Doctor Who: 11 Previous Stories That The Peter Capaldi Era Should Learn From

2. Turn Left

For a show that is at least nominally about people that run away with The Doctor in order to have an amazing and wonderful time seeing the universe, it's amazing how rarely we actually see them doing that. Far more often it's just The Doctor and companion(s) jogging briskly from one near death situation to the next with brief pauses to change outfits. Which is what's so refreshing about the 'real universe' sequences of Turn Left. They consist of almost nothing but The Doctor and Donna having an amazing and wonderful time seeing the universe. Just two friends, laughing, exploring an alien yard sale, drinking root beer floats, and not being hampered any romantic subtext. It's understandable that 'just hanging out having a lovely time' doesn't exactly lend itself to exciting storytelling. It would be unreasonable to demand that every episode of the show feature five minutes of people just enjoying each others' company. But this was perhaps the only time in the series 50 year run where you could really believe that the danger and the monsters were just the moments in between. It would be nice to have that sense more often.