The Earth is teleported away. The Doctor (David Tennant) contacts the Shadow Proclamation, a universal police force, to find it. The Doctor and Donna figure out there are 27 missing planets automatically reorganized into a specific pattern when they come close to one another. Donna (Catherine Tate) mentioning the missing bees on Earth allows the Doctor to find the planet in the Medusa Cascade. The surviving Daleks, led by their creator Davros (Julian Bleach) and the Supreme Dalek (voice of Nicholas Briggs), subjugate Earth in short order. Davros had been saved by Dalek Caan (also Nicholas Briggs) after a temporal shift. Caan’s resulting precognition cost him his sanity.
The Doctor’s former companions, who have met the Daleks, hide in the UK. Martha (Freema Agyeman), Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) are contacted by former Prime Minister Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) through a secret network designed to contact the Doctor’s companions in an emergency. Rose tracks down Donna’s mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) and her grandfather Wilfred (Bernard Cribbins). They attempt to reach the Doctor. Sarah Jane uses her computer Mr. Smith (voice of Alexander Armstrong) and Torchwood members Gwen (Eve Myles) and Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) use the spatial-temporal rift in Cardiff. The Doctor and the Daleks both hear the message, and the Daleks kill Harriet, but the Doctor is able to locate the Earth in a pocket universe.
The Doctor penetrates the pocket universe and receives images of his companions. Davros hijacks the signal and taunts the Doctor. The Doctor lands on the same street Rose is searching and runs to her but is shot by a Dalek extermination ray. Jack teleports in and destroys the Dalek. In the Torchwood Hub, Gwen and Ianto fight off a Dalek invasion. Sarah sets off in her car to find the Doctor, but the Daleks threaten her. Jack helps Rose and Donna carry the Doctor into the TARDIS, where he begins to regenerate. To be continued.
This and the following story take elements from every episode since the revival of the series in 2005, and is a crossover between Doctor Who, Torchwood, and the Sarah Jane Adventures. It had been in planning for at least two years. Richard Dawkins plays himself. His wife was Lalla Ward, who played Romana. Why did the bees leave Earth? They are aliens and knew it was doomed, like the Dolphins in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The Doctor’s phone number in the episode is 07700 900 461, which is a non-existing phone number reserved for dramatic purposes in the UK. 2500 people called it and got a not-in-service message. The episode was adored by the fanbase and approved of by the critics. Reviewers called it bonkers, delicious, audacious, brilliant, silly, exciting, and scary. It received praise from serious science-fiction magazines.