Turn Left (TV story)

"Its coming Donna, its coming from across the stars and nothing can stop it..."

- Rose Tyler

Synopsis
Donna’s entire world collapses, but there’s no sign of the Doctor. Instead, she finds help from a mysterious blonde 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?

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * TBA - Joseph Long
 * TBA - Chipo Chung

Production crew
to be added

Story notes

 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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 is 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

 * Enemies likely to be in this episode include Davros and Dalek Caan. Davros was seen in the trailer but in darkness. Several Daleks also appeared but whether Dalek Caan was there is unknown. Also, two new images of Davros were leaked on Outpost Gallifrey and YouTube.
 * In the previous episode descriptions it claimed Rose's world is 'splintering'. This could be Davros and/or the Daleks forcing their way through the breach.
 * In a trailer seen on BBC One, Donna's granddad looks up to the sky and sees the stars "going out" possibly something to do with the Void. Most notably, the now revealed secret episode title implies that, in fact, it was the Earth that was "going out" or being removed, not the stars.
 * Harriet Jones will appear in either this episode or the next, with her uneasy alliance with The Doctor after The Christmas Invasion, she may be working or influenced by the Daleks, alternatively it may be the Harriet Jones from the parallel world.
 * Davros will be shot and/or killed in the final episode, either by Harriet Jones (revenge) or by Rose, to stop him destroying Earth.
 * The Radio Times said something about children of time and a vault...
 * We see flashbacks of Donna before the events of The Runaway Bride.
 * The reason Rose, Jackie and Mickey return is because Pete's World collapses sending anything not from that universe back to their original universe. However, Rose loses her alternative father, galvanizing her into battle.
 * Davros causes Pete's World to collapse by attempting to punch a hole in the fabric of space time in order to reach the Daleks trapped in the void.
 * Pete's World collapses, and Rose manages to find a path through the Doctor's World, not realizing that she has opened the void. This allows Davros through, as he was trapped in the void after the Time War. Rose rectifies this at the end of the series.Likely, as Pete (in Doomsday) stated that his world was at the brink of "flooding", due to void disturbance (Daleks and Davros?).
 * A plausible reason as to why this episode is titled "Turn Left" may be due to the fact that Rose is on the right side of the void and the Doctor is on the left. Point being: for Rose to "Turn left" into the "real" world. (Based on scenes in Doomsday)
 * The Doctor dies forever. Highly Unlikely as The 10th Doctor is not leaving this series. However,a UNIT officer says The Doctor is Dead and a bodybag is shown with his arm falling out and dropping the Sonic screwdriver (him dropping the screwdriver may be a hint for Rose Tyler or Donna Noble to do something, like when the doctor handed Martha the pyscic paper .
 * Confirmed by a T.V magazine, Davros will return as the main villain of the story.
 * The Thing on Donna's back is called a Time beetle.
 * Apparently there is a flashback to The Runaway Bride where you see Donna being bit by a Racnoss spider. In the Third Doctor's final story, Planet of the Spiders, spiders known as Eight legs rode invisibly on the backs of humans, controlling them, much the way a spider appears to be on Donna's back in the trailer. In Doctor Who Magazine 396, the 'In a Nutshell' episode guide, Russell T Davies, Executive Producer and Head Writer for Doctor Who, and writer of this story, confirmed he would be bringing back the Racnoss Webstar for a final "Lap of Honour". (Perhaps the webstar returns in a flashback.)
 * This episode may tie in with Episode 12, like Utopia did with The Sound Of Drums. Possible, as in pictures in Doctor Who Magazine 396, it was confirmed that part of Turn Left would take place on Earth.
 * UNIT is back, and Rose is working with them. Confirmed that UNIT returns, as pictures showed people from UNIT outside the TARDIS. Possible that Rose is working with UNIT, as a picture from Doctor Who Magazine 396 showed a picture of Rose with a UNIT officer in Turn Left.
 * The Doctor is shot by a Dalek but Rose saves him.
 * The Doctor does not die, instead the death is actually that of the Doctor's clone made by or using Sontaran technology, alternatively the Doctor does die, but UNIT manage to recreate him as a clone using salvaged Sontaran cloning tech, this may also grant the Doctor a new set of regenerations, although to be fair, that would be horrible writing and just invite fan-base schisms.
 * The Time Beetle on Donna's back removes her from ever meeting the Doctor. Therefore he dies fighting the Racnoss, Martha dies because of the Judoon, the titanic crashes into earth causing a nuclear explosion all because there's no Doctor but when they kill the Beetle everything is put back to right.
 * In the trailer Donna is wearing what seems to be Captain Jack's greatcoat. From filming photos leaked onto the internet, Jack will be in at least one of the last three episodes.
 * The trailer shows soldiers in black jumpsuits with red caps (UNIT) and camouflage suits with black caps. Camouflage with black cap was uniform of the Torchwood soldier's in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday.
 * A mysterious hooded figure appears and starts delving into Donna's past. Confirmed in Doctor Who Magazine 396.
 * The void opens again allowing Anything in the parallel universe through also allowing davros and Daleks through.

Filming Locations
"China Town"

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
to be added

Continuity

 * In The Sontaran Strategem the Sat Nav kept saying Turn Left. The Doctor is also heard saying Turn Right not Left. This could have something to do with this episode.
 * Rose says in the mid series trailer that the darkness is coming, the Toclafane say "Its coming ... the never ending darkness". (DW: The Sound of Drums) This was most likely a reference to heat-death of the universe, a main topic of Utopia (TV story). Gwyneth also mentions "the darkness" in her Rift-induced prophecy (DW: The Unquiet Dead).
 * Throughout the revived series, turning left seems to lead to disaster, while turning right is a good way to go.

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.