Series 4, Episode 13 | 2 parts | First broadcast: 5 July 2008 | Writer: Russell T Davies | Director: Graeme Harper
Cast
- David Tennant as the Doctor
- Catherine Tate as Donna Noble
- Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones
- Julian Bleach as Davros
Summary
Having cheated true regeneration by channeling the energy into his severed hand, the Doctor rallies his assembled friends and former companions to storm Davros’s flagship and dismantle the Reality Bomb before it can annihilate all existence. In the aftermath, an unexpected human-Time Lord meta-crisis duplicate of the Doctor is created, forcing Donna into an impossible role and ultimately leading to devastating, memory-erasing consequences for her character.
Interesting Facts
- This finale sees the Doctor avoid full regeneration through his severed hand from “The Christmas Invasion,” instead channeling the excess energy elsewhere.
- The story creates a second, part-human “meta-crisis” Doctor, played by David Tennant, who is ultimately left in the parallel universe alongside Rose Tyler.
- Donna Noble’s forced mind-wipe at the story’s conclusion, erasing all memory of her time with the Doctor to save her life, remains one of the most devastating companion departures in the show’s history.
- This episode served as Russell T Davies’s most ambitious “everyone” finale, drawing together the largest ensemble cast in the revived series up to that point.
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