One of the keys to the success of a Doctor Who assistant/
companion is how complimentary their humanity is to the doctors extra terrestrial eccentricity. From Ian and Barbara in 1963 up through medical student Martha Jones in 2007,the doctor "only took the best" in his own words-the best of everyday human beings with certain intangible not so everyday qualities such as near endless bravery and a strong sense of morality and fair play. One character was a former temp from Cheswick,who by chance appeared in the TARDIS in a wedding dress and in one bewildering moment helped the first extra terrestrial she ever met..save the planet from the second extra terrestrial she ever met. Even though she turned down the doctors initial offer to join her, she took him up on that upon their second encounter. Her name was Donna Noble. And she was played by Catherine Tate.
It seems that Tate always fancied herself involved in the acting profession. After years of pursuing professional schooling in both drama and comedy she landed many television and theater roles before getting her own sketch comedy show on the BBC in 2004-The Catherine Tate Show. It was a phenomenal success. It was there a couple years later that she acted with David Tennant-in a memorable sketch in which Tate portrays and irritating student pestering Tennants head master character about his physical resemblance to a...certain time lord Whovians have all come to know and love. In 2007 she first appeared on the Doctor Who holiday episode The Runaway Bride. Her one off appearance was so successful that she came back for a full series with the tenth doctor on the BBC in 2008.
At first glance Donna Noble might've appeared to be a person who was a bit too unfocused and shallow for the doctor's interest. But he noticed something about her character. As portrayed by Tate, Donna was ambitious to see the universe and all of time around it-with a wide eyed thrill for discovery and adventure matching the doctors. Her emotionalism and enormous heart also kept the doctor in check at times when he faced moral dilemmas even he wasn't able to solve himself. Because of Tate's renowned talents as a comedienne, her sassy and sometimes bawdy humor also found its way into the show: the ideal compliment to David Tennant's goofy wittiness. Personally I congratulate Tate on her fine performance as one of my personal favorite companions of present day Doctor Who and wish her and her family the happiest of birthdays for her this year.
With the doctor,Donna and Martha in a TARDIS spinning out of control, the doctor manages to stabilize it long enough to land it on the planet Messaline-where the trio are instantly met upon by armed troops and a gigantic machine removes a small layer of skin from his arm. From the door of a huge chamber in front of them, a young armed woman emerges. The doctor recognizes her as his daughter,the product of a DNA replication system that allows for generations of soldiers to be created on Messaline. And the reasoning is a war with fish like creatures called the Hath. During an ensuing battle Martha is knocked out and taken away by the Hath while the doctor and Donna are taken to a barrack to meet up with General Cobb,leader of this crew of human troopers,who promptly holds them in custody for their passivism. He claims that while they and the Hath once peacefully co-existed, they are now locked in arms against each other in search for something called The Source, an energy that the soldiers,both Hath and Human worship as a deity.
Meanwhile Martha saves the lives of one of the Hath,who begin to respond positively to her. After the doctors new daughter,whom is given the name Jenny and Donna engineer an escape from Cobb's custody, the doctor meanwhile searches the soldiers computer records for evidence of additional tunnels in the colony. As they explore the tunnels,being flanked by soldiers continuing the war with the Hath,Donna notices a sequentially continual set of numbers above the door of each new area of the structure they encounter. Jenny uses her advanced abilities to break through the electronic frontier separating them from the main part of the chamber. By this time Martha and one of the Hath have discovered the same 3-D map the doctor used and found their way to a dark,inhospitable surface. Martha falls into a natural springs and is saved from death by her Hath companion,who sacrifices himself for her.
After staving off Cobb and his troopers with Jenny's able hand,the doctor and Donna arrive at the control room of the surface area. Donna and the doctor are able to ascertain that the numbers they've been seeing are in fact dates. The temple of the Source,as it were is actually a spaceship that landed on the planet a week earlier. And the long war the troopers have been fighting has only lasted that long-while seeming longer due to their fast regeneration process,and the Hath originally just being helper robots trying to continue the original mission. While Jenny holds off Cobb's troops, the doctor and Donna find a garden area with a small terraforming device installed. Realizing the true nature of the mission when Cobb's troops arrive,Cobb shoots Jenny and appears to have murdered her. The doctor,after seeming to threaten Cobb with death himself,actually breaks the terraforming sphere-after which its natural process begins to bring the planet to life. A deeply affected doctor leaves his daughter behind to return Martha to Earth and continues on his mission with Donna,not knowing that Jenny has regenerated and taken off in an escape pod to go on a space/time mission of her own.
Throughout this story,a lot of deep emotional areas of the doctors personality emerge. He is alternately concerned,frightened and hopeful for his newly created daughter Jenny-as most new fathers would be. Yet she is born fully grown and essentially bread as a solider,the doctor is hoping in his mind she will not self destruct due to her violent instincts she will not extinguish herself. Of course,as Jenny points out, the doctor could be interpreted as a soldier of sorts in his own right. The cycle of life and death deeply affects Martha to the point of tears when the Hath who saved her life is lost on the surface of Messaline. The doctor is similarly moved when he believes his daughter has been killed by Cobb. Rather than killing Cobb,of course he spares his life to prove a point that their society can only survive if they discontinue killing for the sake of their imagined deity. Its the age old Doctor Who conundrum of creation science over creation myth that brings this brilliantly conceived story to life.
Even though Sylvia is successful in breaking Wilf out of her gas filled vehicle before he asphyxiated,the poisoning gas emitted by the ATMOS vehicles is saturating the air of all major cities on Earth in a chocking pillar of smoke. With Wilf's encouragement, Donna has gone off with the doctor,who asks her to go to the TARDIS alone-which in turn is transported to the Sontaran vessel in Earth orbit. Meanwhile the news media reports urban dwellers fleeing en mass to the country side while they those remaining are instructed to stay inside. UNIT itself is trying very much in vein to stop the crisis. But the doctor continues to resist their insistence on using force in the matter. Without a proper sample of the gas in hand, UNIT feel forced to act and decide on a strategic nuclear strike against the Sontaran ship. Each time the strike is attempted,it is instantly shut down. Meanwhile Luke Rattigan tries to explain to his fellow school mates at the Academy the Sontaran's plans to place them all on another world where their intelligence will come in use. They dismiss him as insane and promptly abandon him. The doctor meanwhile tries to face down the Sontaran's by UNIT communications-pointing out that the gas goes against their strategies,having weapons that could easily destroy the planet they would'nt need a biological device.
Of course he also learns their 50,000 year old war with the Rutans has been going badly. When a sample of the gas is finally obtained using UNIT's enormous new atmospheric vessel, the doctor follows Martha to the lab where he reveals he was aware of her cloning,and of her sabotaging all attempts at a nuclear strike against the Sontarans. Transported on board the Sontaran ship himself, Rattigan learns he was only being used by the Sontarans to develop the technology needed for their plan and is dismissed to Earth,crestfallen. And the doctor has already figured out their plan when the cloned Martha dies and reveals the gas emitting from the ATMOS vehicles contains the same material used in Sontaran cloning method,and they are planning to use the planet as a hatchery to produce more warriors. The doctor is able to use an atmospheric condenser to fumigate the atmosphere of the poison gas. Of course this is after Rattigan usurps the doctors attempts to sacrifice himself to destroy the Sontaran ship-taking his own life to protect the doctors. After this Donna departs with the doctor and Martha,not intending to join them,is forced to when the TARDIS is locked and pulled away from the planet.
One of the main factors of this particular story is how much it points to the nobility of the doctors character. For a good half of it, he feigns complete ignorance and uncertainty that Martha is a clone attempting to facilitate the Sontaran take over of the planet-in order to stave of UNIT possibly destroying the Earth with a nuclear attack. Luke Rattigan points to the type of genius level intelligence enveloped by his own resentment at being misunderstood by other people. He hopes for a world where he and others like him will be left alone. Driven to tears when the Sontaran deception is revealed, he willingly sacrifices himself to destroy the enemies he never realize he had so the doctor,who he learns is the real hero of this affair, will continue to survive and triumph. Though Donna and Martha are both complimentary in helping the doctor in this story, though Martha is presented in her cloned form most of this part of it, Martha wishes to stay behind. Even though,as is typical with the doctor things don't quite end up as expected.
While Donna is attempting to maneuver the TARDIS herself,the doctor receives a distress call from former companion-the now Doctor Martha Jones,now a physician for UNIT regarding the mysterious and simultaneous deaths of 52 people around the Earth. Upon arriving on Earth, the doctor and Donna meet up with Martha to find that UNIT soldiers are swarming about a factory producing a device called ATMOS (Atmospheric Omission System) that is a green friendly device used in 400,000,000 cars the world over. As does the doctor, UNIT also suspect a connection since all of the sudden deaths have taken place with people whose cars were fitted with ATMOS. Meanwhile two UNIT guards are hypnotized by a Sontaran general named Staal when they discover a secret cloning facility. During this investigation Donna speaks with Martha about the difficulties her family endured during her time with the doctor and decides to return to her mother and grandfather while the doctor further pursues what is occurring with ATMOS. The doctors travels take him to Rattigan Academy,a private genius university run by the young prodigy Luke Rattigan who actually helped develop the ATMOS technology.
Inside Luke's laboratory the doctor finds,among other ingenious scientific discoveries, a teleporation portal that takes him on board a Sontaran vessel to meet with General Stall where their plan is revealed to destroy the people of Earth-having been excluded from the last great time war that the doctor had led. Meanwhile during her investigation, Martha is taken captive by more Sontarans and is herself unwillingly cloned in order to allow them to gain access to UNIT. After narrowly escaping death by confusing a UNIT vehicle equipped with ATMOS with UNIT solider Ross,the doctor seeks out the help of Donna at her families home. After Donna introduces the doctor to her mother Sylvia and grandpa Wilf, he attempts to examine the ATMOS device installed in Sylvia's car-the reason Donna claimed to leave the doctor behind in the first place. Upon finding it emitting a poisonous gas,Wilf locks himself in the gas filled car trying to repair the damage when the doctor realizes every ATMOS fitted car in the country experiencing the same gas emission.
This episode not only provides a new chance for two more doctor companions to meet, but sets a stage for a story that allows them to understand their relationship to the doctor. In contrast to Rose Tyler earlier, Donna and Martha click immediately as a female buddy team. It also provides an opportunity to do a modern UNIT story,with the organization being a far more mobilized setup than it had been in the third doctor/Jon Pertwee era. The sociopolitical commentary of this program is also an important feature as well. Luke Rattigan is depicted as a brainy but stereotypically cocky young adult-with an insecurity and need for power than keeps him from being fully aware of the scope of the Sontaran's plans to murder humanity wholesale. Of course the story is also not shy about pointing out the irony of ATMOS technology,intended as a green alternative to fossil fuel, is based on alien technology intended to kill human beings.
Somewhat at random the doctor and Donna find themselves on a glacial planet that has been colonized by the fourth great human empire of the 42nd century. Along the way the doctor here's a melody in his mind that he recognizes as the song of the Ood,a telepathic species who he remembered acted as servants to the human empire. The Ood is dying and insists to the Doctor and Donna that the circle must be broken before his eyes turn a fiery red and he passes away. The doctor and Donna come to a human colony run by Ood Industries where a human named Solana is about to make a presentation to a group of perspective clients regarding what are referred to as Ood servants. This is all taking place a midst several murders committing by these red eyed Ood-who are believed to have gone rabid. After hearing the presentation at the conference,the doctor and Donna wander off to discover a massive warehouse where they not only discover grates filled with Ood but part of the truth about what is happening there: the human empire have begun to treat the Ood as their slaves.
It is at this time the doctor and Donna are found out not to be participants so Mr. Halpen and his Solana send their troops out to locate them. That forces the doctor and Donna into a imprisonment area where they find a group of un-enslaved Ood. It is at this point Donna learns that the Ood,unlike humans,have brains on the outside of their heads and this has the effect of mobilizing emotion and thought from outside sources-making them easier to control by others than other humanoids. When the pair confront Halpen about this, it becomes clear his Ood Industries have basically lobotomized the Ood by replacing this brain with a translator But the doctor points out another missing piece of the puzzle,when Harplen takes them to a facility housing an enormous brain found under the surface of this world which they have been using to control the Ood. As it turns out,the hair tonic Harplens Ood has been giving them is a transformative agent that has been slowly turning Harplen into an Ood-the transformation of which is complete with his full expose to the brain. With the Ood now free,their collective song is sent out to the Ood all over the universe and the doctor and Donna depart having made new friends.
In this story we actually discover one possible reason why the doctor might've been interested in taking on Donna as his assistant in the TARDIS. Thought at first coming off as a bit of a trivial person who hadn't been a success in life, we find out here that Donna's true gifts lay in her empathy and outwardly focused ego. Her distaste for her own people in the future again resorting to slavery to build their empire easily matches the doctors own moral convictions. And in one truly touching seen in this, Donna is moved to tears when the doctor allows her to hear the Ood's telepathic song because she cannot bear to hear their suffering. Even though her discouragement in humanity's future almost makes her want to go back home,she rethinks her plan when she brings up the gusto to stand by her convictions to the cold and uncaring Haplen. The Ood themselves are a fascinating species. With their unique biology, they are very benevolent-even transforming their nemesis Harplen rather than killing him: the old "walk a mile in my shoes" ethic. Excellent story dealing with an important but sometimes uncomfortable moral dilemma.
The doctor and Donna arrive in what they believe is ancient Rome but,upon Donna's observation they realize they are standing in Pompeii before Mount Vesuvious-only a day before it is set to erupt and destroy the town. Before they can act they discover the TARDIS has disappeared. It was sold to a man named Lucius Caecilius Lucundus and his family by the Sibylline sisterhood,who through the apparent psychic ability of Caecilius's daughter Evelina is part of a local prophecy regarding the new wonders coming to the local auger Lucius Petrus Dextrus,after which the doctor breaks in to find that Petrus has transformed stones into a series of rudimentary circuits to form a primitive energy converter. He,Donna and Caecilius's family are than accosted by a gigantic fire breathing creature when Donna is taken away by members of the sisterhood,who determine she is to be sacrificed to maintain their visions.
The doctor shows up to save her,at which time he asks to hold audience with the sisterhood's high priestess. He is not only confronted by the fact that she and her subjects are slowly turning to stone,the same as Petrus apparently is but that they are inhabited by the energy of a race called the Pyrovile,who fell to Earth as disintegrated stone and have been using the locals ritualistic practices to inhabit their bodies through the volcanic ash they have been consuming. Their plan is to colonize the Earth by encasing it in volcanic eruptions. They doctor can shut down the energy converter,however it reveals that this will be the cause of the volcano that destroys Pompeii and that he was in fact the cause of this fixed historical event. After Pompeii is overwelmed in volcanic ash,a crestfallen Donna begs the doctor to save at least one of them,and he returns in time to save Caecilius and his family from certain death before departing with Donna.
This is a wonderfully moving story and one of the tenth doctor's triumphant moments. Donna,ever human as she is of course, is unwilling to simply allow the people of Pompeii to die before her eyes even if history dictates it must be. Of course the doctor is faced with the hardest choice of all: sacrifice all Earth to the Pyrovile or destroy Pompeii and all it's people to save it. Its the same "needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few" conundrum he faced,as Donna pointed out,in saving his own world from destruction-which he was unable to do.The visuals of the ancient Roman city,especially the intensely frightening scene of Pompeii being overwhelmed by volcanic ash, are some of the most dramatic visual dynamics ever to be included in Doctor Who. Of course this is also the first appearance of Karen Gillan, who would go on to portray the 11th doctors companion Amy Pond, as an unnamed member of the Sibylline sisterhood as well.
Roughly a year after her encounter with the Doctor, Donna Noble takes a job as a door to door representative for Adipose Industries,who are offering a new diet pill that is promising to reduce body fat by use of a special capsule that advertises fat as "walking out the door". What Donna does not know is that the doctor,under the name John Smith has himself applied for a job at Adipose in order to investigate some strange occurrences He visits a customer who claims to have been awoken early by rustling sounds near his cat door. A customer Donna is visiting actually disappears before her eyes-replaced by two small white bipedal creatures. Donna,who has been watching the stars every night for the TARDIS with her grandfather Wilf, follows the doctor unknowingly to a meeting between Adipose's CEO Miss Foster when she is speaking to a skeptical employee. Donna and the doctor,both watching the event through opposite windows, both overhear Miss Foster discussing how the Adipose pill is actually the catylst for her seeding millions of unknowing humans with an alien embryo that grows off body fat and,if necessary the rest of the human body as well. Through pantomime in the windows, the doctor and Donna identify each other and the situation as it seems. Foster notices both of them while the doctor and Donna both meet each other and run to a nearby outdoor lift when Foster uses a sonic device to try to plunge them to their death.
The doctor escapes through a window in time to get Donna,hanging off the side of the lift into the building where they confront Foster,actually a midwife for the Adiposian first family-who is attempting to use Britain's overweight population as breeding stock for the species which,as the doctor points out,is a felony in galactic law for a planet of Earth's type. While escaping Foster again,the doctor and Donna locate a gigantic computer core in her office,which is operated by the golden pendents each Adipose employee is given. While the doctor is unsuccessful trying to de-activate it with his, Donna provides her own and they are successful. However before this happens Foster activates the breeding controls. Donna's mother Sylvia,at a private dinner with an Adipose customer plays witness to thousands of infant Adipose emerging from some of the guests. Meanwhile Foster,thinking she will escape on the Adiposian mothership because of her help in breeding their children, doesn't realize that as the doctor points out the adult Adiposians are aware of the law against what was done. They retrieve their children,and Foster along with them but realize what she has done and she falls to her death when they de-activate the drop their teleporation device and fly back to their world. Donna then decides to take up the doctor on his earlier invitation to join him. He agrees and she leaves the key to her mothers vehicle in a bin near where she parked her car and asks a young woman to hold onto it-who turns out to be Rose Tyler.
It was fairly clear at the end of The Runaway Bride that Donna Noble would likely one day elect to take up the doctor on her invitation. While her mother Sylvia is depicted as doubting Donna's abilities to lead a productive life its her grandfather,the dreamy and enthusiastic Wilf, who supports her in her quest to search for "the right man in the blue box" who she feels will change her life for the better. Of course part of the appeal of the doctor to Donna is that she has no physical attraction to him. And that gives her an interesting sense of impersonal security. The doctor for his part, still weary of feeling responsible for the fates of Rose and now Martha, is not only divided on his feelings on having Donna put herself at risk by joining him in the TARDIS but is also unwilling to let harm come to the Adipose infants solely because of their illegal conception. The Adipose,for their part, a very cuddly marshmallow type creatures-too helpless to be considered villains and their place in the story are as pawns of Miss Foster's egoism,as well as the stories comedic satire on people's shallow obsession with the wrong kind of weight loss. This ends up being an excellent comeback/return story for Donna Noble and a chance for the doctor to (hopefully) successfully travel with another companion.
