Turn Left!
Wow... That was a really good episode of Dr Who.
The only thing I found dissatisfying about Turn Left was the element of chance - Donna just happened to see that medium, and that medium just happened to be in league with a big alien bug, and that just happened to lead to Donna meeting Rose and having lots of emotional adventure... In a way it felt like a bit too much chance, especially if things like Rose's warning are going to be plot significant in a big way. But OTOH I know there's a big emphasis in DW on how everything happens by chance and time is in flux and all that. *shrug* Well this was my only complaint, I'll shut up about that now.
Everything else about the episode was fantastic:
1) I adore Rose, and I'm glad she's back :)
2) And there was a promise of some of my other favourites, specifically Jack and Sarah Jane.
3) Donna really is a good character, and she was easily able to carry the episode. Other individuals who have managed this before include Elton in Love and Monsters and Sally Sparrow in Blink. While I've come to love TennantDoctor, I do think it can be refreshing for the show to have someone else as the central character sometimes, even if it's not very traditional.
4) So, Donna's life changes and everything goes wrong. This was the most wonderful opportunity for the writers to show us how bad disasters can be if the Doctor doesn't save us, and they carried it off pretty well. OK, so some bits seemed a little underdone, especially on the effects side - e.g. the whole of London goes up in smoke, and all we see is a mushroom cloud. But it was nice to see them go over old Earth-based episodes since Donna's first appearance at Christmas in 2006 and change the endings, and the idea of the cumulative effect on Britain was nice (e.g. I liked that Britain didn't suffer from Atmos as much because it was having a disaster and hardly had any fuel). It seemed consistent too (e.g. no Master, because the Doctor and Martha would never have got to the end of the universe to unlock him, as it were). It would have been nice if they had the opportunity to do even more with this, but OTOH I think a double episode on this theme might have been a bit too much.
5) The very best thing about the cumulative effect of all the disasters on Britain was the beautiful wartime imagery. I thought they executed that very well indeed, both visually (everyone wearing grey/blue/brown, the trucks and the two-up-two-down houses, etc.) and emotionally (the anguish coupled with a lovely sense of community and 'wartime spirit').
6) And the very very best bit of the episode was when the Italian guy and his family were being carted off to 'labour camps', and old veteran Gramps (played to perfection by Bernard Cribbins - I can't tell you how good an actor I think he is) realising what was going on and looking so sad. It made me cry - and it's been ages since I cried watching TV (hmm, I think last time was at the last episode of series 2 of Kingdom).
7) Further plaudits to Donna's Mum for looking convincingly miserable the whole way through the bad bits.
8) One thing I was left wondering was how Rose was able to time travel so accurately - I mean, I assume there was time travel as well as parallel world travel, seeing as she was wearing the same outfit every time she saw Donna. *shrug*
9) I'm also confused about Donna having to die. Did Rose know that the only way she would make it would be to throw herself in front of a truck? I don't see how she could have known (except by time travel - but isn't the implication that that parallel world ceased to exist as soon as she did the jumping in front of a truck, in turn implying that Rose couldn't have witnessed it??). I assumed what Rose meant was that that version of Donna would be killing herself by bringing that parallel world to an end. Um, am I even talking about it right? It did create a parallel world, didn't it? There's another episode (I think it's 4 or 5 of series 2) where the Doctor says that every choice we make creates a parallel world, I believe... Oh, I give up. Maybe we're not meant to think about it too much. Though I do wish I understood the link between parallale worlds, time and choices a bit better.
10) OK, the big final thing I'm going to say is... Bad Wolf!
Oh, actually, also, just a quick question - was the medium played by the same person who played Chan Tho in the Utopia episode of series 3?
The only thing I found dissatisfying about Turn Left was the element of chance - Donna just happened to see that medium, and that medium just happened to be in league with a big alien bug, and that just happened to lead to Donna meeting Rose and having lots of emotional adventure... In a way it felt like a bit too much chance, especially if things like Rose's warning are going to be plot significant in a big way. But OTOH I know there's a big emphasis in DW on how everything happens by chance and time is in flux and all that. *shrug* Well this was my only complaint, I'll shut up about that now.
Everything else about the episode was fantastic:
1) I adore Rose, and I'm glad she's back :)
2) And there was a promise of some of my other favourites, specifically Jack and Sarah Jane.
3) Donna really is a good character, and she was easily able to carry the episode. Other individuals who have managed this before include Elton in Love and Monsters and Sally Sparrow in Blink. While I've come to love TennantDoctor, I do think it can be refreshing for the show to have someone else as the central character sometimes, even if it's not very traditional.
4) So, Donna's life changes and everything goes wrong. This was the most wonderful opportunity for the writers to show us how bad disasters can be if the Doctor doesn't save us, and they carried it off pretty well. OK, so some bits seemed a little underdone, especially on the effects side - e.g. the whole of London goes up in smoke, and all we see is a mushroom cloud. But it was nice to see them go over old Earth-based episodes since Donna's first appearance at Christmas in 2006 and change the endings, and the idea of the cumulative effect on Britain was nice (e.g. I liked that Britain didn't suffer from Atmos as much because it was having a disaster and hardly had any fuel). It seemed consistent too (e.g. no Master, because the Doctor and Martha would never have got to the end of the universe to unlock him, as it were). It would have been nice if they had the opportunity to do even more with this, but OTOH I think a double episode on this theme might have been a bit too much.
5) The very best thing about the cumulative effect of all the disasters on Britain was the beautiful wartime imagery. I thought they executed that very well indeed, both visually (everyone wearing grey/blue/brown, the trucks and the two-up-two-down houses, etc.) and emotionally (the anguish coupled with a lovely sense of community and 'wartime spirit').
6) And the very very best bit of the episode was when the Italian guy and his family were being carted off to 'labour camps', and old veteran Gramps (played to perfection by Bernard Cribbins - I can't tell you how good an actor I think he is) realising what was going on and looking so sad. It made me cry - and it's been ages since I cried watching TV (hmm, I think last time was at the last episode of series 2 of Kingdom).
7) Further plaudits to Donna's Mum for looking convincingly miserable the whole way through the bad bits.
8) One thing I was left wondering was how Rose was able to time travel so accurately - I mean, I assume there was time travel as well as parallel world travel, seeing as she was wearing the same outfit every time she saw Donna. *shrug*
9) I'm also confused about Donna having to die. Did Rose know that the only way she would make it would be to throw herself in front of a truck? I don't see how she could have known (except by time travel - but isn't the implication that that parallel world ceased to exist as soon as she did the jumping in front of a truck, in turn implying that Rose couldn't have witnessed it??). I assumed what Rose meant was that that version of Donna would be killing herself by bringing that parallel world to an end. Um, am I even talking about it right? It did create a parallel world, didn't it? There's another episode (I think it's 4 or 5 of series 2) where the Doctor says that every choice we make creates a parallel world, I believe... Oh, I give up. Maybe we're not meant to think about it too much. Though I do wish I understood the link between parallale worlds, time and choices a bit better.
10) OK, the big final thing I'm going to say is... Bad Wolf!
Oh, actually, also, just a quick question - was the medium played by the same person who played Chan Tho in the Utopia episode of series 3?