... a.k.a. "Russell T. Davies Works Out His Issues With Mothers Onscreen, Yet The Fuck Again."

Wow. Just when I thought I couldn't respect or admire or sympathize with Donna Noble any more than I already do, Davies gives me an episode which makes me realize how truly special she must have ALWAYS been, in order to survive growing up with Sylvia Noble for a mother, with even the smallest shred of her self-esteem left intact after adolescence.

In fact, as much as Davies' previous portrayals of companions' mothers have been taken to task, I feel comfortable with declaring, with no reservations, that Sylvia is officially the single worst mother in the whole NuWhoniverse, spin-off shows included - and yes, this means that my opinion of Chrissie Jackson on The Sarah Jane Adventures has automatically improved, albeit only marginally, simply by relative comparison.

For all the flack she gets, Jackie Tyler was an unconditionally loving and supportive parent. Yes, she was arguably overprotective of her daughter, and yes, that's probably one of the reasons why Rose was occasionally prone to behaving like a spoiled, ungrateful brat, but considering how Jackie lost her husband Pete, who was taken from her by random, dangerous circumstances that neither one of them could control or predict, it makes sense that she would have become cautious, and even somewhat smothering, as a single mother of an only child. Jackie balanced her loyal devotion to motherhood with a dogged determination to live a fulfilling life of her own (when she told alt!Pete that there was "never anyone else," I always assumed she meant emotionally, since her cougar-on-the-prowl antics with Elton proved that she had no compunctions about hooking up with other men for recreational sex, if nothing else), and good for her. Even if I'm not a fan of Rose, I *HEART* Jackie.

Francine Jones is a bit more difficult to bond with, but in spite of how harmful her actions were, there was never any malice in her heart. Like Jackie, her motives become difficult to dismiss, once you recall how she lost her own husband, because unlike Pete, Clive left Francine by choice, betraying her to be with a younger, prettier white woman. If I was snake-bitten that bad, by someone so close to me, I'd be seriously gun-shy about sharing my love, too. So, yes, unlike Jackie, Francine's "tough love" for her daughter came with certain strings attached, and yes, that's probably one of the reasons why Martha fell by reflex into an achievement-oriented, needy-for-approval, conciliatory appeaser role so often, but it must not be forgotten that, even when Francine committed her own injurious betrayal, her road to Hell seems to have been paved with genuinely good intentions. Moreover, her heroically risky, day-to-day deeds of resistance on board the Valiant show she was no traitor at heart.

And yes, even Chrissie Jackson has demonstrated rare moments of lucidity, in between hectoring ex-husband Alan and cavorting carelessly with new boyfriend Ivan, when she's actually been more on the ball about being concerned about daughter Maria's whereabouts than Alan, and I say this as someone who considers Alan to be the best parent in the entire NuWhoniverse. Granted, these brief periods of worrying about Maria frequently seem to be motivated more by a desire on her part to point out Alan's shortcomings as a single dad, and they're vastly outweighed by her habitual insensitivity toward the deeper needs of Maria, or indeed, of anyone outside of herself, but there have only been a few times when Chrissie's callousness seems to have been motivated by active spite, rather than by mere thoughtlessness.

But Sylvia Noble ... Jesus Christ, she's such a full-on Disney animated villainess of a fucking BITCH that I'm now literally incapable of imagining Donna's childhood without conceiving of her as a poor, put-upon fairy-tale princess as a little girl. Think about how much STRENGTH Donna must have had, even when she was young, to withstand that constant barrage of hateful, wilting negativity from her own mother, with all the subtle, passive-aggressive, sniping little insults that Sylvia has shown herself to be capable of, never mind her open declarations of her own daughter's perceived worthlessness, straight to her face.

More than all of the "Here's where the Doctor and his companions made a difference!" divergence points of the (admittedly logically wonky, but still effectively creepy) alternate timeline, THAT was what disturbed me most about "Turn Left," was its portrait of a brave, beautiful, brilliant woman, who had a hole in her heart because of the total lack of love or support that she's ever received from her mother, in her entire goddamned life. And this is where the whole "The companions need to be people with whom the audience can identify!" argument falls completely apart, because I'm a college-educated American guy in his early 30s, who's never gotten anything but love and support from his parents, but I FELT for that working-class British gal in her early 40s.

As a sad aside, as much as I still love Wilfred Mott, and think he's an awesome granddad, I'm beginning to wonder if he wasn't a terrible father to Sylvia, because otherwise, I'm honestly at a loss to account for how such an affectionate, encouraging old guy like him could produce such a mean old bitch like her for a daughter.

I love alternate timelines. I've been waiting for this episode for three reasons.

1) The almost crossover that it provided, mentioning all those characters and showing all those events. Yum!

2)Seeing another fun timeline where things go wonky.

3)Because this was the sequel to that Sarah Jane episode where the Trickster said he wanted to erase the Doctor.

I loved it. I didn't see any motives against mothers. I didn't care if any thing was wonky. I sat back and enjoyed it. Pretty much the same reason why I enjoyed Indiana Jones 4 and Independence Day. I just sat back and allowed myself to be entertained.

What bothered me was Sci Fi.

I know they cut things out, but I enjoy sharing it with my family. Well, Sci Fi cut out the part where Rose mentioned Torchwood. I guess they felt that since they don't air the show, they can cut any reference.

Does that mean Torchwood's parts in the next two episodes will be cut, too?

And they didn't show the preview that showed Rose, Martha, Sarah Jane, Luke, Torchwood and all the others in next weeks episode.

GRRRRR! I've been waiting three weeks to share that on my TV.

Go to the link below to see the scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wm7Iwn8MDI&feature=related

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

... I quite liked this episode, as well, not in the least because, as I said, we see how awesome Donna has always been, in spite of her mom and her life.
If you like the crossover here, you'll love the more full-blown crossover of the next two episodes. It's as close to a George Perez-style "Crisis" in the Whoniverse as the show has ever come.
And good eye, for catching the reference to the Trickster.

I, like Scott, enjoy Alternate timelines & this episode seemed to follow the "What If" method of Alternate timelines: The main timeline is always better & a lot of your main characters are dead.

But It was an enjoyable episode. I think I caught most of the references to past episodes/other things. I didn't even know there was a deletion of a Torchwood reference but they could have left it in since Torchwood started in Doctor Who & given the preview for next week what with the appearance of Jack, who's appeared a few times & I think I saw Toshiko for a brief second: it may make for some confusion but smart fans of the show should be able to figure it out. I sometime think that Doctor Who & the Sci-Fi channel are a bad fit since I don't think it's really like the rest of Sci-Fi's programming. It may just be because it's from a different country & the rest of the stuff is all american.

As for the bad parenting: I felt for Donna since I've had some similar experiences. Sure, I'm not a 40 something Female from Britain but I'm a 25 year old Male, how hasn't any of sort of Job longer then a year, who doesn't know what he wants to do with his life & gets asked "what are you doing with it?" fairly frequently. My mom hasn't completely given up on me, or at least I don't think she has. I know she cares but she tired of the, for a no better word, nagging. I don't think it's really any fault of her, my dad or my upbringing: it may just be me. If I don't want do something, I won't even if I should.

I've probably turned left too many times when I should have turned right.

I thought this was a very strong episode, albeit I'd have preferred an actual appearance by the Trickster himself.

I pretty much always enjoy Dr Who episodes, but what surprised me this time was how much my mother enjoyed the episode. I suspect one of the appeals of the series to a wider non-core SF audience is how often and how much it grounds its fantastic elements in rather prosaic and familiar trappings. And the scene with Wilf saying "It's happening again" was utterly chilling!

On the portrayal of Donna's mother, I think the actress concerned was absolutely stunning, running her character through a whole story arc on a minimum of material, peeling away the layers to that awful final blank bleak hopelessness and disappointment. She's not evil, she's limited; in contrast to Donna and Wilf whose dreams soar.

On a completely different side of things, Leeds city council was horrified at how their city was portrayed in the episode, undercutting decades of "Leeds, financial city of north Europe" type marketing in favour of showing the kind of poverty housing that does still exist there and in many places in Yorkshire. I was born in Leeds and played on plenty of streets like that.

> > On a completely different side of things, Leeds city council was horrified at how their city was portrayed in the episode, undercutting decades of "Leeds, financial city of north Europe" type marketing in favour of showing the kind of poverty housing that does still exist there and in many places in Yorkshire. I was born in Leeds and played on plenty of streets like that.

Did the show creators or BBC have to apolojise to Leeds?

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

No. After all, there are bits of Leeds like that. It would be like saying "We object to you showing some people pushing drugs in New York City."

Besides, Torchwood has shown some pretty grotty bits of Cardiff, including the notorious area called Splot ("estate agents refer to it as spleau").

> No. After all, there are bits of Leeds like that. It would be like saying "We object to you showing some people pushing drugs in New York City." > > Besides, Torchwood has shown some pretty grotty bits of Cardiff, including the notorious area called Splot ("estate agents refer to it as spleau").

Well, serves them right. With all those Weevils running around, the place is sure to go down hill.

I know way too much about the next two episodes. I'm really hoping Micky and Martha join Torchwood.

Also, I can't wait till Sarah Jane calls Jack on tha carpet for useing guns. I've been waiting for that since her 1st episode (where she disses Torchwood while explaining things to Maria and Luke).

Ah man. I sure love Nu Who.

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!