Turn Left (TV story)

"It's coming, Donna. It's 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
On the planet Shan Shen, the Doctor and Donna are walking through the stalls. Donna wanders off by herself and comes across a fortune teller. Reluctant at first, Donna eventually decides to have her fortune told by her.

In the fortune teller's hut, Donna recalls the moment she was forced to make a choice when wanting to continue at H.C. Clements, rather than apply for the post as Jival Chowdry's personal assistant, she finally decided to Turn left, meanwhile something comes into the room and climbs up Donna's back while the fortune teller holds her hands away from her back and tells her to "turn right" instead. Back at the deciding moment in she decides to turn right instead.

During a Christmas party, Donna's friend keeps looking at her back, when the Webstar attacks London. Because Donna doesn't help the Doctor escape from fighting the Empress of the Racnoss, he dies too quickly to regenerate. Donna then discovers that the Doctor was killed and meets Rose; but when Donna checks her back Rose disappears.

Donna's boss then tries to fire her, but is interupted by large grey clouds. Then a nearby hospital disappears (this also happens in Smith and Jones). The hospital soon returns and one medical student survives. Martha, Sarah Jane Smith and Luke Smith die by running out of oxygen trying to save everyone, along with Maria Jackson and Clyde Langer. Donna then meets Rose again and she remarks that people are constantly looking at her back. Rose then tries to persuade Donna to leave London at Christmas. Donna and her family take a holiday (away from London), when on Christmas Day, a replica of the RMS Titanic falls towards Buckingham Palace (as seen in the 2007 Christmas Special Voyage of the Damned) and it destroys London and the rest of Southern England is flooded with radiation. After London's destruction, many of the residents of South Eastern England and Donna and her family are moved to Leeds, whey they are forced to share a house with many other families. The Americans tried to help England by sending them £50 billion of financial aid, but millions of Americans were killed by being transformed into Adipose, (as seen in Partners in Crime).

Outside, the house gunshots are heard, as all of the ATMOS equiped cars are releasing poisonous gases. The Torchwood team (named as Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper) are reported dead defeating the Sontarans and Jack Harkness has been permanently transported to Sontar. Donna then meets Rose again and they discuss The Doctor (although Donna doesn't know he exists). Rose then reveals that Donna will die. One of the families living with Donna, are told they are going to be moved to a labour camp, because they were immigrants and Donna's grandfather comments how this is similar to World War II. Three weeks later, Donna and her grandfather are stargazing, when he comments that the constellation Orion has disappeared, when all of the other stars start to "go out".

Donna is then taken to a UNIT base by Rose, where Donna discovers that she has a giant beetle on her back. Then UNIT use the dying TARDIS, to transport Donna back in time to four minutes and half a mile from when she decides to "turn right". The process destroyed the TARDIS. Donna stops herself turning right by getting run over by a truck causing a traffic jam going right, because the truck has stopped blocking the road, the other Donna sees the jam and decides to go left so they will not be stuck in traffic. Rose then appears and whispers two words (Bad Wolf) into Donna's ear. Seconds later, Donna dies.

Back on Shan Shen, she wakes out of her trance and shakes off the beetle and scares off the Forture Teller just as the Doctor enters the tent. They talk about what happen and Donna vaugely describes Rose and tells the Doctor what Rose whispered into her ear. The Doctor then runs out of the tent and discovers that the word Bad Wolf is written on all of the hanging banners that formerly displayed Chinese-inspired symbols. He then turns to the TARDIS, and discovers that both the "Police Public Call Box" sign above the doors and the "Free for Use of Public" phone panel have also changed to display the phrase.

He and Donna run into the TARDIS and discover that the whole console room glowing with red light, while the Cloister Bell begins to ring ominously (this resembles the state of the interior in The Sound of Drums after the Master had transformed it into a paradox machine). Donna asks what "Bad Wolf" means and the Doctor answers: "It's the end of the universe."

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * Mr Colastanto - Joseph Long
 * Captain Magambo - Norma Dumezweni
 * Fortune Teller - Chipo Chung
 * Mooky Kahari - Marcia Lecky
 * Veena Brady - Suzann Mclean
 * Alice Coltrane - Natalie Walter
 * Man in Pub - Neil Clench
 * Private Harris - Clive Standen
 * Jival Chowdry - Bhasker Patel
 * Female Reporter - Catherine York
 * Oliver Morgenstern - Ben Righton
 * Spanish Maid - Loraine Velez
 * Studio News Reader - Jason Mohammad
 * Housing Officer - Sanchia McCormack
 * Soldier Number 1 - Lawrence Stevenson
 * Woman in Doorway - Terri-Ann Brumby
 * Trinity Wells - Lachele Carl
 * Soldier Number 2 - Paul Richard Biggin
 * Mal Loup - Lachele Carl

Production crew
to be added

Story notes

 * Without The Doctor's intervention, Martha Jones dies when the Judoon attack the hospital where she works (Smith and Jones). Sarah Jane Smith and her teenage assistants also die in the hospital - with the Doctor dead, she has taken it upon herself to investigate the hospital.
 * Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones die destroying the Sontarans whilst Jack Harkness is transported to the Sontaran homeworld.
 * This is the first story to feature Rose in a starring role since Doomsday.
 * Two phrases said by Lucius Petrus Dextrus in The Fires of Pompeii come to fruition in this episode: "There's something on your back" and "She is returning".
 * 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, albeit with a much darker storyline. Unlike previous Doctor-lite stories, however, the focus is given to the companion, rather the her also taking a minor role.
 * 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 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. The episode, as broadcast, takes place on a Chinese-influenced alien world with no reference to Tarot.
 * A recurring theme in previous episodes hinted that Donna would die in the future which occurs in this episode. However, this was an alternate reality Donna who sacrificed herself in order to prevent her past self from taking the wrong turn thus forcing her to meet the Doctor as was planned.
 * 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.
 * Donna is told she can have her fortune told for free because she has red hair. This is a reference to Chinese culture, since red is considered very lucky in China.

Ratings
to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * In the 2007 Christmas Special, Voyage of the Damned, the Doctor claimed that if the Titanic hit the Earth it would destroy the entire planet. However, in this Episode, it is shown that it only destroys london and causes radiation to the whole of southern England. It was suggested by Rose that Torchwood, UNIT, and Sarah Jane Smith all attempted to fill in for the Doctor after his death. Therefore it can be assumed that someone (e.g. Astrid or Alonso) attempted to stop the Titanic, but only managed to reduce the effect of the crash.
 * It was stated in the episode by the relocation officer that 7 million people must be moved - as London is destroyed it can be assumd that everyone in London at the time dies, therefore the only people needing to be moved are Londoners who were outside of the city at the time and all those living in the area affected by the radiation. The blast may have destroyed London, but the radiation could have spread out further, thus forcing citizens in other cities to relocate. Dialogue in the episode clearly states that the whole of southern England was contaminated.
 * How was Rose able to gain command over UNIT forces (as suggested when one soldier salutes her)? Unrevealed as yet; perhaps to be explained in a later episode.
 * What about The Master's takeover and the Toclafane invasion, the only two major events not referenced in the alternate timeline? Utopia establishes that Martha Jones is responsible for "Professor Yana" discovering his true nature; with her killed before joining the Doctor, this eventuality never occurred and presumably The Master/Yana continued to live as a human in the far future.
 * With no Harold Saxon present on earth (given the above), why does a tank still destroy the Webstar (as ordered by Saxon in The Runaway Bride)? Presumably a similar order was made by other parties, possibly UNIT, Torchwood or even Rose, they also leave out the line "Orders from Mr Saxon".
 * What happened before the 21st century to stop the Pyroviles invading, the Carrionites from starting a "Millennium of Blood", or the Cult of Skaro from creating a New Dalek Empire? Perhaps the fact that these would cause a paradox and stop the Doctor from dying underneath the Thames Barrier negated the events, although time has not been shown to act like this in Doctor Who.
 * If Rose was able ot get into Donna's universe, wouldn't she also have access to the other parallel universe? And would Donna's parallel universe have a parallel universe also?
 * Since the events of all the above are self-explanatory, why aren't the events of Time Crash and both Forest of the Dead and Silence in the Librarycancelled out as well as the Fifth Doctor and all the adventures afterwards and before (get the logical explanation)?

Continuity

 * Among other uses of the phrase "Turn Left" in the series: In The Sontaran Strategem the Sat Nav kept saying Turn Left; Captain Jack mentioned telling someone they should have turned left during a joke in Boom Town.
 * Bad Wolf returns as a warning for the end of the universe. Bad Wolf was last heard in Doomsday.
 * The Cloister Bell is heard, again as a warning. The Cloister was last heard in Time Crash.
 * Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are mentioned and they will appear in the next episode
 * The Webstar and RMS Titanic are seen.
 * The characters from The Sarah Jane Adventures are named in the news report to be dead in the parallel world.
 * The explanations above for what would've happened if the Doctor died take on a similar context to the Unbound series and DWM: Time & Time Again

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.