"Doctor Who" Turn Left (2008)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Graeme Harper

Writer:

Russell T. Davies (written by)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (2005)

Original Air Date:

21 June 2008 (Season 4, Episode 11)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

What would happen if Donna never met the Doctor? How would Earth handle the Racnoss, the falling Titanic or the Sontarans? Aided by a familiar blonde time traveler, Donna corrects the alternate time line from happening. |

Plot Keywords:

Titanic | Parallel Time | Lottery Ticket | Telescope | Alternative Reality

Cast

David Tennant	...	The Doctor
Catherine Tate	...	Donna Noble
Billie Piper	...	Rose Tyler
Bernard Cribbins	...	Wilfred Mott
Jacqueline King	...	Sylvia Noble
Chipo Chung	...	Fortune Teller
Joseph Long	...	Rocco Colasanto
Noma Dumezweni	...	Capt. Magambo
Bhasker Patel	...	Jival Chowdry
Clive Standen	...	Private Harris
Suzann McLean	...	Veena Brady
Natalie Walter	...	Alice Coltrane
Neil Clench	...	Man in Pub
Marcia Lecky	...	Mooky Kahari
Catherine York	...	Female Reporter

Runtime:

49 min | 45 min (50 episodes)

Company:

BBC Wales

Trivia:

When examining the Time Beetle the Doctor states that it's something to do with the Trickster's Brigade. The Trickster first appeared in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" (2007).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When we see the flashback of Donna making the wrong turn, this event is 6 months before she meets the Doctor, and that event is December 2006. The flashback then relates to a time of July 2006 and the reg of the car is 56 - a reg not available until September 1st 2006.

Quotes:

Woman in Door-Way: Used to be a nice little family living at Number 29. They missed one mortgage payment, just one, they got booted out. For you lot!
Donna Noble: Don't get all chippy with me, Vera Duckworth. Pop your clogs on and go feed whippets!

Movie Connections:

References "Torchwood" (2006)

Good episode with a stunning ending

Russell T. Davies continues to provide more quality than I expected after last week's excellent episode in "Turn Left", a story that occasionally shocked me with its brutality and darkness (when Wilf says: "labor camps. That's what they called them last time", I literally shivered). The script starts out kind of iffy but improves drastically, packing quite a punch by the end of the 49 (!) minutes.

Graeme Harper did a nice job directing this one, good work all around keeping the episode moving at a swift pace. The ending is certainly quite powerful with Donna's sacrifice and all, but the cliffhanger sort of steals its thunder, packing a punch not dissimilar to "Utopia" last year.

While this week had the decency only to destroy cities in an alternate universe, it appears the final two-parter will feature plenty of good old-fashioned NewWho city-destroying. What's wrong with a smaller scale, really?

Billie Piper was a bit off, I trust she'll be back in good form for the finale. I do hope it's good.

7/10 for this one.