Deleted Doctor Who Scene Turns Heartbreak Into Joy
For many Doctor Who fans, the conclusion of Rose Tyler’s story in “Journey’s End” is bittersweet. She now had a human Doctor to romp around with, but both of them were seemingly stuck on Earth, with no way to roam time and space as they were obviously meant to do. However, a deleted scene from this ep would have turned heartbreak into joy by giving these two their own TARDIS so they could explore the universe together.
Fittingly enough, for this Doctor Who tale of “Journey’s End” to make sense, we need to retrace the beginning of this particular journey. Rose began her time-hopping adventures as a Companion to Christopher Eccleston’s Time Lord, but she didn’t fall in love with the immortal alien until he regenerated into David Tennant (hey, can you blame the gal?).
Fast-forward a couple of years to the Doctor Who Season 4 finale, “Journey’s End,” and Rose gets a somewhat happier ending.
Initially, this culminated in a wrenching Season 2 finale where she was stranded in another universe without the Doctor, and he had to burn up an entire sun to say goodbye, with the communication cutting off before he could say “I love you.”
Fast-forward a couple of years to the Doctor Who Season 4 finale, “Journey’s End,” and Rose gets a somewhat happier ending. Through some timey-wimey shenanigans involving his severed hand, the Doctor ends up with a human version of himself, one who will age and die like normal.
Because this “Meta-Crisis Doctor” made the unilateral decision to kill the Dalek flagship filled with these murderous mechanical monstrosities, he gets a very special penance for committing genocide: exile to the parallel dimension, where he and Rose seemingly go off to live happily ever after.
If this alternate Doctor Who scene had been included in the final version of “Journey’s End,” we would have seen the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose be given their very own TARDIS.
Different Doctor Who fans view this part of “Journey’s End” in different ways. For example, while it’s sweet to see Rose begin a relationship with a version of the Doctor, it is quite literally not the man she fell in love with, having instead all the anger and resentment of Eccleston’s character. On top of that, both Rose and the Doctor are stuck on an alternate Earth, unable to wander the stars as they were always meant to be.
That’s why this deleted scene is so important and should have been included in the final episode. If this alternate Doctor Who scene had been included in the final version of “Journey’s End,” we would have seen the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose be given their very own TARDIS. Our primary protagonist says it best: “The Doctor, in the TARDIS, with Rose Tyler…just as it should be.”
With that being said, we’re with the Doctor Who showrunner in that this deleted scene from “Journey’s End” is certainly canonical in the hearts of most fans.
Interestingly, the Doctor is not alone in this assessment: in his introduction to this Doctor Who deleted scene, showrunner Russell T. Davies claims that he likes to think this event still happened and that the scene might eventually be put back into the episode.
That hasn’t happened and likely never will, but the showrunner actually had good reason to cut the scene he loved so much. This episode (intended to be a proper farewell to both Tennant and Davies) had more endings than The Return of the King, so nixing a long scene filled with Star Trek-style technobabble helped streamline the ep.
With that being said, we’re with the Doctor Who showrunner in that this deleted scene from “Journey’s End” is certainly canonical in the hearts of most fans. After ugly crying at the end of Season 2, most fans wanted Rose Tyler to have the happiest of all possible endings. And that can’t really happen unless she is traveling time and space and not stuck on an alternate Earth so lame that it made Mickey look cool.
