Journey's End (TV story)

"For this is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!"

- Davros

Synopsis
Every universe is in danger as the Daleks activate their master plan to destroy reality itself. The Doctor is helpless, and even the TARDIS faces destruction. The only hope lies with the Doctor's secret army of companions– but as they join forces to battle Davros himself, the prophecy declares that one of them will die.

Plot
The Doctor, after being shot by a Dalek, is regenerating inside the TARDIS while Donna Noble, Captain Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler watch. However, the Doctor transfers the regeneration energy into the container which houses his severed hand. He has healed himself, but chosen not to change his appearance. The TARDIS is transported by the Daleks to the Crucible and rendered powerless. The Doctor, Jack, and Rose leave it, but Donna is distracted because she is hearing the sound of a heartbeat and while looking back, the TARDIS door slams closed. Before the Doctor can free her, the Daleks dump the TARDIS into a waste chute where it will be destroyed in the centre-core of the Crucible. As the TARDIS interior explodes around her, Donna collapses near the severed hand, she hears the heartbeat again and while touching the container energy flows between it and her. The hand bursts out of the container, and forms as a new Doctor, although this Doctor has only one heart and has picked up some of Donna's mannerisms. With his help, the TARDIS escapes destruction and gives the new Doctor and Donna time to come up with a plan.

In Torchwood Three, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones find themselves safely in a time lock created by Toshiko Sato, preventing the Dalek from entering but also preventing them leaving. Sarah Jane Smith is saved from two Daleks by Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler, but in order to follow the Doctor, they lay down their guns and allow themselves to be captured, taken to the Crucible. Martha Jones says her goodbyes to her mother and makes for an abandoned castle in Germany where one of five Osterhagen stations is hidden, and waits for contact from the other bases.

Aboard the Crucible, Jack creates a distraction by shooting the Supreme Dalek with his revolver, but is exterminated by the Daleks; as the Doctor and Rose are taken to the Vault where Davros is held, Jack's immortality allows him to escape. With the Doctor and Rose contained, Davros explains that the 27 planets form an energy pattern that is then amplified into a "reality bomb", able to break apart the forces holding everything together. Mickey, Jackie, and Sarah Jane escape a test chamber just in time where this effect is shown to the Doctor. Both Doctors realize how it works. Jack finds his way to the three, and with a Warp star from Sarah Jane, creates a device that will implode the Crucible. Meanwhile, Martha makes contact with two other bases in China and Liberia. The Chinese counterpart wants to get it over and done with, but Martha, knowing the Doctor, first broadcasts a signal to the Crucible to give them (probably both Earth and the Daleks) a second chance, promising to use the Osterhagen key to detonate 25 nuclear warheads under the Earth's crust to destroy it and disable the reality bomb. However, the Daleks manage to lock onto their positions and transports Martha, Jack, Mickey, Jackie, and Sarah Jane, with the Transmat to the Vault where the Doctor and Rose are also being held captive.

The Daleks prepare to activate the reality bomb that will wipe out all matter in this and every parallel universe through the rifts in the Medusa Cascade, but the new Doctor and Donna arrive in the TARDIS. Both attempt to destroy Davros and the Daleks using a weapon created by the new Doctor but both are stunned by shots from Davros robotic hand before they can use it. The reality bomb countdown reaches zero, but nothing happens; Donna has manipulated the controls to disable it. The Doctor recognises that the creation of the new Doctor has had an unintended side effect: Donna is now half Time Lord herself, sharing the Doctor's intellect. Donna and the new Doctor free the others, and with the help of the original Doctor, disable the Daleks and start to send the planets back to their proper time and space. Before Earth can be sent, the machinery is destroyed by the Supreme Dalek, who is then destroyed by Captain Jack. The original Doctor races into the TARDIS to replace the functionality of the broken machine. Realising that Dalek Caan has seen the end of the Dalek race and has been manipulating time to achieve this, the new Doctor (probably not kept back by guilt due to the influence of Donna's personality) uses the remaining machinery to destroy all of the Daleks and their fleet. The rest of the companions flee to the TARDIS, and while the Doctor offers to save Davros, he refuses, and gesturing at the destruction around them, bellows "Never forget, Doctor, YOU DID THIS! I name you FOREVER: YOU are the Destroyer of Worlds!", while Caan ominously predicts one of the Doctor's companions will die. Unable to save either of them, the Doctor flees into the TARDIS just before the Crucible is destroyed. The Doctor enlists the help of the other companions, making contact with the Torchwood base, and with Luke Smith, Mr. Smith and K-9, help use the TARDIS to return the Earth to its proper place. Sarah Jane says her goodbyes, as well as Jack, Martha, and Mickey, who has decided to stay in this universe. Using a retroactively closing rift, the Doctor returns Rose and Jackie to the alternate dimension and leaves the new Doctor with her. The Original Doctor explains that by destroying the entire Dalek Race, the new Doctor has committed genocide.

Rose asks both Doctors the words that the Doctor was unable to say to her when they last parted. The "Human Doctor", having the same memories and feelings as the proper Doctor, whispers into Rose's ear, and then they kiss.

Returning to their universe, Donna finds she begins to have trouble thinking; the Doctor explains that the human mind cannot take in the Time Lord mental abilities. To save her, he wipes her mind of all her encounters with the Doctor, returning her home and explaining to her family, Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott, that she must never be reminded of her time with the Doctor or else she will die. As Donna recovers consciousness, she shows no interest in the Doctor; he leaves, though Wilfred promises he will look out for the Doctor every night while he looks at the sky. The Doctor then returns to the TARDIS alone.

Cast

 * The Doctor and Clone 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
 * Davros - Julian Bleach
 * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
 * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Luke Smith - Thomas Knight
 * Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh
 * Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
 * K-9 - John Leeson
 * German Woman - Valda Aviks
 * Anna Zhou - Elizabeth Tan
 * Liberian Man - Michael Price
 * Dalek Voice - Nicholas Briggs
 * Scared Woman - Shobu Kapoor

Production crew

 * Dalek Operators - Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, David Hankinson, Anthony Spargo, Gethin Jones

Individuals

 * Those shown in flashback who died for the Doctor are Harriet Jones, Jabe, The Controller, Lynda Moss, Robert MacLeish, Mrs Moore, Colin Skinner, Bridget Sinclair, Ursula Blake (who did not die but was left permanently disfigured and incapacitated), the Face of Boe, Chantho, Astrid Peth, Luke Rattigan, Jenny (who is in fact not dead, but the Doctor is unaware of this), River Song and the Hostess. Strangely, other individuals who died for the Doctor (ie: Gwyneth from DW: The Unquiet Dead) but this could be because there wasn't enough time to fit them in.
 * In spite of all the people that the Doctor remembered, Jenny's "death" appears to affect him the most.
 * Both Rose and the Doctor recognise and reference the familiar resemblance between Gwen Cooper and Gwyneth, whom they encountered in Cardiff in 1869).
 * Rose and Mickey, who previously had an on again, off again relationship, appear to have drifted apart. They do not look at each other, speak to each other, or interact at all, even when they are in the TARDIS together. Mickey does not say goodbye to her (at least not on-screen), though he does say goodbye to Jackie saying he'll miss her "more than anyone", and he tells the Doctor there's nothing for him in the parallel world, "certainly not Rose".
 * Mickey and Jack's initial dislike of each other appears to have been overcome by both men, possibly due to Mickey's growth into a more mature and capable individual.
 * Just before the Doctor is forced to erase her memory, Donna expresses a desire to meet Charlie Chaplin. This is the second finale in a row to have a character state a desire to meet a famous 20th century personality; previously the Doctor told Martha he wanted to meet Agatha Christie (DW: Last of the Time Lords); Christie subsequently appeared in The Unicorn and the Wasp; it remains to be seen if Donna's reference also serves a foreshadowing. As her mind begins to melt down, Donna also references the American comic strip character Charlie Brown.
 * Like Mickey, Jackie seems to have matured considerably during her stay in the alternate universe. She expertly shoots down a Dalek with a large gun, walks into captivity with little hesitation and expresses sorrow and compassion for a woman she barely met. Also she comes to the Doctor and Rose's aid willingly, something she has never done before. When she joined the Doctor in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday she did it by accident and was freaked out by it, but here she comes willingly and on purpose and apparently against what Rose told her to do.

TARDIS

 * This is the first episode where the TARDIS is fully-staffed with six pilots, and the first time it is noted definitively that it was designed for six, after various mentions about it being made for more than a single Time Lord.

Technology

 * The purpose of the Osterhagen key is revealed in this episode.  Martha's key is one of several required to set off a network of nuclear weapons buried deep beneath the Earth's surface.  If detonated, these weapons would trigger the explosion of the Earth.  Each key must be inserted into a control panel at an "Osterhagen station". There are apparently five around the world, but only three need to be manned with a key to initiate the detonation.  Locations seen on screen are Germany, Liberia, China and an unmanned Argentina.  The "Osterhagen Project"  appears to have been in place for decades, according to the German Woman who supplied food to the guards at the German station.  Given the age of the German Woman, and her claim that she knew of the Osterhagen key when she was in London during her youth, the "Osterhagen Project" likely dates to the days when the Brigadier was in charge of the British arm of UNIT.
 * The technology used to emplace the nuclear weapons at the Earth's crust could therefore be linked to the drilling project featured in DW: Inferno''.


 * The Daleks have access to transmat technology.
 * The TARDIS is captured by the Daleks in what they call a temporal prison but what the Doctor calls a chronon loop.
 * Toshiko Sato installed a time lock around The Hub at Torchwood Three.
 * Sarah Jane uses her sonic lipstick in the same manner as the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. This is the tool's first appearance in the main series.
 * The "three Doctors" send the planets back to their original position through the use of a "magnetron". It is unclear if this is an intentional reference to the magnetrons seen previously in the original series (DW: Day of the Daleks, The Mysterious Planet), or just a general reference to real life magnetrons, used to power microwaves, radar screens and televisions.

Story notes

 * Two major scenes were cut from the episode before broadcast:
 * An extra piece of dialogue on Bad Wolf Bay where the Doctor hands his clone a coral-like piece of the TARDIS, telling him to grow his own. When the clone Doctor protests that it takes thousands of years to grow a TARDIS, DoctorDonna provides him with a faster solution, so that Rose and the cloned Doctor can travel through space "as it should be". This was mentioned in The Doctor's Data section of the Doctor Who Adventures magazine, and in the 398th edition of Doctor Who Magazine, Russell T Davies states that it is perfectly fine to assume that this part of the scene did actually occur. The scene is included on the Series 4 DVD Box Set.
 * An alternate ending. After saying goodbye to Wilf, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS, which dematerializes; in the kitchen, Donna hears the sound and there is a brief look of recognition on her face which she dismisses; in the TARDIS, a scanner begins receiving a strange signal, prompting the Doctor to launch into his traditional "What? What!? What." response, after which two Cybus Cybermen suddenly rise up behind him - a cliffhanger. Both scenes were included in the Series 4 DVD set released in November 2008; in his commentary, Davies explains that the cliffhanger ending was dropped in response to comments by a writer with Doctor Who Magazine who stated a cliffhanger was inappropriate after such a sad series of scenes. Unlike most deleted scenes from Series 4, it is not possible to retroactively work the "TARDIS piece" and Cyberman cliffhanger sequences into continuity: the Bad Wolf Bay sequence plays out as one long exchange and no room exists to reinstate the discussion about the TARDIS; and the cliffhanger does not coincide with the opening of The Next Doctor which shows the Doctor not in peril. It is possible, however, for the scene of Donna recognizing the TARDIS sound to be fit into continuity.


 * Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones operates a Dalek in this episode, returning to Doctor Who since his brief appearance as a Cybus Cyberman in The Age of Steel.
 * This was the longest series finale at 65 minutes long, longer even than most of the Christmas specials, except for Voyage of the Damned, which was 71 minutes. This raised some issues with international broadcasts; for example, the broadcast on the CBC in Canada on 12 December 2008 was edited to 44 minutes to fit a regular 60-minute timeslot, with commercials (see below for examples). While the American Sci Fi Channel broadcast aired the episode in its entirety on August 1, it has not since been rerun, instead ending its rotation with The Stolen Earth.
 * Dalek Caan refers to the Doctor as a 'threefold man'. The meaning becomes clear in this episode with both the copy of the Doctor and 'Doctor-Donna'.
 * Once again, as with the previous episode, the opening credits are augmented to include six names, with several overflow acting credits displayed after the opening sequence.
 * This episode marks the first series finale to show a preview of the upcoming Christmas [Special] (2008). After the credits the Cybermen are said to return in the episode. However the episode is unique for being the only series finale in the Russell T Davies era which doesn't end on a cliffhanger (but see above).
 * Graeme Harper's penchant for including a distorted image of a main character is present in this story. Though not included in every single story he's directed for BBC Wales, it's seen often enough to be considered something of a directorial "signature". Similar distortion is achieved through the use of magnifying glasses in Army of Ghosts, The Unicorn and the Wasp, and Utopia, and with mirrors in Turn Left. This time, it's Mickey, Jackie and Sarah Jane that get "the Harper treatment" under a curved window.
 * This story augments the notion that Time Lords have some measure of control over the regenerative process. as seen in Last of the Time Lords. In truth, most regenerations have added at least a little to the general mythos about the process. From the notion that a particular physiognomy could be imposed upon the Second Doctor in The War Games, details have been added about how the process works almost every time one has been depicted. In this case, writer Russell T Davies builds upon his earlier idea that a Time Lord can re-grow whole body parts during "the first 15 hours" following a regeneration (The Christmas Invasion). Here he suggests that a Time Lord can stop the process prior to entering the final stage, provided that he has a matching genetic receptacle into which he can store the energy. However it is not explicitly stated if this method uses up one of the regenerations in the cycle or not due to it not being completed.
 * When the newly created Doctor discovers he's "part Time Lord, part human" he is shocked and reluctant to admit it.
 * The scene where the Daleks are speaking German is possibly a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that Terry Nation based the Daleks on the Nazis.
 * The word "Exterminieren", which the German Daleks use, is not in common use. In the German dubs of the episodes, the word used in "vernichten" literally, "Reduce to nothing"; colloquially, "Destroy"). The full dialogue for the German Daleks is as follows: "Exterminieren! Exterminieren! Halt! Sonst werden wir Sie exterminieren! Sie sind jetzt ein Gefangener der Daleks! Exterminieren! Exterminieren!" This translates as: "Exterminate! Exterminate! Stop! Or you will be exterminated. You are a prisoner of the Daleks. Exterminate! Exterminate!"
 * This marks the departure of Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) and Billie Piper (Rose Tyler). In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Piper was quoted as saying she doesn't see this as a permanent depature. Catherine Tate has no plans to return at the moment, but she has not ruled out a return in the future. Elizabeth Sladen, however, in an interview published after the episode was broadcast, said she doesn't expect to appear on Doctor Who again, although her own spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures would subsequently continue a few months later.
 * This is the third season finale of four to have a character in the TARDIS speaking about possible places to visit before the unexpected departure of a character. In The Parting of the Ways it's the Ninth Doctor speaking of places like the planet Barcelona before regenerating; in Last of the Time Lords, the Doctor suggests visiting Agatha Christie (among others) before Martha announces her departure; in this episode, Donna speaks of visiting Felspoon and meeting Charlie Chaplin before her mind overloads. The only episode to break this pattern so far is Doomsday.
 * Jack has flirted with or shown interest in all of the Doctor's companions appearing in this episode save Donna and Jackie. While he may currently consider Jackie off-limits because of her marriage and her connection to Rose, it is interesting to note that Jack does not pursue the two women who have exhibited the most aggressive attitudes towards the opposite sex, and who would arguably be the most likely to return his advances.
 * The actor credits for Noel Clarke, Camille Coduri, Gareth David-Lloyd and Eve Myles are timed to appear on screen as the respective actors are shown in closeup during the first two scenes.
 * The end of this episode has been voted one of the saddest in the history of Doctor Who by many fans, surpassing the end of Earthshock and Doomsday. It also had one of the largest body counts, with billions and billions of Daleks, a substantial number of Humans and possibly the death of Davros.

Ratings
Journey's End was viewed by 9.4 million viewers overnight, and gained an overall viewing figure of 10.57 million viewers in its first airing. This placed it as the No. 1 program of the week, beating the Wimbledon finals and episodes of Coronation Street and Eastenders. This makes Journey's End the highest rated episode in the 45-year history of Doctor Who, surpassing Voyage of the Damned and The Stolen Earth, both of which ranked second in their respective weeks. However, the episode is not the most-watched episode of the revived series; that distinction belongs to the 13.31 million viewers obtained by Voyage of the Damned (the most-watched episode of all time remains City of Death Part 4 with 16.1 million viewers in 1979, although it only ranked 16th for the week it aired). The episode also achieved an Appreciation Index rating of 91, tieing with The Stolen Earth, a number considered unprecedented for a mainstream network drama production.

Despite the initial acclaim from watchers, critics gave it a mixed reception and the story has been, over time, heavily critisised.

Myths and rumours

 * The week between the cliffhanger ending of The Stolen Earth and the broadcast of Journey's End included some of the most intense fan speculation and media attention in franchise history. The significance of the cliffhanger, which appeared to show the Doctor regenerating, along with previously reported speculation regarding Donna and other characters led to many speculations being circulated on fan discussion boards and the media. Among some of the most notable:
 * That David Tennant was in fact leaving the series, and that leaked photos and other information regarding him being in the 2008 Christmas special (as well as media reports the preceding week that he was negotiating to return in 2010) were either a "red herring" or that the Christmas special was to include a flashback.
 * The true nature of Donna was the subject of much speculation, with some fans suggesting her to actually be The Rani or Romana living under the influence of a Chameleon Arch, or a manifestation of the Master or Davros.
 * Concerning Donna's ring, at the end of the season 4 finale, when the Doctor says good-bye to her it glimmers briefly into the camera. Some fans theorise that the ring is a possible Chamelon Arch containing Donna's memories of her time with the Doctor. It has also been suggested that the ring resembles a ring worn by The Master in a previous episode. Others theorise that the ring is simply large, black, and very shiny.
 * The prediction that a companion would die led some to believe Donna, Martha or Rose would be the ones destined to die (since it had already been reported that John Barrowman would be returning to Torchwood and Elisabeth Sladen to The Sarah Jane Adventures, ruling out their characters' demise.) Ultimately, this was a partial red herring, as it was an aspect of Donna that died, but not the character herself. During Torchwood - Children of Earth, Ianto Jones was Killed.


 * A number of fans have begun to speculate as to whether or not the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor will eventually become to be known as the enigmatic, malevolent Valeyard. The six-issue comic book mini-series IDW: The Forgotten became the subject of related speculation when the final cliffhanger panel of issue #5 featured the unveiling of a villain resembling the clone; ultimately it was revealed that another villain was responsible (although the Doctor still, puzzlingly, refers initially to the character as the Valeyard).
 * The appearance of K-9 was a surprise to many as it had been previously reported that the character would not be appearing in the episode, given the fact the rights to the character are currently held by another party for the planned K-9 television series.
 * It was strongly believed that Harriet Jones was wanting revenge upon the Doctor for bringing down her reign as Prime Minister, so she decided to help bring the Daleks back, and she was in fact the Supreme Dalek. A supposed "leaked script" showed that Harriet Jones was in fact helping the Daleks. This was proved false.
 * The fact that Jack, Martha and Mickey depart together has sparked speculation that Martha and Mickey may appear in Torchwood, possibly replacing Tosh and Owen. The subsequent announcement that Freema Agyeman had been signed by ITV, a rival network to the BBC, to take a lead role in the series Law & Order: London, has reduced the chances of her appearing in Torchwood. She did subsequently take part in the BBC Radio adventure Lost Souls, but that story takes place prior to the events of The Stolen Earth. In his book The Writer's Tale Russell T Davies mentions that he had promised Noel Clarke that he would appear in Torchwood Series 3. Ultimately, however, neither Clarke nor Agyeman appear in Children of Earth, and dialogue in "Day 1" indicates that Martha is still with U.N.I.T, and on her honeymoon

Filming Locations

 * At the end the TARDIS lands in Caerphilly

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * When the spotlight then comes on onto Caan, Rose questions what the creature is. Having seen the true Dalek form before (DW: Dalek), shouldn't she know what it is? (It's not just the Kaled mutant she's asking about, it's also the destroyed Dalek casing, the fact that it is chained up, and that it's cackling maniacally under a spotlight.)
 * If the Doctor under went a regeneration (stopping it short if changing his appearance.) Then surely he would still under go regeneration trauma of some sort. The Doctor states that the process first repairs him then changes him.
 * By destroying every Dalek including the ones on Earth the Doctor would have killed the Dalek that featured in the episode Dalek thus making the events of said episode completely non-existent. That Dalek's dalekanium wasn't receiving power from the Crucible. The Doctor Clone destroyed the Daleks by maximizing the power feeds and blasting them back.
 * If the Reality Bomb destroys every reality, surely the Doctor would have had to prevent alternate reality versions of Davros from detonating reality bombs, lest they destroy this reality as well?(As there is only one version of the Doctor across all realities the time war only happened in 'our reality', so only one version of Davros as part of Time War exist.)
 * If Dalek Caan wanted destruction to come to his race, why didn't he just kill himself rather than doing an emergency temporal shift, rescuing Davros, and allowing Davros to create an entirely new race of Daleks to be destroyed? It was his emergency shift that helped him see what the Daleks were - but by that time, he had already saved Davros, so it was too late to stop him.
 * Some of the scenes used in the flashbacks of people that have died for/because of the Doctor are scenes that the Doctor hasn't witnessed, for example, Harriet Jones's extermination that the Doctor hadn't found out until Davros mentioned it, also in the scene where the Hostess sacrificed herself, the Doctor was in a possessed state. (The Doctor is aware of these individuals dieing, so he has a retrospective moment in response to Davros' statements. The scenes shown are for our benefit, and not necessarily what the Doctor was "picturing" in his mind.)
 * Wouldn't destroying reality change Dalek history, e.g Dalek invasion of Earth. (The Daleks' ultimate goal is to become the supreme creatures in the Universe. Destroying reality would do this, so the existence of any past invasions would be irrelevant to them.)
 * If any mention of the Doctor or the TARDIS would cause the Time Lord consciousness within Donna to reawaken and burn up her mind, isn't the Doctor taking a tremendous risk by letting Donna see him in the Nobles' house? The Doctor said tell, so seeing him won't kill her unless someone tells her who he is.
 * Why didn't Davros activate a holding cell on Donna when he did with everyone else? Donna did not figure in the prophecy as related by Dalek Caan - who would have hidden her role from Davros- and so was unnecessary as a witness to events. Besides, chances are she would have been breifly incapacitated when she crashed into the wall, so Davros may not have thought it neccessary. Also, Davros didn't place a holding cell on Martha, Mickey, Jackie, Sarah and Jack, who ,inseed, was told to stand down.
 * The DoctorDonna immobilises all the Daleks but yet the Supreme Dalek descends to the vault and destroys the Magnetron. The Supreme Dalek is twitching as it descends. It probably had a personal backup power source.
 * Doctor Donna incapacitates the Daleks by manipulating keys. Why are there keys that could only be manipulated by hands on a Dalek vessel? Davros has humanoid hands he could have used to keys. Some Daleks have claws instead of plungers.
 * When the Earth was returned to its rightful position, the moon is seen to be still in its place (it did not travel with the Earth as we must assume the satellites and the rift did) and presumably resumed orbit. Wouldn't it have floated off toward the sun or another planet without the Earth's gravity to keep it in place? The Earth and the Moon actually revolve around the Sun as a unit as they also revolve around each other (as the Earth in much more massive, the center of revolution for the Earth-Moon system is actually beneath the Earth's crust). If the Earth suddenly disappeared, the Moon would continue to travel around the Sun in the Earth's orbit. Granted, recapturing the Moon and putting the Earth-Moon system back together would be an interesting exercise in celestial mechanics, but two Doctors and a Doctor-Donna are certainly up to the challenge. The Doctor acknowledges that the Earth is in for a period of unusual weather patterns, likely caused by the Moon reinstating itself.
 * To get Earth home that quickly they would have been going at the speed of light and as the Doctor explained in The Stones of Blood traveling past the speed of light causes the traveler to arrive at their destination before they left, meaning they could have arrived not to soon after Earth left its original place. (Given the distances involved, it seems unlikely the TARDIS "towed" the Earth through normal space-time. Plus the earth had been missing for quite a long time, so maybe it arrived just after the Tardis dematerialised to head for the Shadow Proclamation.)
 * When the Doctor remembers those who have died because of him, he recalls characters from the Ninth Doctor era, so shouldn't he also remember individuals such as Adric, Katarina and Sara Kingdom, too? (Normal tendency would be to remember the most recent ones first. Whether they cross his mind at all or not in those few seconds is of course unknown. From a storytelling perspective, it makes more sense to include flashbacks to recent guest stars.)
 * When the Doctor Donna seals the vault how is the Supreme Dalek supposed to descend upon it? (The Supreme Dalek has the authority or codes to override the seals.)
 * The Dalek sealed in the time bubble at Torchwood should not have been destroyed when the other Daleks were. It would have been insulated from all events occurring in time. It is unknown how a time lock functions.
 * If the Medusa Cascade has been taken a second out of synchronization with the rest of the universe (as stated in The Stolen Earth), then how is the Reality Bomb detonation supposed to affect anything outside the Medusa Cascade? (The signal that was sent to the Doctor by Torchwood managed to reach the normal universe, so the reality bomb can as well.)
 * How can the TARDIS tow the Earth back home if the Medusa Cascade has been taken a second out of synchronization with the rest of the universe? (Given the distances involved, it seems unlikely the TARDIS "towed" the Earth through normal space-time.)
 * Why was Davros not shocked to see that Jack was alive after being exterminated? (He was not present for the actual extermination, hence didn't necessarily know he had been shot.)
 * Wouldn't Donna see something on the news about the Earth moving and burn up? (As the Doctor said, she'll think it of a "Donna Noble story where she missed it all again". By the end of the episode, she was already discounting her friend's account of the story on the mobile phone.)
 * Why hasn't Caan been given a new "casing" after being damaged in the Time War? The disdain that the Daleks show for him is apparent, calling him "The Abomination" it is likely they did not consider him a Dalek.
 * If the Reality Bomb could destroy all universes then wouldn't a reality bomb from a different universe then destroy the Daleks? The reality bomb does not target Daleks otherwise their bomb would destroy them.
 * Gwen and Ianto use their guns against the Daleks knowing that bullets won't harm them. However, Torchwood does have more advanced weapons, as seen in Something Borrowed. (Gwen may not know where some of the more powerful weapons are or have the strength to lift them.)
 * In Doomsday, when someone used a dimension jump device, they stayed in the same location as they were before they jumped. So, surely, when Mickey and Jackie travelled from their parallel universe, they should have been teleported to the Earth's original location, and ended up jumping to where the Earth used to be? Also, what a coincidence that they landed just where Sarah Jane was about to be exterminated? It's very possible they've had time to perfect the technology. Also, Rose was on the planet. For all we know they were tracking her location and altered their transit system / reality jumping devices to compensate for the move of the planets. (Location in Space is relative. The two Earths are linked together, even if the one is moved.) They may have a way of viewing their destination in the other universe before jumping, and thus deliberately jumped to save Sarah Jane. It would also explain Pete's handy rescue of Rose in DW: Doomsday.
 * If the Doctor has a device that can rewrite biology why does he not simply remove Donna's Time Lord DNA but order the TARDIS not to remove Donna's memories of her real self as it did in Human Nature (TV story)? The Arch is used for Gallifreyan biology not Human biology
 * When the Doctor and all his companions are inside the TARDIS at one point Martha looks directly at one of the cameras. (From her point of view she is looking at the Doctor)
 * When a Dalek says "exterminate!" when about to kill Donna, its dome lights do not light up. (When multiple Daleks are on screen, the lights blinking allows the audience to know which one is speaking; it would be a bit of discontinuity not to have them blink even if the Dalek is alone. Traditionally the lights flash on the syllables, so the lights should have blinked 4 times for "exterminate".)
 * Towing the Earth at light speed would cause a lot more than shaking on Earth. (As mentioned above, it's not literally "towing". Given the distances involved, it seems unlikely the TARDIS "towed" the Earth through normal space-time.)
 * The Supreme Dalek shows the Doctor, Rose and Jack a screen of the TARDIS in the core, surely they would have seen the TARDIS dematerialise. (They saw the TARDIS sink into the core, and it dematerialises at the moment they were expecting it to disappear due to its destruction.)
 * Why didn't the Doctor remember Bliss if he remembered the rest of the Abzorbaloff's victims? Bliss was placed on the Abzorbaloff's behind, so the chance of seeing her was slim.
 * Sarah Jane Smith claims her son Luke is 14 when he was grown as an adolescent about a year ago. (Luke is consistently referred to as his equivalent biological age throughout SJA, however, presumably for convenience rather than retelling his entire creation story every time.)
 * If this (very public) event happened in 2009, why does Henry van Statten not recognise the Dalek in 2012? (There is a good chance that Henry van Statten had seen the Daleks during their invasion. But considering that the Daleks decided to simply declare extermination then proceed to perform the invasion rather than actually publically announce themselves in detail. As a result, it is unlikely that members of the general public were even aware of the Dalek's motives and who they actually were.)
 * Before Donna loses her memory, there are flashbacks of her adventures which are seemingly parts of her memory. But one of the flashbacks is from the parallel world created around Donna, which she had trouble remembering when the timeline was mended. It's einterly possible, that during the process in which her memories were erased, the Doctor purposefully brought some fleeting fragments of Donna's time in the alternate reality to the forefront for him to erase.
 * Why do none of the Daleks in this episode or the previous one possess force fields? Since Gwen and Ianto's bullets do not effect them, it is likely that they did have forcefields, but there weren't any of the usual slow motion shots that showed them.
 * Why do the Daleks need the entire human race alive for one experiment? Couldn't they have just got a small and unintelligent animal, and test it on that before the plan goes into action?. It is only one experiment, and the Humans are an enemy of the Daleks, and an ally, and favourite race of the Doctor, so it is not that extreme that Daleks would test it on the Humans, and why would they test on animals when they have Humans to terrorise. Because the Doctor says the Daleks fear him (DW: The Parting of the Ways) and wouldn't risk him catching up to them. Also, the Daleks are 'slaves' to logic (DW: Destiny of the Daleks) and wouldn't risk keeping a planet alive that are full of 'pests' that they know have caused interference with their plans. Also the planet itself may have been integral to their plans and why not start with the humans as they have most likely been the most recent planet taken.
 * If the TARDIS translates everything for anyone who's been in it, why didn't it translate for Martha when she first arrived in Germany? Because the Tardis was not on earth at the time, and Martha could speak German.
 * Why does the Doctor have to remove Donna's memory after the Human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis and not the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor's? When the Doctor says there has never been a Human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis before now saying that Donna knows why, which she responds "because there can't be", he proceeds to wipe her memory of him. If "there cant be" why can the Time lord-Human survive yet the Human-Time Lord can not? The reason why the Human-Time Lord cannot survive is because her human brain can't handle the expanded consciousness of a Time Lord. A Time Lord, however, could easily handle a human consciousness without ill effects.
 * When Martha and Jack leave we can clearly see them heading off. However when Mickey is about to live, they are both out of the picture and when Mickey heads off for them two they are seen in the scene again

Continuity

 * In the classic series, the Dalek stories after Genesis of the Daleks revolved in some manner around Davros, exploring the tenacious but ambivalent relationship between the Daleks and their creator. From this and the previous story it would appear that the civil war between the 'Imperial' and 'Renegade' Daleks (Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks, plus the audio stories) has been resolved with Davros leading a united empire against the Timelords.
 * When the Doctor sees Gwen Cooper for the first time, he asks if she comes from a long line of family from Cardiff. This is because of the similarity between Gwen and Gwyneth (DW: The Unquiet Dead), both of whom are played by Eve Myles. Which is explained by Russell T Davies as:"It's not familial as we understand it. There's no blood tie. Spatial genetic multiplicity means an echo and repetition of physical traits across a Time Rift."
 * This is the first occurrence of the Doctor's TARDIS being piloted by six people, that number first being specified in NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible. This is the first on-screen confirmation that TARDISes are designed for six pilots; this retroactively serves to explain the Doctor's difficulty in correctly piloting the craft dating back to the very first season in 1963.
 * This episode marks the last appearance of the Tenth Doctor's severed hand which first appeared in DW: The Christmas Invasion and throughout the first season of Torchwood. The Doctor makes reference to losing it in the swordfight against the Sycorax leader, and indeed this is the first time Rose has seen the severed hand, since the Doctor didn't retrieve it from Jack until after her departure.
 * Davros mentions meeting Sarah Jane at the birth of his creations; this happened in DW: Genesis of the Daleks.
 * Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler last appeared in DW: Doomsday.
 * Donna tells the Doctor how to fix the Chameleon Circuit which has been broken since DW: An Unearthly Child. The Sixth Doctor had previously attempted this in DW: Attack of the Cybermen, as had the Fourth Doctor in DW: Logopolis. Dialogue in Rose and Boom Town implied he was no longer interested in changing its external appearance and rather liked the police box form, plus in the QuickReads book, Made of Steel, The Doctor talks about fixing the Chameleon circuit, but says he would be worried about forgetting what it looked like.
 * The fact a single TARDIS has enough power to relocate Earth harks back to DW: The Mysterious Planet which established that approximate 2 million years into the future the Time Lords will once again move Earth to another part of the universe, where it will come to be known as Ravolox.
 * This is the fourth time a Doctor has been depicted in a way to suggest he was unclothed (Though, this time, not the actual Doctor). The first time was in Spearhead from Space in which a newly regenerated Third Doctor took a shower. The second was during the regeneration from the Seventh to the Eighth Doctor, where he was merely covered by a sheet. The Ninth Doctor appeared shirtless during the torture scene in Dalek.
 * Gallifrey is mentioned again.
 * The Doctor tells Wilf that he's "fine" after he drops off Donna. This echoes a similar statement in Forest of the Dead which Donna interprets as meaning the complete opposite.
 * The Verron Soothsayer, who gave Sarah Jane Smith the Warp star, was mentioned previously in SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
 * The device created by the Meta-Crisis Doctor looks similar to the device used against the Daleks in (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks) and that device was similar to one the Third Doctor built on Spiridon in (DW: Planet of the Daleks)
 * Jack introduces Gwen as Gwen Cooper. This is the first on-screen confirmation that Gwen has not changed her last name to Williams, per the events of TW: Something Borrowed, or maybe she has but Jack and the members of Torchwood and her friends still call her Gwen Cooper
 * "The Dream of a Normal Death" is heard again as the Doctor remembers the people who have died in his name, and again as he pilots the TARDIS at the end of the episode. This was first heard at the end of The Family of Blood when John Smith and Joan are holding the watch and seeing the future.
 * An interesting and speculative tie-in might be made with Genesis of the Daleks. In Genesis the Fourth Doctor is told by a Time Lord that they, the Time Lords, foresee a time when the Daleks will have destroyed all other life and become the dominant life forms in the universe. Are the Time Lords here foreseeing the success of the Reality Bomb? If so, do the Fourth Doctor's actions to retard Dalek evolution replace that timeline with one in which the Bomb does not succeed?
 * The Doctor again states his aversion to violence, and in particular his horror of genocide. The original Doctor is appalled when his half-human self destroys the Daleks, evil as they are. He recognises however, that the destructive impulse comes from himself. In Genesis of the Daleks the Fourth Doctor likewise has an opportunity to destroy the Daleks, but is faced by a moral quandry.'Do I have the right?' he asks. When Sarah Jane Smith says, 'You can't doubt it! You must complete your mission for the Time Lords', the Doctor replies, 'If I do this, I become like them'(the Daleks). Tellingly, however, he lets the question remain unanswered. The Tenth Doctor would appear to have resolved not to genocide the Daleks, possibly because he appears to have been the cause of the genocide of both the Time Lords and the Daleks in the Time War. In Journey's End Davros points out the apparent hypocrisy of the Doctor's creed of non-violence. 'You take ordinary people and fashion them as weapons', he says. 'How many have died in your name?' In Boom Town Blon Fel Fotch says something similar: 'you keep on running because you daren't look back'. In Resurrection of the Daleks, Tegan, sick of the death that seems to follow the Doctor, leaves the Fifth Doctor acrimoniously. The disturbed Doctor comments, 'it seems I must mend my ways'. In The Runaway Bride Donna, observing the Doctor's terrible power, tells him, 'you can stop now!' Later she says, 'you need someone to stop you'.The Doctor himself is aware of his power and it terrifies him. In Journey's End he is seen to recognise the truth of Davros's reproach.
 * Davros' apparent last words are "Never forget, Doctor, you did this! I name you, forever! You are the Destroyer of Worlds!". "Destroyer of Worlds", as a translation of "Ka Faraq Gatri", was a title which had previously been used by the Daleks to refer to the Doctor. See Aliases of the Doctor.
 * In Genesis of the Daleks, the Doctor tries to convince Davros that the Daleks are dangerous by likening them to a virus that could kill all living forms. He asks Davros, that if he created such a virus, would he unleash it? Davros considers for a moment, before saying that he would do it, that such power would set him up amongst the Gods, confirming his madness. In Journey's End, Davros has created the Reality bomb, a device which will destroy all of reality, and all life forms. Essentialy, Davros has created the very virus the Doctor described.
 * The Meta-Crisis Doctor describes the Human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis as "wizard", in Donna's World, Donna used this same expression when the Royal Hope Hospital returns to Earth.(DW: Turn Left).

For Doctor Who

 * Journey's End occurs after: DW: The Stolen Earth
 * Journey's End occurs before: DW: The Next Doctor and DW: Music of the Spheres (although it can be argued that Music of the Spheres could take place anytime during the Tenth Doctor's life). The events of IDW: The Forgotten take place immediately following the final scene of Journey's End but stories featured in spinoff fiction are of uncertain canonicity.

For Torchwood

 * Journey's End occurs after: TW: Exit Wounds and the radio play Lost Souls
 * Journey's End occurs before: TW: Children of Earth and its prequel radio plays.

For The Sarah Jane Adventures

 * Journey's End occurs after: SJA: The Lost Boy (conjectural)
 * Journey's End occurs before: SJA: The Last Sontaran (conjectural)
 * See The Last Sontaran for discussion as to whether this story takes place before or after these events.

DVD and Other releases

 * Released in the Series 4 DVD boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
 * Released as Series 4 Volume 4 in a vanilla edition alongside Turn Left and The Stolen Earth on 1st September 2008.

Non-UK broadcast editing
Journey's End was broadcast on the CBC in Canada on 12th December 2008 in an extensively edited version, created in order so that the episode, which ran appoximately 65 minutes without commercial interruption on the BBC, could fit into a standard 60-minute time slot with commercials, meaning the episode itself had to be whittled down to approximately 44-45 minutes. The deletion of approximately 20 minutes of scenes renders this version of Journey's End one of the most extensively edited Doctor Who episodes in the entire history of the franchise. The CBC subsequently made an unedited version of the episode available, but only on its website (and the broadcast occurred after Series 4 had been released to DVD in that country).

A partial list of the major edits can be found on the Doctor Who Information Network website here. It was subsequently announced that the CBC was discontinuing its broadcasts of Doctor Who, with the competing network, Space, taking over broadcasts of the series beginning with The Next Doctor and continuing into 2010.

BBC America also aired an extensively edited version of the episode in February 2009.