New Who Review #54

The Stolen Earth

This story was pretty good. It's the series finale and everyone is back. We've got daleks stealing planets and a certain someone is in the shadows. It's got all the ingredients to be a massive blockbuster super amazing episode but it just feels ehh. The first part is just the doctor and Donna flying through Space not being able to find Earth. I mean yes sure it's important for the story to progress but it feels like it's fallen short of what it could be. The cliffhanger ending of the doctor regenerating must've been a long week for fans back in 2008 I can't even imagine if that happened now a days with ncuti I would lose my mind. Great acting all round and the music is somewhat creepy too. Overall a good idea and a nice way to end tenants last series but I can't help feeling it could've been better 8/10

Four series of masterful world building coming all together - and it's done so well

Did you know they were actually both wearing a wig in that scene?

where’s the earth?

It's big, it's epic, it's doing a lot of pretty bad ass stuff, and it mostly pulls it all off.  It's cool seeing everything built over the RTD1 era being used in this grand story, and thanks to a lot of careful writing and build-up across Series 4, it all ends up being pretty effective.

It's really cool pay-off that all these missing planets were mentioned and referenced in the episodes building up to this over the series.  That feels rewarding as a viewer, and that rewarding feeling continues as you see all these companions return.  It's good and entertaining television all around.  Great writing, great acting, and even some pretty cool looking visual effects.  The Dalek collection of worlds was pretty well done and a fun premise for a big series finale.