Plot
The episode opens with the Doctor and Donna exploring a marketplace on the planet Shan Shen. Donna is approached by a fortune teller who convinces her to get a free reading. The fortune teller helps Donna recall the even that led to her meeting the Doctor. Donna was at a street corner with her mother Sylvia and they were arguing over which way to turn. Donna wanted to turn left and take a job as temp at the security firm H. C. Clements while Sylvia wanted her to turn right and take a job as a secretary. The fortune teller gives Donna the chance to choose again and encourages her to turn right this time. As she turns right, a large beetle attaches itself to her back.
Donna's decision creates an alternate universe with major changes in history. In this world, turning right meant that Donna never met the Doctor and could not prevent him from killing the Empress of the Racnoss in "The Runaway Bride". As a result, the Doctor is killed without the possibility of regeneration and is unable to intervene in several other events that drastically effect the Earth. Changes include the deaths of Sarah Jane Smith and Martha Jones in the events of "Smith and Jones", London is devastated and millions die when the Titanic slams into Buckingham Palace during "Voyage of the Damned", millions in the United States die from the breeding of the Adipose in "Partners in Crime", and the Torchwood team are killed while attempting to prevent the Sontaran invasion that occurred during "The Poison Sky".
Donna and her family are spared from the destruction of London when Rose Tyler appears and convinces Donna to leave London in time. As a result of the Titanic crash, many Londoners have been displaced and are assigned cramped living quarters and live under martial law. Rose appears to Donna again and tells her that she needs Donna to come with her, but that doing so will result in Donna dying. Donna refuses, and Rose tells her that she will be back in three weeks. Three weeks later, Donna and Wilfred are using his telescope when they realise that the stars are disappearing from the sky. This convinces Donna that she must go with Rose, and she gives in and leaves. Rose takes her to UNIT and explains that the stars are going out in every universe. She explains that she has been able to travel between universes again because the walls of reality are collapsing, and the Doctor is the only one who can stop it.
Donna is introduced to a dying TARDIS, which UNIT has managed to connect a crude time machine to. Rose uses energy from the TARDIS to show Donna the beetle on her back, but tells her they do not know what it is. She insists that Donna travel back to the day she made the fateful turn and choose to turn left again. Donna is transported back too far away to contact herself directly. Instead she makes the decision to walk out in front of a truck and let it hit her, causing a traffic jam that will force her past self to turn left. As Donna lies on the ground dying, Rose whispers a message into her ear for the Doctor. The Donna in the car makes the left turn, and the alternate universe disappears. The beetle falls off of Donna's back, and the fortune teller runs away after uttering some terrified words about what Donna will become.
The Doctor hears Donna scream and turns up in the booth. After examining the beetle, the Doctor comments on how it was odd for an alternate universe to form around her. His remarks cause Donna to recall Rose and her message, which she delivers to the Doctor. Rose told her two words, "Bad Wolf". A panicked Doctor runs out of the room to find the words "Bad Wolf" written everywhere once again. He rushes into the TARDIS only to hear the cloister bell, and realises that the universe is in danger.
Read more about this topic: Turn Left (Doctor Who)
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