"You're not going to make the world any better by shouting at it."

Life is full of regrets; why didn't I do this? why didn't I say that? why didn't I turn left at a blatantly obvious crossroads metaphor? Yes, it's this weeks Doctor-lite episode Turn Left.

To be honest, the first half of the episode was patchy as hell, zipping through alternate takes on previous stories The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones and The Voyage of the Damned playing them without the Doctor's intervention, being as he is killed at the bottom of the Thames barrier because Donna wasn't there to stop him.

I found it interesting that, without the Doctor, in the parallel world that Donna creates, Captain Jack and his Torchwood team, and Sarah Jane Smith try to do his job for him fighting alien evils on his behalf. Judging by the heaving amount of returning stars in next weeks The Stolen Earth the idea of the Doctor's army of companions is something we'll be coming back to in the final 2 weeks.

Nice Threads

Turn Left hit its stride once the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace causing a huge nuclear explosion wiping out London and leaving the South of England radioactive, prompting scenes reminiscent of classic BBC nuclear holocaust drama Threads. Bernard Cribbins, Catherine Tate and Jacquline King were all utterly fantastic in these scenes, especially in the reminiscing and subsequent sing-a-long. Not to mention when their housemates were bundled into a lorry bound for "labour camps". I was kind of uncomfortable with RTD's suggestion that when confronted with such a terrible situation without the Doctor, we'd resort to ethnic cleansing, I like to think we're better than that...that said it's a hugely powerful scene played to perfection by the fantastic Bernard Cribbins.

Catherine Tate was on top form in this episode, playing all the aspects of Donna we've grown to love and some new ones too. The suggestion that the universe needs both her and the Doctor is an interesting one and I'm very excited to see what this is leading to.

So what was bad?

I hate to say it but Billie Piper. (Yeah, don't know if you'd heard but she's back.) Not specifically her acting, I did like the new Doctorish quality to the character, but her accent was so bloody distracting, she'd clearly forgotten how to do it, and has she had new teeth put in because her delivery tripped over them.

As previously mentioned I wasn't too keen on the "remember this episode and this episode and this episode?" references, but it was necessary to save money to play back the same situations without the Doctor to save the day.

Planet of the Stereotypes

An oriental planet and the portrayal of the oriental fortune teller was laughably bad, invoking old stereotypes and the shopkeeper from Gremlins without any sense of irony. Edward Said would have a field day, it's like Talons of weng-chiang never happened! And the less said about the beetle the better.

All in all Turn Left is the beginning of a wrap-up on RTD's tenure on the show, referencing things that have gone before and foreshadowing a great finale which will bring this era to a close. Genuinely moving in parts and with an exciting cliffhanger (not sure exactly how bad wolf signals the end of the universe...but I'm still not exactly sure what bad wolf is.) that makes you disregard the patchy opening and will lead into what looks like a busy as hell season finale.

Next week: Judoon! Daleks! Rose! Captain Jack! Sarah Jane! Martha! Luke! Gwen and Ianto! Harriet Jones! Red Dalek! Davros!