| TURN LEFT by Russell T Davies |
| Story 42 Synopsis: In a market on Shan Shen, Donna is gulled into having her fortune told. She is reminded of an incident where she had two choices, and then persuaded to take the other - which means she never met the Doctor at H.C. Clements, and he died defeating the Racnoss. Subsequent incidents see her lose her job, and then London is devastated. Evacuated to Leeds, she meets a blonde stranger, who tells her she has a role to play. Using an experimental time machine, she is sent back to London, to make her make the right choice. With time running out, she causes a road accident which puts things right, but killing her. Back on Shan Shen, the strange giant beetle on her back, which caused her to change her mind, falls off. The Doctor arrives. Donna gives him a message from the stranger: Bad Wolf. Aghast, the Doctor runs back to the TARDIS... |
| Review:- Another year, another Doctor-lite episode, and one that combines elements from Father's Day and Love & Monsters. A questionable idea... After a brief opening on a ridiculous planet, Donna is soon experiencing a parallel universe, where she never met the Doctor, and consequently, he died. This leads her and Earth into a descending spiral, with aliens stopped at the cost of the Doctor's friends, and Earth hit first by the crashed Titanic spaceship, then the Adipose, et cetera. Finally, Donna agrees to join Rose in saving the day - and thanks to a nod to Back to the Future, she finds herself in the right time and the wrong place. Taking her life in her hands, she finds a way. Intrinsically, this isn't that bad a story, and it does at least put a fresh spin on stories we've already seen in the last few years. The implication that Earth's stuffed without the Doctor isn't really one to be proud of, but as Donna's life gets progressively worse, from unemployment to homelessness, things are understandable. It's not all plain sailing, though. The idea that the crashed Titanic would merely affect London, is shorthand that shortchanges the viewer, denying geographic and scientific logic. Then Leeds becomes a synonym for backward, lower-class life, and the Colasanto family, barely a step up from insidious cliche, are doomed to be sent to labour camps in a clear nod to the millions killed during World War 2. From a show that repeatedly misuses the idea of war (eg the Time War) and a writer whose own views on race and "alien-ness" are shockingly backward themselves, this is a line that should not be crossed, and it frankly points up the cheap, tacky attitude of the whole episode. Whilst Catherine Tate shines (when not written to do otherwise), Billie Piper struggles to reassert herself in a role she hasn't played in almost 2 years. Rose's cropping up is only half-explained, and might as well be magic for all the difference it makes. She merely exists to get the cheap beetle creature off Donna's back, and then tell her "Bad Wolf", setting up a cliffhanger which again tells the viewer what to think, rather than showing them. As if the whole retread nature of the plot wasn't bad enough, bringing up Bad Wolf again is the final kick in the crotch to the viewing audience. The whole story is best typified by Donna's idea to save the day. She kills herself, causing a traffic jam that over-rides her flimsy decision about her job. Since the whole plot hinged on the importance of that decision, causing its correction with such a silly answer is the final damnation of a story that might have been much better, but instead hit all the wrong notes. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |