Donna Squee

[neadods]

I'm reccing 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.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

There was much more that could have been done in that regard with both Rose and Martha.

YES, there was! I suppose I might be having premature squee - I've been reminded that yes, Martha did too... but not as a regular thing, and for all I know, this is Donna's one chance to strut her non-Doctor stuff.

But y'know? Every person on the TARDIS brings their own skills, and maybe it's time that the show picked up on that more than once or twice per companion's run.

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

for all I know, this is Donna's one chance to strut her non-Doctor stuff

And I think that's what's keeping me from watching the Donna Noble Show. Because I did watch the Martha Jones Show last season, and was really excited about her from the moment she stopped to read the manual, and couldn't wait to see how they were going to bring her medical/critical thinking skills into play--and then they kept it mostly to the fringes rather than incorporating it into the episodes. And that's a problem with the later writing and not with the initial conception of the character--which is why I'm still worried.

But! My *favorite* Donna moment so far (I have yet to see "Planet of the Ood") was the whole SuperTemp thing, for exactly those reasons you mention. She's not apologetic in the *slightest* for having been a temp, and she makes use of that knowledge really well. Yay Donna!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

She's not apologetic in the *slightest* for having been a temp, and she makes use of that knowledge really well.

I know! (And between thee and me, I think it makes a refreshing change from ... oh, this isn't easy to phrase without sounding like bashing... previous attitudes towards filling service roles.)