Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: Graeme HarperCast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Bernard Chibbins (Gramps), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Chipo Chung (Fortune Teller), Joseph Long (Rocco Colasanto), Noma Dumzwemi (Captain Magambo), Suzann McLean (Veena Brady), Marcia Lecky (Mooky Kahari), Natalie Walter (Alice Coltrane), Bhaskar Patel (Jival Chowdry), Loraine Velez (Spanish Maid), Clive Standen (Private Harris), Sanchia McCormack (Housing Officer), Terri-Ann Burmby (Woman In Doorway), Paul Richard Biggin (Soldier #2), Neil Clench (Man In Pub), Lawrence Stevenson (Soldier #1), Catherine York (Female Reporter) & Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells)
While visiting an alien planet, a beetle-like insect attaches itself to Donna's back and alters history, throwing her into an alternative existence where she never met The Doctor...Russell T. Davies writes himself a big love letter with "Turn Left", cramming it with winks, nods and some sideways looks at the integral episodes that have informed Doctor Who these past few years. We begin on the alien planet of Shan Shen (an intergalactic Chinatown, based on the décor), where The Doctor (David Tennant) has fun bartering with local stallholders and Donna (Catherine Tate) is persuaded to visit a Fortune Teller (Chipo Chung). The Fortune Teller's true intentions are revealed when a giant beetle-like insect attaches itself to Donna's back and somehow manipulates her history – making Donna turn right at a road junction (and consequently secure a £20,000 dream job) instead of left...
This simple decision alters established history, butterfly effect-style, meaning Donna never meets The Doctor during "The Runaway Bride". Consequently Davies' script spends most of its runtime illustrating how unbelievably disastrous the loss of a Doctor/Donna team-up would be for mankind. Now in an alternate universe of her own forgotten making, The Doctor is killed under the Thames while fighting the Queen of Racnoss in "The Runaway Bride", Martha Jones is asphyxiated when her hospital is transported to the moon ("Smith And Jones"), and the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace, destroying London in a mushroom cloud ("Voyage Of The Damned"). This bizarre catastrophe forces the UK into a not-very-plausible post-apocalypse – where southern English refugees cohabit with ethnic people up north, before the government solves the crisis by transporting all "foreigners" to labour/concentration camps.
Donna wanders through this horrific parallel existence with numb, tearful confusion – perturbed by mysterious appearances of a blonde woman shortly after each disaster – a girl recognisable to audiences as Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). It seems Rose has inexplicably found a way back to our universe (after the events of "Doomsday") and apparently has a plan to correct Donna's timeline and save the world – using The Doctor's unused, dying TARDIS...
"Turn Left" is actually very enjoyable, despite being incredibly dour and depressing for a good half-hour in the middle. RTD clearly enjoys looking at past events from a different vantage point (a trick he employed, briefly, in "Love & Monsters") -- but while it's generally fun and amusing, it's a bit excessive here. Americans wiped out by the chubby Adipose from "Partners In Crime", the planet's ATMOS-powered cars smoking out the population (see: "The Sontaran Strategem"), there's barely a moment that isn't referencing past new Who and its spin-offs (Torchwood's Jack, Gwen and Ianto are mentioned, while Sarah-Jane Smith and her kiddie gang bite the dust according to a news report.)
Away from the onanism of RTD's script, the basic idea behind Donna's situation eventually gets on-track and builds to a fairly exciting climax (via a makeshift time-machine, courtesy of UNIT) and a last-minute sting of recognition from The Doctor when a "two word" message from Rose is delivered – in an agreeable, spine-tingling echo of season 1's big revelation. However, the underlying mechanics of "Turn Left" turn to mush under scrutiny, the return of Rose wasn't explained (she just appears from an off-camera blue flash), and it made no sense that Rose would even know what's going on with Donna – let alone how to put things right! Well, unless the next two episodes add some vital information we're missing here.
So, suspension of disbelief is required and nitpickers will have a field day with the all flaws in its logic. But, even so, "Turn Left" is punchy and entertaining on a basic level and Catherine Tate shoulders this Doctor-lite episode incredibly well. Indeed, Tate's well-judged reactions to this "what if?" scenario are good compensation for the storytelling deficiencies, and she overshadows the much-trumpeted return of Billie Piper – who gives a comparatively two-dimensional and bland performance. In her first scene finds Piper even has problems deciding on the right accent! Piper herself admitted finding it hard to remember how to play Rose, and her inability to get back in the saddle is apparent. I just hope she pulls herself together for the last two episodes.
Overall, there's a lot of stuff I had issues with, but "Turn Left" certainly had a sense of pace and built to a decent, effective conclusion. Rose's big return was underwhelming, but I liked the idea of an invisible parasite that can change its host's personal history, some of the call-backs to old episodes earned a good reaction, and there was plenty of juicy foreshadowing (not least for Donna's strange relevance in The Doctor's life). However, like "Utopia" last year, this is really just a stretch and flex before the two-part finale next week. A finale that throws everything and the kitchen sink into events, judging from the trailer...
21 June 2008
BBC1, 6.40 pm
