Donna Noble: 5 reasons why she was one of the best companions of the New Series

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While we celebrate ten years since Series Four, let’s have a look at Donna Noble, and why she still remains one of the best companions of the New Series.

When it was announced that Catherine Tate would reprise her role of Donna Noble in Series Four, this time as an actual companion, the decision was greeted with a great deal of skepticism from fandom.

It’s not surprising. Her first episode, The Runaway Bride, didn’t exactly give us the best impression of the character. She was loud, rude, and didn’t seem suited to the TARDIS life at all. Having a companion like that on the TARDIS full time was a considerably worrying idea for fans.

And then, something happened. Over the course of Series Four, gradually, the character became more and more popular. In fact, for many fans, she became a new favorite. There were several key reasons for this.

The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble are reunited in the series four opener ‘Partners in Crime’. (Credit: BBC)

Character growth

One of the best things about Donna Noble was how much her character genuinely seemed to grow. Perhaps more than any other companion in the New Series, Donna had some major character development.

Now it’s certainly true that virtually all New Series companions go through significant development. This was especially true of the Russell T Davies era. But Donna’s was particularly major, due to how she started.

As previously mentioned, she wasn’t initially ideal companion material. It was almost the whole point of her character, at least in her initial appearance. Two series of traveling with a virtually ideal companion, and the Doctor ends up with the exact opposite straight afterwards.

But even in the first episode of Series Four, Partners in Crime, it was clear that she had changed already. Enough to not only want to see more of the world, but to travel with the Doctor this time. And that was just the start. The things she would face would change her a great deal.

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Huge challenges

Donna’s earliest trips really established just how loyal she was to the Doctor. First, she saw death on a huge scale in The Fires of Pompeii. Now, Rose and Martha had also seen death on a large scale, but in both cases, they had at least had more time and experience to be prepared for that kind of horror. And usually, the Doctor would do his best to at least try to stop it.

Donna, on the other hand, not only had to face the horror of something like Pompeii on her first trip as a companion. She also had to accept the Doctor not wanting to save hundreds of people.

That’s quite a big choice for a new companion to just accept. And while the Doctor explained why he couldn’t save them all, she still fought for just one single family. Most importantly, the Doctor actually changed his mind as a result.

After that trip, seeing hundreds of people die and leaving them behind should’ve been enough trauma, for any companion. Her next adventure should’ve been much lighter for her, and much more fun.

Instead, she had to see the very worst that the human race could be capable of on the Planet of the Ood. Exploitation, murder, and slavery on a massive scale. It’s not surprising that she came really close to leaving the Doctor, at one point. But the fact that Donna wanted to continue after all of that says a lot about her own strength, even if she didn’t know it. More importantly, it also shows how much she really became perfect companion material.

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A close friendship

Over time, the Tenth Doctor’s and Donna Noble’s relationship became incredibly strong. And, very refreshingly in the New Series, particularly at this point, neither person was in love with the other. It allowed the focus to be more on Donna herself as a character, rather than as either a love interest to the Doctor, or as the focus of an unrequited love story.

It also allowed their friendship to grow. There’s a lot of honesty between the two that helps them to become such close friends. In their very first episode, both are very upfront about their lack of interest in the other, in terms of romance.

In The Fires of Pompeii, the Doctor describes what it’s like to see the whole of history through his eyes. This isn’t something we hear him talk about often, but it’s clear that he sees the universe in a radically different way as a Time Lord.

And perhaps very surprisingly, he was very upfront about how he used to be a father before in The Doctor’s Daughter. That’s something that Rose, Martha and even many Classic Series companions didn’t have a clue about.

On top of all this honesty and closeness, they also had fantastic banter between them. With the exception of possibly their first adventure together in The Runaway Bride, none of it sounded rude or mean. It was just perfect dialogue that only really good friends could share between them.

She was clever

One thing that’s easy to overlook with Donna Noble was how smart she was, at least in her own way. She wasn’t “book smart”, of course. When it came to knowledge, she could never compete with the Doctor.

But she was very good at spotting the obvious that everyone missed. Such as seeing an empty sickness file in The Sontaran Stratagem, or working out both the date and its significance in The Doctor’s Daughter.

It was especially interesting that a lot of the time, she was using the skills she had gained as a temp. Skills and experience that are very easy to overlook, but travelling with the Doctor gave all of that a fresh perspective for her.

Even simple things, like immediately noticing that she could read English in Pompeii, but shouldn’t be able to, she was quick to work out. (Compare this to Bill. While Donna worked out that she shouldn’t be able to speak English on her first trip as a companion, Bill didn’t work this out until ten episodes into her series in The Eaters of Light.)

So while she was never as smart as the Doctor – not until the very end, anyway – she was smarter than other people might have given her credit for. Perhaps even smarter than she herself believed.

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A tragic end

When all of that development and character growth was completely stripped away from her in Journey’s End, it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch. Particularly since she didn’t want to go back to who she was. She may have lived on, perhaps even have been happy, to some extent. But she’d never be the amazing person she became because of the Doctor.

This might actually be the most tragic ending to a companion of the New Series. Or at least, it’s the most tragic ending that’s actually remained that way. Doomsday would’ve easily matched it, if it wasn’t for the fact that Rose got a far too easy happy ending when she came back.

Even the companions who actually died were given long and happy lives, such as Amy and Rory, or even Clara. Now, the same could be true with Donna. But she lost far, far more than anyone else. Her growth was key to her character in Series Four. Travelling with the Doctor meant more to her than anything. To lose all of that, and not even know it, is a truly tragic ending to her character.

Next: Retro review: The Fires of Pompeii

It’s a shame that Donna was knocked out of the recent Doctor Who Watch Madness tournament in the first round. As these reasons have shown, she was a truly brilliant character. Ten years on since she was a companion, and Donna Noble still remains as one of the Doctor’s best friends that he ever had.