When I started watching Doctor Who ten years ago, the 50th anniversary special had just come out. Watching Matt Smith and David Tennant take the world by storm together was a historic event. Now it’s hard to believe we’re approaching 60 years of this momentous show. In the past eighteen years since the show rebooted, the Doctor has had a string of iconic companions. In my eyes, none has been more iconic than Donna Noble, the temp from Chiswick.
Unlike the Doctor’s first two companions in the 2005 reboot, Donna has no romantic interest with the Doctor. She just wants to travel through time and space. So Donna and the Doctor get to be pals, having a good old time. Yet Donna is still able to complement the Doctor in the best ways, with her humor, her cleverness, and ultimately, her humanity.
Donna returns in the 60th anniversary special this Saturday. How she returns is still unclear, considering her time with the Doctor came to end by erasing her memories of him. David Tennant also returns, but this time he’s the 14th Doctor, somehow. Though it’s under very different circumstances, it’ll be great to see Catherine Tate and David Tennant on screen together again as these characters. To celebrate their return, I decided to revisit her episodes and choose the five episodes that best highlight her special relationship with the Doctor.
5. “The Unicorn and the Wasp” — Series 4, Episode 7
This episode brims with lighthearted fun. We get to solve a murder mystery with the one and only Agatha Christie, with a supernatural twist thrown in. Donna brings a lot of humor by using her Agatha Christie knowledge to give the famous author “ideas” for novels.
But in the end, she ends up saving the day by saving Christie’s life. This story doesn’t have much overall significance, but it shows what an amazing team the Doctor and Donna make.
4. “Partners in Crime” — Series 4, Episode 1
The construction of this episode is so clever. It opens with a sequence of the Doctor and Donna separately investigating Adipose Industries, their every move paralleling one other. For most of the episode, they keep missing each other during their investigation.
It all culminates in an iconic scene where they recognize each other across the room and have a silent, hilarious miming conversation. The episode ends with Donna saving the day and asking the Doctor if she can be his companion! Overall, it’s a great reintroduction to Donna’s character after a season away.
3. “Turn Left” — Series 4, Episode 11
Following one of Doctor Who’s most iconic episodes, “Midnight,” this episode is completely Donna Noble-centric. It shows us an alternative universe where Donna never meets the Doctor, a grim dystopian world overrun with aliens.
This episode showcases just how important Donna is as a character. Sure, she’s saved the day a few times. But now we learn that without her, the Doctor would be dead and the world that she knows would no longer exist. She has to save the day without the Doctor this time.
2. “The Stolen Earth”/”Journey’s End” — Series 4, Episode 12/13
This two-part finale will break your heart if you love Donna Noble. Most of the Doctor’s companions have tragic endings, but Donna’s cuts so deep, because she doesn’t even have memories of the Doctor to hold on to.
Donna saves the world once again, but the cost is high. She wants to die rather than forget the Doctor, and the Doctor has to make the choice to go against her wishes to save her life. It’s a final testament to how much he loves her. She ended up breaking his hearts after all, just in a different way.
1. “The Fires of Pompeii” — Series 4, Episode 2
I’m showing my bias here, but this episode is a personal favorite of mine. It’s only Donna’s second episode, but it packs so much in. We see the Doctor introducing her to the many features of the TARDIS, like its translating capabilities. But Donna also has to learn a hard lesson about fixed points in history when the Doctor tells her that he can’t save the residents of Pompeii from the coming volcano.
In the end, however, she begs him to save a family. Not the whole world, just one family. He finally relents, and we see a hint of what’s to come with their friendship. This is why the Doctor, an alien, needs a human like Donna. She teaches him compassion, humanity.
The 60th anniversary of Doctor Who premieres on Saturday, November 25 on Disney+
Featured image courtesy of BBC Studios
Abby Costello has been writing for about books professionally for the past three years, but she’s been overanalyzing everything she reads and watches since day one. Seriously, don’t even bring up Beauty and the Beast. Outside of this website, she teaches 7th grade English in Northern California and works as a freelance writer on the side.
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