Last week we got the Donna-lite episode of series four, so this week it’s time for the Doctor-lite installment of the season.
While having the Doctor in a reduced role is certainly nothing new if you’ve watched any of the stories from the early days of the show, watching the new series work with have a reduced appearance by the title character and lead the past three seasons has been interesting. Each of the three “Doctor-lite” stories have worked around not having David Tennant on-screen for the majority of the episode in interesting ways.  The first year we had the controversial “Love and Monsters” and last year we got the Hugo-nominated “Blink.”
And this year we get a story focusing on Donna and her role in the overall Doctor Who mythology.
The story asks the question of “what if” the Doctor and Donna had never met. What would Donna’s life be like? And what would the impact be upon the universe?
The short answer: neither would be very good.
By making a simple choice to turn right instead of left, Donna averts her meeting the Doctor and the entire history of the world and universe goes horribly awry.  When Donna pulled the Doctor back from the brink in “The Runaway Bride” it seems she saved his life, literally and figuratively.  Had she not been there, the Doctor would have died, thus leading to him not being around to avert several catastrophies in the following seasons.
Russell T. Davies script has a lot of fun looking at the recent-history of the series and wondering just how things might have turned out had the Doctor not been around.
And while I enjoyed that part of the storyline, I did find that Davies became a little too heavy-handed toward the end. After London is reduced to a radioactive wasteland when the starship Titanic crashes into it, the country becomes a police state and sets up work camps.  While I can see what Davies is trying to do and the message he’s trying to give the audience, I think he went a bit far and made it a bit too obvious. Of course, this is nothing new for Davies who has put political and social criticism into the series before. But rarely has it felt as out of place as it does here.
And that’s a shame because it ruins the moment and the potential impact of the scenes.
Of course, there are some other huge, gaping problems with this one.
As Donna gets farther and farther from the crucial chance in history, Rose keeps showing up, giving her advice. Eventually Rose is able to find a way to contact Donna, have Donna believe what’s going on and set up a way to send Donna back to put history back on course.  The big question is–just how does Roes figure out that Donna is the fulcrum of history? We’re not really given much explanation for this, other than its’ just fun to have Rose on-screen again.
Which brings me to my next point–Billie Piper’s performance. Or lack of a performance. Piper seems to be marking time in this one, delivering her lines without the usual style we saw in her two seasons on the show. Perhaps Piper was trying to convey the hopelessness that she feels as she and others are called upon to be the Doctor. But Piper seems bored at times and her performance reflects that.  Or it could be that she, like the audience, is busy wondering just how the heck Rose escaped the parallel universe she was trapped in last time we saw her and just how she’s suddenly become this figure who understands the rules of time and of this universe so well.
Again, it’s a case of Davies having a good idea but not following through on it.
And this script, as usual with a Davies story, is full of a lot of that.
In the end, what we get is essentially a 45-minute teaser for the season finale. Rose is able to send Donna back with a message for the Doctor, (though how she recalls it since at the point history is put back on course, Donna should forget everything that has happened), setting up things for next week. Davies is trying hard to write a sweeping, epic storyline to bring some sense of completeness and scope to his era. But since last year’s finale kind of felt the same way, it’s hard not to have the feeling of been there, done that when he attempts it here.
Also, while I am excited for this week’s first part of the season finale, I’m still so burned by how terrible the previous three season finales were, that I can’t help but also dread what’s to come. And that doesn’t just mean the sense of dread the preview wants us to have of the old adversary returning to our screens.
So, while I will say “Turn Left” is a better use of the Doctor-lite concept than “Love and Monsters” its still no where near as delightful as “Blink” was. It’s kind of in the middle. It could be that if the season finale can deliver and not disappoint, “Turn Left” could gain a few points in my final estimation.
We’ll have to wait and see…
David says
I have been very open in my criticism of RTD on my own podcast Geek Syndicate but I found myself for the 2nd time in as many weeks applauding his script.
I loved loved loved it. I didn’t think it was too heavy handed at all and the poltical commentary was just a logical progression of a nation/world in crisis which can be seen in a mriad of sci-fi movies, tv and books; and actually heightened the emotional impact for me. In fact my podcast partner lives in Northampton, England where due to a bug in the water supply, no one is allowed to drink the water. he says the change in the area and in the people in such a short space of time is amazing and frightening and I see the extreme of this in this story.
Agree with you concerning Rose and to be honest not to keen on her suddenly being this time savvy chronal Guardian but there ya go.
While not quite a blink it was definetly a worthy succesor
Lambo says
Mike,
Chill dude, this was a great episode. I really think sometimes you need to take “Critic” out of critical.
Seriously, I sometime wonder why you even bother watching the show.
Zippy says
Well Rose did absorb the time vortex for a little while so maybe she picked up a few hidden abilites from that.
Regardless I am looking forward to the next episode with bated breath.
Myke says
I think this was a great episode and overall i think Dr Who series 4 deserves an applause. other’s may view it as over plotted or doesn’t even come close to previous series in the past years but i think the writers of this series/season deserves at least some credit for writing some fantastic twists and turns in these final episodes.
Robin says
“The big question is–just how does Roes figure out that Donna is the fulcrum of history? We’re not really given much explanation for this, other than its’ just fun to have Rose on-screen again.”
After traveling with the Doctor for two years, absorbing the vortex and becoming stranded in a parallel universe where she works for Torchwood London, I have no trouble with Rose being savvy enough to track down Donna as the essential element. It’s been shown (in the season 2 finale of Doctor Who and by Ianto’s flashbacks on Torchwood) that the main London office had/has astounding resources. Also, if Donna’s decision created her very own parallel universe, it stands to reason that they could find her fairly easily.
That said, I agree that some of the story points were delivered with a bit of of the old sledgehammer subtlety. The thing we have to remember is that for most of its run the target audience for Doctor Who has been children. It’s now more of a “family” show, but there’s still a tendency to over-explain things for the younger viewers. The more analytical among us will just have to be satisfied with the more convoluted and open-ended episodes. No series is perfect.