Turn Left (TV story)

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

- Rose Tyler

Synopsis
Attending a carnival on the "Chino-planet of Shan Shen" exposes the Doctor and Donna to flags, pagodas and local colour. But when cajoled to have her fortune read for free, Donna's past is carefully examined - for a specific single event. Meanwhile, something creeps towards Donna's back.

Donna's entire world collapses, but there's no sign of the Doctor, as Russell T Davies's Bafta Award-winning time-travelling drama continues. 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
 * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
 * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
 * 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 in the Monster Files of The Doctor's Daughter.
 * 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, China Town was recreated in Cardiff. Chinese people living in South Wales were invited to be 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 a day. David Tennant was seen in 'China Town' when he took time out of filming but stayed 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. The trailer also expresses a scene containing four Daleks.
 * In the previous episode descriptions it claimed Rose's world is 'splintering'. Maybe Davros/Daleks forcing their way in is causing reality to splinter.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Rumoured titles for Episode 12 are Ruins of Skaro, Ruins of Gallifrey, The Medusa Cascade, Children of Time, The Oncoming Storm and War on Skaro.
 * Possibly takes place during the events of the Time War, "The Time War" being another likely title.
 * The reason Rose, Jackie and Mickey returns is because Pete's World collapses sending anything not from that universe back to their original universe.
 * 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)
 * Confirmed by a T.V magazine, Davros will return as the main villain of the story.
 * Lucius' reference "Something on your back" to Donna could imply that the thing on Donna's back could be a Racnoss spider. Probable, as in Doctor Who Magazine 396, the 'In a Nutshell' episode guide, it was stated that something was 'scuttling away behind the curtain'. Also in this magazine, 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".
 * 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.

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).

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 Episode 12 and Journey's End in September 2008.