His review both criticised and praised the episode: he summarised the episode as "bursting with a breathless ambition that papered over its occasional cracks"; but lamented that the plot detail felt "muddled" because of how many plot devices were compressed into the episode. Brew thought the ensemble of companions "separated the great actors from the good": he complimented Sladen's and Cribbins's portrayal of fear; and he criticised UNIT, Torchwood, and the Doctor for uncharacteristically admitting defeat. Brew's opinion of Davros and Caan was positive: he thought that "Julian Bleach nailed [Davros]" and the appearance of Davros was "very reverential" to the classic series and that Caan "[added] an interesting dynamic to the Dalek fight". He closed his review by expressing hope that "Journey's End" didn't end like "Last of the Time Lords" and said:   Charlie Jane Anders of the science fiction blog io9 called Davies "the gay Michael Bay" and "wished for the first time that Davies would stay on to produce a fifth season" of "Doctor Who". She "loved all the silly plot devices and loopy plot twists" such as Project Indigo, the Osterhagen Key, the concept of using "every telephone in England" to call the Doctor, and the fact that Davros was unable to cultivate a Dalek army "without slicing his own torso up". Anders praised Bleach's portrayal of Davros for capturing "the character's mixture of curiosity, manipulativeness and mania better than anyone since [...] Michael Wisher". She also commended the "super-heroics" in the episode, such as Wilf's attack on a Dalek with a paintball gun, Gwen and Ianto's final scene, and the "glowing nobility" of Harriet Jones' sacrifice to help the Doctor: Closing her review, she expressed excitement for "Journey's End", saying the final scene left her with a "feeling like [she had] no clue how it could be resolved, even using crazy RTD logic". Dave Golder of science-fiction magazine "SFX" gave the episode four stars out of five. He noted that after two experimental and "edgy" scripts, "The Stolen Earth" used Davies' regular style of "crowd pleasing script pyrotechnics". He positively reviewed the special effects in the episode, Bleach's acting, the pace of the episode, and the cliffhanger, but criticised the Shadow Proclamation for being "a severe disappointment after all the foreshadowing", and some character moments for being "dropped into the action like little 'emotion bombs'", such as Jack and Sarah's "melodramatic response" to the Dalek transmission.