Turn Left

I'm so glad this episode was written. If this episode was done in another season with another companion it just wouldnt work, The performance from Catherine Tate in this episode is fantastic and with the return of Rose makes it a quite rememberable episode.

I'd go so far as to say Turn Left is possibly my all time favourite Nu Who episode, bold statement, I'll try to explain why.

In brief, The Doctor and Donna land in china town, Donna goes for a psychic reading, with dark consequences. Donna explains how she met the Doctor, it all hinged on a single decision where she turned left, The Psychic pinpoints this and asks what would happen had she turned right. Something lands up on Donna's back, we see what would have happened had Donna not met the Doctor......

Back in Pompeii Lucius mentioned Donna had something on her back (he didn't say it would be the most rubbish prop of the 21st century did he!!)

This is the best episode penned by Davies, very closely followed by Midnight. To make not just a credible, but a fabulous 'what if' story is immense, to link in the recent history was amazingly done, nothing felt forced, the Hospital, the Titanic, the Adipose, very clever. (Even the awful Atmos devices have a place!!)

The episode is so bleak, it literally has me on pins from start to finish, it's definitely THE episode you cannot have on in the background. It leaves me exhausted and genuinely with a sunken feeling. When they hear the stars are going out, and see the Bad Wolf I literally nearly dropped. The trailer was almost too much to cope with, but wohhhhh.

The single best companion episode of all time, Tate is unbelievably good from start to finish, I just love Donna. She blew Martha out of the water in the trio of earlier episodes, and she does the same to Rose.

Piper is a little on the wooden side, but as a massive Rose fan I was so glad to see her back.

Sylvia was actually a very good character, she is rather grim, naturally, still suffering the death of her husband. She mentions him, a nice heads up to Howard Attfield, who had played Donna's dad Geoff in the Runaway Bride, but sadly died not long after it was made.

Fans of the Sarah Jane adventures will have seen the Trickster in Whatever happened to Sarah Jane.

It gets us all thinking and wondering what would be had we done things a little different. Turn Left, unique, thought provoking, outstanding. It had me in tears i'm not afraid to say 10/10

Many of the review with and without spoilers talk in great detail about this episode and I'd recommend reading them. I just wanted to write about the brilliant acting job of Jacqueline King as Donna's mother. Throughout the series she's been a sarcastic biting presence. With this episode we see that her personality was a brittle shell protecting a scared vulnerable person and her breakdown is subtlety and beautifully portrayed by Jacqueline King. Kudos to this fine actor.

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.

When I first saw Catherine Tate playing the loud-mouthed bride in one of the Christmas specials, I have to say my expectations were low. I thought an actress known primarily for comedy would negatively affect the mood of 'Doctor Who', and not allow it to reach the intensity of earlier seasons I'm glad to say that I was proved wrong. Tate's Donna Noble has become arguably the most brilliant companion of the Doctor, and whilst this is largely due to great writing, the acting never disappoints. Catherine Tate's dramatic abilities are released on an unprecedented scale in 'Turn Left', as she is the focus of almost every scene in the episode. Beginning with a light-hearted encounter with a fortune teller, Donna Noble is taken on a terrifying journey which is developed around the question, 'What would have happened if the Doctor never met Donna?'. This may sound like a 'filler' episode, but I'd argue that it is one of the greatest episodes to date. A considerable number of familiar faces return in this episode; I won't say which as I'd be ruining the surprise. What I *can* say, though, is that the performances are all highly praiseworthy, including the one given by the hitherto underused Bernard Cribbins. Overall, I rank this episode very highly. It provides the context for the incredibly decisive final few episodes in this season, but satisfies wonderfully in its own right.