Doctor Who: Turn Left...

[fajrdrako]

I think I am stunned by this episode. I don't think I was able to breathe for the last forty minutes of it.

1. I liked the way there was a symmetry with "Midnight", where Donna only appeared at the beginning and the end of the episode. In this, the Doctor only appeared at the beginning and the end.
   
   
2. I liked the title, "Turn Left", on several counts. There was the notion of "the road not taken" as in Robert Frost. There was the idea that it's a mysterious command to Donna, to do the right thing or the wrong thing, and the mundanity of its starting her mother's attempts to control her life by making her take the other job.
   
   
3. Could anyone look at Shan Shen, and not think of Firefly?
   
   
4. The fortune teller was interesting, and I thought I saw a sort of parallel between her and the much more benign (but eery) child in Torchwood's "Dead Man Walking" and "Fragments". But what was her agenda? Was she an agent of ... whoever is bringing the Darkness? Presumably she wanted the Doctor out of the way so the universe could be destroyed. But why? Is she someone like Bilis, whose motivation will be left for speculation?
   
   
5. So now we know what was on Donna's back, the thing she couldn't see. From the Tricksters' brigade. Great concept, from my favourite episode of Sarah Jane Adventures.
   
   
6. I liked the bit where the sonic screwdriver fell out of the Doctor's lifeless hand. Also liked the bit in the Confidential in which Tennant was worrying over whoever supplied the hand, and whether they did a good enough job playing it.
   
   
7. Coincidences? Hmm.
   
   
8. Hearing the Doctor say "she never existed, now", in reference to Rose (even if he didn't know it was her) - that was chilling.
   
   
9. And what Rose said - Bad Wolf - eeee! I thought what Rose had whispered to the dying Donna was "Rose Tyler", her own name, in a parallel to River Song's whispering the Doctor's own name to him in "Forest of the Dead". But it wasn't that, it was even better.
   
   I like Bad Wolf.
   
   I loved the way suddenly all the banners and posters said "Bad Wolf" as soon as Donna had spoken the words. Like... a dream or nightmare where you can't turn away from something because it is everywhere.
   
   I love the way this must all be heart-wrenching or heartbreaking for the Doctor.
   
   
10. And in the trailer... Daleks. This makes me very happy.
    
    
11. Loved the moment where Donna went inside the (dark) TARDIS for the first time.
    
    
12. Loved it that we saw Corporal Harris again. Just... that touch of recognition. Fun. But I wish we'd seen Ross.
    
    
13. Jack, prisoner of the Sontarans. Are we to infer that Jack did what Luke Rattigan did in "The Poison Sky", and went to the Sonataran ship to sacrifice himself to save Earth?
    
    
14. The scenes in Leeds made me think of Children of Men, with the distopian militaristic control, and Life is Beautiful, where a brave Italian (Rocco Colasanto in this case) pretends everything is fine even though he's being taken to a prison camp. Are we to believe that they were actually being taken away to be executed?
    
    
15. I found the scene with Donna and the mirrors very frightening. I liked Captain Marissa Magambo.
    
    
16. And what a treat to see Chipo Chung again! - Not that I'd have recognized her without the credits!
    
    
17. I see the write-up on Wikipedia mentions the cloister bell. I missed it again. Huh.
    
    
18. I know I have a lot to say about the episode that I'm too sleepy to think of now. commodorified, auriaephiala and raynedaze and I discussed it at some length, which was fun in itself: getting into the differences between the Ninth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor and how they felt about Rose and about themselves.
    
    I'll probably have more to say when I watch it again, which I will probably do again soon.
    

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Who picked up the sonic?

Harris, maybe? I thought Donna would - and then would do something clever or accidental with it later - but she didn't. It seems Rose didn't even see it.

No mention of Saxon - because the Doctor didn't have chance to cause that timeline?

Exactly. If he was dead, he didn't go to the end of the universe with Jack and Martha, and Professor Yana never learned he was the Master, and couldn't steal the TARDIS to go back and become Saxon and take over the Earth.

Isn't that the same terrace from the end of last series?

Yes.

Bullets can't stop it! (Shooting at the Atmos)

Doesn't stop them from trying. (Waste of bullets.)

Rose now knows about Jack, because she knows the true script and what was happening.

Which is... really cool.

Rose is now the enigmatic no-name person...

I love the games they are playing with names. Like when Donna was shouting at Rose to tell her her name... But why wouldn't Rose just tell her her name right off? Donna would recognize the name, of course, but what would be bad about that?

You are trying too hard, Rose!

Panic.

he's not half tieing things in from his entire reign by the looks.

Yes. I was wondering what would be left undone for inclusion in the specials next year.

it is only to be expected that when the narrator states that Billie Piper's charecter "rose early", the response around the land will be "no, Rose Tyler!"

LOL. Jubal Early (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_characters_in_Firefly#Jubal_Early), Rose Tyler.