What aunt_zelda Thinks: 'Turn Left'
Jun. 22nd, 2008 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aunt_zeldaSorry this is late, but it was thunder-and-lighning-ing all afternoon, and I had to stop when I was halfway through the episode and turn off the power to the computer.
On to the episode!
Oh, I do so LOVE alt-realities. Some people believe that for every choice we make, it creates an alt-reality. I think that’s pretty cool. I mean, if my dad had come out before he met my mom, I’d have never been born. I might have been born a boy. I might never have left my hometown. If I’d never met Jessica ______, I’d have never worked up the courage to watch Serenity, which led me to Firefly, which led me to Buffy and Angel, which led my mother’s friend to recommend Heroes, which led me to Doctor Who. *shudders* Scary thought.
Just realized something: people associate the left side of the brain with artistic stuff and imagination, and the right side of the brain with math and logic and such. So the ‘turn right’ and ‘turn left’ business is the fate of the universe depending on the outcome of a battle between the opposing sides of the brain. Technically Donna shouldn’t be turning left at all, she should be going straight (or ‘gaily forward’ if you wanna be non-homophobic.)
Mayhaps I’m reading too much into this, as always … ah well, not like I’m posting this on TWoP …
‘Turn Left’
We begin in …
OMG IT’S FIREFLY-LAND!
(Joss Whedon should be suing the BBC RIGHT NOW!)
*shrugs* I’ll dance about with fangirl-joy for now.
The Doctor’s basically eating all this cool-looking food. Apparently that’s pretty-much all DT’s gonna do this episode, besides let his arm flump down (and that might not even be his arm, it might be a stunt-double’s arm!) so make the most of this!
Donna gets convinced to have her fortune-told by a woman whose voice reminds me an awful lot of Chantho. [Edit: it's the same actress! ZOMG I am SO GOOD!] Apparently the reading is free for people with red hair. Donna misses the ominous-look of the Fortune-teller as she enters through the beaded curtains that may-or-may-not have been stolen from Inara Serra’s shuttle.
The Fortune-Teller gets Donna to think back, to when she met the Doctor (though they don’t call him that, they just call him ‘that man.’) It was through her job. (YAHOO FOR FLASHBACKS!) There was a choice for that job, Donna’s mother knew a guy who’d giver her a permanent job, not temping. Donna wanted to turn left *coughcough* and go to her usual temp-job, and her mom wanted her to turn right and check out the new job. Her mom says that Donna’s only at the temp-job because she wants to meet a rich man, but says that “city executives don’t need temps, except for practice.” Yeah, because if you’re a secretary/butler/guard-dog, you get snazzy suits and become the boss’s main squeeze and thus get upped-self-confidence in S2 … oh, sorry, got carried away there …
The Fortune-Teller points out that if Donna had turned right, everything would have changed. She never would have met ‘that man.’ Donna is starting to get freaked out and wants the Fortune-Teller to let go of her hands. A creepy bug crawls up and latches onto her back. The Fortune Teller convinces Donna-in-the-flashback “Turn right, and never meet that man. Turn right and change the world!” (She doesn’t go ‘muhahahhahaha!’ but she’d have been fully justified if she had.)
The credits are utterly ruined for me because I’m screaming “Nooooooo!” and “Arrrrgh!” and clapping my hands over my mouth and such-like things. Oooooo, Billie Piper! Yay/Argh!
In the alt-reality, Donna is successful on Christmas Eve, having a ball with her girlfriends in the pub, drinking and laughing in those silly X-Mas hats. She’s wearing navy blue, her best color, methinks.
One of her friends, a wide-eyed blond called ‘Agnes’ MIGHT be able to see the bug-thing on Donna’s back. It’s like a perception-filter she can almost see through.
Then the Racnos ‘star’ flies through the sky, goes east, and starts shooting down beams of death.
Everyone screams and we have MORE flashbacks to satisfy the flash-back whore that I am. *is content*
“Agnes,” Donna says. “There’s a great big web-star thing shooting at people, and you’re lookin’ at me?”
Agnes whispers, terrified, right out of the promos “There’s something on your back!” and runs off.
Donna, in full-Companion-mode, runs TOWARDS the disaster area. A tank (with no mention of ‘Mr. Saxon’ I’m afraid) shoots the star down.
Hey, it’s Greyhound-#-something-or-other, Ross, from the Sontaran episode! Sadly, this is not a happy-reunion for us fans, because he’s telling the UNIT commander-person via walkie that the Doctor is dead. Didn’t have enough time to regenerate. Some terrible, haunting music, that most people call ‘The Badwolf theme’ but I’m more inclined to believe is the TARDIS song, because it plays on the DVD menus with the TARDIS console, plays as the Doctor’s arm slips out of the body-bag and drops the sonic screwdriver. I hate symbolism: it makes me cry more often than not. *wibbles*
The Doctor died, all furious at the Racnos, in full Oncoming-Storm Mode, fresh from his anguish at loosing Rose. Not only is that a horrific death for the Doctor, our savoir, the symbol of Hope, but it means (among other things that this episode will explore) that the Master was never woken up at the End of the Universe. He died as Prof. Yana, probably at the hands of the Future-kind, with Chantho, never bothering to open the watch. That is an end not befitting of the Master. At least when Lucy shot him, there was a PLAN involved. (Even if Yana DID open the watch, what good would it do the Master? He had no TARDIS!)
*shudders* Two horrible, inappropriate deaths for two of my all-time favorite characters, the two Time Lords that make up my OTP. This is so, so WRONG.
Donna looks pretty horrified, and then … that’s right, Rose comes into focus, running up and asking what happened, and if they found ‘someone.’
Donna tells her the awful truth: they found ‘the Doctor’ and he’s dead. Rose looks just about as horror-struck as we all do, though she doesn’t scream or burst into tears or cling to Donna, as I would have. She asks Donna’s name, and keeps looking at Donna’s back. Rose says that she, Rose, shouldn’t even be here “It’s so wrong.” Donna demands to know why Rose keeps looking at Donna’s back, and then Rose vanishes to her own haunting TARDIS-song, without even giving her name.
Donna gets fired because her boss’ company had a lot of investments on the other side of the river, and it’s all gone. She pitches a fit, not stopping when Martha’s hospital is sucked up by the Judoon. She asks what ‘Cliff’ does all day, and spills that Anne-Marie stole some money, and throws a toy-cactus at Beatrice, who typed up her pink-slip.
The hospital is back, but only the medical student (Oliver) who tried to make peace with the Judoon is alive. Later he’s telling the news about the talking-rhinos, and Donna and her granddad watch the TV at home. Her granddad says “rhinos could be aliens.” So could komodo dragons, Grandad, but the Prime Minister is a better bet if you’re alien-hunting.
Apparently Martha Jones gave Oliver the last oxygen tank … and died. Without ever becoming badass, or saving the world, or showing the Doctor there IS life-after-Rose.
This is beginning to make me feel sick.
Oliver goes on about how “there was this woman who took control, said she, she knew what to do, said she could stop the MRI, or something … said her name was Sarah … Jane. Sarah-Jane, her name was. Sarah-Jane Smith.”
Oh … now that is a LOW blow, RTD. A very low blow indeed.
I admit it: I shrieked a loud, horrified squeak. Then I cried. Not I-just-watched-Gone-With-the-Wind tears, and not watching-children-die-in-the-Titanic-movie tears, and not ‘Doomsday’ tears, but there were tears.
And, if that wasn’t HORRIBLE enough, Luke, Maria, and Clive are feared-dead too.
…
*gulps* I’m afraid I can’t seem to stop shaking … uh … ummm … *takes deep breath*
I draw the line at child-death, Mr. Davies, ok? You have CROSSED The Line, so it is a VERY good thing that Mr. Moffat is taking control soon. A VERY good thing, ok?
I love the sad-guitar music that plays as Donna goes out into the empty streets at night.
Rose pops up again, out of this loud blue-white glow from an alley. She and Donna recognize each other, Rose still won’t give her name, keeps looking at Donna’s back, Donna is fed up with this, can’t feel or see anything on her back, and then Rose advises Donna and her family to leave the city next Christmas. The raffle-ticket Donna has is for a vacation to an inn outside the city. Rose tells Donna to use it. Donna, not being a sci-fi geek, tells Rose to leave her alone and stalks off. (I bet Donna wouldn’t choose a pill from Morpheus. Give the choice between red and blue, she’d clock him on the head and call it a day.)
But, next Christmas, the fam go to a ‘classy’ inn. Donna’s mom tells Donna’s granddad not to let on that they won it in a raffle, and to take the silly antler-headbands off. He won’t. “It’s Christmas.” *grinz* I like him.
Christmas morning, the maid sees something on Donna’s back, but I’m too concerned with the Titanic-footage on the TV to remember my Espanol.
The Titanic crashes into
I thought I’d have to pretend this event was like the Twin Towers in order to properly ‘get it,’ seeing as we don’t have a queen in America, but then everyone trundles outside and it’s revealed that it’s not just the Palace, it’s ALL OF LONDON. In a gigantic mushroom cloud. That I can sympathize with.
I got the same chills all over my body as when I watched the first episode of
Snap! People are being relocated. All of South England has been flooded with radiation, and
Leeds looks an awful lot like ‘The Year that Never Was’ last season, except the refugees are a bit cleaner, and there’s no John Simm karaoke. Donna gets waspish with their neighbor, and her grandfather tells her “You can’t make the world better by shouting at it.”
“I can try,” grits Donna, the epitome of exactly-what-the-post-S3-Doctor-needed.
Apparently the house Donna’s fam lives in is CROWDED with people already. An Indian-English family with seven kids lives upstairs, an older-mom has the back room, the cheery land-lord (for lack of better title) and his wife, their kids, his wife’s sister and her husband and kids, have the front. (Though we’re only gonna see two Indian-English kids, the Landlord, and some background characters who might have been pulled from Lost, for all the memory I have of them.)
Donna and her fam get the kitchen with camp-beds. Donna’s mom asks about the bathroom. “Nobody lives in the bathroom,” the landlord says. Tee hee …
Ooooo, oooo, did everyone spot that?!
PURPLE TELLYTUBBY IN THE FRONT! THANK YOU RTD FOR MY MR. MASTER FIX THIS EPISODE! *flings arms around him*
Anyhoodle, gramps is semi-cheery, bolstering wartime-spirit, but Donna says there’s no war. Gramps says
Oh, there’s another explanation. The fat-creatures. They struck
Late at night, with a surplus-of-candles (an idea that could only come from
Donna goes in to yell at Mr. Landlord and the Indian-English children for singing loudly, but soon they’re all singing Queen and drinking by candlelight, in proper post-apocalyptic manner. *beams* I approve. So does Kensei. I’m aware I’ve ceased making any kind of sense.
Sadly, another plot-point to bypass pops up. ATMOS is smoking and solider are shooting at their cars. Lots of people have hurried outside to see what’s going on, including Donna, which means she gets hit by xenophobia and yelled at by the Thought-Police … oops, sorry, I mean, the soldier. He doesn’t see the alien-on-her-back, though, and while gramps berates the poor, scared boy, Donna goes off to investigate the flash of blue-white light and the return of the TARDIS-song.
Rose and Donna have a chat on a park bench in the dead of night in a post-apocalyptic world. (Now that is just ASKING for trouble, ladies … and I’m not just talking about post-apocalyptic lawless peoples, I’m talking about femmeslashers.)
Anyhoodle, the fire-atmosphere thing happens, but it was “the Torchwood team: Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones.” Capt. Jack transported to the Sontaran home-world, so there’s no one left.
(STOP KILLING OFF THE SPINOFF SERIESES, RTD! HOW WILL ANYONE MAKE ANY MORE MONEY?! WHAT WILL I DO WITH MY SATURDAY NIGHTS/SUNDAY MORNINGS?!)
Donna notices that Rose is always wearing the same clothes, and won’t tell Donna her name.
Rose sighs. “None of this was meant to happen. There was a man, this … wonderful man, and he stopped it. The Titanic, the adipose, the ATMOS, he stopped ’em all from happening.”
Donna rightfully identifies the Doctor. Rose says Donna’s been dreaming about him. “Tall man, in a suit … with some grrrreat hair. Some … really, great hair.” Rose fangirls off to the side. *beams* That-Guy I’ve got a crush on looks an awful lot like DT … tee hee …
Rose says that Donna knows the Doctor and has traveled with him in a different world. On Christmas Eve she saved the Doctor’s life …
FLASHBACK! Yah …
… oh, it’s a scary flashback … where the Doctor is in full-frontal-Oncoming-Storm mode, and Donna tells him he can stop now. *shivers at the memory*
Rose says that “Something worse” is coming. “The Darkness.” Uhhhhh … would that be Davros? Because I thought ‘the Darkness’ is what awaits you when you die on Torchwood …
Donna says she’s nothing, not even a temp anymore.
“Donna Noble, you’re the most important woman in the whole of creation!” Rose half-laughs, desperate.
Donna is fed up, though. She says she’s tired.
Rose says Donna has to come with her.
Donna laughs that blond hair might work on the guys, but it ain’t shifting her. Rose smiles. “That’s more like it.”
Donna assures Rose she’s got plenty more, some of the Donna-we-know-and-love creeping back.
Rose says Donna WILL come with her eventually, in three weeks, actually. There’s an ominous hint about Donna’s granddad and his telescope, Donna says he never lets go of it, but I have an awful feeling that ‘pry it from his cold, dead hands’ will become horribly appropriate pretty soon here.
Rose says she’s sorry, but Donna’s going to die. Then she fades away like a ghost.
Snap! Xenophobia is upon the post-apocalyptic world, and Mr. Landlord (the cheery, happy man) is going. He has to. To ‘labor camps.’ My ears pricked up at that phrase, but it’s only when Donna’s granddad says “that’s what they called them last time” that Donna realizes, and goes chasing after the truck, but to no avail. Ulp.
There’s a lovely, awful scene in which the camera focuses on Donna’s mom’s unmoving face, and a blur in the background that is Donna talks about what a disappointment she’s been to her mom. It’s awful, because all her mom does is say “yeah.”
Donna now confesses her uselessness to her granddad, who doesn’t contradict her because the stars are fracking going out. *got chills all over my body* Great, now I’m shaking again. Proves my theory that if the Doctor or the Master or both die, the universe will too, though!
Donna turns around and says “I’m ready.”
And there’s Rose.
Rose, Donna, and Ross (I THINK it’s Ross, at least) ride in a military truck to impatient music.
Rose arrives, an important-UNIT-lady salutes and calls her ‘marm.’ Rose tells her not to salute, but the lady says “If you’re not going to tell us your name …”
Donna’s confuzzled, Rose blathers on that she’s crossed too many realities and the wrong word could unravel the timey-whimey-stuff. Ok, she didn’t actually say ‘timey-whimey-stuff’ but that’s a pretty good summary.
And there’s the TARDIS! Oh, you poor old girl … I don’t even want to think about what’s she’s going through, without the Doctor … I mean, it must have been bad enough for her to be piloted only by one Time Lord, but now that THAT ONE is gone … *shudders* I’m going to spiritually hug her, ok?
Rose gets Donna to go inside, Donna goes “No way!” and there are genuine smiles and wordless exclamations all around. *beams*
Rose asks what Donna thinks, and Donna wants a coffee.
Cue to exposition, provided by the lovely Billie Piper, all about the Doctor, Time-And-Relative-Dimensions-In-Space, Time Lord-ness, and the fact that the TARDIS seems to be dying. *shudders*
Donna asks why such an amazing person would want to be with her, Donna.
“He thought you were brilliant.” Rose says.
Donna sigh/snorts. “Don’t be stupid.”
“No, you are,” Rose explains. “Just took the Doctor to show you that, simply by bein’ with him.” Rose ducks her head. “He did the same to me.”
THANK YOU for stating, onscreen, what I’ve been bellowing for almost a year now.
Donna asks Rose “Were you and he …?” and the TARDIS-song plays up really loud. Rose doesn’t say ‘no’ as I’d desire, but she doesn’t pull out a platoon of Teimbebbies she had with the Doctor in another reality, so it’s not as bad as it could be.
With the aid of stage-lights, mirrors, and some grating from the TARDIS that the Master WOULD have sexed the Doctor on top of had Donna turned left, Donna and the audience finally get to see the bug. It looks like a gigantic green beetle. Okaaaaaaay …
Donna asks what it is.
“We don’t actually know.” Rose admits.
“Oh, thanks,” Donna snaps.
Blah blah, the bug feeds off of alternative-reality-event-making-decisions, blah blah, different readings on Donna and the bug, blah blah Rose tries to spout techno-babble and that just ticks off me AND Donna, blah blah …
Donna’s gonna travel through time, back to where she made that decision to turn right instead of left. This means her coat is covered with red and yellow wires, she’s gonna be given a glass of water ‘to combat dehydration’ and she’ll have to walk back and forth to epic, intense music. What she should really be given is peanuts and two pints and a towel, but that’s a totally different fandom altogether.
Apparently the arrangement of mirrors and wires and such is “A time machine.” Tee hee … yeah, I suppose it is. This ramshackle device is a Time-Machine, and spaceships are spaceships, but the TARDIS and Moya (from Farscape) are living entities.
Donna asks how they know this’ll work, Rose admits that they’re just guessing. Donna grits “Brilliant.”
Apparently she has to change the car’s direction one minute past ten.
“So all I have to do is run up to myself and have a good argument.”
Rose laughs. “I’d like to see that.” Forgetting Nine and “Don’t. Touch. The baby.” Ah, Nine, nearly as forgotten as poor Eight … *huggles them both*
Donna is happy, because she’s figured out that when Rose said she, Donna, would die, she meant the whole awful alt-reality, and if Donna changes things, it’ll all be better. Donna sadly arrives at the conclusion that she’ll die too, believing that her future with the Doctor won’t happen, just as she flashes away.
Rose not contradicting her wasn’t exactly wrong, though, because post-apocalyptic-Donna will vanish, but real-Donna will go off and have adventures with the Doctor and nothing (well, none of the ‘little’ things, anyway) will go wrong.
Zap! Donna is in the past … present … you know what I mean … *headdesk* She strikes a ‘Yatta!’ pose and shrieks with joy, then realizes she’s got barely five minutes to get half a mile. She should be grateful she’s not on a different bloody CONTINENT, from the fact that this was never tested.
Post-apocalyptic-Donna runs and runs, as we get a flashback of a flashback (yaaaaaay!) of Donna and her mom arguing in the car.
Post-apocalyptic-Donna realizes she’ll never make it, remembers Rose saying “You’re gonna die” and … leaps in front of a big truck. The truck squeals on the brakes in vain, and then stops. Traffic backs up. The right-way is blocked.
Post-apocalyptic-Donna – barely conscious – sees Rose walking up to her. Rose crouches down and says “Tell him this … two words …” and whispers into Post-apocalyptic-Donna’s ear … something we don’t hear. So we go from Prof. River Song saying ‘one word’ (the Doctor’s name) to Rose saying ‘two words’ (something we don’t know yet.)
Maybe next season the Master can whisper THREE words to the Doctor (I love you.)
Anyhoodle, with and echo of “I’m going left” scenes and flashbacks are reversed …
… and Donna is back in Firefly-land. The bug leaps off her back and dies. The Fortune-Teller is crouching on the floor. “You were so strong …” she wails. “What are you … what will you be?!” and she flees to shack up with Inara Serra … oops, sorry, keep slipping up, what with the BIG ASS FIREFLY RIP-OFF.
The Doctor steps in, asking if everything’s alright. Donna flings her arms around him.
While the Doctor pokes at the beetle, Donna says the vision is slipping away from her, like dreams do. *growls* I HATE IT when that happens to me … particularly since I have such lovely dreams that usually turn into plots for my stories …
The Doctor says that usually the universe just compensates for bug-incidents like this, but Donna’s choice was so big that it created an entire parallel world around her. (Kind of like how certain characters from a show or book get a spinoff, but others don’t.)
The Doctor then muses on the fact that Donna is the only one he met twice, and how a parallel world was created for Donna in the Library. Donna scoffs that she’s nothing special, but the Doctor fanboys “You’re brilliant!”
This sparks Donna remembering that Rose told her that. She tells the Doctor that a woman told her the stars were going out and the darkness was coming through all worlds. She says the woman was blond. The Doctor (with intense music backing him up) demands the blond woman’s name. Donna doesn’t know, but she does know the two words Rose told her.
Bad wolf.
…
*grinz*
Now that, my friends, is pure genius.
The Doctor races out of the Fortune-Teller’s pad, into the streets, and everything in Firefly-Land with text now says ‘Bad Wolf.’ Even the little message on the side of the TARDIS, where it usually says ‘call for assistance,’ says ‘Bad Wolf.’ Even the glowing yellow text at the top that usually says ‘Police Call Box’ says ‘Bad Wolf.’ The Doctor races inside the TARDIS, which is glowing an ominous, Paradox-esque, red.
Donna catches up to the Doctor, inside the red-TARDIS.
“Doctor what is it? What’s Bad Wolf?” Donna asks.
Something that sounds like a clock begins to chime as the Doctor, looking almost as shocked/horrified/taken-aback as when he connected ‘
“It’s the end of the universe.”
Next Week:
akdjfalflkgjaflkjalfdjalsfjalksfjasdfjalskjfla!!!
*coughs* Ahem …
Yeah, I got up and did a fangirl dance. I am not ashamed of myself. I made many squeeing noises, grinned like a maniac when I stood still, and waved my hands frantically like I was drying my nails.
It’s not just Rose, the Daleks, and the Doctor and Donna. It’s Jack with Ianto and Gwen, and SJS with Luke, and Martha, and the Judoon, and … HOMYGOD IT’S HARRIET JONES! HARRIET JONES! HARRIET JONES! (And she looks tired.)
There’s lots and LOTS of explosions, a red Dalek, Rose lookin’ mighty fine and rather badass with a BIG ASS GUN, Jack saying there’s nothing he can do, Martha’s mommy saying “Oh my god!” and her granddad holding … a cricket bat? (Hee, with the cricket bat and Harriet Jones, you’ve got Shawn of the Dead!) Martha and some UNIT peoples, a man with medals and an (American?) accent saying “Ladies and gentlemen, we are at war.” And a bajillion Dalek ships zooming at Earth. Jack says he’s sorry, “But we’re dead.” (NOOOOOOO! DO NOT KILL THE PRETTEHS!) I want the OT3 fics to stop too, guys, but a Dalek invasion is NOT the answer!
Oh, and a Dalek laughs. In case you’ve been living under a rock twenty-thousand leagues under the sea: the Daleks are back! Dun dun daaaaaaaaa!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Ss-CW8ay8
That’s the alternative-trailer I found online. It’s making me REALLY freak out, because, as a new fan, I’ve never ‘met’ Davros before. He sounds pretty dang evil, and scary, and I REFUSE to slash him with the Doctor! I simply REFUSE! *crosses arms*
(I explained ‘crossovers’ to one of my Lost-buddies at dinner, and he said it’d be good opportunity for product-placement: what kind of suitcases are the Daleks using when they travel from show to show? … well, I thought it was funny, seeing as he’s not much of a Whovian.)
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Date: 2008-06-24 01:18 pm (UTC)EVERYONE bloves the Doctor, I fell in blove as soon as I saw him. 9/Jack sounds awesome. XD And Doctor/Master is totally FTW!! *huggles it too* =D