The Stolen Earth (TV story)

"Welcome to my new Empire, Doctor. It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection - and the triumph - of Davros, Lord and Creator of the Dalek Race."

- Davros

Synopsis
When the Earth is stolen from its orbit and placed in another galaxy with 26 other stolen planets, the Doctor's secret army of allies comes together to defend the Earth from the new Dalek Empire. With battles raging on the streets and in the sky, the Doctor and Donna confront the Shadow Proclamation to find the truth; however, a fearsome old enemy waits in the shadows.

Plot
The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble arive on Earth immediately following the events of Turn Left. They rush out of the TARDIS to find the Earth as normal. They ask a nearby milkman the day and ascertain nothing is wrong.

They re-enter the TARDIS to try and work out what caused the Bad Wolf warnings to appear. Whilst inside the TARDIS shakes violently and the Doctor rushed to the door and opens it to find the TARDIS is now floating in outer space, the TARDIS has not moved however, the Earth has been stolen from underneath them.

Meanwhile on Earth, the Doctor's companions, Sarah-Jane Smith, Torchwood, and Martha Jones all look to the sky outside and see 26 planets, as well as earth all orbiting a common centre of mass inside a nebula in space.

Meanwhile the Doctor and Donna travel to the Shadow Proclamation, manned by Judoon and humanoid females with white hair and red eyes. Whilst there the Doctor discovers that 24 planets have disappeared immediately before their arrival. Donna remembers a number of other planets and moons which they were told had disappeared in earlier adventures, including Pyrovillia and Adipose 3.

One of the humanoid females provides Donna with refreshment and cryptically tells her she is sorry for her future loss. Donna and the Doctor ascertain that in the time before the Earth being stolen, bees were disappearing from the planet which emitted carrier waves to where the planet would be taken to. The Doctor then runs to leave in the TARDIS whilst one of the Humanoids orders the Doctor to surrender the TARDIS to them so that he could lead them to war. The Doctor escapes before the Shadow Proclamation can commandeer the TARDIS.

On Earth, Rose Tyler appears in a high street where widespread chaos and looting is in progress. She enters a computer store and hacks into UNIT computer systems. UNIT detects 3000 space ships approaching the Earth and the UN in Geneva declares an "Ultimate Code Red" as the ships transmit a message to Earth composed of only the word "Exterminate!".

Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood 3 calls Martha Jones in New York with UNIT, whilst her commanding officer orders her to initiate the "Project Indigo". Martha is surprised to learn that Jack knows of the existence of "Project Indigo", Jack explains to Ianto that it is teleportation device based on recovered Sontaran technology, which UNIT are still trying to perfect. Martha and her commanding officer leave the main office just in time to avoid extermination by the Daleks which have arrived on Earth and have begun attacking military installations, including the Valiant which is destroyed by swarming Daleks. Martha escapes to a back room and is ordered to put on a harness which is apparently a prototype device resulting from the "Indigo Project". She is given a device called the Orstenhagen key by her commanding officer and ordered to activate the teleportation harness. She does so and disappears immediately before her commanding officer and his aide are exterminated by Daleks.

Donna Noble's mother and grandfather are hiding in a back alley, armed with a paintball gun, as they watch the Daleks order everyone in the street from their homes. One family refuses to comply and retreats backs in to their home. Three Daleks converge and destroy the house, presumably with the family inside. Donna's family retreat to their own home but are stopped by a Dalek on the way. Donna's grandfather shoots the Dalek's eyestalk with the paintball gun, but the Dalek vapourises the paint declaring "My vision is not impaired!" and prepares to exterminate him. However immediately before it can, Rose Tyler destroys the Dalek with her weapon.

They retreat to the Noble's house as a laptop comes to life with former Prime Minister Harriet Jones communicating with all the Doctor's Companions on Earth by an unnoticeable sub-wave communications network. Torchwood, Sarah-Jane (via Mr Smith) and Martha Jones all communicate via a conference video call. Rose Tyler can only watch however as the Noble's never bought a webcam for their PC.

They establish that everyone with superphones have been unable to contact the Doctor. They together come up with a plan to boost the signal using the power of the rift and the coordination of Mr Smith to break through whatever the interference with the signal is. However the increased power of the resulting signal will make the communication network noticeable and traceable to the Daleks.

Meanwhile the Doctor in the TARDIS has followed the trail to its end and they arrive at the Medusa Cascade, apparently with no way to follow the signal further, the Doctor concludes that there is no way to find where all the planets have gone. The signal from Torchwood breaches the barrier however and begins to ring the Doctor's superphone. He uses the signal to trace where the Earth has been taken to and sends the TARDIS back to the source. He concludes that the Cascade has been placed 1 second out of phase with the rest of the universe and the 27 missing planets appear in front of them.

Meanwhile a shadowy figure inside the Daleks central command orders the Supreme Dalek to patch him to the sub-wave network after sending Daleks to the source of the network at Harriet Jones's house, where it appears she is exterminated off screen. Davros appears on the screen in the TARDIS and declares to the Doctor that Dalek Caan arrived on his ship in the time war after his emergency temporal shift despite the Time War being time locked, succeeding where the Doctor had failed and rescued him from the War. Davros also reveals he has rebirthed the Dalek race by cannabilizing his own body, he opens his shirt to reveal his remains of his exposed organs and skeleton.

The Doctor abruptly cuts the transmission and dematerialises the TARDIS and lands on Earth. Captain Jack gains some information from Martha Jones about the Indigo project which he uses to reactivate his wrist device. He then teleports to the location of the TARDIS but not before telling his Torchwood colleagues that he'll be back for them. He leaves and a Dalek breaks through into the hub as Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper fire machine guns to defend themselves. At the same time, presumably on her way to find the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith leaves Luke Smith under the care of Mr Smith and takes off in her Volkswagen Beetle, only to be stopped by Daleks who reject the concept of apologies or surrender, and prepare to EXTERMINATE her.

Rose communicates to Torchwood in her own universe and tells them to transmat here to the Doctor's location. Rose arrives as the Doctor and Donna steps out of the TARDIS and the two see each other. As they run towards each other a stray Dalek emerges from behind a van and shoots towards the Doctor. It is only a glancing blow but some of the beam hits his arm and sends the Doctor to the ground. Captain Jack materialises and destroys the Dalek with his gun. Together they drag the Doctor into the TARDIS and the Doctor proclaims he is beginning to regenerate, and light begins shooting out of his body.

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Davros - Julian Bleach
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * Harriet Jones - Penelope Wilton
 * Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh
 * General Sanchez - Michael Brandon
 * Dalek (voice) - Nicholas Briggs
 * Judoon (voice) - Nicholas Briggs
 * Judoon Captain- Paul Kasey
 * Paul O'Grady - Paul O'Grady
 * Richard Dawkins - Richard Dawkins

Production crew
to be added

Story notes

 * This episode was the last of Series 4 to have its title revealed.
 * This is the fourth time that the Daleks have returned with a leader in a finale. In The Evil of the Daleks they returned led by their emperor; in the 2005 finale, The Parting of the Ways, the Daleks were led by the Dalek Emperor; and in 2006 finale, Doomsday, Dalek Sec led the Cult of Skaro. The Other Dalek two parter in 2007 Series was shown as the 4th & 5th Episodes of the Series (Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks). The Daleks were the Cult of Skaro.
 * Davros refers to Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Rose Tyler, and possibly the minor companions as The Children Of Time.
 * This is the second time that the Judoon have been seen in the series. The last time was in the previous series in Smith and Jones.
 * The Daleks can dissolve substances that block their vision. They were able to dissolve the paint that Wilf used by his Paint ball gun that was covering their eye.
 * The Doctor starts to regenerate yet again, acting as a cliffhanger.
 * The Doctor first went to the Medusa Cascade when he was a child at the age of 90.
 * Davros and his command ship were lost in the first years of the Time War. Dalek Caan managed to save Davros, at the cost of his own sanity.
 * The "To Be Continued" before the end credits is different from the others previously used. There is also no sneak peek of the next episode.
 * When Harriet Jones contacts Captain Jack, Martha Jones and Sarah Jane Smith, the contact tone is the same tone used by The Master to control the populace under the Archangel network.
 * There is reference to an object called an "Orstenhagen key", but no explanation is given as to it's function, origin or purpose.
 * Dalek Caan predicts the most "faithful" companion will die.
 * For the first time, the opening credits incorporate not two or three names, but six, adding Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman and Elisabeth Sladen to the Tennant, Tate and Piper credits of the previous week. The typeface used for these credits is slightly different than that usually used. In addition, several "overflow" cast credits are featured over the first scene after the opening sequence, a first for the series.
 * The pre-credits teaser runs approximately four and a half minutes; the longest in the series' history.

Ratings
To be added

Myths and rumours

 * The presence of Davros in his episode had been rumoured for a long time before broadcast. An associated rumour suggested that the episode would reveal that Donna was actually Davros in disguise.

Filming Locations
Caerphilly

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * The TARDIS didn't translate the 'Judoon-speak', though the Doctor could understand it. This could have been similar to the Hath. This may also have been done to give a bit of humour to a much serious episode. Later in the episode we can understand the Judoon, maybe it just takes time to work. Maybe it can not be translated into English because there is no English for it, it is clear that it is used as some form of clearance code, or something along those lines. Or perhaps Translations are not used in the Shadow Proclamation for legal reasons.''
 * When Harriet Jones transfers control of the sub-wave network to Torchwood, the map circles an area in Swansea, not Cardiff.
 * When Jones' subwave system seeks out those who have worked with the Doctor, only the companions of the Tenth Doctor are singled out, not other past companions and/or acquaintances who might have worked with previous incarnations. Presumably, Harriet, having only encountered the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, would have calibrated her invention to seek out those who worked with them, and not, say, the Second Doctor; this might also explain why The Brigadier was not one of those contacted. In a similar vein, the absence of Sally Sparrow might be because she never actually travelled with the Doctor.
 * The Doctor is made to regenerate when a Dalek shoots his arm, but when both of Ian Chesterton's legs were shot (in The Daleks) he didn't die.

Continuity

 * This episode marks the first on-screen appearance of the Shadow Proclamation, first mentioned in Rose. This episode reveals that it is an organization, not a treaty.


 * The Medusa Cascade, first mentioned in Last of the Time Lords also plays a key role in the episode.


 * The Valiant last appeared in The Poison Sky to help UNIT with attacking the ATMOS Factory. In this episode, it is seen being swarmed and subsequently destroyed by a huge group of Daleks using 'maximum extermination'.


 * The gun that Captain Jack used to kill the Dalek with was the same gun he used in The Parting of the Ways.


 * Some of the missing planets mentioned are: Calufrax Minor, Woman Wept, Clom, Pyrovillia, Adipose 3, Poosh and Earth. These have all been mentioned in previous episodes.


 * The Doctor previously disabled the teleportation function of Captain Jack's Time Agency wrist strap in Last of the Time Lords.


 * Gwen states that she intends to "go out fighting" like Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato to Ianto after handing him a firearm during the Dalek invasion of Torchwood 3, referrencing to their deaths in Exit Wounds.


 * The Sub-wave network was developed by Harriet Jones, created by the Mr Copper Foundation. Mr Copper was last seen in 'Voyage of the Damned', with a substantial amount of money.


 * The Doctor mentions a previous attempt to move the earth, possibly a reference to the events of The Mysterious Planet (see Ravolox).


 * Jack and Sarah Jane react emotionally when they hear the Dalek transmission, having previously encountered them in Bad Wolf (TV story)/The Parting of the Ways and Genesis of the Daleks, respectively. Sarah Jane displays an additional reaction upon hearing Davros' voice as she also encountered him. Rose encountered the Daleks previously in Doomsday and Martha in Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks. This is Donna's first encounter with them.


 * Once again, Donna is told that she has something on her back. She was first told this in The Fires of Pompeii and it was a major element of the preceding episode, Turn Left.

DVD and Other releases

 * This is due to be released in the Series 4 boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
 * It will be released as part of Series 4 Volume 4 alongside Turn Left and Journey's End in September 2008.