Journey ' s End ( TV story ) Journey ' s End was the thirteenth and final regular episode of the fourth series of " Doctor Who " . It was the second episode of a two - part story , preceded by " The Stolen Earth " . This episode marked the last appearance of Donna Noble as a companion . It also had an open ending , which was quite different to how the previous seasons of the revived series ended ; they each led into the next season ' s Christmas special , but this one did not . However , several issues were concluded : the Cult of Skaro had been completely wiped out in this episode with Dalek Caan ' s death , and the relationship between Rose Tyler and the Tenth Doctor also received closure in the form of a unique regeneration where the Doctor did not physically change , but rather , served as the genesis for a half - human clone . The story also saw the first exploration into how the Doctor ' s self - sacrificial nature caused those around him to perform the same acts , something that would come back to plague him much later on . ( TV : " Face the Raven " , " The Doctor Falls " ) Synopsis . All hell has broken loose ! Davros and the New Dalek Empire prepare to detonate a bomb that will wipe out all of existence . The Tenth Doctor is helpless , and the TARDIS faces destruction . The only hope lies with the Doctor ' s companion s — the " Children of Time " — but Dalek Caan predicts that one will die . . . Plot . The Tenth Doctor ' s regeneration is nearly complete . Donna Noble , Captain Jack Harkness , and Rose Tyler are barely able to watch due to the light . Suddenly , the Doctor directs the rest of the regeneration energy into the container housing his severed hand . Rose , Donna , and Jack are confused , as the Doctor has not changed . The Doctor explains that he used the regeneration to heal himself from the Dalek energy blast , but siphoned off the remaining energy that would have changed his appearance and personality into his other hand — a matching biological receptacle . The Doctor says he didn ' t want to change ; Rose is relieved that " her " Doctor is still there and the two happily embrace . Meanwhile , Sarah Jane Smith is covering her head with her arms , waiting to be exterminated by the Daleks , but with flashes of blue light , Mickey and Jackie appear beside the car and they blast the Daleks to pieces . Sarah gets out of the car , shocked , but immediately hugs Mickey . He jokes , " Us Smiths got to stick together " . Jackie introduces herself , but asks , " Where the hell is my daughter ? " Over at Torchwood , Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones shoot at the Dalek , raging . But they notice something strange and they cease fire . They walk forward cautiously and see their bullets hanging in the air , as if stopped by an invisible wall . Gwen reaches out slowly to touch it — she can ' t , but her finger makes a ripple in the air ; it ' s a time lock that their deceased co - worker Tosh was working on . However , while the Dalek is locked out , they ' re locked in . Elsewhere , a patrol of Daleks have found the TARDIS . Inside , the Doctor prepares to take off with his companion s to figure out a strategy . However , right as he throws a switch , the Daleks uses a temporal loop to make the TARDIS powerless . They then take it to the Crucible . Upon arrival , the Supreme Dalek orders them to depart the vessel . Jack thinks they are safe because of the extrapolator force field the TARDIS has , but the Doctor points out it ' s not working : " Right now that wooden door is just a wooden door " . The Doctor , Rose , and Jack exit . However , Donna becomes distracted by the sound of a heartbeat and , while she is looking back , the TARDIS door slams closed . The Doctor demands that Donna be released . The Supreme Dalek denies responsibility and the Daleks dump the TARDIS , to be destroyed in the centre - core of the Crucible , a ball of Z - neutrino energy . The TARDIS plummets down and begins to burn up . As the TARDIS interior explodes , Donna collapses near the severed hand . She hears the heartbeat again and touches the container , and energy flows between it and her . The hand bursts out of the container , and forms into a duplicate of the Doctor , who quickly dematerialises the TARDIS . A view of the TARDIS in the core is shown to Jack , Rose , and the Doctor , who believe Donna and the TARDIS to have been destroyed . Sarah , Jackie , and Mickey lay down their guns , allowing themselves to be captured and taken to the Crucible in order to find the Doctor . Martha Jones says her goodbyes to her mother and uses the Project Indigo device to take her to Germany , where one of five Osterhagen stations is hidden , and awaits contact from the other bases . Aboard the Crucible , Jack creates a distraction by shooting the Supreme Dalek with his revolver , but the Dalek Supreme promptly shoots him down . The Doctor and Rose are taken to the vault where Davros is held . Rose is desolate ; she doesn ' t know she made Jack immortal as the Bad Wolf and that his immortality has allowed him to escape . In the TARDIS , the new Doctor has dressed himself in the Doctor ' s blue suit and has finished repairing the interior from its damages . He rambles on about how they have to be quiet — " not even drop a spanner " . Donna then asks if Time Lord s can multiply like this — " Chop off a bit and grow a new one " . However , the new Doctor explains that there has been nothing like him before . He then notices that he only has one heart , like a human ; he ' s not too pleased with this , saying it ' s " rubbish " . Donna tells the " spaceman " to watch what he says , and the new Doctor tells " earth girl " the same . Both of them are shocked by this ; he ' s absorbed some of Donna ' s mannerisms . He then begins pondering what Davros could be doing with the planet s . With the Doctor and Rose contained , Davros explains that the twenty - seven planets form an energy pattern amplified into a " reality bomb " , able to break apart the electrical forces holding everything together , down to the last atom , a creation Davros calls " the apotheosis of my genius ! " Mickey , Jackie , and Sarah have been taken with many other humans to a testing of the bomb , but they escape the test chamber just in time ( unlike the other humans , who vanish out of existence ) . The effect of the bomb is shown to the Doctor . Both Doctors are horrified and realise how it works . But that isn ' t the half of it : the wavelength that the Reality Bomb produces , amplified by the twenty - seven planets , will break through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every single corner of creation . He proclaims it is his ultimate victory : " The destruction of reality ITSELF ! " Jack finds his way to Mickey , Sarah and Jackie , and , with a warp star from Sarah , 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 the Daleks a second chance . She vows to use the Osterhagen key to detonate twenty - five nuclear warheads in strategic locations under the Earth ' s crust to destroy it and disable the reality bomb . The Doctor is horrified that Earth would ever construct what is essentially a giant self - destruct button . Jack and the others then contact Davros and threaten to destroy the Crucible with the warp star . The Doctor objects again and asks where they even got a warp star . Sarah steps forward and claims responsibility . Davros then interrupts her , recognising her face , and gets nostalgic , recalling how Sarah was on Skaro at the very beginning of his creation . Sarah retorts that she learned to fight since then and demands that he free the Doctor or be destroyed by the warp star ; however , seeing all his friends willing to go to such extreme measures gives the Doctor pause . Davros notices this and tells the Doctor that this is what he does to people : the Doctor may be a man who never carries a gun , but he turns ordinary people into soldiers in his war ; he is told that his " Children of Time " have been transformed into murderers , noting that one had already sacrificed herself opening the subwave network . The Doctor is then shocked to learn from Rose that Harriet Jones died to ensure he got to Earth . Davros then asks the Doctor how many other people have died for him and / or in his name , and the Doctor is reminded of River Song , Astrid Peth , Jenny and many others who gave their lives to help the Doctor . Davros laughs that this is his final victory over the Doctor , by showing him his true face . The Daleks lock on to their respective positions and transmat Martha , Jack , Mickey , Jackie , and Sarah to the vault where the Doctor and Rose are being held captive , thereby preventing them from using any of their devices to stop the Daleks . The Daleks then prepare to activate the reality bomb to 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 . Each tries to destroy Davros and the Daleks using a weapon created by the new Doctor , but both are stunned by shots of electricity from Davros ' robotic hand before they can use it ; Donna is sent flying while the new Doctor is put in a forcefield . Despite the revelation that Donna and the TARDIS survived , the Doctor is glum because the reality bomb is still counting down . The Doctor and his companions helplessly watch in horror as the reality bomb ticks down to 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Nothing happens . Suddenly an alarm blares . Everyone looks over to see that Donna has used the controls to disable it . She gives a long technical explanation as to how she did it ; this is astonishing because ordinarily , Donna " can ' t even change a plug " . 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 — she is the DoctorDonna the Ood saw coming . She explains that the meta - crisis that created the other Doctor had also affected her , but the effect had lain dormant , needing a little spark to start it — " Thank you , Davros ! " Donna and the new Doctor free the others and , with the help of the original Doctor , disable the Daleks . They start to send the planets back to their proper time and space . The Daleks are left literally spinning round in circles , thanks to Donna . The Doctors then get to work and use the magnetron to send all the planets back to their correct places . Davros attempts to stop them only for both Jack and Mickey to hold him at gunpoint . Turning to Dalek Caan , he demands to know why he didn ' t foresee this . From Caan ' s maniacal cackling , the Doctor suggests that he " did " see it . Caan admits that he had seen the Daleks for what they were , had seen all the evil they caused across time and space , and secretly aided the Doctor in their destruction , declaring " No more ! " The Supreme Dalek descends to the vault and accuses Davros of betraying the Daleks . Though Davros insists that Dalek Caan is the traitor , the Supreme Dalek declares that he will destroy them all and fires at the Doctor , striking the machinery . Jack swiftly destroys the Supreme Dalek , but the shot he fired has destroyed the Magnetron , leaving the single remaining planet , Earth , stranded . Getting an idea , the original Doctor races into the TARDIS to replace the broken machine . Realising that Dalek Caan has seen the end of the Daleks , has been manipulating time to achieve this , and knowing that , even without the Reality Bomb , the Daleks can " still " take the universe by force , the new Doctor uses the remaining machinery to destroy all the Daleks and their fleet . All around them , Daleks and their ships begin to self - destruct . The original Doctor is outraged at the new Doctor . The companions flee into the TARDIS . When the original Doctor offers to save Davros , he refuses . Gesturing at the destruction around them , Davros shrieks back , " Never forget , Doctor , " you " did this ! I name you forever ! " You " are the Destroyer of Worlds ! " — an epithet the Daleks have long associated with the Doctor . Davros howls in fury as the flames surround him , while Caan ominously predicts again , " One will still die . . . " . Unable to save either of them , the Doctor flees into the TARDIS just before the Crucible is destroyed . The Doctor comes up with a plan : he ' ll use the energy of the Rift as a rope and the TARDIS as a " tow truck " to move the Earth back where it belongs . With the help of Torchwood ' s Rift Manipulator sending the energy , Mr Smith roping it around the TARDIS and K9 supplying Mr Smith with the TARDIS ' base code , the Doctor is ready to go . However , he has a surprise for his companions . He explains to his companions that the reason that he has so much trouble piloting is that a TARDIS is normally piloted by six people , and he has had to do it all on his own . He lets Sarah , Rose , Mickey , Martha , and Jack help him pilot while his clone , Donna , and Jackie watch — he specifically did not want Jackie to help , aware that she is not known for her intellectual prowess . The Doctor flicks a switch and , wonder of wonders , the TARDIS begins to fly ( more smoothly than it likely has in its entire life ) with the immense Earth following behind . In Bannerman Road , Luke holds onto K9 and cheers as the room shakes , Ianto and Gwen holler in delight in the trembling Torchwood Hub , Sylvia and Wilf frantically try to stay on their feet and Francine takes cover beneath her kitchen table . With Donna and Jackie watching , the Doctors and companions work the controls until , with a great shuddering halt , the Earth stops and begins to spin on its own , with the Moon hovering in to resume its own orbit . As the Children of Time celebrate in the TARDIS , Wilf , Sylvia and Francine revel in the sunlight and Earth celebrates its return home . With Earth back in its proper place , the Doctor ' s companions leave the TARDIS . Sarah points out that the Doctor considers himself a lonely man , but he has the biggest family on Earth : his companions . She then leaves , concerned about Luke . The next to leave is Jack , but before he goes , he is stopped by the Doctor — " I told you , no teleport " — and has his vortex manipulator disabled yet again . Martha leaves with Jack , who tries asking her to join Torchwood . Mickey also departs . He had initially stayed in the parallel world to be with his grandmother , but she has since passed ; he now wants to stay in his home dimension , though he ' s guessed that the Doctor will be sending Rose back to her parallel world . Using a closing rift , the Doctor returns Rose and Jackie to the parallel world and leaves the new Doctor with her . The original Doctor explains that by destroying the entire Dalek race , the new Doctor has committed genocide . He sees the new Doctor as similar to himself after the Time War ( " full of blood and anger " ) , and says that Rose had made him better . The new Doctor explains that having only one heart , he will age as a human and not regenerate ; he could spend that one life with Rose . Rose , upset that it ' s still not the same as having the original , asks both Doctors the words that the Doctor was unable to say to her when they last parted . The original Doctor refuses to actually say then , only responding , " Does it need saying ? " By contrast , the new , half - human Doctor , having the same memories and feelings as the proper Doctor , whispers them into Rose ' s ear , and they passionately kiss . The Doctor and Donna quickly depart in the TARDIS and the new Doctor and Rose watch , hand in hand . Returning to their universe , Donna is eager for her and the Doctor ' s next adventure together but finds she has trouble thinking without babbling random facts . The Doctor explains that the human brain cannot take in the Time Lord mentality : if she continues in her current state , she will die as her mind will burn up . In tears , Donna protests that she wanted to continue her adventures with the Doctor as " DoctorDonna " and was willing to spend the rest of her life with him . Saddened , the Doctor says that he is so sorry ; Donna then realises what he is about to do and begs him not to send her back . The Doctor then tells her that they had the best of times . Ignoring her pleas , the Doctor presses his fingers on Donna ' s head , wiping her mind of all her encounters with the Doctor , rendering her unconscious as a result . Back in Chiswick , Wilfred is excited when there is a knock on the door thinking Donna has returned home but his happiness turns to horror when he finds the Doctor outside with her still unconscious , asking for help . The Doctor tells Sylvia and Wilfred everything that happened , and warns that she must never be reminded of her time with the Doctor or she will die . Sylvia tells the Doctor that the Earth ' s journey through space is currently all over the news , but the Doctor answers it ' ll only be a story to Donna — another event she missed . Wilfred is upset that Donna has forgotten all the wonderful things she did , the people she met and the places she visited knowing that she had become a better person for all of them . The Doctor states that the Donna that travelled with him is " dead " , fulfilling Caan ' s prediction . However , he adds that the universe will be singing songs about Donna , who was , for one shining moment , the most important woman in the entire universe . When Sylvia tells the Doctor that Donna is always the most important woman to her , the Doctor makes a point of telling Sylvia to try showing her love more often . As Donna recovers consciousness , she storms downstairs and starts laughing about her being asleep , but to her now , the Doctor is a stranger . She shows no interest in the Doctor and chats on the phone to her friends , who are all talking about the Medusa Cascade incident , to which Donna thinks that her friends were either drunk or that she slept through it . Sylvia tells the Doctor he should leave . Outside , the Doctor tells Wilf that the rain is the result of the atmospheric disturbance created when the Earth was moved back to its proper place but , like everything else , it will end eventually . Wilfred asks the Doctor who he ' s got now , and asks him what happened to all his friends . The Doctor tells him that all his friends now have someone else , and that ' s fine with him . Wilfred promises he will look out for the Doctor every night while he looks at the sky on Donna ' s behalf . The Doctor quietly thanks Wilfred , then returns to the TARDIS ; Wilf solemnly salutes as it fades away . In the TARDIS , the Doctor watches the time rotor as he sets a new course . He tosses aside his rain - drenched pinstripe coat , leans on the TARDIS console , and stares off into the distance ; deep in thought , heartbroken and having never felt so alone . Story notes . Ratings . Journey ' s End gained an overall , consolidated viewing figure of 10 . 57 million viewers in its first BBC1 airing . This placed it as the No . 1 program in the UK across all channels of the week , beating all the Wimbledon finals and all 5 episodes of " Coronation Street " , all 4 of " Eastenders " and all 5 of " Emmerdale . " 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 ) . The episode also achieved an Appreciation Index rating of 91 , tying with " The Stolen Earth " , a number considered unprecedented for a mainstream network drama production . 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 approximately 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 for four weeks after the TV broadcast ( 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 . Among major scenes deleted : the Meta Crisis Doctor ' s connecting the dots between his / the Doctor ' s coincidental encounters with Wilf and Donna , the Doctor ' s farewell to his companions in the park , Rose ' s final question to the Doctor and her subsequent kissing of the Meta Crisis Doctor , and the final scene of the Doctor in the TARDIS , alone . 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 .