New Who 4.11, Turn Left

[strange_complex]

Excellent! Sliding Doors for Doctor Who. A great idea, very convincingly executed, and very cleverly used as a way of both bringing Rose back into the series, and hinting at Donna's importance in the finale.

I cheered, of course, when Leeds was featured in the story, even if in a very negative way ("It's Leeds - or nothing!"). According to big_daz, though, the street which they showed wasn't actually Leeds at all, as the houses were the wrong design - and I think he's probably right about that.

Donna proved once again how awesome she is, although actually I think what I really liked was not so much her heroic self-sacrifice, or even her gritty determination to keep going as the world fell apart around her (and wasn't the hopeless, grey, alternate version of her Mum brilliant, too?), but the 'framing scenes' on Shan Shen at the beginning and end of the episode. Just like their equivalents in Midnight, they gave us quiet, understated insights into the dynamic that has developed now between Donna and the Doctor - their unselfconscious enjoyment of each other's company, their willingness to allow each other to go off and follow their own interests, and their readiness to comfort and support each other when it's needed. Of course, being shown all this is just more evidence that this happy partnership is about to be rent apart in the final episodes - but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

And RTD - two corking stories in a row now (though they still don't quite out-strip Fires of Pompeii for me). I'm sure he'll pull out his usual Total Bollocks Overdrive and deus ex machina ending over the next couple of episodes. But I think these are enough to say he's gone out with a bang.

Whew - I'm all up to date at last. As you were.

Comments

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

I guess it makes sense that you prefer the Donna of the Doctor's world to the Donna that was much less aware how awesome she is.

"Leeds" street is of course probably filmed in South Wales - but what is the giveaway in house design? Use of slate or something? This notion fascinates me.

Anyway. I finally watched the entirety of Sarah Jane Adventures this week - what do you think of the Trickster connection between this and Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?

[kernowgirl.livejournal.com]

I've not read the actual entry, so maybe there aren't spoilers, but can you please keep all Dr Who stuff behind a cut! We're still some episodes behind you!

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

They filmed the "Leeds" bit in Penarth (ah, the joys of the podcast again).

[weepingcross.livejournal.com]

I felt very much in two minds about this story. On the one hand I thought every aspect of the execution was wonderful (mortified as I am to discover the woeful inadequacies of my knowledge of late-19th/early 20th-century urban vernacular architecture), and yet at the end I thought, 45 minutes to establish Rose sending the Dr a message: how very uneconomical!