(S04E11) With this episode, Donna has become my favorite Doctor Who companion of all time. Yes, better than Sarah Jane. Yes, better than Rose (who finally reappears as a person and not in a cameo or on a video screen). I love her quick temper yet human personality (it's reminiscent of Rose's mother from the first two seasons), which makes sense since this episode is about the Doctor's adventures from the human perspective.



The Doctor and Donna land on a planetary Chinatown. While the Doctor negotiates with salespeople, Donna is invited to get her fortune read for free. While in the fortune-teller's hut, the woman distracts Donna as a beetle-like creature climbs on her back. By whatever power the beetle has, Donna's personal history is changed so that she turns left instead of right on a critical moment in her life. In this alternate history, she never takes the job at H.C. Clements and never meets the Doctor.

It's amazing that such a good episode can be created that is mostly Doctor-less. It does kind of balance out last week's Donna-less episode (both were filmed at the same time), However, in retrospect, some of the best Doctor Who episodes of the new series didn't include the main character very much. Most notably the episode "Blink".

By having Donna not meet the Doctor in the new timeline, the slaughter begins. This is virtually guaranteed in any alternate history. Why aren't any alternate histories happy? For that matter, why couldn't the Doctor regenerate when he was killed fighting the Racnoss Queen in the alternate history? Did he decide to commit suicide out of loneliness (he wouldn't have had a companion at the time). I would have liked it if Sarah Jane had shown up in the original "Smith and Jones" episode to better explain her death in it. It does make more sense that the Torchwood team gets involved (and subsequently killed and/or kidnapped) during the Sontaran invasion when the Doctor isn't around. The second-stringers are called up to bat.

This is the first time the series so blatantly acknowledges its own spin-offs (okay, Torchwood was already acknowledged but you didn't really hear about the team's missions). It's a Russell T. Davies creation love-fest. The beetle creature that created the alternate timeline is even part of "The Trickster's Brigade", the Trickster being a character that has appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

It is a frightening moment when London is destroyed by the falling Titanic replica, sending Great Britain into economic chaos. I liked how Davies' and company acknowledges mankind's tendency to cannibalize itself in hard times when the Italian family that the Nobles are staying with are sent to a work camp.

The United States is rendered helpless due to a chunk of the population turning into the fat creatures of "Partners In Crime". Given the obesity epidemic within that country, you'd think the Adipose would have gone there first. As a bit of foreshadowing, Donna's grandfather sees in his telescope that all the stars are going out in the sky. The disappearing bees are also mentioned again.

As mentioned, Billie Piper returns reprising her role of Rose Tyler. She is searching the parallel worlds for the Doctor because a great darkness is coming. She seems to have regained her first-season look and has some sort of issue with her teeth (they seemed to stick out a little more, like she just had dental work). In this episode, she acts a lot like the Doctor and has seems to take on his role. It is kind of strange that she's back, given that the parallel world she went to was cut off, but that's acknowledged in the episode and will hopefully be explained more in the future. I like how they revisit the Bad Wolf motif from the first season.

As its core, this episode is an analysis of Donna. Her lack of self-esteem is analyzed ("I'm just a temp" she says) and her reasons for wanting a more adventurous life with the Doctor. Also acknowledged is the similarity between this episodes' alternate universe theme with the recent one in "Forest of the Dead". Davies seems to be setting up Donna to play a major role in the Doctor's life. I wonder what that role is?

Parallel world/alternate history stories are always fun. As with last week's episode, the writing of this episode worked more with Russell T. Davies' strengths, which are more about people and emotion and less about the science-fiction aspect of the show. This season has had some really good episodes and this one has become one of my favorites.