Turn Left

Season 4, Episode 11, Aired

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While attending a carnival on the Chino-planet of Shan Shen, Donna is cajoled into having her fortune read, where her past is carefully examined. With the Doctor missing, Donna must work with Rose, a traveler from a parallel universe, to prevent darkness encompassing the whole of the universe.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (45)

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  • In the Top 5 of the entire Dr Who revival series.

    10
    "Perfect"
    By ben-the-hen, Feb 20, 2011
    This has to be one of the best and moving episodes in the entire series.

    Catherine Tate pulled off the performence of the year with this emotional and exhillarating thriller.

    It also sets up a lot for the season finale which if I'm honest, it did it brilliantly.

    When Donna is in the circle of mirrors as she is going to go back in time, it is the most moving and emotional pieces of the series. The acting is outstanding and is one of my all-time favourite pieces of television.

    Also it's clever how they pulled pieces from other stories together and of course the return of Rose Tyler! I was estatic to see Billie back on Dr Who after 2 years.

    Brilliant episode, watch it!moreless

  • The wild Rose

    10
    "Perfect"
    By OscarTorrado, Feb 20, 2011
    I love coincidences and destiny I think that thats part of our lives, the choices we made tha patch we take and the ones that we dont, the people we metand those who we wont ever met, thats whats this episode is, it is about how Donna is an important piece for the the Doctor and how she can affect the world.

    "Turn Left" is a marvelous episode written by the genius Russell T Davies who puts all the elements of the Doctor Who universe in one episode showing us a life without the Doctor and how everything revolves around one particular human: Donna.

    I really loved this episode, the intensity of the performance and how Catherine Tate carries the whole story upon her shoulders, this epidoes was all about Donna.

    I really liked the combination of the two companion Rose Tyler and Donna Noble and how Rosa helped Donna to understand that she is an important person to humanity.moreless

  • Boring, uneventful and a poorly written filler of an episode.

    3.6
    "Bad"
    By Magintz, Feb 19, 2011
    Donna gets to see what the world would be like if the Doctor had never met her and things don't look pretty for the future of Earth. Whilst in this alternate reality Donna begins to feel things aren't quite right and is visited by some familiar faces to help her put things back on track and save the world once again.

    The episode was dull and contained little to do with anything other than to fill the space before the final episode. A quirky episode showing a 'What If...' scenario that showed no enthusiasm or passion; a poor effort for an episode so close to teh series finale.moreless

  • See, I'll give this episode a 10 not just because of Rose ruturn and Donna's almost moving journey in the "turn right universe". That was the first in a few episodes that made me think: "Yeah, this is why I watch this show!"moreless

    10
    "Perfect"
    By enigmangel, Jan 26, 2011
    I liked this episode because throughout the whole 50 minutes running time I was excited and anxious to see what was going to happen. This episode was more emotional and... real from Donna's point of view. We get to see what Donna and the world would have been like if Donna hadn't "turned left". It was mentioned several times even by Donna herself that "she was a disappointment" and there was nobody to say: "No, you are not, you are brilliant!" except for Rose. Maybe this shows that Donna is meant to be with the Doctor, it's is like her mission was to save him and thus save the world in many, many ways... Otherwise she's just Donna. She did not know that then of course. In my opinion the sense of mystery that the show has is one of its greates advantages... what's better in a series than a good mystery? I was sitting on the edge of my seat when I saw Rose actually playing a part in this series since 2006 and especially at the end of the episode when the Doctor said: "What did she say?" looking terrified and all that Bad Wolf scatterings. That was the best moment for me. I know a lot people don't like episodes in which the Doctor has a little part so I guess I am one of the few ones who really enjoy them. They show us how the Doctor affect people's lives, the lives of individuals, their choices, their world. What could have been and what is. To sum up I am really looking forward to see the next episodes - that cute Red Dalek, some mysteries revealed and all the main characters of the show in action with the main goal: "Let's save the world!"moreless

  • If Russell T Davies is prowling the Internet tonight, as these words are being written, then surely he's feeling some sort of vindication.

    8.7
    "Great"
    By vbkzlfie, Jan 11, 2011
    Frequently championed for his story arcs, and yet chastised for his individual episodes, for the second week running he's shown his writing team, and the many assorted critics he's faced, just how it should be done.

    Let's make no bones about this: Turn Left was really, really good.

    It's also the kind of episode you can only really do once in a blue moon, and it didn't take long for RTD to get going. With a fairly poor special effect to kick the shebang off, it's not too long before Donna is separated from the Doctor, courtesy of an insistent fortune teller.

    Of course, this being Doctor Who, and this being before the credits, there's usually danger in the offing, and so it proves to be. Before long, the fortune teller has tracked Donna's life back to a single pivotal decision, about whether to turn her car left, towards a life with the Doctor, or right, towards a life without him. And before you can say Sliding Doors or Back To The Future Part II, her decision is reversed, and much of the episode is dedicated to the resultant repercussions. In fact, the Doctor is shoehorned out of it, only appearing at the start and the end, as the focus is very much of Donna, and what looks like her fatal journey.

    This gives RTD the chance to serve up a bit of a compilation album of moments from the last few years, albeit viewed from a different standpoint, and with very different consequences. Thus, we head back to The Runaway Bride where, without the intervention of Donna, the Doctor dies. We also get a look at what would have happened in Smith & Jones without the Doctor (Martha dies), we find out that Sarah-Jane buys it too, that Captain Jack is on the Sontaran homeworld, that two of the Torchwood team have perished, and that the Titanic from Voyage Of The Damned has crashed into London. Killing pretty much everyone (even American gets it later in the episode, courtesy of - by all things - the Adipose. They'll be delighted about that).

    Thus, Donna and her family who survived only thanks to a winning raffle ticket (for the cheapest-looking luxury break I think I've ever seen) and a bit of advice from Billie Piper (who we're coming to shortly) are sent with other refugees of London up to Leeds, where they're crammed into a small house with many others, some of whom head off, ominously, to a labour camp by the episode's end.

    The upshot of this is that not only does Tate get to flex her acting muscles, pulling off an episode hinged around her really rather well, but it also gives Bernard Cribbins a decent amount to do as well. And heck, could many of the supporting players we've met over the past few years learn something from him. When tears well up in his eyes, as the truck heads off to the aforementioned labour camp, it feels so much more substantial than the shoehorning in of another EastEnders cast-off would have managed. More Cribbins, please.

    Also into the mix, of course, was the returning Rose Tyler. Her job was to pop up at various points throughout the episode and nudge Donna in the right direction in effect, do the Doctor's job and she was mainly kept in the background for much of the time. Was it us, though, or did her speech sound a little off? She'd either had a bad trip to the dentist, or perhaps this ties into the return of the two magical words, Bad Wolf, at the end. She certainly sounded more like the Rose from the end of The Parting Of The Ways (but I can't remember what she wore in that episode, so can't say with certainty about the importance of her outfit) than the one who traipsed around in every other episode, and we wait and see whether this is a deliberate ploy or not.

    But this was, ultimately, an episode about Donna, and one that had the side effect of showing the fragility of the Doctor himself. Because for all the talk of his loneliness, and how the assistants can sometimes end up more as narrative devices than integral parts of a storyline, here we see for certain that without a companion, he's a dead man. As simple as that. The assistants save him, allowing him to save the world.

    It's surely certain too that he'll be companion shopping again come the fifth series in 2010. On the back of Catherine Tate in this episode was not only a ropey looking creature that had leapt straight out of the Davison era of the show, but also a big target, with an arrow above her head proclaiming "Donna's going to die". I'm doubting that too many people were surprised when Rose told Donna that she was going to buy it, and we go into the last two episodes knowing that she's thrown herself in front of a truck to re-alter fate once more. It's one pickle that the Doctor is unlikely to be able to pull her out of, for all the psychic paper in the world.

    But then he has problems of his own. Why did he meet Donna for a second time, and was someone in control of that? Why have more bees gone missing? How can he stave off the coming darkness? And how, for the second time, did he miss the Bad Wolf stuff all around him?

    There were some problems with the episode, it should be said. That strange beetle was the most wholly unconvincing effect we've seen all series, Tate did occasionally threaten to become the version we associate more with her sketch show, and if I was a resident of Leeds, I suspect I'd be writing to Points Of View right about now.

    But this was still an intriguing episode, very well handled. The continual shifts in the tone of the script worked a treat, as every time it looked like things were being allowed to lighten, things once again took a turn for the worse. And it's setting up a potentially corking concluding double bill, for not only the series, but also RTD's four-season story arc.

    I do have a concern that it seems that, well, everything is being thrown into the mix next week, and from the trailer, wouldn't be surprised if Tegan, Nyssa, Romana and Ace were dragged back in there too. Yet make no mistake here: Russell T is on a roll, and this writer at least can't wait to see what's coming next, in the hope that he can make it three cracking episodes on the trot.moreless
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  • TRIVIA (6)

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    • It's interesting to note that Rose now refuses to tell anyone she meets, like Donna and U.N.I.T. her real name. Just like the Doctor.

    • The tone ringing in the TARDIS at the end of the episode is the cloister bell, an alarm bell first heard in Logopolis in the classic series, and last heard in Last of the Time Lords in the current series.

    • In Voyage of the Damned the Doctor said that the Titanic crashing into Earth would kill everyone on the planet. However here it only destroys southern England.

    • Sarah-Jane Smith, last mentioned in "The Girl in the Fireplace" was mentioned in this episode, she is said to have died in the Hospital when the Judoon transported it to the moon, also mentioned to have died are Maria, Luke and Clyde from the spin off The Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as Martha Jones.

    • This episode marks the first mention in Doctor Who of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, two members of Captain Jack's team from Torchwood. Captain Jack previously made a reference to his team in The Sound of Drums, but without mentioning their names.

    • The episode recounts many of the present day events since Donna's introduction, including the Racnoss Webstar from The Runaway Bride, the Hospital on the Moon from Smith and Jones, the Titanic falling to Earth from Voyage of the Damned, the Adipose incident from Partners in Crime and the Sontaran invasion from The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky.

  • QUOTES (18)

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    • Donna: Can't remember, it's slipping away. You know, like when you try to think of a dream and it just sort of goes… The Doctor: Just got lucky, this thing. It's one of the Trickster's Brigade. Changes a life in tiny little ways. Most time the universe just compensates around it, but you… great big parallel world. Donna: Hold on, you said parallel worlds are sealed off. The Doctor: They are, but you had one created around you. Funny thing is, seems to be happening a lot to you. Donna: How do you mean? The Doctor: Well, the Library, and then this. Donna: Just goes with the job, I suppose. The Doctor: Sometimes I think there's way too much coincidence around you, Donna. I met you once, then I met your grandfather, then I met you again. In the whole wide universe, I met you for a second time. It's like something's binding us together.

    • Captain Mogambo: Activate lodestone. Rose: Good luck. Donna: I'm ready. Rose: One minute past ten. Donna: 'Cause I understand now. You said I was gonna die, but you mean this whole world is gonna blink out of existence. But that's not dying, 'cause a better world is gonna take its place – the Doctor's world. And I'm still alive. That's right, isn't it? I don't die. If I change things, then I don't die. That's… that's right, isn't it? Rose: I'm sorry. Donna: But I can't die! I've got a future! With the Doctor! You told me!

    • Rose: It feeds off time, by changing time, by making someone's life take a different turn. Like meetings never made, children never born, a life never loved. But with you, it's… Donna: But I never did anything important! Rose: Yeah, you did. One day, that thing made you turn right instead of left. Donna: When was that? Rose: Oh, you wouldn't remember, it was the most ordinary day in the world. But by turning right, you never met the Doctor and the whole world just changed around you. Donna: Can you get rid of it? Rose: No, I can't even touch it. It seems to be in a state of flux. Donna: What does that mean? Rose: Dunno. Sort of thing the Doctor would say. Donna: You liar! You told me I was special! But it's not me, it's this thing. I'm just a host! Rose: No, it's more than that. The readings are strange, it's like reality is bending around you. Donna: Because of this thing! Rose: No, no. We're getting separate readings from you and they've always been there. Since the day you were born. Captain Mogambo: This is not relevant to the mission. Rose: I thought it was just the Doctor we needed but it's the both of you. The Doctor and Donna Noble together, to stop the stars from going out.

    • Captain Mogambo: (saluting) Ma'am. Rose: I told you, don't salute. Captain Mogambo: Well, if you're not going to tell us your name. Donna: What, you don't know either? Rose: I've crossed too many different realities. Trust me, the wrong word in the wrong place can change an entire causal nexus. Captain Mogambo: She talks like that. A lot.

    • Wilfred: Honestly, you two. There's aliens on the news. They took that hospital all the way to the moon, and you're banging on about raffle tickets! Donna: Don't be daft, Gramps. It wasn't the moon. It couldn't be. Wilfred: Yes, well, I am telling you it is getting worse. These past few years, it is like all of a sudden they suddenly know all about us. There's keen eyes up there and they're watching us and they're not friendly!

    • Rose: What happened? What did they find? Sorry, did they find someone? Donna: I dunno. A bloke called the Doctor or something. Rose: Where is he? Donna: They took him away. He's dead. I'm sorry, did you know him? I mean, they didn't say his name. Could be any doctor. Rose: I came so far. Donna: It could be anyone. Rose: What's your name? Donna: Donna. And you? Rose: Oh, I was just… passing by. I shouldn't even be here. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is so wrong.

    • UNIT Command: Trap 1 to Greyhound 15. What is your report? Over. UNIT Soldier: The evidence says he managed to stop the creature. Some sort of red spider. Blew up the base under the barrier, flooded the whole thing. Over. UNIT Command: And where is he now? Over. UNIT Soldier: We found a body, sir. Over. UNIT Command: Is it him? Over. UNIT Soldier: I think so. He just didn't make it out in time. The Doctor is dead. Must have happened too fast for him to regenerate.

    • Fortune Teller: Turn right and never meet that man. Turn right and change the world!

    • Sylvia: Oh, I know why you want a job with HC Clements, lady. 'Cause you think you'll meet a man with lots of money and your whole life will change. Well, let me tell you, sweetheart, city executives don't need temps except for practice. Donna: Yeah, well, they haven't met me.

    • Donna: (as Rocco is taken to one of Britain's new 'labour camps') It'll be quiet with him gone. Still, we'll have more room... Wilfred: (in tears and horrified) Labour camps... that's what they called them the last time. Donna: Wha'd you mean? Wilfred: It's happening again... Donna: What is?

    • Donna: (regarding the Doctor) If he was so special, what's he doing with me? Rose: He thought you were brilliant. Donna: Don't be stupid. Rose: But you are. It just took the Doctor to show you that. Simply by being with him. He did the same to me. To everyone he touches.

    • Rose: Something's coming, Donna. Something worse. Donna: The whole world is stinking. What could be worse than this? Rose: Trust me we need The Doctor more than ever. I've been pulled across from a different universe because every single universe is in danger. It's coming Donna. It's coming from across the stars and nothing can stop it. Donna: What is? Rose: The darkness. Donna: Well what do you keep telling me for? What am I supposed to do?

    • Donna: You're always wearing the same clothes. Why won't you tell me your name? Rose: None of this was meant to happen. There was a man. This wonderful man and he stopped it. The Titanic, the Adipose, the ATMOS. He stopped them all from happening. Donna: That Doctor? Rose: You knew him. Donna: Did I? When? Rose: I think you dream about him sometimes. It's a man in a suit. Tall, thin man, great hair. Some really great hair.

    • Donna: Don't be so daft, I'm nothing special. The Doctor: Yes you are, you're brilliant. (Flashback to earlier conversation with Rose) Rose: He thought you were brilliant. (Back to Donna and the Doctor) Donna: She said that. The Doctor: Who did? Donna: The woman... Oh, I can't remember... The Doctor: Ah well, she never existed now. Donna: No but she said.. the stars... she said the stars are going out. The Doctor: But that world's gone. Donna: No but she said it was all worlds... every world. She said the darkness is coming, even here. The Doctor: Who was she? Donna: I don't know... The Doctor: What did she look like? Donna: She was... (pauses to to think about Rose) blonde. The Doctor: What was her name? Donna: I don't know... The Doctor: (slightly frantic)Donna, what was her name? Donna: (Thinking) But she told me, to warn you. She said two words... The Doctor: What two words, what were they? What did she say? Donna: ...Bad Wolf.

    • Fortune Teller: I see, a man, the most remarkable man. How did you meet him? Donna: You're supposed to tell me. Fortune Teller: I see the future, tell me the past. When did your lives cross? Donna: It's sort of complicated. I ended up in his spaceship on my wedding day. Long story.

    • Rose: Just remember: when you get to the junction, change the car's direction by one minute past ten. Donna: How do I do that? Rose: That's up to you. Donna: Well, I just have to run up to myself and have a good argument. Rose: I'd like to see that!

    • Wilfred: Sweetheart, come on. You're not gonna make the world any better by shouting at it. Donna: I can try.

    • Donna: Doctor what is it, what's Bad Wolf? The Doctor: It's the end of the universe!

  • NOTES (7)

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    • Overnight UK viewing figures for this episode were 7.0 million, with the final viewing figure at 8.09 million.

    • International Airdates:
      United States: 18 July 2008
      Australia: 14 September 2008
      New Zealand: 21 September 2008
      Turkey: 17 April 2011

    • Lachele Carl's character has appeared in numerous Doctor Who episodes, always credited as US Newsreader or Reporter. This episode marks the first time she is given a credited name, Trinity Wells, although she did appear to have the name Mal Loup (fr. Bad Wolf) in the online BBC American News Reports feed from the episode World War Three.

    • The song that the housemates in Leeds were singing late at night, before Donna entered the room, is called The Wild Rover, a traditional Irish folk song.

    • Billie Piper revealed in interviews that she had forgotten how to play Rose, so in preparation for her return, she watched the entire of Series one and two to get a feel for the character.

    • Chipo Chung who played the fortune teller appeared in an earlier episode of Doctor Who; in the episode Utopia she played the insect woman Chantho.

    • Billie Piper is credited third in the opening credits.

  • ALLUSIONS (8)

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    • Charmed: A Witch In Time This episode bears many similarities to the Charmed episode, A Witch In Time. In that episode, an evil warlock travels back in time, starting a new timeline through his actions. Piper must make a decision, to turn left or turn right to save an innocent. The first time around she chooses left, the innocent is saved, but eventually her two sisters are murdered by the warlock. She then travels back in time, tells the Piper of the original timeline not to turn left, as it was the destiny of the man they saved to die, and to turn right instead. The man dies, the warlock is never sent back through time, and the future Piper vanishes as that timeline ceases to exist, the current timeline restored to normal.

    • Evil of the Daleks: The TARDIS-powered mirrors used to send Donna back in time is a clear allusion to the mirrors that Theodore Maxtible and Edward Waterfield use to create a time portal from the 1967 Dr Who story 'Evil of the Daleks'.

    • Planet of the Spiders: The invisible beetle on Donna's back is a clear allusion to the invisible spider on Sarah-Jane's back from the 1973 Dr Who story 'Planet of the Spiders'.

    • Wilfred: Labour camps... that's what they called them the last time. Whilst it is entirely possible Wilf is referencing the Arbeitslager's of the Nazi regime during WWII, he is almost certainly remembering the effect of Defence Regulation 18B that was enforced in Britain in the same period and allowed for the forced detainment of suspected Nazi sympathisers and 'enemy aliens' in camps, predominantly on the Isle of Man.

    • Coronation Street: Donna Noble shouts at a woman in the street calling her 'Vera Duckworth', Vera is a character in the popular British soap opera 'Coronation Street'.

    • The Sarah Jane Adventures:

      The Doctor refers to the enemy as being part of "the Trickster's Brigade". The Trickster was a time-altering villain featured in the two part "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?" storyline in "The Sarah Jane Adventures". He changed history, causing Sarah Jane to drown at age thirteen, and fed on the chaos caused by her absence.

    • Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"

      When Donna discovers Wilfred singing with the rest of the refugees she joins them and they begin to sing this Queen hit.

    • Bad Wolf: In the episode we see the return of the phrase "bad wolf", which was the main story arc of the first series.

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