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Doctor Who: Turn Left

Billie Piper as Rose and Catherine Tate as Donna
  • Posted at 7:40pm
  • 21 June 2008
  • by WilliamGallagher-RT
  • 14 comments

No question: Doctor Who monsters are scary. Take a look at the new Radio Times survey: vote for which is the most frightening monster and you could win Doctor Who DVDs. But tonight's is the first creature to make me feel ill since 1974. Jon Pertwee's final tale, Planet of the Spiders, had that disagreement between the Eight-Legs and the Two-Legs that might normally have gone our way but for how the Eight-Legs were bloody huge. Thirty-four years later and I just shuddered at that memory - although, true, the fact that it was nearly four decades ago did contribute to the upset.

Tonight's episode, Turn Left, had a huge beetle on Donna's back where the Pertwee tale had a huge spider on Sarah Jane Smith's and it's such a powerful idea. Oversized insects are revolting enough but having them on your back where you can't reach them is sickeningly strong.

Catherine Tate was superb, yet again, throughout the tale but perhaps especially in that ring of mirrors where she could finally see the beetle. And it's not that I want to get away from this image, but oh, look, those mirrors were an idea borrowed from an old story too. Peter Davison's Doctor starred in Kinda in 1982, remembered for having such a tremendous and unusual story that rumours persist the writer's name, Christopher Bailey, is really a pseudonym for either Tom Stoppard or Kate Bush.

But it's also remembered for the cheapest possible ring of mirrors you could scavenge and for co-starring the winner of Worst Plastic Snake, an award that is more hotly contested in Doctor Who than you might imagine.

No cheapness tonight. And if there were these echoes of classic Doctor Who, there were direct references to the new series, too, as we saw how Donna would have fared if she hadn't met the Doctor. That aspect was reminiscent of Love & Monsters, the first Doctor-lite story in the Russell T Davies-helmed series, where Elton (Marc Warren) kept getting caught up in events we'd already seen, like the Auton attack in the very first episode.

Tonight's was a Doctor-lite episode too, but this year things were split: you didn't have the Doctor this week, but you didn't have Donna the week before. As fantastic as Blink was, as much fun as Love & Monsters certainly was, this is surely the cleverest way the show has found of getting around the practical problem of filming enough episodes in the time they've got.

Even if it did mean that, for a moment, Donna Noble became Bugs Bunny. He was forever popping up out of a tunnel, being disappointed at where he found himself, and announcing that he knew he should've turned left at Albuquerque.

Left is good. Left is the best choice. For once, left is, in fact, right.

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Comments

  • Posted on 27 June 2008
  • at 7:54pm
  • by EthnicDarlek

Just one, in how many years? Not to worry I want to see an EthnicDarlek - have you spotted one; believe in non-viloence and great at yoga.

  • Posted on 27 June 2008
  • at 9:53am
  • by Lucy

Just want to point out what people have probably realised but nobody said, not even in Confidential. In the Pompeii episode, when the soothsayer met the Doctor and Donna and he was doing a kind of "I know stuff about you" bit, one of the things he said to Donna was, "there's something on your back". It was clear that it was prophetic and now we know what it was!

  • Posted on 26 June 2008
  • at 7:35pm
  • by PatentDragon

EthnicDarlek, try this season's "Planet Of The Ood". An Asian character got quite a bit of screen time, and a death that featured in the "Live And Let Die" sequence on this week's "Confidential".

  • Posted on 25 June 2008
  • at 10:59pm
  • by EthnicDarlek

Are they any Asians in the future? Haven't seen any in Dr Who.

  • Posted on 24 June 2008
  • at 6:21pm
  • by martin kelly

turn left was fantastic. catherine tate is one of the best companions ever.

  • Posted on 24 June 2008
  • at 9:26am
  • by Markus

Very impressive - the last four episodes to date have been fantastic and i'm so excited about the last two. I wasn't sure about Catherine Tate as a choice for companion but I think she has been outstanding.

  • Posted on 23 June 2008
  • at 7:42pm
  • by Timmeroo

That reminds me: I read a book recently entitled Douglas Adam's Starship Titanic a novel by Terry Jones. Now I see where the Christmas idea came from.

On a technical note, Rose hasn't actually returned yet to 'our Whoniverse'. She will next week and I always thought she would. How else was she to tell about 'the day she died'. But why oh why does R T-D have to let the cat out of the bag yet again. He did it with the RT cover of the Dalek Hybrid when it could have easily been kept over to the next week. Whereas we had only heresay and rumour to go on, we now know for sure that not only is Davros back but so are the rest of the 'spin-off' brigade. Considering he expects the utmost secrecy from his team he doesn't do a particularly good job at keeping schtum himself and blows it all at the last fence - with great pride it seems.

Moving on to another technical point: Turn Left wasn't specifically a DW adventure; it lies similarly in the same camp as that of 'Mission to the Unknown', the prologue episode to The Dalek Masterplan (not that I really remember it). One could say the same for last seasons 'Utopia' which effectively made the last story a three episode arc, and so this will be too. For now I shall remove myself and await comments before persuing this particular debate.

  • Posted on 23 June 2008
  • at 7:37pm
  • by weeolga

Billie Piper has said in an interview that she had to re-watch her old performances as Rose because Rose is a bit of a chav and Billie has played posh birds since she left Dr Who. The beginning of her performance is really Billie doing a poor imitation of old Rose. She shouldn't have bothered trying to (badly) re-create old Rose. She should've just used her own voice, whatever that is. So what if she doesn't glottalise her T's as much anymore? People become more sophisticated as they get older. In many cases, "talking down" is a teenage rebellious put-on rather than an insurmountable reality. The viewers would've accepted that she's grown up and is less chavvy as a result.

  • Posted on 23 June 2008
  • at 2:16pm
  • by tanya

It was a truly exceptional episode. Catherine Tate was superb, the story line was well thought out, and it showed how daring Dr Who has become, and how very strong, that an episode virtually without the central character can be such a good one, with everyone sitting on the edge of their seats in horror at what was happening. But Sylvia was quite right - what has happened to Billie Piper's whole mouth? She looked quite different in the Confidential interview - did she have some sort of gum guard in? I hope they sort her out for next week.

  • Posted on 23 June 2008
  • at 12:50pm
  • by Jen

Excellent episode, really enjoyed it and great performance all round.

  • Posted on 22 June 2008
  • at 9:15pm
  • by Sylvia

I think that the scariest thing in the episode was Billie Pipers teeth. Why was she talking like a Sloane ranger having root canal.

  • Posted on 22 June 2008
  • at 7:06pm
  • by Olaf

For a the Christmas holiday the trees were remarkably green.

  • Posted on 22 June 2008
  • at 2:54pm
  • by Carole

This was a riveting episode. The idea that the simple choices we make could have an effect on others is hardly new, but this choice had monumental implications. It was so well delivered. I wasn't a fan of Catherine Tate at the beginning of this series, but she has surpassed herself. I can't wait for next week.

  • Posted on 22 June 2008
  • at 10:47am
  • by kate

This series has been totally different, with MIDNIGHT and TURN LEFT I think final 2 episodes will be best finale ever seen

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