I don't think skiffy cut anything from Journey's End, with its 90-minute slot. It was, I believe, said that Caan was manipulating the timelines to make things happen as they did, but how exactly was not clear.

I don't think we'll ever be definitively done with the Daleks; it'd be easy enough to say Caan and/or Davros escaped the final explosion. If anything, I'm a bit sick of 'wiping out' the Daleks, or reducing them to just one two, every single time we meet them in the new series. We know they'll come back, eventually, some day; they're Doctor Who's big monster. If Moffat doesn't want them -- and I doubt even that -- there'll be another showrunner sometday. So why pretend they're all dead, every last one, necessitating some handwavey technobabble explanation later as to how there can be more of them when the showrunner wants them back? (Or, as I was saying to Ken afterward, "I don't see why the Doctor was so upset about the other Doctor committing genocide on the Daleks. Everyone knows you can't actually genocide Daleks.")

I don't even doubt that the Time Lords will someday return, though I don't want it; I'd like to see the consequences of something actually stick for a change. They seemed to pave the way here by saying Caan managed to time-travel back into the Time War, even though that's 'impossible.' Nothing's actually impossible. Crossing universes has been said to be impossible at least three times now.

That said, I do believe the Daleks have been overused. It was dramatic when one came back, and then they were gone for good. It was enh when it turned out the Emperor survived after all and made a bunch of religious whacko Daleks to serve him. It was becoming boring when they showed up for their five-minute war with the Cybermen, and then a few survived that and showed up in New York to be totally unthreatening, and now this... that is just too many Daleks for a show that's only had four thirteen-episode seasons so far. They've been in three of the finales, for heaven's sake.

The crazy Dalek Caan is the one that was pulling the strings.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Dalek_Caan

I am waiting for the master to come back.

I think it was either Doctor/Donna or Daleks manipulating Donna's timeline. Daleks makes more sense.

Yeah, I felt horrible for Donna. And for the Doctor, having to watch her go back to being her former her. At least he (hopefully) straightened her mother out a bit. But she's still going to go back to thinking she's nothing, after having saved the universe, which is horrible.

Good point about the mother issues, although Martha's isn't too bad.

I think Donna would have rather let her mind burn up. She didn't really seem to submit willingly to having the Doctor reboot her. It was the first time Donna had really felt that she *was* something, and that would be very hard to give up.

You can only imagine how much the Doctor values life to go against her wishes like that. Very sad.

But Sweety said there was a significant gleam off a ring that she picked up on their travels somewhere, so he thinks there might be plans to bring Donna back in some way. Not sure how I feel about that.

I guess that the Doctor can be reasonably sure that the rest of his former companions will have future happiness, while that's less than certain for Donna.

Agree.

I wonder what Donna would have chosen, if she'd been given a choice?

I think Donna did understand the choice. She didn't want to go back, but she didn't say, "I'd rather die."

To me, Martha's mother seems fiercely protective of her, which makes her a lot overbearing.