Harry -
That was some heavy stuff. Kind of timely, but deeply grim. I've not been looking forward to watching "Turn Left" again, and it was just as bleak as I remembered.
Sarah -
We watched "Turn Left" over a month ago, shortly before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
Harry -
Yeah, things have gotten in the way of our marathon of late. But we are still here!
Sarah -
I’m still not sure I’m ready to discuss it, but we’ve got to get through it.
On the positive side, it’s a well-crafted episode, from RTD’s script to Graeme Harper’s direction. The cast is amazing, especially Catherine Tate. Everything else is heartbreaking.
On an alien planet, Donna meets a fortune teller who launches her into an alternate timeline where she has never met the Doctor. Every day that was saved by the Doctor is undone - the Racnoss Webstar attacks London, Sixty million Americans are killed when they turn into Adipose babies, ATMOS covers the planet in a toxic fog and the Torchwood team dies trying to stop the Sontarans, and Sarah Jane Smith’s death is reported. NOT SARAH JANE!
Harry -
During the Judoon action on a hospital in London, medical student Martha Jones is also killed. Not Martha! Incredibly bleak, and it keeps getting worse for planet Earth.
Sarah -
So much sadness. What else could possibly go wrong? I guess Donna could have a massive beetle on her back, which is creepy as heck and a fanwank Sarah Jane spider callback at the same time.
In the midst of the chaos, Rose returns, looking for the Doctor, who is apparently dead, and reminding Donna about the raffle ticket she bought at work. Surprise, she wins the raffle prize of a Christmas break at a spa in the countryside -- when the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace and a mushroom cloud rises over London. The Doctor wasn’t there to stop it.
Harry -
Following the story through Donna's eyes, the continuous appearances by the mysterious blonde woman were very unsettling.
Sarah -
Right? Who the heck is she and why does she keep turning up? With Chiswick destroyed, Donna, Sylvia, and Wilf become refugees and resettled in Leeds, sharing a house with two other families. Soon, the lovely Italian family they live with is shipped off to a “labour camp.” Can things possibly get more bleak?
Harry -
The point to the story was to show just how many times the Doctor and his friends had saved the Earth, and without him there would be global catastrophes in short order. The story could have been titled "What If?" I don't know if an entire episode of the season needed to be dedicated to this. The story could have been told in future-flash-forwards or something. By the time Rose reveals all and Donna accepts her role in correcting the course of history, I really wanted it to be over, especially when the stars in the sky all started going on. That added an element of cosmic horror to the whole thing.
Sarah -
It’s such an emotionally draining episode. I was absolutely ready for it to be over asap.
Harry -
And then, enter UNIT! Or rather, Rose and Donna enter a secret UNIT location. There, a recovered TARDIS has been wired up for a longshot attempt to send Donna back in time, to the fateful moment where her timeline changed course and set all of these catastrophic events in motion. It makes one's head spin to think of how many insignificant decisions may have altered one's life entirely. For Donna, it was a matter of changing directions at an intersection.
But she's not even sent off with a cheer and a surge of inspiration. Right before the switch is thrown, Donna learns that what Rose and UNIT have put together is essentially a roll of the dice with no certainty to succeed. And by the way, Donna will die so that her parallel self can live.
I don't know at what point in the writing process RTD completely abandoned the notion that Doctor Who is a children's show, but good grief!
Sarah -
It’s horrifying and I don’t think I ever want to watch this episode again. Donna is the hero, but we have to watch her die. And this isn’t even the worst thing that’s going to happen to her this season.
Harry -
Anyway, the roll of the dice leads Donna to put herself in the path of a truck, causing a fatal collision and sending her other self back on the "correct" life path. By the end I felt nothing but grim, hollow feelings for this story. In a parallel universe, maybe the alien fortune teller could have delivered all of this context to Donna through a spell or trance, and let her and the Doctor get on with a merry adventure.
Sarah -
Anyway, it’s over and that’s enough for me.
Harry -
So things aboard the TARDIS are back to normal, but for the two mysterious words that the blonde woman asked Donna to relay to the Doctor: "Bad Wolf." Judging by his reaction, the trouble has only just begun.
Sarah -
It’s careening our way. Ready to wrap up this season?
Harry -
Best Line: the one that stuck with me was Rose's quiet, devastated reaction to learning that the Doctor was dead. "I came so far."
Favourite Moment: This one was an ordeal from start to finish.
Lasting Image: Donna and Rose.
4/10
Sarah -
Best Line:
Donna: "Well, what do you keep telling me for? What am I supposed to do? I'm nothing special. I mean, I'm, I'm not. I'm nothing special. I'm a temp. I'm not even that. I'm nothing."
Rose: "Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation."
Favorite moment: Everyone singing Bohemian Rhapsody
Lasting Image: Donna with the beetle on her back.
5/10
Our marathon continues with Story #198: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End...
