“Turn Left”
"Donna Noble, you are the most important woman in the whole of creation."
-Rose Tyler
Whilst shopping in an alien Asian marketplace, Donna is lured away from the Doctor via an offer of a free fortune telling session. Through a series of questions about her past, we find out that Donna made a choice that eventually led her to meet the Doctor -while in her car with her mother she had the opportunity to turn right at an intersection towards a new job offering and not turns a future with the Doctor if she turned left.. Using some sort of mind control or suggestion as well as a creature that seems to climb onto Donna's back, the woman convinces Donna to 'turn right' and thusly changing the past and future.
Jump to Christmas 2006: Donna is in a pub with her mates celebrating the season as well as her higher paying job, when the web starship from the episode, "The Runaway Bride," (the episode where she first meets the Doctor) flies overhead and starts shooting up London with it's deadly rays. As the people run in panic, one of Donna's friends can't stop looking at Donna's back, stating, "There's something on your back!" before she flees. In what would be atypical for her character, Donna Noble (not to mention her knowing, sort of, what type of space craft it was) heads (drawn?) towards the destruction. She makes her way to a blocked off section where the police as well as UNIT soldiers are positioned and overhears one soldier's radio communications: the Doctor was killed in the process of defeating the Racnoss and that it happened too quickly for him to regenerate. As if to drill the point home, we see the covered body of the Doctor; his sonic screwdriver dropping from his lifeless hand, carried into an ambulance. As Donna walks away from the scene, as blonde woman runs towards her... it's Rose Tyler! Rose inquires about the Doctor and Donna informs her of the sad news. Donna notices Rose staring at her back, like her friend from before. Rose vanishes while Donna is distracted with what may be on her back.
Jump to 2007, a few months later: Donna is causing a scene because her employer is in the process of sacking her (he claims it's because business is bad as a result of all that craziness from Christmas -hmmm, maybe she should had taken the other job, eh?). While the 'discussion' is going on, there is an incident outside the building: a dark cloud forms over Royal Hope Hospital causing it to vanish -the events from the episode, "Smith and Jones," are taking place. As Donna "quietly" (or not) cleans out her desk, the hospital is returned with only one survivor and it's not Martha Jones. Through the evening news report, we also find out that Sarah Jane Smith was also killed. Feeling out of sync with the events around her (at home and on the news), Donna goes for a walk, witnesses some 'fireworks' in an alleyway then encounters Rose for the second time (technically third or not depending on your view of timey whimey wibbly wobbly stuff). Besides staring at Donna's back again (which Donna states that many people do), Rose suggests that next Christmas, Donna and her fam should get out of London... especially since they are about to win a trip with the raffle ticket Donna had from her last employer.
Jump to Christmas 2007: taking advantage of her prize, Donna and fam (her father has died) go on holiday at a hotel outside of London. On Christmas morning, Donna is distracted by the maid who also notices something on Donna's back. This time, Donna can almost see it. However, there is another distraction that should be of more concern: a replica of the HMS Titanic is falling out of the sky then impacting on the surface -the timeline has reached the episode, "Voyage of the Damned." As a result of this tragedy, all of southern England was affected by the crash/explosion and even France has closed their borders to the refugees. In scenes that are probably very reminiscent of the effects of the Blitz (and loosely to the episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances"), Donna and her fam are forced relocated to Leeds. They are packed into a small house already filled with other families.
Jump to 2008: America, which many in England had hope to come to their rescue, has issues of it's own. 60 million have died as a result of the Adipose children being created, mirroring the events in the episode, "Partners in Crime." While lamenting over their current sitch, as well as singing some modern shanty songs, gunfire is heard outside. The soldiers outside are shooting at the ATMOS installed cars. One soldier orders Donna to turn around and show him her back. Of course, nothing is visible; however, Donna sees another "fireworks" display at the end of the street and heads towards it, meeting Rose Tyler again. Calmly, Rose explains what is going on: the Sontarans, ATMOS and the Torchwood team giving their lives to save Earth (alternate to the events in the episodes, "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky"). Rose tells Donna that all the horrific events that the Earth has experienced were to be prevented by the Doctor. Rose asks Donna to come with her but Donna scoffs at that idea. Rose predicts that she will decide to come with her (as well as Donna's death) then disappears. England seems to be headed down a terrible path: Donna's housemates are relocated to labor camps because they aren't 'English." Not just England or the Earth, the universe is in danger! While stargazing one night, Wilfred notices that the stars are "going out." Donna realizes this is it. She turns and tells Rose, who is already standing behind her, that she is ready.
Rose takes Donna to a UNIT base where the soldiers do not even know Rose's name. At the base, the TARDIS has been salvaged from the bottom of the Thames River and being used to help with the UNIT scientist's (and Rose's) experiments; one such experiment allows Donna to finally see what is on her back: a beetle like creature that feeds off time. Donna freaks out and verbally lashes out at Rose for saying that she was important only because of the creature on her back. Rose shares that both the Doctor and Donna are very important and that Donna needs to go back in time to the moment where she turned right -she must force her past self to turn left. This will cause the events to right themselves (they hope).
Donna ends up a half a mile away from her destination in the past with only 4 minutes to spare. She desperately runs towards her goal until she realizes she will not make it in time. Rose's words about her death flash through her head. She realizes there is only one way to prevent her past self to turn left -she jumps out in front of a truck. As the road right backs up with traffic, the past Donna decides to turn left instead. Rose appears over the dying Donna and whispers a message for the Doctor into her ear.
Jump to the Donna and the fortune teller: the creature on Donna's back falls off and dies with the fortune teller running away in fear. Just then, not realizing anything has gone wrong, the Doctor pops in. As he examines the creature he explains that usually the universe compensates for the time flux caused but in Donna's case, it was a parallel world, which is fading from Donna's memory. The Doctor observes that Donna appears to be some sort of focal point. Donna recalls things that Rose had told her about the stars going out and that all worlds/universes will be affected. The Doctor asks about this woman's name and although Donna could not remember, she does remember the two words Rose whispered to her: "bad wolf." The Doctor rushes outside and sees the words, "bad wolf" everywhere. The pair rush inside the TARDIS only to be greeted by the control room being bathed in red light and the cloister bell sounding. The end of the universe begins.
Commentary
OMIGOD! Wow! Jaw drops a little bit closer to the floor. Chills up the arms, back, spine. Ladies and gentlemen and variations there upon, my goodness what an excellent... superb... amazingly thought out episode! OMIGOD indeed! I do apologize for my lack of constraint when commenting here, but this episode just kicked major butt! Not only do we feature an episode that is devoted almost exclusively to Donna, we get to revisit some older episodes for an example of 'what ifs' in a sort of
Sliding Doors meets
It's a Wonderful Life sceanrio with a little bit of the DW episode "Father's Day" added to the mix. Seriously, other than other genre television shows (sadly, many just plain bad) what other genre on television allows for this much creativity in their storytelling and writing? Can anyone conceive of an episode like this on that or any other typical television dramas? I've made many, many... many (did I say, 'many'?) attempts at getting friends and co-workers to try out this show (as well as other genre shows that I consider well made) and they all seem to be put off by the fact that its "science fiction' or 'not realistic' or any other excuse they can some up with. I believe they do this because they think such shows (again, the good ones as there is a bunch of poo out there as well) are: meant for children, meant for geeks or the storytelling/writing is just poor. While I can understand where they are coming form, I just wish that one would just be able to experience and understand an episode like this. Granted, they would need, in my opinion, to see the entire series to fully appreciate it and maybe that's where the problem lies. Certain shows of this type are serialized and people just can't or won't devote the time involved into watching them. I really wish I could get people to understand... I wish I (and all DW fans out there) were not the only ones to "get it."
Although this is Donna/Catherine Tate's episode to shine, I would be amiss if I did not mention: ROSE TYLER FINALLY RETURNS! It was so wonderful to finally see her (outside of viewscreens and the like), although, and I hate to say this, there was somewhat of a disconnect for me as I've been anticipating this for a long time now. I've seem to have moved on, so to speak, from Rose, but I'm happy none-the-less. Anyone else notice that Billie Piper's Rose in this episode sounds different than she did in the first two seasons (maybe this is why I felt a disconnect?). Sort of reminded me of how Chiana (Gigi Edgley) sounded different in
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars than she did in the series proper.
Beside to all the cast and crew involved, a huge kudos must go out to the amazing performance of Catherine Tate. I recall complaining in the beginning of the season that this was not the same Donna from before. Well, here she is back, big time; however, there is a sense of loss (unknowingly from the character's point of view) with what Donna had matured to. I missed the 'new' Donna in the beginning but this Donna was able to mature in a different fashion, which ended up helping her make the ultimate sacrifice in the end. Although I do believe she would, I would still question whether or not the 'real' Donna would make such a similar choice. It makes sense that this character is the initial focal point as it always comes back to what Donna did to help the Doctor in the episode, "The Runaway Bride." Back to Catherine's acting: my goodness, her reactions to the events and sitches around her, her speech when she is about to time travel... really, who would have thunk (yes, I did use thunk on purpose there are a hundred other errors though, so please skip over this heh)? Kudos!
I'm sorry, so sorry for boring everyone with my camera shot descriptions, but I find certain shots so interesting that I need to share. This time around, the director used a quite common, but fascinating, shot with the introduction of Rose and later, to express what Donna was feeling at the time. When Rose first appears, she runs towards the camera out of focus, towards Donna, who is walking away from the camera. This was a great way to set up Rose re-introduction because literally, she is coming out from the background/shadows and into our universe. Also or note is that Donna is walking away from the events of her first meeting with the Doctor -much like the Doctor and that future is dead to her. The next time this shot is used is during the Noble's stay in the Leeds house. At one point, Donna enters the house and her mum is sharply in focus in the foreground. Donna remains out of focus here, much like the way she feels about the world but more importantly about how she feels about her life and what her mum's opinion of her. Remember what Donna even thinks about herself, "I'm nothing." Little touches like these certain make this episode (this series) shine!
Random musings
Wilfred was wearing two antlers when they checked into the posh hotel! No wonder his daughter wanted him to remove them. This classic bit helps describe the character's personality perfectly!
Donna's mum mentioned bees disappearing! Finally! I wonder where this will lead....
Actress who played fortune teller, Chipo Chung, also played the Master's assistant, Chantho, in the episode, "Utopia."
Another great musical score for this episode. Of note: the initial refugee transport to Leeds and when Donna is prepping to time travel.
Bohemian Rhapsody!!!
Anyone think,
Firelfy, in the beginning?
Loved the tech on Donna jacket! For some reason, it way the whole process was done reminded me of the Terminator.
How exactly is Rose traveling all over the place? Also, Donna observes that Rose is wearing the same outfit so how does this factor in? Does each appearance of Rose just a continuation of the previous appearance? Meaning, is she popping up to visit Donna immediately after the last visit? Could it be that it's different versions of Rose popping in and out of time? How come Rose doesn't need all the gadgetry that Donna requires for her traveling? How does Rose even know where or when Donna is going to be and what actions she will perform (unless she is making more visits than we are shown).
What is it with genre shows and creatures on people's backs? DW has done it before and so has
Star Trek. I guess it's kinda scary because you can't reach it? Also, wasn't too impressed by the bug itself. I dunno, it could had been a little more... ickier? Well, whatever the reason why creatures on one's back is scary, at least it didn't turn out to be something like this:
The Manitou
For some interesting details about the episode, please check out the BBC's fact file for it:
Turn Left fact file. Please note that there are spoilers for future episodes on the site, so be careful what you click on.
Nitpicking
Am I remembering incorrectly, but wasn't the crash of the Titanic supposed to destroy most, if not all, of Earth?
Again, if memory serves, were not the Adipose children supposed to just slowly slip away without any harm to the people taking the pills? Interference from the Doctor was only reason there was a need to activate them in such a large scale.
Not sure why the soldier thought that shooting at the tail pipe would stop the ATMOS gas from coming out. Also, wasn't the Rattigan Academy located right outside of London and therefore, would it not had been destroyed? I'm not going to re-nitpick about the gas burning up in the atmosphere.
Quotes
Donna: "H.C. Clements is in the city. It's nice. It's posh. So stop it."
Donna: "There is a great big, web, star thing shooting at people and you're looking at me!?!"
Donna: "Oh I'll make a scene alright, right in front of the tribunal. The first thing I'm going to say is 'wandering hands.'"
Donna: "Well sack one of this lot. Sack Cliff. He just sits there. Dunno what he does all day. Sorry Cliff. Actually, I'm not sorry. What do you do all day?"
Donna: "Don't tell me: the hospital is back! Well, isn't that wizard!"
Wilfred: "Honestly, you two! There's aliens on the news. They took that hospital all the way to the moon and you are banging on about raffle tickets!"
Wilfred: "Blimey! Now that's what I call 'posh.'"
Donna: "No, but the Titanic? Well don't be daft. Is that like a... sequel?"
Note: Here I wanted to include the quote where Donna lashes out at one of her new neighbors when they are relocated; however, I could not make out all the words at the end. Still a humorous quote and allowed me to research 'Vera Duckworth.'
Donna: "Don't get all chippy with me, Vera Duckworth. Pop your clogs on and go (play whip its?)."
Wilfred: "Ah well. We'll settle in, won't we? Make due. A bit of war time spirit, eh?"
Donna: "But there isn't a war. There's no fight. There's just... this."
News reporter: "60 million people have dissolved into fat and the fat is walking." (later) "The fat is flying."
Rose: "I think you dream about him sometimes. It's a man in a suit. Tall, thin man with some great hair. Some really great hair."
Donna: "The whole world is stinking. How could it be any worse that this."
Donna: "Blond hair might work on the men, but you ain't shifting me, lady."
Rose: "Sorry. So sorry. You're going to die."
Donna: "What is it?"
Rose: "We don't know."
Donna: "Oh... thanks!"
Donna: "I'm ready. Because I understand now. You said I was going to die but you mean this whole world is going to blink out of existence. But that's not dying because a better world takes it's place the Doctor's world. And I'm still alive. That's right, isn't it? If I change things, I don't die. That's right, isn't it?"
Rose: "I'm sorry."
Donna: "What's 'bad wolf'?"
Doctor: "It's the end of the universe."
Ladies and gentlemen and variations there upon, there you have it! So what were your opinions about this episode? Did you like it as much as I did? Comment away!
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