We have one of Doctor Who’s bleakest tales with Turn Left By this point in Series 4, Catherine Tate had nailed her role as Donna and Turn Left is pretty much her story as Donna is thrown back into an alternate timeline where the simple act of turning left for a different job on just an ordinary day, resulted in her never having met the Doctor which ultimately led to his death and the events of most of Russell’s era spiralling out of control. It’s a very basic but still interesting time travel concept about the butterfly effect of a simple ordinary action having unforeseen consequences later down the line.

The explanation for each alien incident in the Russell era, as well as what happens to certain characters like Martha Jones and Sarah Jane Smith, are a bit on the nose and the episode is as over the top and stupid as Russell T. Davies normally is, which is often off-putting for me, but Catherine Tate and a lot of the co-stars in this really sell this morbidly depressing world that just gets worse and worse. If anything, I felt Jacqueline King steals the show in a lot of her scenes as Donna’s mum, there’s this beautiful shot where during one of the alien incursions, we cut to a shot of Donna’s mum who has this perfect look of feeling broken inside from having to live in this nightmare of a world.
It gets very dark the more it progresses as we see the effects it begins to have on certain people around Donna, including one scene that to this day I’m amazed Russell managed to get away with for what is predominantly marketed as a kids show.

There is a lot of Russell’s usual silliness like Rose Tyler being all enigmatic for the sake of it, speaking of the future in vague foreshadowing, not to mention the accidental continuity error of the Titanic spaceship destroying London when in Voyage of the Damned they made it clear it would destroy the Earth (an episode less than a year before). That’s what happens when you make every episode about the end of the world/universe, sadly Modern Who still hasn’t learned that you don’t need to be big to be impressive.

New Who Review #53

Turn Left

This story was fantastic. It was a alternate reality story which sees the doctor die and past events from different story's come to ruin the world. The acting from Catherine tate who led the episode was sublime. This is a doctor lite story which is pretty cool because we just had a fantastic companion lite story now we have a fantastic doctor lite story. I love this story because it takes the what if style and Kills off the doctor. We rarely rarely ever see the doctor dead in any story in the whoniverse so this is a really special one. Having Rose back was nice as she kinda co led this story with Donna. This was also very heartbreaking because in the Alt reality we see most of our fave main characters die such as Martha Jones, Ianto Jones (torchwood), Sarah Jane Smith (with Clyde langer, Maria Jackson & Luke Smith). Its so cool to refer back to older episodes and slightly change them to what if the Aliens won. Overall really great idea and concept that was executed so well (my fave of Tennants whole run). 10/10

With one of the best performances in the whole show, Catherine Tate stars in one of the best Doctor Who stories.

Simply perfect

It absolutely baffles me that we never really see Catherine Tate take on more serious, dramatic roles. The BEST to ever do it

insane

Turn Left is one of the more powerful episodes in all of the Russell T. Davies era, in my opinion.  Not only is it a great alternate timeline story, which as a premise is relatively rare for Doctor Who, but it's also an enormously powerful character piece for Donna Noble.

It's easy to wave this away as just some set-up for the Stolen Earth, but I would argue beyond that it is a very interesting take on fascism.  It shows how suddenly and violently a society can turn.  While this does bolster the Doctor's character a bit, making him out to be this saviour of all mankind, it does so in a very specific way.  The idea is that a bug starts messing around with history and the Doctor is killed in a new timeline. Without him a number of disasters (all based on past specific episodes) begin to cause society in UK to fall apart.  Pretty soon people are being shipped away in camps and Donna can tell something is just wrong.

Plus, she is being haunted by a ghost name Rose Tyler.  I love how they handled Rose's return in Series 4 and they do a very good job at using her as a sort of harbinger for Donna.  There's something so foreboding about Rose's appearances across Series Four that make her character very interesting.  This isn't just a fun return, Rose is on a mission, trying desperately to warn the Doctor of what the Daleks are up to.  So I found that side of the story very fun and extremely moving.  It's a great episode that holds up well on its own, even without all the context and weight of what comes before and after this story.  One of my favourites.

For a story that more or less resets by the end, taking place entirely in an alternate reality, this is truly affecting and harrowing in parts. In particular when a kind immigrant family is taken away by soldiers and Wilf reacts with “it’s happening again.” The show is extremely confident at this point, weaving in continuity galore without fear of alienating viewers - fully aware most people watching have done all the required viewing.

Billie Piper seems a bit alien in all this - from a totally different era. She’s brilliant but Catherine Tate continues to steal the show in this Doctor lite story, which sees her taking on the entire dramatic weight of the plot.

If I had any criticism is that it is a little too continuity heavy - relying on plot points gone by. But this is a nitpick as Doctor Who rarely enters this “what if?” territory, so it serves as an interesting flavour.