A massive popular opinion in the fandom is the love for Donna Noble. She was the first New Who companion to not have a crush on the Doctor, had a great relationship with Ten, a sad ending and a sarcastic and funny personality. She ranks at the top of many companion rankings, and even though some disliked her performance in The Runaway Bride, most warmed up to her by Partners in Crime.
And then we have the other side of the fandom, which is the Donna haters (and is a minority). They despise Donna and have her ranked very low, if not the least favourite, in their companion rankings. The main complaints from this group (or at least, the most common ones I've noticed) is their dislike of her brash and 'shouty' personality and her entitlement and her inferiority complex.
I'm somewhere in the middle- I don't hate Donna, but I also don't really care about her that much. She's a good companion and her dynamic with Ten was interesting, but I preferred and liked other companions more- hell, she's not even my favourite companion from the RTD era. One thing that really pissed me off about her, though was the fact that her entire character arc was botched up because of an angsty ending, which I also didn't care about. I feel like I would've liked her better if she hadn't had the ending she got and had a more fitting ending that she deserved.
I can see why people like or dislike her, but I prefer being in the middle as I don't really care much about her. What are your opinions on Donna?
At first I used to be on the fence about her, but having given some episodes a rewatch, thought, maybe not so bad; poor DoctorDonna, although I doubt that'll ever be revisited with the Thirteenth Doctor, I wouldn't want to have Time Lord abilities if it means I'd burn to death!
It's sad she lost the character development she had to go back to being idiotic / ditzy, and not the bumbling idiot type.
Admittedly, I prefer her to Clara in some ways, if not all, she may not have Clara's action girl persona or her braininess etc.
Donna's as good as Eleven's equivalent to her, Amy Pond, who's another companion I like.
I wasn't a huge fan of Donna originally, thought "meh, not quite as good as Martha", but re-watching has given me some new appreciation for her.
You ever had this sort of feeling towards one of the companions? Perhaps in the future, will Yasmin end up being seen this way, given the way she is now, having searched for discussions about her on here.
So I’ve just starting watching the series over again over the past month and I’m on season 4, I believe the finale of it I’m not sure. But I have a few questions. As you know she touched the hand of the Doctor and became part Time Lord part Human. But at the end of the episode the Doctor ends up needing to erase her memory as she is dying due to the amount of information flowing throughout her brain. But my question is, did he just remove her memories? Or did he remove the Time Lord part of her? And what I mean by this is, Is she still half human and half time lord? Or is she just a human now... Because if she’s half time lord we haven’t technically seen if a human can regenerate. I mean I haven’t because I’m only on season 4 and I have no idea about the future of the series. But I do know that in season 4 the human doctor that was made via the hand is said to not regenerate but to be fair, he was time lord turned half human. Not the other way around. If anyone has any thoughts about this. Please comment because I would like to see what y’all think..
I'm rewatching new who on netflix over the last while. I'm on season 4 and I really think Donna is the best overall companion.
Catherine Tate is amazing in the role. She's hilarious, wicked smart, she gives the Doctor hell and she is heart breaking during the sad scenes.
She pretty much nails everything you need to be a great Doctor companion. The others have all been great and love them too but Donna is the best in my opinion.
"I just want you to know, there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand, million light years away. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. And for one moment... one shining moment... she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe."
Watching for the first time and I just finished the 4th season. Donna has to be the best companion to the Doctor till now. (Teary eyed). What a season. What a finale!
Okay, OBVIOUSLY this is an opinion piece only lol and I invite differences of opinion as long as you’re polite!!
Donna noble for me was the BEST companion. She was able to push the doctor to become a better person (alien), speak up when he became a bit patronising (lets be real, the doctor can be!) and perfectly for me encompasses what a friend should be.
They had laughs and were able to be there for each other and be serious when it counted most.
I also really love that she is not a love interest. A lot of love interests seem to just go along with what the doctor says and does because they’re just soooo ‘in love’ (cough rose cough) but donna was such a refreshing twist as a completely platonic companion.
Also she absolutely did not get enough episodes and it’s a damn shame a lot of the episodes with her were still made about rose when she’s an iconic companion on her own and in her own right.
Edit: thankyou for the gold it’s my first!!!
Also remembered about one of my favourite scenes
“Is alright, special time lord code for really not alright at all? Cause I’m alright too”
She was the only one as i recall to not let it go when the doctor said he’s alright. She saw that he wasn’t.
does anyone know the reason why donna was ‘saved’ after being transported from the tardis as when i was a kid i thought she was transported into the metal of the tardis and died and got saved to the library
i’ve watched the library two parter at least 10 times and it still confuses me as i still don’t know who Cal or Dr Moon is
I just finished watching the 4th season of Doctor Who. I'm not really a fan of sci-fi, but I like David Tennant and Catherine Tate, I watched "Much ado about nothing" on youtube and I saw that they were together in season 4, so I thought I'd watch it. I really liked Donna, although I don't really know any better now, do I? I'm wondering why she ended up the way she did, though.
I'm sure this has been discussed plenty of times in the past and, if there's anywhere where they analyze the episode, I'd love it if someone could point out where because, obviously, not having watched the rest of the show, there has to be stuff I'm missing. I'm mainly wondering why they couldn't take an extra moment and give her the chance to either accept her fate and say her goodbyes before her memory was erased or reject her fate, call the Doctor an asshole and asking to be left to die as Doctor Donna. It really made me upset that it all happened so quickly. And then I didn't understand why they brought her back in the special and even gave her her memory back for a second and they still didn't get to share a last scene.
How was her character and her ultimate demise from the show received at the time?
Realized that everything that's happened this year is because Donna Noble turned right instead of left.
So, you know that it’s kind of a meme that everybody likes Donna. I mean, I can’t seem to hear a bad word about her. Hell, I like Donna! Sure, she started out as pretty annoying, but she ended up being pretty fun, having great chemistry with The Doctor, and even a decent character arc. She may not be my favorite companion, but she’s certainly up there. And the Donna fandom, they’re pretty cool. Unlike the Clara fandom, I can totally see where they are coming from. The only things that slightly annoys me is the idea that she’s some how inherently the best because she has absolutely no romantic tension with The Doctor, which does a big diservice to many characters, including her. And of course, there’s the insistance that she’s somehow underrated. While this isn’t every post and comment, well, let’s just say there’s a reason why so much of R Hu Circlejerk is “Donna iz da best companion!!! Totally underrated!!!”. She’s not underrated, in fact, she’s probably the most popular companion. Practically EVERYBODY likes her, she’s the one thing that unites all divisions of the Doctor Who fanbase. But I’ve started wondering... there must be some people who dislike her. So, people who do not like Donna: do you actually even exist, and why do you dislike her?
I'm doing a re watch, and up to S4E12 just cannot believe how nasty and horrible her mum is.
Example Sylvia: Oh, I know why you want a job with H.C. Clements, lady! 'Cause you think you'll meet a man with lots of money and your whole life will change! Well let me tell you, sweetheart; city executives don't need temps except for practice.
Incase you didn't know them....
The Rueful Fate Of Donna Noble: https://youtu.be/64kM-0tRjeA
Doomsday: https://youtu.be/FLl0U0Uk_z8
She took on his mind, but did she take in his name into her "mind/memory". That'd be rather interesting. Could be used in some doctor who pub quiz
Am I the only one who thinks that Donna's personality, soul, being was ugly? Just because she thought she is the most important person, and thinking she's superior to everyone else?
- The way she talks to the Doctor
- The way she talks to her friends in 4x11,
- When she got fired from her job, and the Hospital which Martha worked got teleported on Moon, she didn't give a fvk, she was arguing with people which they weren't focused on her.
- Her personality to interact with everything else.
- After titanic's fall over the Palace, she thought she can choose and go anywhere she wants instead of Leeds, arguing with that woman
Who would win in a fight: Jackie Tyler or Donna Noble ?
I would say Jackie because she would be willing to play dirty, like hair-pulling.
I have watched the whole revived series on and off for the past couple of years and I have a distinct memory of Donna coming back for an episode but can’t find the episode.
Does she ever come back? Me and all my siblings remember seeing an episode where she ends up remembering the doctor again despite the doctor saying she never can. Something happens with Wilfred telling her I think? It’s so clear in my memory but I can’t fully explain it.
Honestly it may just be a made up memory because the thought that Donna just never remembered is too sad for me to comprehend. I’m currently rewatching the series and I thought the website I’m using have skipped some episodes because I couldn’t find it. But when I searched it up I didn’t find anything either.
I was realizing, since the time lords are now saved after day of the doctor, be it trapped in a pocket dimension, they are still here now. So, is it possible, that in a future episode, be it not too far in the future, that the time lords are able to help the doctor save Donna. Be able to cure her, so she is able to remember again, with no danger of dying.
I would really hope this happens. And the same goes for the time lords helping the doctor to fix the paradox over New York, allowing the doctor to visit Amy and Rory.
Am I the only one that thinks he is one of the best actors that has ever starred in Doctor who? He has such a kind of "cute" character. I would really love to see him come back to the series and get a relationship with Peter Capaldis Doctor.
I just watched the episode fires of pompeii and realised how much of an influence Donna had on the doctor that he took on a face that was in his past because of a promise he made. That promise was Donna telling him to just save someone
I mean I guess you can have other companions but I feel Donna is in the top 10.
