Sunday, November 17, 2013

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Turn Left





Doctor Who: 
Turn Left  
By Russell T. Davies

“I can’t die. I have a future with The Doctor.”

Turn Left is the story that quite a few were waiting for in Series 4 and that was the return of Rose.  Billie Piper has returned to portray Rose once again.  What makes this story, and it is a pretty good one at that, interesting is that it is a what if Donna turned left like her mom wanted her to instead of turning right like he she did.  It is a story based solely on Donna’s decision and it has bad effects on the planet Earth. 


Just like Midnight this story is centered on one person and it is not The Doctor.  In fact it is a story that explores what happens to the world if The Doctor had in fact not survived his encounter with The Racnoss and never have met Donna Noble.  Like The Master said, “The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bares thinking about.” Well Turn Left is that story and well things are grim for good old planet earth.



Turn Left was a pretty good story that gave the supporting cast a bigger role to play.  It was good to see Donna’s mother and grandfather have something to do besides the occasional chat with Donna when she was Earth bound.  It was good seeing Donna interact with her family and the hardships they would end up enduring because of the decision she makes for example living in a home with other families when London was destroyed by the Titanic space ship. 


I liked the interactions between Donna and Rose.  It was interesting to see Rose trying convince Donna that she had to do something to set things right since her timeline and decision changed history.  It was as if Rose was manipulating Donna to go back and change things back.  Rose went so far as lying to her and telling her things would be ok when in reality the future Donna would end up sacrificing herself.



It was good to see to see RTD do something different.  Usually alternate reality or what iff stories are not all that great or entertaining but Turn Left did not fall into that category.  Turn Left was really good and it was interesting to see the ramifications of what happens when The Doctor is taken out of the timeline and what he saved ends up being destroyed.  When Catherine Tate was introduced as the new companion I was hesitant and not really for her being the companion.  Her performance in Turn Left and the series in general has made me a believer and a fan of her.  It made me see that Donna Noble is the best companion so far in the rebooted Doctor Who. 
Grade B



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