10 Times Doctor Who Shamelessly Ripped Off Hollywood
6. Turn Left Is A Mixture Of Sliding Doors And It's A Wonderful Life
Turn Left is one of the darkest episodes of the Doctor Who revival, with a body count that extends into the millions, widespread destruction, alien invasions, and a dead Tenth Doctor. 'Bleak' doesn't quite do it justice.
The episode explores what would happen to the Earth if the Doctor wasn't around, and considering that this is similar to a setup seen in two famous Hollywood productions, the episode's story will definitely ring a few bells with film fans.
The two productions in question are the 1946 Christmas classic It's A Wonderful Life, and 1998's underrated romantic drama, Sliding Doors.
It's A Wonderful Life tells the tale of George Bailey, a man who gets to witness an alternate timeline in which he was never born, seeing what life would be like without him. Turn Left clearly mirrors this setup by showing us viewers (and characters like Rose and Donna) what life would be like without the Doctor - and again, it isn't good.
As for Sliding Doors, that Gwyneth Paltrow-led drama follows the recently-fired Helen Quilley through two different timelines: one where she boards a train at the right time and meets a new love, and another where she misses the train and stays with her cheating husband. This small moment in Helen's life - making it onto the train, or missing the train - is similar to Donna's small moment of turning the car left or right, with each separate pathway having vastly different outcomes.
In the behind-the-scenes book Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, Turn Left scribe Russell T Davies actually cites Sliding Doors as a primary influence on his script, meaning that the similarities between the two projects are not coincidental.