Doctor Who Finale Part 3 Recap: “Journey’s End”

But then, Rose continues, all the dimensions of all worlds started collapsing. Even more alarming, she could somehow see that all timelines converge for some reason on Donna. For the gazillionth time, Donna pipes up to remind everyone she’s just a temp. Given how tedious this conversation is, it’s no wonder Jack looks relieved to arrive at the Crucible and face certain doom.

The TARDIS approaches the Crucible, and hey, looks like the Daleks have built themselves a Death Star. Good for them. I wonder if, as Luke Skywalker demonstrated, it’s possible to blow this one up using basic videogame tactics dating back to the Age of Atari. Inside the Crucible, the Daleks surround the TARDIS and order the Doctor to come out.

Still safely aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor explains they’re in a real bind here. This is a full-fledged Dalek Empire at the height of its power, clearly capable of overcoming the TARDIS’s defensive systems. Plus, whatever the Daleks have done to put the TARDIS in lockdown is affecting teleportation capabilities.

While the Doctor and the more capable companions try to figure out what to do, that tell-tale heartbeat thing from last episode starts up again with Donna. “Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.” There’s still no apparent reason for this that I can see, other than the possibility Edgar Allen Poe helped write this episode. And last I heard, after his disastrous season at Nip/Tick, he’d pretty much said “nevermore.”

The Doctor realizes they have no other choice but to go out and meet their Dalek-fate together. “Daleks!” Rose says, and lets out this crazed giggle, which makes me think somebody’s been using the TARDIS to get high when nobody’s been looking.

There’s a really nice moment here where the Doctor looks at each of his companions and reflects on the good they’ve done together, turning to tell each of them how “brilliant” they were. Hearing this, they all beam, like goody-two-shoes students whose teacher has just made them hall monitor.

They exit to find Daleks swarming all around, chanting, “Daleks reign supreme.” To paraphrase Marge Simpson in one of the Halloween specials, for a superior race, they really know how to rub it in.

Just then, the Doctor realizes Donna is still in the TARDIS. Because she’s become distracted by all that thump-thumping, which seems to be coming from the Doctor’s hand aquarium. Hearing the Doctor call for her, she starts to exit, but the door of the TARDIS slams in her face and locks shut.

She shouts at the Doctor, asking what he’s done. Swearing it’s not him, he shouts at the Daleks, asking what they’ve done. The Daleks shrug in response. Or they would, if they had shoulders. Instead, they announce it’s not their doing either.

Suspecting “Time Lord treachery,” they prepare to destroy the TARDIS, sending it through what appears to be the Crucible’s laundry chute all the way down to its hot crispy energy core. Where Donna and the TARDIS will presumably be fried.

The Doctor begs the Daleks to trade him for Donna. Instead, they decide to let everyone share in the fun by screening what’s happening to the TARDIS on a big-screen TV. They even serve up snacks. Popcorn for the humans. And cans of oil and old cell phones for the Daleks.

Inside the TARDIS, things are heating up, with explosions and flames all around. Donna reaches out toward the severed hand. I understand wanting to hold hands in a situation like this, but in this case, it seems both pathetic and slightly ghoulish. There’s a sudden burst of light and energy from the hand aquarium, which shatters. The light surrounds Donna, and for some reason this effect makes me notice for the first time that she’s a dead ringer for Color Me Barbra Barbra Streisand.