This latest episode, for me, seemed to be a proverbial head-scratcher.  While rooted in the tradition of the show, the opening scene carried with it the fantasy elements typical to any Doctor Who episode, however, one key player was missing straightaway, the Doctor.  The lack of the Doctor’s presence created a void.  Creatively it was a major departure; just as in the previous episode, “Midnight”, where the Doctor’s companion was missing except at the beginning and ending.  Here, though, it’s just Donna until the end.

But, that’s not the only misstep.  It was interesting that–Wait, was it truly interesting?  It’s been done before in science-fiction, and particularly in Doctor Who, where a timeline can get completely messed up by one single missed event that should have happened but didn’t due to the intervention of an antagonist–Donna was sent into the past by a being (an alien) bent on wanting to rid the universe of the Doctor, right?  Yeah.  The “what if” factor was a huge part of “Turn Left”.

Perhaps, the title in itself lends to what this episode is all about.  The phrase “turn left”, while worked into the story’s plot, of course, could also refer to the unusual course the story takes–the unconventional liberals on the left, the more subdued conservatives on the right.  Perhaps, it’s just a coincidence.  Or…

…maybe it’s a logical connection.  All right, I can live with that.  But, honestly, a giant scarab that can wire itself into somebody’s nervous system and control them, (to quote Jayne from Serenity) where does that get fun?  It doesn’t.  And what I’m trying to point out here is that, while perhaps a newer twist to the “what if” factor, it’s not completely original, not to mention it’s sort of ridiculous.

It would have been better for the show’s writers and producers if they had come up with something more believable, and creepy.  Remember those ear-worm things from Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan?  I know I do.  Something like that would have been more appropriate, I think.  Poor Donna… she had to wear a beetle on her back.  How does that work?  A beetle that can hardwire itself into you?  Right…

Rose on Doctor Who

Yet, that’s besides the point.  Donna goes into an alternate reality (or is that alternate universe?) where the simple action of taking a right instead of a left in her car changes everything.  And Rose has to help her.  She has to help Donna remember.  Because if she doesn’t–if she fails–the Doctor will be gone–gone forever–and us humans, well, we’ll see Earth’s population dwindle and, possibly, wink out entirely.  We need the Doctor.

That’s “Turn Left” in a nutshell.  Throughout Donna’s experience there’s the audible sound of a giant creepy bug, and people keep looking at her back for something they can’t quite see.  Sorry, but that didn’t satisfy me, and really, honestly, there was no purpose to this episode, other than the fact that it, like I said above, screams: We need the Doctor.  That’s its only apparent purpose.  Filler.  Dare I venture, rubbish?

Also, Donna’s personality and mentality were influenced by that giant bug, right?  Well, I think she seemed more frustrated than influenced.  That was the way it came off.  She knew something was there, because people kept looking at her back–And it was irritating to say the least.  Not just for Donna, but for me (the viewer) as well.  The biggest question is, why didn’t Rose just come out and tell Donna what the hell was going on?  She knew; she knew what was on Donna’s back: an interdimensional creature that was trying to change the outcome of events.

Of course, the most shameless plot device was the fact that future-Donna had to get past-Donna to turn left instead of right.  And, how did she have to do it?  She had to die–more precise had to get hit by a two-ton lorry.  That was the diversion that was required.  Future-Donna had to die, like that hasn’t been done before.  Future-Donna died, and the stopped traffic flow from onlookers forced the “left” to happen.  Bingo. That’s it.  And everything was fixed, and the Doctor was there to find Donna at the fortune teller who had duped her into wearing the giant bug to begin with.

The Doctor in the last few frames, go figure.  If “Midnight” was a major, unconventional change in the series, “Turn Left” was even more so.  Which in this case failed to impress–or should I say it failed to take the show anywhere?

Rating: 6.5

The plot line of Midnight, though, besides turning much darker than expected, had one intriguing flaw; the lack of Donna wasn’t necessarily a travesty, but it would have been interesting to know what was going on (what she was up to) at the Leisure Palace while The Doctor was onboard a doomed space-truck. In fact, it’s almost as if the writers and producers of the show have been purposefully making the role of The Doctor’s companion less and less important in each episode. Here, it’s apparent: Donna had nothing to offer the story.

The story itself focuses, instead, entirely on the passengers and crew of the space-truck as it journeys out toward the wondrous sapphire waterfalls. The trip is fairly uneventful until…the computer malfunctions and the space-truck suddenly comes to an abrupt halt. Naturally, The Doctor is on top of things right away. He forces his way into the cockpit to find out what’s going on.

Sky and the Doctor

However, neither the mechanic nor the pilot are sure what’s happened. They just know there’s been a malfunction. So, they put out the distress signal. All seems as if it is in order, and that none of them are in any real danger. Right? As always on Doctor Who, it’s obvious something very bad is about to happen. What fun would it be if everything did go right, anyway?

With the reassurance that everything is in hand, The Doctor returns to the passenger cabin to calm them down. But…something comes a knocking. All over the hull bangs are heard as if something is trying to figure out a way in. Of course, panic sets in amongst the passengers immediately, except for the blonde woman The Doctor was talking to earlier. Miss Silvestry, Sky, goes completely crazed with fear–not just panic. She screams, “It’s come for me!”

Earlier she had mentioned she was recently separated from a relationship. And that “she”–her companion–”had wanted to be in a completely different galaxy from her”. Wow. Doctor Who really has stepped into the 21st century, right? Well, could it be that the alien which soon possesses Sky is the one she’s referring to? Could be, but it’s never thoroughly explained.

Right. Alien takes over Sky. Here’s where things get extremely tense and, dare it be said, creative. Everybody hates it when some wise-ass repeats every word they say, right? Well, Sky begins to do just that. She starts out with her own voice, then it modulates, then…oh crap! She’s repeating not only word-for-word what’s being said, but she now has learned to mimic the exact sound of everyone’s voice. Hmm…this doesn’t seem good.

The Doctor realizes alien life when he sees it. Naturally, he decides to coax the alien’s intentions out, but he’s rather unsuccessful. In fact, it seems he may have met his match. The alien initiates a propaganda campaign against The Doctor. Through various psychological methods the alien begins to convince the passengers that they need to rid themselves of The Doctor.

It nearly works, too, but, at the end, The Hostess of the space-truck wakes up and sacrifices herself as she grabs hold of the alien-possessed Sky, pulling the both of them out of the airlock to their dooms. Needless to say that The Doctor is visibly shaken. He had been completely powerless. The alien had been able to draw energy from him the entire time, keeping him utterly incapacitated the entire while. What could be so powerful?

The dramatic bits of Midnight truly are creative. The alien repeating every bit of what people say was quite clever in the fact that it was learning as it went, growing more powerful by the second. However, the lack of Donna throughout this episode is something to note. She does show up at the end to give The Doctor a thank-God-your-alive hug, but–If it had been Rose or Martha, they sure as heck would have been jumping to join The Doctor on that space-truck. Donna should have been, too. Surely, the writers could have worked her in there a lot better than they did? Here, well, she was like the figurative third wheel.

Rating: 7.5

Now, the biggest question The Doctor had on his mind about now was: can he trust River Song? The woman claims to know him in the future, claims to be important to him; she claims he gave her his screwdriver, but The Doctor knows he never gives his screwdriver to anyone. River must be awfully important to him. Though, it could be that somehow she tricked him, somehow she stole one of his most important tools. Yet, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Then…as Dave’s Vashta Nerada-possessed space suit once again makes its presence known, River whispers a single word into The Doctor’s ear: his name, though we don’t get to hear it. And he never gives out his screwdriver…yet she knows his name too!

This renews The Doctor’s interest in River, and reinvigorates his resolve. Again, The Doctor gets everyone out of harms way. While doing so he realizes that the moon is sending out a powerful electro-magnetic signal that is interfering with his screwdriver. This is when the proud and conceited Strackman Lux pipes up to  let The Doctor know that the moon overhead is, in actuality, a gigantic virus scanner for The Library’s computer core.

River Song

Meanwhile, Donna is in an alternate, computer-generated reality, though she doesn’t seem to realize it. She’s in a care home named CAL. How she got there is a mystery to her at first. From the audiences point of view she’s able to jump instantly from place to place. At CAL she meets a stuttering man who she takes to almost immediately. The two of them get married and have two children. It all seems very real, but…

It should be noted that Donna never ages. If she were really married and had had children, she should change to reflect those changes in her life, right? Well, you would think. Which, of course, starts getting the mind going. Where exactly is Donna? Where is the little girl who apparently seems to be controlling everything?

Well, it’s actually Miss Evangelista who provides the ultimate explanation. Donna meets up with her on the playground where she always takes her children to play. However, Miss Evangelista hides herself beneath a cloak. Why? Miss Evangelista explains that when she died her “data ghost” was captured by The Library’s wireless connection, but it had become corrupted as she was transferred over into this computer-created alternate reality that they now both inhabit. The results are shocking to say the least; Miss Evangelista’s face looks half-melted, like that from a wax dummy that had been put to close to a heat source.

But, what about the girl, what’s her role in all this? It turns out that she actually has a name: Charlotte Abigail Lux. She’s actually a relative of Strackman Lux, his grandfather’s daughter to be precise. She was actually wired into the computer as a child; the reason being she had been dying at the time and it seemed a good way of protecting and keeping her alive indefinitely.

The Doctor eventually learns that all 4200 people that had been saved hadn’t been rescued, but they’d been instead transferred into the computer system via The Library’s teleporters. This is how they were saved from the initial attack by the Vashta Nerada. However, all these data signatures have overfilled CAL’s memory banks, which is keeping the computer from operating properly. In order to revive the lost souls, The Doctor must make a deal with the Vashta Nerada. He tells them that they can keep their “forest” as long as they allow him to revive all the stored people. Eventually, after searching for The Doctor’s name, they agree, but in order for The Doctor to restore the data signatures back to living people, he must provide some extra memory.

So, The Doctor opts to use his own brain as extended memory for the computer. However, River Song won’t have it, because the process might cause The Doctor–the one she knows and loves in the future–to be lost forever. Naturally, The Doctor won’t allow her to sacrifice herself in his place; though, River has other forms of persuasion besides her knowing The Doctor’s real name. She simply knocks The Doctor out with one mean hook. Here’s where things get clever.

River Song is, of course, destroyed in her attempt, which is successful, in providing extended memory to the computer. Remember her having the screwdriver? Well, it turns out, The Doctor had given it to her for a reason after all; her data ghost went into it! It’s an all out race at the end as he is just able to get what’s left of her into CAL.

Again, The Doctor saves the day in a very resourceful and creative way. Forest of the Dead is a brilliant piece of storytelling to be sure. In fact, it’s hard to recall the last time a Doctor Who episode had this level of depth and creativity. Though, truthfully, if you place this episode next to the others from this season, it’s obvious that this is just another excellent notch in the series. It’s amazing how Doctor Who continues to outdo itself.

Rating: 9.0

This new information is probably more disturbing than The Library being empty. What are these non-humanoid life forms? Did they destroy the human life, or did they just simply drive it all off? Perhaps, more importantly, who sent out the distress call? The Doctor and Donna go in search of the answers to these questions. They access a computer and learn that 4200 people were saved but none survived. A strange paradox, it would seem.

However, before things with The Doctor and Donna continue, we get interrupted by a couple of strange scenes that, at first, seem to have no correlation to the story whatsoever. We see a little girl sitting in front of a TV, which shows The Doctor’s face. Suddenly, we are switched back to The Doctor who’s now holding some sort of spherical device in his hands. The sphere has a little red eye in its center, and as he moves it around the girl’s voice can be heard issuing from it. Switching back to the girl, we see she’s suffering motion-sickness from The Doctor’s movements of the sphere, which he then realizes must be some sort of security camera.

Again, The Doctor is interrupted, only this time by a team of explorers that arrive most unexpectedly at The Library. Already, The Doctor knows something isn’t right, and that the place is dangerous. He tells them they shouldn’t be here and to go back, but the leader, a gung-ho archaeologist by the name of River Song, refuses to go–well, her and an obnoxious man by the name of Strackman Lux who says they’ve come to far to go back and that The Library is perfectly safe. It’s clear Strackman knows something he isn’t telling the others.

Strackman Lux

However, the most compelling of the explorers in the knowledge department is the group’s leader, River Song. She claims to know The Doctor in the future, though won’t disclose just how or when for fear of “spoilers”. She even says she’s familiar with Donna, though doesn’t say why she isn’t with The Doctor when they first meet. Definitely interesting.

Now, onto the enemy. It isn’t long before it’s apparent that something very wrong happened at The Library and that they’re all in great danger. The Doctor tries to organize the explorers into a team, but it’s tough-going at first. None of them seem very cooperative save for River; River argues with the rest, urging them to listen to what The Doctor has to say. Of course, the biggest proponent to The Doctor’s handling of the situation is the arrogant Strackman Lux. In truth, the guy’s a jerk to his own party of explorers. He directs his anger mainly at Miss Evangelista, who seems like a nice enough lady.

The Doctor goes on with trying to find clues. The Library’s computer does give up a few hints which leads to the conclusion that the place is infested with Vashta Nerada, an alien species which literally translates as “the shadows the melt the flesh”. Yeah, that sounds good–nice and safe.

In the midst of all the arguing, Evangelista wanders off where she becomes the first victim of the shadow-masquerading Vashta Nerada; this enemy is hardcore as it disguises itself as shadows, amongst shadows, where it hunts its prey, latching onto it, consuming it. This is exactly what happens to Miss Evangelista. As if it weren’t shamefully obvious that that was going to happen.

She’s the first to suffer from the most disturbing fate. When she’s found, there’s simply nothing left of her but her skeleton, or so it seems. It’s not long before we hear Evangelista asking where she is. We learn from River that the suits have a com-link that attaches to the wearer’s nervous system for thought-based communication. When a person dies wearing the suit a remnant of the person’s consciousness is captured at the moment of death. It’s a very disheartening and tense moment in Evangelista’s last moments, only Donna (”the nice-lady”) is able to comfort her before she is completely gone.

The Vashta Nerada, though, isn’t through yet. It claims yet another victim, and threatens to kill a third. The explorers’ pilot, Dave, is consumed, even though The Doctor turned his mask dark–which is what he had done for Anita, the second near-victim. The trick worked for her, but, unfortunately, the Vashta Nerada attached to her transferred over to Dave’s suit. It clearly wasn’t fooled; it knew Anita was still in the suit, even though it couldn’t see her.

Dave isn’t immediately consumed, however. He stays with the team as they continue their investigation. Yet, The Doctor realizes after awhile that Dave has been, indeed, consumed. When he clears Dave’s visor we see that there’s nothing left but his skeleton. We get to hear Dave repeating over and over his last thought, then. Now, his suit is fully taken over and reanimated by the Vashta Nerada. The suit and it’s communicator is definitely a great Muguffin.

In several more scenes the girl is seen struggling with what seems to be nightmares. A child psychologist, Dr. Moon, hired by her father attends her, reassuring her that what she is dreaming is quite real. An odd way to calm down a kid having nightmares, that’s for sure.

The jumping back between The Library and the girl’s house does get distracting after awhile. Silence In The Library is the first of a two-parter. It’s good, but not as good as it’s ending chapter, Forest of the Dead. It’s worth viewing, of course, but the rushed pace of it, and the confusion of the switches between scenes with The Doctor and girl, keep it from truly being great.

Rating: 7.5

While walking the grounds, the Doctor and Donna, along with the other partygoers, are soon interrupted from their getting-to-know-each-other routine when a maid comes running out of the house screaming, literally, “murder.” Once she calms down, the maid says that it’s the professor who’s been offed.

The Doctor, of course, switches into sleuth-mode to help with the murder investigation. He even includes Donna as his “plucky” assistant. While the Doctor and Agatha look for clues in–where else?–the library, Donna goes on her own to find clues elsewhere, which leads her to a locked room and a confrontation with the butler. On Lady Edison’s strict orders, the (locked) room is never to be opened by either staff or visitor; forty years before, after a six-month battle with malaria that she had contracted while on vacation in India, she had had the bedroom in which she had recovered closed off. A suspicious clue, Donna figures, if ever there was one. So, ignoring the butler’s protests, she orders him to unlock and open the door.

Immediately upon entering the room, there’s a buzzing sound and it isn’t long before Donna is attacked by a giant…uh…wasp. Of course, when The Doctor arrives to save the day he recognizes that they aren’t dealing with a Human killer, but possibly an alien one instead. Perhaps. The giant wasp he knows is alien, sure, but is it the true murderer? There’s also the jewel thief, the Unicorn, to consider, though, why would he murder the professor?

There are many clues laid out for us to try and sort through throughout this entire episode. By the time the remaining suspects are gathered in the parlor, four people have lost their lives, and the Doctor has a pretty good idea who the culprit is–but there’s a lot of finger pointing. With Agatha Christie’s help, the murderer is slowly revealed. Is it Lady Edison? Is it the Unicorn (the woman jewel thief) who has been after Lady Edison’s expensive necklace all night? The one that contains the famous Fire Stone. Or, perhaps, the colonel did it? Well, in a shocking twist, we learn it’s none other than the town’s reverend. The reverend that is Lady Edison’s son and part alien. Apparently, Lady Edison had had a romance with an alien masquerading as a Human.

Things turn ugly, though, as the Doctor reveals the reverend’s killings. Agatha Christie blames herself, too, for the recent murderous happenings at the estate, and so does the reverend. The reverend changes into his actual wasp-like persona, and the chase is on. In a dramatic scene, Agatha Christie jumps into one of the cars out front and drives off towards the lake with the wasp-reverend in hot pursuit. Putting the clues together, she takes the Fire Stone, which contains the consciousness of the reverend’s actual-self, and tosses it into the lake. “How do you kill a wasp?” the Doctor asks. Yep, you drown it.

Then, here’s where fiction meets fact, the savvy team of writers behind Doctor Who weave a historic fact into the story’s plot: In 1926, the real Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days; her car was found at chalk pit and she was later found to be alive, staying at the Harrogate Hydro hotel claiming that she had no recollection of the previous eleven days. So, how did this happen? Well, there was some feedback from the Fire Stone, you see, when the reverend died, which caused her to lose her memories.

The Doctor and Donna leave, case closed, but, it seems, Donna was inspirational to Agatha Christie, giving her the idea of Miss Marple–well, sort of.

Rating: 9.0

That’s right, The Doctor now has a daughter–Jenny. Created from a piece of his DNA, she is 100% Time Lord with two hearts and the want to explore and help. Don’t let the cute and spunky appearance of her fool you, either. Jenny was born a soldier, and knows how to fight. In fact, she can do everything from firing a rifle to cartwheeling through a lethal latticework of laser beams–a most useful ally for The Doctor, right?

At first, The Doctor refuses to admit that Jenny is anything more than an echo of himself–a creation of a machine that cannot think for herself. However, once the evil General Cobb goes on the warpath with the sole goal of destroying the Hath, Donna helps convince The Doctor that, indeed, Jenny is nothing like the rest of the machine-made Humans on the planet. In fact, through the clever use of The Doctor’s stethoscope (which is normally put to non-medical uses), Donna has him listen to Jenny’s heart; he hears the two of them beating.

So with this fact in mind, The Doctor finally concedes that, yes, Jenny is his daughter, and more than just some manufactured soldier.

Meanwhile, Martha, separated from Donna and The Doctor by a tunnel collapse caused earlier by Jenny, is in the Hath camp after having befriended them by helping one of their injured. After relocating a dislocated shoulder, she is now doing what she does best–looking for answers to what the hell is going on. She receives a phone call from The Doctor; she tells him about some hidden tunnels that have just shown up on a schematic of the underground city, to which he replies was sort of his fault. The Hath now also are going on the warpath. It looks like a bloodbath is all but imminent.

Both the Human settlers and the Hath are on their way to a forgotten temple where the Source–”The Breath of God”–awaits to be discovered. General Cobb claimed earlier that whoever controls the Source will be the ultimate victor in the generations-long conflict; the Source will allow him to kill the entire Hath population so that there will be peace for all Humans in the colony. The Doctor, however, won’t let the General complete his twisted vision.

Reaching the temple first, The Doctor, Donna and Martha discover that the Source is a glass sphere filled with bits and pieces of live-giving particles. The Source is, in effect, a device used in the process of terraforming worlds (making them habitable for civilization). When the settlers and Hath arrive he shows them that the Source is a giver of life, not a taker. However, General Cobb is not satisfied with this–The Doctor has taken away his glory. In a moment of rage, the General takes out a pistol and fires it at The Doctor. Yet, Jenny steps in front of him–her father–and bravely takes the bullet.

Then, in a surprisingly dramatic and tense few seconds, The Doctor grabs the gun and points it at General Cobb. There is the possibility, of course, that The Doctor is going to take vengeance for the killing of his daughter. However, after a few uncertain seconds of training the weapon on the General, The Doctor lowers it and says, “a man who never would”. He wants the people of the settlement to remember that he would never do what the General just did–that peace is what they should dedicate their lives to.

Sadly, The Doctor is forced to come to the realization that Jenny is gone–that she is not enough like him to be able to regenerate. He and Donna and Martha cram into the TARDIS. Later, after Martha is dropped off to live a more normal life, we learn that Jenny did not die after all. It simply took her longer to regenerate. So, it is that she steals one of the colony’s shuttles and heads off into the heavens saying she has planets to visit, civilizations to help and a lot of… running to do.

Could Jenny, The Doctor’s daughter, become another much-welcomed spin-off character like Sarah-Jane or Captain Jack?

Doctor Who – The Doctor’s Daughter
Original US Air Date: June 6, 2008

Rating: 8.5