Doctor Who S30E11 "Turn Left" (Spoilers)

[Darth Nostril]

I always thought the Rani was the one who picked up the ring from the Masters funeral pyre near the end of "Last of the Time Lords"

While it's been jokingly reffered to as 'the Hand of the Rani' by the production staff, they claim to have no concrete intention as to who it might be.

Seriously? I didn't know that
The Rani sprung to mind as one of the only renegade Time Lords who could have survived the Time War
All the loyal time lords rallied to Gallifreys defence, even the Doctor, and got wiped out
The Master fled to the end of the universe to survive, wondered whether the Rani fled to the opposite end, right to the beginning

[General Zod]

Kind of a "blah" episode altogether, though I suppose it makes for a tolerable filler. Also. . .why does the thread title say S3 when we're in S4?

[JLTucker]

It says S30. That's counting all of the previous series.

[Chris OFarrell]

You know, if Rose is showing up again, I wonder if she/the Daleks in the void have smashed open another breach somehow, hence explaining the presence of the Daleks or something...

[Rickie]

This episode felt inferior to previous episodes, it just lacked realism and suspense. I mean, it could have all been a dream.

[Stark]

Oh jesus. Can we make a law or something about Donna-heavily episodes?

[mr friendly guy]

Watching it now.

However wasn't the titanic supposed to cause a big enough explosion to "destroy" the Earth. Granted it was just dialogue, but didn't the bad guy want to cause a really big scandal so his ex company's shares would drop.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Oh jesus. Can we make a law or something about Donna-heavily episodes?

For a Donna episode sans-Doctor, it was fairly entertaining. The sense of foreboding about this "Darkness" has been alluded to since season one of TW, and perhaps even earlier in DW. I hope it isn't a let down as I can envisage, because the idea of a new, totally unknown power taking down whole universes is pretty damn nifty.

Watching it now.

However wasn't the titanic supposed to cause a big enough explosion to "destroy" the Earth. Granted it was just dialogue, but didn't the bad guy want to cause a really big scandal so his ex company's shares would drop.

Perhaps the crew left on-board were able to SCRAM the reactors, but not able to contain any radiation that would escape the impact.

[Stark]

For a Donna episode sans-Doctor, it was fairly entertaining. The sense of foreboding about this "Darkness" has been eluded to since season one of TW, and perhaps even earlier in DW. I hope it isn't a let down as I can envisage, because the idea of a new, totally unknown power taking down whole universes is pretty damn nifty.

There is, however, NOTHING nifty about 45m of Donna screeching. And the finale looks retarded - EXTREME RED ALERT, dogfighting saucers, and those TW people nobody cares about! It's SUPER FANSERVICE!

[Darksider]

It's SUPER FANSERVICE!

how can they have fanservice when they're aren't any fans?

[Stark]

No I mean 'bring back every character, cross over with the misguided spinoff, bring back a fan favourite, and have more dogfighting saucers' fanservice. Davies has gone beyond what I considered possible in this regard.

[mr friendly guy]

Next week it has the potential to be epic or to suck given how difficult it is to give every single character good screen time.

I am also worried that those dalek saucers would end up sucking, which is really bad considering how wank TW era daleks were.

That being said, I have heard it speculated that they are alt universe daleks. I will just wait and see.

Overall this wasn't a bad non-doctor episode, although no where as good as Blink. I always find alt history stories interesting, and I like how we see the world is screwed without the Doctor, although not so bad that humans would have died (ie the Titanic didn't cause planet destruction as predicted, the Sontarans still lost, but it cost the lives of Torchwood).

[Stark]

Dude, it was TERRIBLE. From a stupid premise to so much Donna time I wanted to cut myself to it's very nature as what should be a piece of OG fanfiction, it was terrible. It's either terrible writing, or a hilarious joke clip episode that we're supposed to hate. I give it props for being so GOOD at being terrible, however, instead of simply boring or uninteresting. Probably the second best episode of the season.

However, Flash has exceeded even MY understanding of terrible fanservice. He has concocted a terrible way for the finale to be even more terrible than it looks already.

MULTIPLE DOCTOR STORY. That'd be excellent, right? Nothing sucks more than a multiple Doctor story! Watching Eccleston punch Donna in her stupid face would at least slightly offset the sadness of watching Davies top himself with awful finales.

TW + dogfighting saucers + extreme red alert + Davros + Rose + Martha + SJS + Donna + 9th Doctor = ... I ... I don't even know. I don't have words for it. It's ...

[Admiral Valdemar]

There is, however, NOTHING nifty about 45m of Donna screeching. And the finale looks retarded - EXTREME RED ALERT, dogfighting saucers, and those TW people nobody cares about! It's SUPER FANSERVICE!

Yeah, it does look like Davies is trying to outdo himself again by bringing back every character, good and bad, back for his swansong. It's quite funny, almost like a "Let's see Moffat try and top THIS!" kind of thing.

Of course, putting Earth in even more MEGA DANGER is not the recourse of a good writer. "Midnight" was obviously a fluke of originality.

[Stark]

I'm serious though, while I think it was bad, it's probably the best non-Moffatt ep I've seen this season. There were some extremely successful moments, and I imagine if they weren't trying so hard to set up the finale it would have been much better.

It's just sad when Misc Italian #332 and Old Guy #2 out-act an entire year of Donna in one 12s scene.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The next Doctor could be that Italian. Come on, you know you want it.

[Stark]

The next Doctor could be that Italian. Come on, you know you want it.

I want the next Doctor to be THAT GUY. And I want people to constantly call him Mussolini!

It's amusing how they can spend half an episode showing what a offensively selfish, stupid and bigoted person Donna is, and yet STILL try and make the audience give a shit.

[Admiral Valdemar]

But... she's brilliant.

[Stark]

Y'know what's sad? Davies is taking a cool scene from Fathers Day (standard regular people living their lives = important) and totally missing the point and making it about someone who sucks. I hear she's brilliant because she's RAR DONNA GOD OF THUNDERA! And not, y'know, because the universe is made up of ordinary people making decisions, living a life the Doctor never can.

NAH! Remember, we're getting strange readings!! If these strange readings are anything other than 'Donna is actually Davros', it'll be disappointing!

[Tychu]

NAH! Remember, we're getting strange readings!! If these strange readings are anything other than 'Donna is actually Davros', it'll be disappointing!

Maybe, just maybe (the whole season has dialogue with characters asking if the two of them are a couple, but I seriously think Song is going to be the Doctors Wife) Donna is some important family member for the Doctor.


spoiler part









This episode was great, I'm actually really happy that they fixed the whole timey wimey problem in the first episode of the 3 episode season finale. Maybe its just the History major in me but I really have a problem with time paradoxes. You get stuck in the path of "this is how it went" and though seeing it in a different light is fun, it kind of makes you mad. I just hope that RTD dosen't pull another "whoops that whole year never actually happened".

And who is to say that the Who Staff will wrap this up in a little nice package at the end of Series 4 Episode 13? Maybe thats what they 2009 Doctor Who Specials are going to be about

[Zac Naloen]

The end of the universe plot line is getting a bit old, but the episode on its own was enjoyable enough.

I'm crossing my fingers they don't fuck up the ending.

[NecronLord]

Take a look at the sky in that scene with the dalek saucer firing in atmosphere and not flattening London as a side effect of the weapons discharge.

No stars, horrible huge clouds of smoke, huge moon that looks like it's fallling out of orbit... It's a reset button coming right up.

Seriously? I didn't know that
The Rani sprung to mind as one of the only renegade Time Lords who could have survived the Time War
All the loyal time lords rallied to Gallifreys defence, even the Doctor, and got wiped out
The Master fled to the end of the universe to survive, wondered whether the Rani fled to the opposite end, right to the beginning

That seems unlikely. She was much more loyal than the Master. Or the Doctor. She was pushed out into exile due to a previous President being a twonk. She didn't choose to leave Gallifrey. The Doctor left because he despised the culture of the time lords; she left because the previous president forced her to go because she accidentally killed his pet cat. She could well be a billion times the patriot either of them is.

[Bounty]

I just saw the tape and liked it. Yes, it's a big reset button episode, but it was done well throughout and superbly at times (well, two times: "labour camps... they said that the last time" and that whimper from the dying Tardis).

Next week looks a lot more exciting than it did before I saw this episode. Even if the story seems to be headed for a retread of the last finales - old enemy + end of the world + big honkin reset button - it can still work if the execution is on the level of this episode.

Hilarious bit in the trailer: Jack says "this is it, we're all going to die! OMG!" when the next series of Torchwood is already confirmed. Whoops.

[Bounty]

Ghetto edit: I wonder what the hell is up with Rose. Dimension hopping, knowing about future events, pushing UNIT around, and somehow doing her Bad Wolf shtick again. Eh?

[Admiral Valdemar]

She's really Ace Rimmer.