Donna Squee
May. 2nd, 2008 06:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI'm reccing ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mtgat's latest essay on Firefox Your Friends Are Not Watching The Same Show You Are (and that's OK) because it's worthy and readable as all her essays. But one line has really stood out for me:
While no one yet seems to be watching the "Donna Noble Show"
I am. I really am.
Each of the companions has had something for me to identify with: Rose's impetuousness and love of exploration. Martha's education and science fiction geek background. (If I wasn't bombing out to work shortly, I'd look up the link for the "Martha is me" post.)
But Donna is rocketing rapidly to the top of my "favorite new companion" list, and not just because she's the flavor of the month. I've recced Runaway Bride more than once as a good gateway show to New Who, and I know it captured at least one person into the fandom. Donna is also me - she's older, she's done a bunch of different things and (this is the part that seals the deal for me) she is bringing her variety of experiences into the adventures.
Off the top of my head, I only remember Rose using her specialized knowledge once - when she used gymnastics to save the Doctor in "Rose." Equally off the top of my head, I can't remember a time when Martha's specialized medical knowledge made a major plot difference. (ETA: I've been corrected: Martha's done CPR on the Doctor and restarted one heart, so she has directly saved the Doctor's life with her skills.) And the addition of the underlying love story made both women - both young, both to some degree remaking their lives - malleable to the Doctor's blandishments. (This isn't meant as character bashing, but to point out unused potential and the differences in the relationship all three had with the Doctor.)
Donna, however, has a rock-solid sense of who she is, what she wants, and what she has to bring to the table, and has no problem overwhelming anyone who tries to change any of that. (In a way, she reminds me of another much-loved pair of literary figures: Granny Weatherwax and her protegee Tiffany Aching.) When she wanted stability, she hunted down a husband (a bit literally). When she wanted adventure, she went looking for it, and when that wasn't enough, she promptly and calmly widened her research field and went hunting again in a successful plan that brought her back in contact with her self-chosen mentor.
Her family may not like her methods, but she certainly gets results!
And now that they're together, she continues to rise to the occasion. Faced with a decision more difficult than any new school companion and many old-school ones had to face, she not only did the right thing for history in Pompeii, despite having fought as hard against it as she could, she also comforted the Doctor. I've squeed before about her in Oood, having the compassion and curiosity to want to hear the song, but also the unashamed self-awareness to admit it was too much. And now in Sontaran Strategem, she didn't ask "Doctor, what do I do?" or sit around waiting (common companion occupations) - she demanded her own salute and then marched off to do what she knew would be useful from her own experience - and indeed, it was the key to the plot.
How cool is that? Seriously, how cool is that? Here is someone who makes no apologies for her life as it has been lived, and how many characters in any fandom can say THAT?
to be x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
marriedonmars when I'm not late for work.
mtgat's latest essay on Firefox Your Friends Are Not Watching The Same Show You Are (and that's OK) because it's worthy and readable as all her essays. But one line has really stood out for me:While no one yet seems to be watching the "Donna Noble Show"
I am. I really am.
Each of the companions has had something for me to identify with: Rose's impetuousness and love of exploration. Martha's education and science fiction geek background. (If I wasn't bombing out to work shortly, I'd look up the link for the "Martha is me" post.)
But Donna is rocketing rapidly to the top of my "favorite new companion" list, and not just because she's the flavor of the month. I've recced Runaway Bride more than once as a good gateway show to New Who, and I know it captured at least one person into the fandom. Donna is also me - she's older, she's done a bunch of different things and (this is the part that seals the deal for me) she is bringing her variety of experiences into the adventures.
Off the top of my head, I only remember Rose using her specialized knowledge once - when she used gymnastics to save the Doctor in "Rose." Equally off the top of my head, I can't remember a time when Martha's specialized medical knowledge made a major plot difference. (ETA: I've been corrected: Martha's done CPR on the Doctor and restarted one heart, so she has directly saved the Doctor's life with her skills.) And the addition of the underlying love story made both women - both young, both to some degree remaking their lives - malleable to the Doctor's blandishments. (This isn't meant as character bashing, but to point out unused potential and the differences in the relationship all three had with the Doctor.)
Donna, however, has a rock-solid sense of who she is, what she wants, and what she has to bring to the table, and has no problem overwhelming anyone who tries to change any of that. (In a way, she reminds me of another much-loved pair of literary figures: Granny Weatherwax and her protegee Tiffany Aching.) When she wanted stability, she hunted down a husband (a bit literally). When she wanted adventure, she went looking for it, and when that wasn't enough, she promptly and calmly widened her research field and went hunting again in a successful plan that brought her back in contact with her self-chosen mentor.
Her family may not like her methods, but she certainly gets results!
And now that they're together, she continues to rise to the occasion. Faced with a decision more difficult than any new school companion and many old-school ones had to face, she not only did the right thing for history in Pompeii, despite having fought as hard against it as she could, she also comforted the Doctor. I've squeed before about her in Oood, having the compassion and curiosity to want to hear the song, but also the unashamed self-awareness to admit it was too much. And now in Sontaran Strategem, she didn't ask "Doctor, what do I do?" or sit around waiting (common companion occupations) - she demanded her own salute and then marched off to do what she knew would be useful from her own experience - and indeed, it was the key to the plot.
How cool is that? Seriously, how cool is that? Here is someone who makes no apologies for her life as it has been lived, and how many characters in any fandom can say THAT?
to be x-posted to
marriedonmars when I'm not late for work.
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Date: 2008-05-02 11:11 am (UTC)slapsnap the Doctor out his emo!angst that much sooner, and not just because Martha would have got a better arc but because the Doctor would have got a better arc too, which I want, because as much as RTD's characterisation of the Doctor annoys me on occasion, *the Doctor* is the reason I loved the show from the moment I first started watching it back in the year Dot...Actually, seeing Martha and Donna immediately hitting it off, I wish we could have Donna AND Martha in season 3 - Donna's snarking and "you're not mating with me sunshine" would have contrasted nicely with Martha's incipient crush - and Team Cardiff could have realistically moved Martha on from that crush without hurting either her or the Doctor (Martha could/would still have loved the Doctor, I'm sure - just as I'm sure Donna loves him in a best-mates way - but Martha would have kept her self-respect and dignity - and she still could have gone off walking around the world to save everyone from the Master...)
Whoa - didn't mean to write quite so much (guess my mind just latched onto that idea and my fingers ran away with it !)