Turn Left (TV story)

It's coming, Donna. It's coming from across the stars and nothing can stop it...Rose Tyler

Turn Left
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Donna Noble Rose Tyler
Main enemy:	Eight Legs
Main setting:	Shan Shen, London, 2009
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T. Davies
Director:	Graeme Harper
Producer:	Susie Liggat
Release details
Story number:	11
Release number:	4
Premiere broadcast:	21st June 2008

Synopsis

Donna’s entire world collapses, then The Doctor dies. Instead, she finds help from a mysterious blond woman – a traveller from a parallel universe. But, as Donna and Rose Tyler combine forces, are they too late to save the whole of creation from the approaching darkness? And what is on Donna's back?

What if the doctor died before meeting Martha? In this thrilling episode that is answered. With the return of the Judoon, Sontarans and other villains!

Plot

As the doctor and donna have there fortune told "Chino-planet of Shan Shen" Something creeps on donna`s back and the doctor is told that rose is returning to Earth. Heading back to Earth the TARDIS catches fire and time shifts.

Donna (now seperated from the Doctor) is walking round looking for him. It turns out it is Christmas Day (when the Racnoss attacked) and the Doctor is found dead. She meets Rose but they only pass.

Meanwhile Donna meets Martha (who she remembers from the Sontaran episodes) but Martha doesnt know about the Doctor. The hospital is taken and the Judoon kill everyone in it (for holding the fugitive) Donna either escapes or wasn't there.

Donna turns to UNIT to help but they are under attack by Sontarans and she hears reports that the Adipose have killed a third of America's population. She escapes again and finds that the UK is still under the rule of Harriet Jones (as she wasn't replaced by Harold Saxon / The Master).

When martial law is introduced and people are evacuated by UNIT`s surviving members, Donna meets with Rose. They talk and Donna finds out about the thing on her back. As the episode ends Donna is taken to UNIT as the stars go out. The Medusa Cascade opens and the Cruciform (a giant war ship) comes out as rose looks up.

Inside the cruciform Daleks move back and forth as Davros comes out of the darkness. (However we dont see his top half making the fans wait till next week)

Next episode trailer

Daleks attack the world. Rose is being chased by a Dalek and a Red Dalek comes round saying "maximum extermination". As the trailer ends more Daleks are shown with Davros saying "The daleks will exterminate the universe!

Cast

• The Doctor - David Tennant
• Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
• Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
• Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
• Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
• Mr Colastanto - Joseph Long
• Captain Magambo - Norma Dumezweni
• The Fortuneteller - Chipo Chung
• Spanish Maid - Loraine Velez
• Mooky Kahari - Marcia Lecky
• Veena Brady - Suzann Mclean
• Alice Coltrane - Natalie Walter
• Jival Chowdry - Bhasker Patel
• Oliver Morgenstern - Ben Righton
• Mal Loup - Lachele Carl

Production crew

to be added

References

to be added

Story notes

• This episode deals with what would have happened to Donna if she had chosen not to travel with the Doctor, as so is set in a different timeline. Therefore, all the events of series 3 (Racnoss, Judoon invasion, Professor Lazarus' monster) happen again in this episode, with different consequences. (Her life in a paralell universe?)
• In the Next Time Trailer shown at the end of Midnight (TV story), The Doctor is dead, as a U.N.I.T. soldier says "Found a body Sir. The Doctor is dead." He is talking into his walkie-talkie, then The Doctor's hand is shown over a stretcher, and he drops his Sonic screwdriver. In the exclusive clip shown on the BBC site the soldier goes on to explain that the Doctor drowned in the Racnoss lair under the Thames and that it happened too quickly for him to regenerate.
• This is the first story to feature Rose in the capacity of the Doctor's companion since Doomsday.
• Lucius Petrus Dextrus from The Fires of Pompeii says that "she is returning" when seeing the future. This is most likely a reference to Rose's return in this episode, that or davros is a female.
• Billie Piper was seen at the end of Partners in Crime, as well as a short cameo in The Poison Sky and another in Midnight.
• Chipo Chung was last seen in the episode Utopia as the Malmooth, Chantho. She plays a human character in this story.
• This is the 'Doctor-lite' episode of the series, similar to Love and Monsters and Blink, albeit with a much darker storyline.
• A reference to something on Donna's back was last heard in The Fires of Pompeii when Lucius Petrus Dextrus saw into the future 'something on your back' is a back story arc as it has never been mentioned up to this episode.
• In DWM it said that Donna will receive a free tarot card reading and find out something bad is going to happen. When she is receiving it there will also be something behind her lurking in the curtains. The Tarot person will also look for a specific event in Donna's past.
• Part of this episode is filmed in China Town, though not the one in London, but recreated in Cardiff. Chinese people living in South Wales were invited to be background extras via Facebook at the end of 2007. They had to reply to the Doctor Who casting crew with their name and sizes for costumes to be made for them and they were paid approx £70 for the day. David Tennant was seen in 'China Town' when he took time out of filming though staying on location to appear on Blue Peter to appeal to viewers to donate shoes to their Shoebiz appeal.

Ratings

to be added

Rumours

• Davros may be seen in the last few minutes of this episode. Plausible, as it will tie into episode 12, like Utopia (TV story) did in Series 3 (Doctor Who) to start the 1st part of the Finale. (The Stolen Earth).
• Rose is able to cross worlds because of tech developed by her parallel Torchwood, last seen in Doomsday.
• Harriet Jones will appear in either this episode or the next, most likely beacause in this alternate timeline, she was never succeeded by Harold Saxon.
• It comments in DWM that Rose might not be on the same side as Donna. She may have her new worlds best interests at heart.
• We see flashbacks of Donna before the events of The Runaway Bride.
• The Thing on Donna's back is called a Time beetle.
• The time beetle forces donna into a sort of trance were she meets rose and it also makes it appears as if the doctor is dead!
• Maybe, Rose appears to Donna in a dream and guides her, as the Doctor did in Doomsday to her world (Possibly through Bad Wolf Bay, as photos on www.youtube.com show Rose on the beach.).
• The true mastermind of the ill fate that happens to Donna in this episode will be familiar to fans of one of the Doctor Who spinoff shows.
• This epiosde is set in an alternate timeline. Confirmed by "t.v. choice" magazine. Their feature on this episode that Donna recieving a free tarot card reading sets a chain of events in motion that disrupts the timeline.

And according to one interview with writer Russell T. Davies, the fortune-teller "casts a spell" on Donna. And then suddenly we see Donna in a world where she's never met the Doctor. Instead, she meets Rose, who calls her the "most important woman in creation." There's a "circle of mirrors" that Donna has to go back to, to make everything right.[1]

• The Eight legs are is in this episode and an eight leg is on Donna's back.
• History is being rewritten and Donna is the only one able to fix it, Rose is there to help her sort it all out.
• The Time Beetle (the thing on Donna's back) may prevent Donna from ever having met The Doctor, causing him to be killed when flooding the Racnoss Base instead of escaping.

Filming Locations

"China Town" Recreated in Cardiff

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

to be added

Continuity

• In The Sontaran Strategem the Sat Nav kept saying Turn Left. This could have something to do with this episode.
• In Army of Ghosts, when leading a torchwood employee to his death by upgrade, Adeola tells him to Turn left.

DVD and Other releases

• This is due to be released in the Series 4 boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
• It will be released as Series 4 Volume 4 alongside The Stolen Earth and Journey's End in September 2008.

See also

to be added

External links

to be added