User reviews

I just saw this episode for the first time -- forgive me, I started Doctor Who three months ago, so everything is a new, wild ride for me -- and I was blown away by its sheer genius.

The episode is a classic what if, but it isn't cheesy at all. It's dark and moody and that feel of despair came across so well that I felt empty while watching it. Catherine Tate delivers a flawless performance that had me laughing and crying. But her performance wouldn't have been as good if the story wasn't so excellent.

I am hooked to Doctor Who and I already was even before I started the second season, and throughout season 3 and 4 there were some episodes that had me reveling in the awesomeness and greatness of this show. But Turn Left did it for me. It proved to me not only how timeless Doctor Who is and will forever be, but it also proved to me how important every single person in the Universe is and God, did it make me love Donna even more.

I guess, one of the biggest compliments I can give for this episode is this: if you are doubting if this show is for you, if you want to get anyone in on this show, if you ever need a reminder of what Doctor Who can do; watch Turn Left. It will leave you empty and desperate, yes, but it is so, so, so fantastic! It's brilliant.

I'd go so far as to say Turn Left is possibly my all time favourite Nu Who episode, bold statement, I'll try to explain why.

In brief, The Doctor and Donna land in china town, Donna goes for a psychic reading, with dark consequences. Donna explains how she met the Doctor, it all hinged on a single decision where she turned left, The Psychic pinpoints this and asks what would happen had she turned right. Something lands up on Donna's back, we see what would have happened had Donna not met the Doctor......

Back in Pompeii Lucius mentioned Donna had something on her back (he didn't say it would be the most rubbish prop of the 21st century did he!!)

This is the best episode penned by Davies, very closely followed by Midnight. To make not just a credible, but a fabulous 'what if' story is immense, to link in the recent history was amazingly done, nothing felt forced, the Hospital, the Titanic, the Adipose, very clever. (Even the awful Atmos devices have a place!!)

The episode is so bleak, it literally has me on pins from start to finish, it's definitely THE episode you cannot have on in the background. It leaves me exhausted and genuinely with a sunken feeling. When they hear the stars are going out, and see the Bad Wolf I literally nearly dropped. The trailer was almost too much to cope with, but wohhhhh.

The single best companion episode of all time, Tate is unbelievably good from start to finish, I just love Donna. She blew Martha out of the water in the trio of earlier episodes, and she does the same to Rose.

Piper is a little on the wooden side, but as a massive Rose fan I was so glad to see her back.

Sylvia was actually a very good character, she is rather grim, naturally, still suffering the death of her husband. She mentions him, a nice heads up to Howard Attfield, who had played Donna's dad Geoff in the Runaway Bride, but sadly died not long after it was made.

Fans of the Sarah Jane adventures will have seen the Trickster in Whatever happened to Sarah Jane.

It gets us all thinking and wondering what would be had we done things a little different. Turn Left, unique, thought provoking, outstanding. It had me in tears i'm not afraid to say 10/10

When I first saw Catherine Tate playing the loud-mouthed bride in one of the Christmas specials, I have to say my expectations were low. I thought an actress known primarily for comedy would negatively affect the mood of 'Doctor Who', and not allow it to reach the intensity of earlier seasons I'm glad to say that I was proved wrong. Tate's Donna Noble has become arguably the most brilliant companion of the Doctor, and whilst this is largely due to great writing, the acting never disappoints. Catherine Tate's dramatic abilities are released on an unprecedented scale in 'Turn Left', as she is the focus of almost every scene in the episode. Beginning with a light-hearted encounter with a fortune teller, Donna Noble is taken on a terrifying journey which is developed around the question, 'What would have happened if the Doctor never met Donna?'. This may sound like a 'filler' episode, but I'd argue that it is one of the greatest episodes to date. A considerable number of familiar faces return in this episode; I won't say which as I'd be ruining the surprise. What I *can* say, though, is that the performances are all highly praiseworthy, including the one given by the hitherto underused Bernard Cribbins. Overall, I rank this episode very highly. It provides the context for the incredibly decisive final few episodes in this season, but satisfies wonderfully in its own right.

Many of the review with and without spoilers talk in great detail about this episode and I'd recommend reading them. I just wanted to write about the brilliant acting job of Jacqueline King as Donna's mother. Throughout the series she's been a sarcastic biting presence. With this episode we see that her personality was a brittle shell protecting a scared vulnerable person and her breakdown is subtlety and beautifully portrayed by Jacqueline King. Kudos to this fine actor.

I have to calm myself down to write this because that was such a brilliant ending to a fantastic episode.

I feel like when you've been supporting a fair-to-middling football team for years and then they go and win the cup - and you feel marvellous, and you say to everybody 'See! I told you we were great!' Because Doctor Who is now terrific, spine-tingling television, with ace acting, ace writing and ace technical values. It is galaxies ahead of the old series, and series four may even be better than the first three seasons of the new one.

For this ep RTD took the Sliding Doors/Run Lola Run template and entwined it with the show's mythology and history (and what mythology!). Tying in everything from the Racnoss to the Adipose to the Sontarans was sensational; to link it forward with what looks to be a classic finale is beyond sensational.

There were so many good things about Turn Left: the unsettling feeling of doom that was conveyed thanks to world order collapsing (and it also made us feel extra adoration for the Doctor); Catherine Tate's strong, versatile performance - she carried the episode and not once were we wishing the Doctor would show up (quite an achievement, which Love And Monsters didn't quite do); the ingenuity of the plot structure; the 'something on your back' terror; and of course THAT next episode preview. Boy oh boy.

I'm not ashamed to say I shed a few tears during these 50 minutes.

Russell T. Davies continues to provide more quality than I expected after last week's excellent episode in "Turn Left", a story that occasionally shocked me with its brutality and darkness (when Wilf says: "labor camps. That's what they called them last time", I literally shivered). The script starts out kind of iffy but improves drastically, packing quite a punch by the end of the 49 (!) minutes.

Graeme Harper did a nice job directing this one, good work all around keeping the episode moving at a swift pace. The ending is certainly quite powerful with Donna's sacrifice and all, but the cliffhanger sort of steals its thunder, packing a punch not dissimilar to "Utopia" last year.

While this week had the decency only to destroy cities in an alternate universe, it appears the final two-parter will feature plenty of good old-fashioned NewWho city-destroying. What's wrong with a smaller scale, really?

Billie Piper was a bit off, I trust she'll be back in good form for the finale. I do hope it's good.

7/10 for this one.

Toss a coin, pick a straw ,red or black; high or low, left or right, jibe or tack; life's highlights and hostilities, it's loves and liabilities, one-way traffic with an infinite backtrack.

Chan - The most important question to answer is: What did the beetle do to Chanto of Utopia fame to bring her back to life and allow her to find her way here as the Misfortune Teller? - tho.

Brilliant episode, very bleak, and at times chilling... but with great hope!

In this "Doctor-lite" episode, Donna experiences life as if she'd never met our intrepid Time Lord. Instead, her path crosses with that of one Rose Tyler, ex-companion and resident of an alternative universe.

Billie Piper's performance in this episode is somewhat distracting. I'm not sure if it's down to too much time on the alternative Earth but her lines are delivered in a less than Rose-like manner. This is definitely a more serious Rose than we've seen in the past but I question Piper's delivery in this tale.

Russell T. Davies' script is as clever as always and displays his usual imaginative touches, tying in episodes from the previous years and this season. This is a dark tale and the final reference to the past accompanied by the sound of the cloister bell may well have viewers' hairs standing on the back of their collective necks...

While Russell can't help give away elements of the season's finale wherever possible, the next tale is guaranteed to be full of elements that will echo through future episodes. It's going to be the biggest, busiest end to a season that we've seen so far and the return of some very familiar faces should make it unmissable.

8 out of 10 for this one. The best is yet to come....

This easily goes down as one of the very worst episodes of 'New' Doctor Who - never before have so many been bored by such unmitigated dross. After his successful episode 'Midnight', Russell T. Davies proves that he simply cannot write 'complex' science fiction - he's great on the smaller, self-contained episodes but with anything 'large scale' he fails dismally. His 'larger' ideas are fine, but he lacks the skill to put them across successfully. A terrible shame as he's otherwise a great writer and ideas man.

Graeme Harper's awful direction didn't help either - this guy should stick to directing episodes of Casualty where his 'style' (such as it is) seems best suited (ie shallow, no substance, just a bit of thin surface gloss).

Overall: terrible.

Amazing that Doctor Who is aimed at children and families. The show can be very dark at times. And even when the plot line spins widely on a tangent (think end of season 3), the writing is always top notch. The Americans could learn a lot about creating family entertainment from studying this show.

Good, dark, thought-provoking episode, although how Rose made it back to this dimension is never really explained.

Best part of the episode is the trailer for "The Stolen Earth", which will feature everyone from recent Doctor Who mythology, including the Torchwood team, Sara Jane and Martha. Can Brig. Lethbridge-Stewart be far behind?