Donna Noble
Template:Doctorwhocharacter Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series, "Doomsday" (named in the credits only as "The Bride"), and in the second Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride". The character returned as a full-time companion in the fourth series, in 2008.[1]
Character history
In the events of the 2006 series Christmas episode "The Runaway Bride", Donna Noble is a temporary secretary at H.C. Clements in London, a security firm which, unknown to her, provided a front for the Torchwood Institute up until its collapse following the events of "Doomsday", and was then taken over by an alien intelligence. Little is known about her family or past life. Her parents are Geoff and Sylvia Noble.[2]
On Christmas Eve, the day of her wedding, she was accidentally pulled into the TARDIS as a result of being dosed with Huon particles by her duplicitous fiancé, Lance Bennett, who was following the orders of the Empress of the Racnoss. She aided the Doctor in defeating the Racnoss Empress, but declined his invitation to travel with him — she was frightened not only by his adventures, but also, to a certain extent, by the Doctor himself. Having seen him commit genocide on the Racnoss, she urged him to find a new companion to act as his moral compass. It was revealed in a later episode that if not for Donna's involvement, the Doctor would have been killed while stopping the Racnoss.
Reappearing in April 2008's series four premiere, "Partners in Crime", Donna had become dissatisfied with regular life and more interested in the bigger picture. She regretted declining the Doctor's offer and had been investigating unusual phenomena in the hopes of finding the Doctor for some time. When investigating Miss Foster and Adipose Industries, the Londoner and the Time Lord were finally re-united. She expressed her regret of not joining him to the Doctor and after stopping Foster's plans to convert the whole of London into Adipose children she joined him in the TARDIS as a regular companion. She made it explicit, however, that she has no romantic attachment to him as Martha Jones and Rose Tyler did.[3]
In "The Fires of Pompeii", Donna continually argued with the Doctor over the moral issue of whether or not he should save the inhabitants of Pompeii from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius the next day. Ultimately, they were forced to cause the eruption to happen, weighing the destruction of the city against the fate of the whole world. When they escaped in the TARDIS and left behind a Pompeiian family they had befriended beforehand, Donna eventually managed to persuade the Doctor to save the family. The Doctor later admitted to Donna that she was right about his needing someone, after which he welcomed her aboard.[4]
Donna is the Doctor's full time companion for all 13 episodes of Series 4.[1][5] Her return to the series sees her with her maternal grandfather, recurring character Wilfred Mott, as well as her mother, Sylvia.[6][7] Donna has encountered the Racnoss, the Adipose, the Pyroviles, the Ood, the Sontarans, The Hath, Vespiforms, the Vashta Nerada, the Judoon and the Daleks.
Personality
Donna's strident reaction to her sudden appearance in the TARDIS includes yelling at the Doctor and leaping to the conclusion that she has been kidnapped. The Doctor appears to find her loud-mouthed manner off-putting at first, saying "I don't want you here, anyway". He sarcastically wishes Lance "good luck" with the marriage, and later reminds Lance in person of his pending promise to "honour and obey". Even at the end of the episode, when the Doctor and Donna are on better terms, he remarks, "Blimey, you can shout." Series producer Russell T Davies at one time dismissed Donna's potential as an ongoing companion due to her abrasive personality, saying that "she'd get on your nerves".[8]
The Doctor innocently notes that Donna is neither special nor clever. Upon learning that she is unaware of both the Sycorax ship flying over London and the Battle of Canary Wharf, due to hangovers and scuba-diving holidays respectively, he takes her to task for missing "the bigger picture". Fixated on her interrupted wedding, Donna initially shows little interest in understanding the strange things she encounters, such as the TARDIS and robot Santas, viewing them instead as obstacles between her and her goal. Upon being informed that "this is serious" by her husband to be and asked what they are going to do, she responds by recommending a new date for their wedding. Once his duplicity toward Donna is revealed, Lance criticises her for her stupidity and her preoccupation with "trivia" (celebrity gossip and so on).
Nevertheless, as she begins to trust the Doctor more, she follows him as he investigates her employers, H.C. Clements, and stands up to the Empress of the Racnoss. Gaining perspective on the human condition after witnessing the formation of the Earth, she decides to make something of her life, walking "in the dust" of the Earth and no longer taking "the bigger picture" for granted. When the Doctor tells her to "be magnificent", she says that she intends to do just that.
Despite her faults, and her failure to discover Lance's villainy earlier, Donna shows a surprising amount of insight in her interactions with the Doctor. Shocked and scared by his merciless defeat of the Racnoss, she initially turns down the Doctor's offer of full time companionship, but urges him to find someone else to travel with, "because sometimes I think you need someone to stop you".
Upon her second meeting with the Doctor, Donna claims that he has "opened her eyes" about the wonders of the universe. She has also shown considerable investigative skills, in particular in bureaucratic areas, due to her experience as a temp. Such skills were demonstrated when she investigated Adipose Industries in tandem with The Doctor (despite neither being aware of the other's progress) in "Partners In Crime", and when she pointed out that something was amiss with the workers in the ATMOS factory since the records showed no sick days taken, in "The Sontaran Stratagem". In "The Doctor's Daughter" these skills are further developed as Donna deduces the development of Messaline's civilisation from the dates printed on its doors.
Donna also tells Martha Jones in "The Doctor's Daughter" that she wishes (like Rose Tyler before her) to travel with the Doctor forever, becoming the second companion to express this desire. Indeed, she admits that she couldn't go back to living a normal life after everything she has seen.
Starting with the prophecy in "Pompeii" that "there is something on your back," Donna Noble has been becoming increasingly more important in the Doctor Who mythos for Season 4, with a mystery surrounding her. A fortune teller on Shan Shen in "Turn Left" declares that Donna is "so strong," and asks "what will you be?" and an assistant at the Shadow Proclamation tells her "you are something new."
A major point of notice came when the Doctor met Prof. River Song. When Prof. Song realised she was talking to Donna Noble she was in awe for a moment causing Donna to angrily demand why River knew the Doctor and not her.
Culminating in the episode "Turn Left" where all of reality rewrites itself to accommodate her changing her mind on a past event; the Tenth Doctor notes about the number of coincidences that have followed Donna (not least the fact that in all of time and space the Doctor met her randomly twice). Rose also said that there are strange energy readings surrounding Donna from the moment of her birth; eventually Rose stated that "I thought it was just him we needed, but it's you too, the Doctor and Donna."
In addition to these incidents, Donna has also displayed a desire not to peek at the future (despite having the ability to time travel): she dismissed prophets in Pompeii as nonsense, turned down the chance to read River's diary and declined the offer to have her fortune told on Shan Shen three times before giving in.
Production and publicity
Catherine Tate, the actress who portrays Donna, was the first guest star to be named in the show's opening credits, and her character was considered by the production team to have companion status long before the announcement of the character's return.[8] Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman (during his tenure with Tennant only) and Elisabeth Sladen (during her tenure with Tennant in Series 4) have all been credited in this manner for their continuing roles as companions. Kylie Minogue was later credited this way in the following Christmas special, "Voyage of the Damned" as well as Peter Davison in the Children In Need Special "Time Crash".
As indicated by David Tennant in his video diary of the making of the second series (included in the DVD box set), the casting of Tate was kept secret, with her scene in Doomsday filmed with minimal crew. According to Tennant in his video diary for the third series (and included in that series' DVD set), this was one of the few occasions where the element of surprise was successfully maintained without it being revealed in advance by the media.
Donna is featured in the original audiobook Pest Control by Peter Anghelides[9] and she will appear for her first time in the New Series Adventures in the set of three books published in September 2008; Ghosts of India, The Doctor Trap and Shining Darkness.
References
- ^ a b "Donna says "I do!"". British Broadcasting Corporation. 2007-07-03.
{{cite news}}: Text "accessdate 2007-07-03" ignored (help) - ^ Cook, Benjamin; Davies, Russell T (#386, September 2007), "Leader of the Gang", Doctor Who Magazine, pp. p 17
{{citation}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director James Strong, Producer Phil Collinson (2008-04-05). "Partners in Crime". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|city=ignored (|location=suggested) (help) - ^ Writer Helen Raynor, Director Douglas Mackinnon, Producer Susie Liggat (2008-05-03). "The Poison Sky". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|city=ignored (|location=suggested) (help) - ^ "Tate to be Doctor's new companion". bbc.co.uk. 2007-07-03. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "SFX Exclusive! Phil Collinson on Doctor Who (SPOILER ALERT!)". SFX. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "New Series 4 Doctor Who cinema Trailer". YouTube. 2008-02-02. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Cook, Benjamin (January 31, 2007 (Cover Date)). "The Runaway Bride — Along Came A Spider". Doctor Who Magazine (378). Panini Magazines: 25–26.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ BBC Worldwide Press Releases (2008-02-25). "David Tennant to read Doctor Who: Pest Control". BBC. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
External links
- Donna Noble on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
- Donna Noble on the BBC's Doctor Who website