.
- TO. BE. CONTINUED. Flying, shining, and with sound effects. I'm going to miss you so much, Rusty.
How many hours to go?