Mark Spoils: Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S04E11

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S04E11 – Turn Left

Over at 'Watches'........ The tears that will last forever are about to start with 'Turn Left.'

Spoilers (and have some happy, we'll need it) below.

Comments (226)

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psycicflower 114p · 734 weeks ago

Aw, we love you too Mark. Now prepare for the relentless depression of 'Turn Left.'

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8 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Medli 141p · 734 weeks ago

Doctor Who + Weird Al = win forever.

This episode, on the other hand, = TEARS FOREVER.

But I love it anyway cause of the whole dreams and alternate timeline/reality thing. <3

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5 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Kaybee42 91p · 734 weeks ago

Over on Mark Reads Mark ended the review with the gif of the Doctor crying in the rain over Donna... OH MARK! You don't even KNOWWWWW! :'(

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6 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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redheadedgirl 120p · 734 weeks ago

Oh God. OH GOD. I CANNOT. You guys I cannot even.

HE IS SO NOT PREPARED.

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4 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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fantasylover12001 · 734 weeks ago

I love Turn Left. It's like a really messed up It's a Wonderful Life and I love when writers play around with choices and their consequences and how it would have played out if it had gone like this. I just think it's fascinating how choices really do shape our world and this one showed that so well. Though, I would have liked more info on the baddie because I am curious as to why a fortune teller is going around putting bugs on people's backs.

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3 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Openattheclose 99p · 734 weeks ago

TUUURRNN LEFFFTT!
[youtube 80AOPGfdkmg&feature=bf_next&list=QL&index=18 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80AOPGfdkmg&feature=bf_next&list=QL&index=18 youtube]

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flamingpie 89p · 734 weeks ago

Goddd this episode I CANT WAIT FOR HIS REVIEW.

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5 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Openattheclose 99p · 734 weeks ago

Hey, do you guys think this scene from SJA is appropriate to post for Mark? It shows the Trixster Ssaying that he intends to go after the Doctor:

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5 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Nicole · 734 weeks ago

Question: I haven't seen this episode in a while, do the universes collapsing in this episode have anything to do with what goes on in season 5?

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2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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Openattheclose 99p · 734 weeks ago

I thought Mark would notice the bees thing after Sylvia mentions it again in TL, but it looks like he still hasn't notice. He is so not prepared.

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18 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Deviant · 734 weeks ago

Wow, just...I cannot put in to words how oddly exciting it is to know he's THIS CLOSE to "Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End", and I cannot put in to words how interesting/heartbreaking it will be to read his reaction. Is anyone else anticipating and at the same time fearing the time he will watch that?

More relevant note: My God what an episode, the saddest one of the series (At least, when not viewed in hindsight) and DONNA, I remember watching Catherine Tate dressed as an old woman and singing Chas 'n' Dave's "Rabbit" on a mediocre sketch show, now I'm watching her playing the Doctor's companion and by GOD is she doing a good job of it. She's missed her calling for all these years.

Unrelated note: Was reading the comments on this review and saw: http://markwatches.net/reviews/2011/03/mark-watch... <- That, looks a little dodgy to me but reporting it now would probably clue Mark in to the spoilery bit.

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Dragon Elexus 124p · 734 weeks ago

By the way guys; Mark Does Stuff now has a TVTropes page! Wheee!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarkDo...

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11 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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echinodermata 118p · 734 weeks ago

E.L.S.O.S. you need to contact Mark because he wants to know who runs the spoiler site and offer to let you mod his spoiler site that he's about to reveal.

See his twitter for info.

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27 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Vicki_Louise 78p · 734 weeks ago

"I am the Bad Wolf commenter. I create myself."....... or.... something.............

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deleted2468050 90p · 734 weeks ago

Of all the assistants to have their memory wiped, it had to be be Donna :'( That's going to hit Mark HARD.

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MARTHA.

It'll be interesting to see what he thinks of the specials. For me, Waters Of Mars outshone them all by a long shot, but there are tolerable scenes during the second half of The End Of Time Part 2. I did worry that it wasn't going to be the send off Tennant deserved, but the scenes in which he revisits them all more than made up for it. My favourite part had to be him visiting Joan Redfern's great-granddaughter at the book signing, definite highlight.

It's funny, Martha is my least favourite assistant but she was by no means awful. She redeemed herself hugely in Human Nature/The Family Of Blood, and I always enjoyed 42 but I can never pinpoint exactly why...

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swimmingtrunks 92p · 734 weeks ago

So, true and off topic story: I took up the role of Moffat's defender for some reason on Tuesday, and I felt alright being a Bad Feminist explaining how those quotes Karen keeps bringing up are not the worst thing ever. I still stand by that, mostly, but I read something today he said about the upcoming skits for comic relief and they tickled my sexism gag reflux. I'm sure, true to form, that when the skits air they themselves will be funny and awesome and probably not sexist, but egads man, shut the fuck up.

So I think I'm going to hang up my defender hat and go back to singing over my fingers in my ears whilst enjoying the entertainment he provides me.

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23 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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swimmingtrunks 92p · 734 weeks ago

On a lighter and entirely different note, this is adorable:

(Source)

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2 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Openattheclose 99p · 734 weeks ago

I am worried that tomorrow people will forget exactly what happens in Stolen Earth and mention things they shouldn't, especially about Jackie and Mickey.

But we must all allow Mark to think the Doctor is regenerating. Let's be evil, people!

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6 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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Openattheclose 99p · 734 weeks ago

Flamingpie, are you around? I was looking forward to your post today since I know Turn Left is your favorite. Where did you go? I hope everything is okay! (I hope this doesn't come off as stalkerish)

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9 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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echinodermata 118p · 734 weeks ago

Quick thing about why Joss Whedon isn't as good a feminist as he thinks he is; SPOILERS for basically all of Whedon's TV stuff:

Let me first say that I generally love Whedon's characters, especially his female characters, and I like strong women and action girls and everything.

But, I think it's not particularly feminist to give the same basic character over and over. He likes imbuing characters, and often and maybe mostly female characters, with special abilities, magical or not.

Buffy is super special, as are all the rest of the slayers. They're also largely fighters. Willow and Tara have magic. Dawn is also super special. Anya was a former demon. Other women are vampires.

Angel has basically the same thing: Cordelia gets all deified, Fred is super smart then gets super-powered as Illyria.

Dollhouse has Caroline being super-special, and Bennet is super-smart. Also, LOTS of action girl stuff.

Firefly has the super-special River, action girl Zoe, and potentially "savant" Kaylee. Also some action girl stuff with Inara and Mrs. Reynolds.

LOTS OF SPOILERS NOW I'M SERIOUS
That leaves Doctor Horrible without a "special" woman, though there's really only one. And look, she dies. So does Buffy multiple times, and Tara, Buffy's mom, and sort of or maybe really Cordy, and I can't remember but Darla? And Fred dies though Amy Acker remained. So he kills of female characters a lot, and I think he kills off more major female characters than he does major male characters. I think, but I've never done the math or anything.

And then there's sex. It's kind of iffy. Angel isn't supposed to sleep with anyone ever, making early Buffy seem like "sex is bad" is a message. And then Faith uses sex as a weapon as all this evil, bad, no sex stuff is going on too. In Dollhouse, the show never really says the use of dolls for sex is rape, and I really think it should have. Furthermore, having Sierra being raped on Dollhouse kind of sends the message to me that the other dolls weren't considered to have been raped, just Sierra.

Final point is basically that he does some torture porn. See Buffy being broken down, see River being broken down, see Echo being broken down, to some extent see Bennet being broken down, see Darla being broken down, etc.

Collectively, those points taken together mean Whedon has done iffy stuff, meaning he shouldn't congratulate himself on his feminism so much when it feels like his conception of feminist writing is: lots of female characters, check. They're badasses, check. Stronger than the men, check. A lot of the feminist good he does seems superficial to me.

Again, I like those kinds of BAMFy female characters. But he gets really repetitive with it, and it's a pretty obvious pattern.

To bring it to Doctor Who, I do worry if Moffat may produce the same basic BAMFy pattern. Lots of awesome HBICS are awesome, but there is a point when it can start to feel like that's the only way he wants to write female characters. And I think the writing would be stronger if there's more variation. However, I do feel like Moffat isn't doing Whedon's "super-special" thing all the time, so I'm hopeful he'll get the balance okay. And while I haven't seen it, he has done sitcoms and that actually gives me hope since I assume they weren't all HBICs all the time.

I called this a quick thing at the beginning; it's long but this is me word-vomiting without putting too much thought into it and I'm writing directly into the comment box, so it is spur of the moment, even if it's not exactly "quick."

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44 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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ABBryant · 734 weeks ago

Really stupid question since im new to the whole mark verbs thing: Is he gonna review the entire rest of the series or just finish this doctor?

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2 replies · active 734 weeks ago

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notemily 139p · 734 weeks ago

Agh, I don't often comment here, but I'd like to, and I would comment way more often if the color scheme wasn't white-on-black... it hurts my eyes to read. Is there a possibility of an alternate color scheme?

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