With such an epic two part story with so much going on it is quite hard to provide a very succinct review but here it goes. The Stolen Earth is actually quite good. The stuff with Martha and UNIT, Captain Jack and Torchwood is really good, and a shame that they are not taken any further. Having a Dalek invasion with attacks on The Valiant is brilliant. Sarah Jane is not totally necessary in this story and the story could work perfectly well without her but Elisabeth Sladen's acting is brilliant though so I am not complaining. Wilf is fantastic in this with his paintball gun. The main problems with this episode is that I do not believe that there is enough of the Dalek invasion but the main problem is Rose. That is what the whole thing is about. I liked Rose is series two (unlike many Doctor Who fans I did not have a problem with that). She is completely unnecessary and the characterisation is completely off and totally unrecognisable. Overall it is very good and I would score this individually:
7/10
Journey's End is the problem. It is awful. Where do I start. Jackie teleporting in with a massive gun seems totally out of character. Davros is brilliant in the first part but not even Julian Bleach's effortless performance could save it from the awful writing he received, RTD is brilliant writer but this is far from his best work. Rose spends most of the two episodes moaning at Martha being totally selfish and it is awful. The Deus Ex Machina ending is absolutely awful. The Daleks are clever (see the 1960s) they would not have a control panel which can stop all weapons, stop the bomb where they keep prisoners. The overcrowded TARDIS scene is just embarrassing with some awful lines given to members of the cast. Donna being the most important person in human history is unnecessary, there would be other ways of getting around it. Donna's characterisation also seems totally off (even when she is not the Doctor-Donna). The Bad Wolf Bay scene just put the icing on the cake, it ruined a totally brilliant ending in Doomsday. This whole story tainted my opinions of Rose. Finally the Donna ending is just a complete copy of the ending of Jamie and Zoe from The War Games and I was more emotionally affected there than I was here (but that may be because they are two of my all time favourite companions). Enough with the awful parts (I have said that a lot) and onto the few good parts.
Martha and Captain Jack are very good in this, as well as Mickey who has really grown as a character and whereas my opinions of Rose have worsened over time, my opinions of Mickey have done the polar opposite and I love how Martha, Jack and Mickey went off together at the end and it is a shame that RTD did not fulfill his original intentions of Children of Earth to have Martha and Mickey to both feature in it. The scene when Davros spoke to Sarah Jane is mesmerising. There are still lots of other bad things I have not mentioned but I do not want to worsen this story even more by picking it apart any further.
3/10
Overall a promising opening part with only a few small problems but totally discredited by the travesty of what was Journey's End. This is not testament to the brilliant writing of RTD who has and went onto write some absolute crackers (Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways, Tooth and Claw, Waters of Mars). In summary:
5/10