A week may be a long time in politics, but for the millions of fans of Doctor Who, this coming week is likely to be a very long week in the Who-verse. I’m not going to spoil that "To Be Continued" cliff-hanger (and boy, what a cliff-hanger!) at the end of series 4’s penultimate episode "Stolen Earth"; it’s too brilliant a piece of television to want to give the game away. Just watch it and enjoy the episode when it comes your way and gasp along with the rest of the audience. There is no trailer for next week either, so the producers really are keeping everything tightly under their Welsh hats.
What is already well known is that this is the episode which unites Doctor Who with its two spin-off shows – Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures, with the Doctor needing all the allies he can get to fight a particularly fiendish foe. So we see Sarah Jane joining forces with the Torchwood crew led by Captain Jack Harkness, (who, of course can’t resist a bit of flirting even while the world is under imminent threat of destruction), and with Martha who is working for UNIT, and Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister. Oh, and Rose, who has made it through from the alternate universe where she was trapped at the end of the second series, and marches through the story carrying a Great Big Gun, like Xena, Warrior Princess on crack. Each of the companions is integral to the story while cleverly maintaining the integrity of their spin-offs.
"Stolen Earth" is an absolute masterpiece of continuity, paying back the fans who have watched the show avidly over the years and still keeping newer viewers enthralled with a brilliantly paced dramatic storyline which flings itself from Cardiff to Chiswick to New York to the Shadow Proclamation like a mad downhill skiier on the blackest of black runs. You’ve got to hand it to Russell T Davies, he came into Doctor Who with a bang and he’s certainly going out the same way.
But as with all the best Doctor Who episodes, it’s not without plenty of humour. Even the Daleks join in with the chorus of "Yes, we know who you are!" to Harriet Jones’s introduction as the former Prime Minister. And these are no feeble humans. The Doctor has always regarded the human race as special – hence his tendency to point the Tardis towards Earth more than any other planet – and when under threat, these people react with honour and courage and a degree of nobility. Well, other than the general populace who decide that running around screaming is a better response to a Dalek invasion, and the lads who loot a shop because hey, this might be their last chance to own a 32 inch flat-screen TV.
Our heroes though, are just that. They fight to the last man and woman, going out guns blazing, all the while knowing they can’t win.
Or can they? We don’t know – we won’t know until next Saturday! Meanwhile, Russell T Davies grins evilly through the Doctor Who Confidential behind the scenes feature that aired after this episode, claiming that even he doesn’t know how this all ends! Yeah, right, RTD! You may be a genius who has won BAFTAs for your brilliant writing, but oh you can be so annoying…
Sigh. It really is going to be a long week.
© Carole Gordon 2008
Picture features (l to r): Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Noel Clarke (Mickey), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Billie Piper (Rose), David Tennant (The Doctor), Freema Agyeman (Martha), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness) and Catherine Tate (Donna).
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