Top/Bottom 10 stories from DWM's 50th Anniversary poll
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Turn Left was easily the worst of the two episodes, because I still have no idea what actually happened. Was Donna magically transported to a parallel Earth, one where stupidly rules and The Doctor doesn't regenerate? Was it a dream? I don't know, the episode was irritating when I could follow it, and frequently confusing. At least Blink had a plot you could follow, even though it was boring and acted by people who would make the worst high school drama student look like Patrick Stewart. Donna could have had an awesome episode to herself. Instead, she got a super confusing story that is only memorable for a cameo by Rose.
Donna's life was changed by the critical point at which the alien entity found it was most important. What she lived was REAL, but thanks to Rose she was able to repeat the original timeline's choice and basically continue on with her existence. The Doctor says, if she wasn't as important as she was, that the timeline she had experienced would've been the new one. And the Doctor could always die, if he's not given a chance to regenerate his cells. He's not Immortal, and like he said himself, its like "cheating death".
And irritating? This was one of the more fascinating concepts of NuWho, a show that centered around the importance of a companion in the Doctor's, and even the universe's existence. It told about the actual significance of the Doctor actually having someone around him, to show what could've been if he didn't.
Admittedly, Midnight's the best episode of the season, but as showcase to Donna Noble, this takes the cake, and mainly because of Catherine Tate's extraordianry performance.
She had. It was called Turn Left.
After one regeneration (the TV Movie?) I think he says he was nearly dead too long. Besides, you never get a close look at the drowned Doctor; perhaps he gets through his remaining 2 lives before they find his body.
Its a great story that keeps kicking you when you're down - Martha never meets the Doctor and dies, Sarah Jane and her team investigate instead - and die. Torchwood tackle the Sontarans and die. The Titanic crashes into London.
And its interesting according to the poll who the highest rated companion after Sarah Jane is. Donna.
I know that The Doctor isn't immortal, and that there are situations where he can't regenerate (as shown in The Impossible Astronaut). But randomly drowning is stupid, and implying it would have happened if he didn't meet/travel with one temp employee he randomly met is really, really stupid. The Doctor has escaped Dalek attacks, a Time War and even the end of the universe, dying by drowning (with apparently no special alien circumstances) was stupid and insulting to the character.
That said, the 6th Doctor dying from a slight bump to the head, and the 7th Doctor dying of medical malpractice will probably remain the worst reasons for The Doctor to die, but randomly drowning is a close third. At least it only happened in Donna's head/alternate timeline that never existed, so I just count it as part of her imagination, not something that legitimately happened like Inferno or the Cybermen stories on the alternate Earth.
I don't even remember an alien besides the Doctor being in the story, it was just a mess. Donna, while a very good character played very well by the actress, wasn't enough to save the episode or bring the horrible story to tolerable levels. My hatred of the story isn't meant as a mark against Donna, she was always great. But, no one can elevate bad stories sometimes. If they had given her even a moderately decent story, I think it could have been good. But no one could have made Turn Left anything more than what it was.
Also, no companion is "essential" to the universe, and Clara was probably the only companion "essential" to the Doctor (and that was pretty stupid, although I'll admit to liking her importance while acknowledging its stupidity).
Arguing about this is probably pointless. I hate Turn Left, despise HN/TFoB, and get extremely bored by Blink. I like a lot of Doctor Who, its more hits than misses, I just hate some stuff that some people like, and like a few stories others hate. It's not a big deal. The 10th Doctor has many excellent stories to offset the few I outright hate, although when he had a bad story it tended to be worse than the bad 9th or 11th Doctor stories.
Midnight? I liked that story a good deal, but I wouldn't put anywhere close to the best. Heck, this was the series (Series 4) with The Unicorn and The Wasp, The Doctor's Daughter, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, and the The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. Midnight was very good, but in that series it doesn't stand out as the best compared to the other good to great stories.
So, if The Doctor dies, and he's not around to do what he did, events turn out differently? I never would have guessed that. I just assumed the flying timeline dragons from Father's Day would somehow make everything turn out alright even if he died. That information truly shows how important Turn Left is
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He dies fighting the Racnos, when he drains the Thames to defeat them, he just doesn't have Donna in there to stop him going too far.
Of course that reality has no Harold Saxon, as he would have been stuck in the far future as Professor Yana.
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But the intent of the episode is to point out that it was an alternate Earth that DID happen. The Doctor comments on this, and the lady that plotted to have her juiced out from that bug is horrified that she managed to survive and "starve" that spider-like creature. It wasn't fantasy - it did happen. And that WAS Rose Tyler she met, otherwise the Doctor wouldn't know that the stars are burning, and of course, BAD WOLF.
But it is a great story. In fact, its a pretty fantastic story, but thats just me - and I'm not an elitist usually. But anyway, the way I understand, I just don't think you actually paid attention to the episode.
That wasn't the only point of the story. RTD was making a point by saying all companions are essential to the Doctor and his adventures. He needs someone around him, and he's said so himself.
I will quote another member, as I think he covers my sentiments exactly:
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Maybe he meant everyone except her
I can usually understand people's point of view, even if I disagree, I can see why peop might like Rings, might dislike Crimson Horror, why people both love and hate Love & Monsters, but I can't get my head around outright hatred for Blink or The Family of Blood 2 parter.
Um, The Doctor's Daughter sucks. Pretty hard - might be the worst of tha season, but I think I need to make sure. And the rest are all pretty good, but Midnight does stand out as a great, personal story, told in a wonderfully minimalistic scale, and my personal favorite performance by Tennant in this season. Its an extraordinary story.
Which was kinda dumb as Smith KNEW he was the 13th Doctor and wouldn't have regenerated anyway.
Yes, but, obviously he wouldn't want to advertise that. Since everyone thought he had 2 left, he made sure to make the phony Regen scene appear that way. Probably what tipped him off to find a way around it
Well, one. Anyone in the know would know about Hurt, big cheese in the Time War and all that. But the Tennant-Tennant one probably wpuldn't be known even to the very interested.
It's doubtful that Matt Smith knew that during the filming of The Impossible Astronaut.
Rose Tyler was there, but it didn't happen, at least as far as the normal universe is concerned. As far as I'm concerned, if it was an alternate Earth, it was completely alternate. That means if it was a person with the title of Doctor, it wasn't any version of The Doctor the show follows. He might not even have been a Timelord. Maybe he was just the Peter Cushing Doctor's grandson. I just count it as happening in Donna's head, with Rose somehow appearing there. It makes no sense for Rose to show up in some magically appearing 2nd alternate earth (she could only travel between the normal universe and the Cybermen universe), so she might as well have shown up in Donna's head because...technobabble, probably.
A lot of that is just me pulling stuff out of thin air, but I don't count Turn Left as anything other than a delusion in Donna's head.
That's your opinion. I think some generally disliked stories like The Doctor's Daughter and The Twin Dilemma are decent stories, and I'm not any more wrong about that than you are right about Turn Left. Everyone enjoys different things. Turn Left ticked me off quickly and so I naturally have tried to expel knowledge about it from my head. I remember it was a horrible written, irritating story that idiotically killed off the Doctor in a very unrealistic way with no real explanation, and in the end was a complete waste of an episode. I consider it complete filler, but it wasn't even watchable mediocre filler like the 11th Doctor's The Curse of the Black Spot. It was easily the worst story of Series 4, although far from the worst 10th doctor story (HN/TFoB, Fear Her, and Love & Monsters are all worse, but Turn Left is still worse than The Idiots Lantern, The Fires of Pompeii, and The Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks).
Also, a bit off topic, but when I was looking through the 10th Doctor episode list on wikipedia to get the exact titles of some episodes, I looked at The Fires of Pompeii page and found Peter capaldi and Karen Gillian listed as part of the cast. I kind of knew Capaldi was in the episode, but I had no idea about Gillian. Then again, a quick google image search shows that she was completely unrecognizable, so I don't feel bad about not knowing she was there. I barely remember Capaldi in it, but honestly its premise, "The Doctor travels to a tragedy just to goof around for a bit", didn't exactly kept on the edge of my seat, so to me its probably the most forgettable 10th Doctor episode.
You can do that without pretending the world will end if the temp office worker doesn't travel with the Doctor. The 11th got the need for a companion across fine, with the lesson being that the Doctor needs companionship. Otherwise, he becomes a recluse and basically stops metaphorically "living". Now, admittedly he really needed Clara, but the lesson works even if they remove the "girl traveling through The Doctor's timeline" stuff.
I will quote another member, as I think he covers my sentiments exactly:
Couldn't have put it better myself.Maybe he meant everyone except her
I can usually understand people's point of view, even if I disagree, I can see why peop might like Rings, might dislike Crimson Horror, why people both love and hate Love & Monsters, but I can't get my head around outright hatred for Blink or The Family of Blood 2 parter.
Um, The Doctor's Daughter sucks. Pretty hard - might be the worst of tha season, but I think I need to make sure. And the rest are all pretty good, but Midnight does stand out as a great, personal story, told in a wonderfully minimalistic scale, and my personal favorite performance by Tennant in this season. Its an extraordinary story.
I liked The Doctor's Daughter, although it has a negative reputation. Midnight was good, and probably better than The Doctor's Daughter, but it's not even in my top 10 10th Doctor episodes.
Well all this thread tells me is that different people have different tastes. Theres no need to argue about it.
For the most part I thought the list was spot-on. Though I don't really get the love for City of Death. It was certainly the best story of that season, but certainly not the fifth best ever. Personally I think I would have stuck Earthshock or even The Three Doctors into that slot.
As for worst, it seems odd that The Space Pirates ranked so low when the story doesn't even exist anymore for the most part. As someone suggested earlier, I think Delta and the Bannermen was easily worse. And I'd probably bump Time-Flight and slot in Nightmare of Eden instead.
For the most part I thought the list was spot-on. Though I don't really get the love for City of Death. It was certainly the best story of that season, but certainly not the fifth best ever. Personally I think I would have stuck Earthshock or even The Three Doctors into that slot.
As for worst, it seems odd that The Space Pirates ranked so low when the story doesn't even exist anymore for the most part. As someone suggested earlier, I think Delta and the Bannermen was easily worse. And I'd probably bump Time-Flight and slot in Nightmare of Eden instead.
The whole point, the entire message of the episode, is that the littlest person can do very, very big things. In fact, that's a central theme of the entire revival -- that the most ordinary people are often responsible for saving the day.
Tell me about it, it's certainly got to be the worst part of Series 3 ever. I hate how there are so many episodes absent of the doctor that get good reviews (although I can't hate Blink but I'm not overly fond of it, it's just like a tame horror TV show really but not Doctor Who). Family of Blood was horrible, I hated it as a child and I hate it now. Probably one of the least re-watched stories of series three with less re-watches then the likes of Blink or that god awful one with the Witches and Shakespeare.
It doesn't work as as delusion, at that point she has no knowledge of Torchwood or Sarah Jane. She even meets a UNIT captain the Doctor himself doesn't meet till the following Easter.
Rose wasn't supposed to be able to travel between any universes - that was the reason she was seperated from the Doctor. Once that barrier colasped she travelled multiple universes trying to warn the Doctor. She'd seen the 'stars go out' in other universes prior to 'Donna's' world so was able to warn her.
Its exactly the same an Inferno, some universes were slightly ahead of others. It's potrayed as exactly the same as the regular timeline till Donna turned left. The same alien schemes already in place still happen. With worse outcomes.
That's not the premise at all, the second he works out where and when they are he tries to run away. He has to sacrifice a town to save a planet. Donna persuades him to save one family.
Which is why Donna does the best job as new series companion, rather than would be girlfriend.
Sure, all the Doctor's modern companions save the day, but RTD certainly retrospectively weaved a lot of strands into Donna's destiny - a character never created in mind of being more than a guest role. The whole deal with the hand & Metacrisis, Wilf retrospectively becoming her gramps after the actor playing her dad died, him being tied to the 10th Doctor's fate.
The DoctorDonna saves the whole of reality, but it comes at a cost.
Well, there is a good chance Donna had adventures with The Doctor that we didn't see, and she was traveling on the TARDIS for a bit. She could have read/been told about Sarah and Torchwood, and UNIT isn't exactly the MIB, its not a secret organization. People (at least in the 70s) were well aware of it, UNIT never seemed to have to explain/hide their existence around civilians. Its like the CIA. Everyone knows they exist, and a general idea of what they're supposed to be up to, but not exactly what they actually do. Donna could have seen UNIT members on the streets for some event, and seen that particular captain.
In the end, I'm not trying to explain the episode out of existence. you're probably right about their intention. But, personally, I don't count the episode as anything but a delusion when I think about the show.The episode not existing does nothing negative to the overall plot, so like Voyager's Threshold, I can safely remove it from what I consider canon without causing any problems. Its not actually the way the franchise treated it, but its just a personal choice I've made as a Doctor Who fan. I don't completely ignore it like I do HN/TFB, but when I'm forced to think about it, Turn Left, to me, is just a bad delusion episode that is safely ignored and skipped.
That may not have been the in-universe intention, but it was the type of story that was written. He arrives in pompeii, right before a tragedy, and screws around for a bit. Saving the family was annoying, because that kind of thing is supposed to be very much against the rules. Heck, one time he did that without prodding, the woman he saved killed herself to keep the timeline intact. The last time a companion tried it, time dragons tried to eat all of reality. I guess you could argue that as far as the timeline was concerned the family wasn't fated to die, unlike Rose's Dad and that astronaut woman. Still, as much as I like Donna, The Doctor going along with that was really weird. It wasn't that big a deal, but in a super forgettable episode like The Fires of Pompeii, all I really think about when its brought up is stuff like that.
The cost was her possibly dying, while the Metacrisis Doctor's completely human mind remained perfectly capable of holding all the Timelord stuff. I've never understood that. Or the fact that she kept getting pointless cameos even though she was never able to talk to The Doctor.
Anyway, I'm fine with companions saving the day, but the 1000+ year old Timelord's existence seems to rely way too much on randomly meeting random humans. It's a wonder he made it this far. Companions should do stuff and not just be excuses for exposition or damsels in distress, but making them personally important to the Doctor gets a bit old when most of them seem to be the only reason The Doctor is still alive.
I actually liked The Shakespeare Code.
Well, apart from a lot of silly running around and not particularly threatening villains, My biggest problem is that the episode is from an era when the show didn't want to explain anything. We were supposed to feel threatened by the Devome...err...I mean Bannermen, but they never bothered to explain just who they were. Belligerent alien race? Galactic gangsters? Hired mercenaries?
Needlessly killing off a bus full of innocent aliens didn't really sit right with me either.
To be perfectly honest, I could have done without McCoys entire first season. Dragonfire was just about the only story that I thought was halfway decent.