Turn Left by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Graeme Harper

 

“Midnight” stars David Tennant as the Doctor, Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott and Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble.  It was written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Graeme Harper with Brian Minchin as Script Editor, Susie Liggat as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Phil Collinson as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 21 June 2008 on BBC One.

 

Russell T. Davies experiences as a queer man who lived through the AIDS epidemic is something that has always informed his writing.   Davies as a writer has always been focused on ordinary people being stuck in a world far bigger than them, something each of his Doctor Who companions reflected, as well as a general distrust in the nature of authority.  This is understandable and commendable, living through the disastrous leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the aforementioned epidemic where LGBT people (especially LGBT people of color) were left abandoned to die of a horrific disease under a near constant rise of conservatism.  This mistrust and understanding of the failures of authority is what largely informs the particular events of “Turn Left”.  The episode went through several outlines and drafts, being written early in the series for the potential companion of Penny Carter who in her initial appearance would turn left to meet the Doctor instead of right, though this was rewritten for Donna and the timeline of the episode shifted further back to be a retrospect for the previous two series of the show.  It also is an episode that now could reflect Donna Noble’s development as a character since “The Runaway Bride”, this being the event where the Doctor in the new timeline would drown.  Direction was given to Graeme Harper as its own seventh block, and when watching the episode this was clearly the correct decision.  Harper only is concerned with directing this episode as the two-part finale would go into production in the ninth and final production block for the fourth series also under Harper.  It means “Turn Left” stands out in the watching order as particularly isolated adding to the isolation of the parallel world effect.

 

Catherine Tate’s performance is the center of what makes Russell T. Davies’ script for “Turn Left” elevated from a great script to an all time classic script.  Tate and the supporting cast are incredible, Donna over the course of the episode having her life picked apart piece by piece and thrown away.  She begins the episode in the altered timeline back where she was, terrified of disappointing her mother and grandfather, being tempted by alien forces into altering the timeline unbeknownst to her, and while this choice gives the character brief stability, things begin to fall apart.  She is fired after Christmas due to the firm she is working for losing business and that’s the easiest situation to deal with.  London is destroyed when the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace, leaving large swathes of England a desolate waste as the Nobles are relocated to Leeds.  The already Conservative government becomes an authoritarian, semi-fascist government soon after, deporting foreigners (and suspected foreigners) to labor camps as things fall apart further.  Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott gives one particularly tough monologue, the monologue of a man who has seen this happen before and could do nothing to stop it happening again when a family that the Nobles have become close to and have been relocated to live with in Leeds are forcefully taken to a labor camp.  Graeme Harper’s direction leading up to this point is integral in bringing out the harrowing aspects of the script, aspects that rank with “Midnight” for some of the darkest scenes in Doctor Who, all scenes that highlight human cruelty.  Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble in particular at this point has her best scene where she only has one word to say, but her face says everything she is thinking.

 

Returning for this episode and the finale is Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, not explained how she has made it into this parallel universe created by the choice to turn right instead of left yet (that is saved for “The Stolen Earth”).  Rose is essentially in the role of the Doctor for this episode but is written clearly as Rose Tyler just trying to make the universe right, even if that means she has to nudge Donna into some horrific directions.  There is this sense that Rose and the UNIT team she is working with led by Captain Magambo, played by Noma Dumezweni, have developed experimental time travel from the TARDIS recovered from under the Thames.  Piper’s performance is a clearly older and more experienced Rose so the issues of her puppy dog romance with the Doctor from the second series is more under the surface, Piper playing it as someone who genuinely wants to see the universe back on track and the lost lives (Sarah Jane, Martha, and Jack as well as the supporting casts of The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood are explicitly killed as the world falls apart at different points in the timeline).  Rose has to outright tell Donna that she is going to die, not just if she wants to fix the timeline but in the grand scheme of things as well which leads to tearful final moments as history is reverted with Donna’s sacrifice in front of a moving vehicle.  Davies also shows restraint by not actually naming Rose in the episode, Donna is never given her name and it is only the audience who has the connection with the character so Donna is initially incredibly distrusting until she sees the stars going out.  The stars going out is the perfect descriptor for this episode.

 

Overall, “Turn Left” is harrowing but in the best ways.  Davies’ script has drawn greatly on his own personal trauma, showing the roots of many of his current dramas in this single episode.  This episode would not have been nearly as effective if it pulled any of its punches, something that in terms of Doctor Who writers of the time only Davies feels appropriate for pushing the envelope in this way.   The performances are perfect, Billie Piper giving one of her best performances in the entire series all the while never sharing the screen with the Doctor, Bernard Cribbins and Jacqueline King provide the horrors of the outside world, and Catherine Tate ties the episode together in pure perfection.  10/10.