the joy of Who (or why Donna Noble rocks my socks)

[xparrot]

So, don't know about the rest of the 'net, but I have been loving the new season of Doctor Who. Loving. I don't know how I forgot how freaking unbelivably adorkably lovely David Tennant's Doctor is. And Catherine Tate's Donna is absolutely everything I wanted her to be, and maybe a bit more than that.

(This is a post of squee, so if you're not so enamored, please to be politely covering your ears and moving along. Doctor Who is my happy place; it makes TV fun the way it was when I was nine years old and loved the exciting happenings and people and didn't know or care about evaluating dramatic intent or analyzing plotholes. It's not so much that I turn off my brain when watching, but that I'm so swept away in the craziness that nothing bothers me. It's a kid's show and the plotholes are entirely in the service of taking shortcuts to the fun and I love it, in all its brilliant cracktastic cheesy glory. And the bits I don't love *cough that last X-mas special cough* I prefer to just forget.)

So, yeah. The squee. I was hopeful about Donna when I heard about the casting decision last year, because she had the potential to be something different, nothing like the previous two Companions. Who I both liked (very fond of Rose, for all her foibles; and Martha is, well, I mean, Martha Jones, it's just another way to spell A-W-E-S-O-M-E.) But three eps into season 4, and Donna, oh man, Donna = <3333!

I love how Donna gets the Doctor. She knows he's an alien, she doesn't expect him to necessarily have human feelings or principles- she expects him to have more, because he has such awesome power, and responsibility comes with that power, and she's not about to let him forget it. And meanwhile she's struggling to handle everything herself, to be strong enough - for all her brazen attitude I think she's more aware than Rose or Martha was of just how far she's in over her head. But she's prevailing and pushing through, for her own sake, for the Doctor's.

I love, too, that she is older, in a different place in her life - she doesn't have a life to get back to, or a family the Doctor must return her to; she is her own woman, makes her own decisions about her life - made her decision to be his Companion, 100%. I kind of loved that moment she heard the Ood-song and asked him to take it away because she wasn't strong enough to handle it - she knows she's not as strong as the Doctor, but then she also knows she's not a millennium old alien. Rose was amazed by the Doctor, Martha was at times intimidated; but Donna knows her limits - and yet doesn't allow them to stop her, doesn't think any less of herself for being "only" human.

"What, and you're in charge?"
"TARDIS, Time Lord, yeah!"
"Donna, Human, no!"

For all that she does love the Doctor--I think she maybe lets herself feel for him, even more than Rose (who was always there for him, but too young to comprehend what he suffers) or Martha (who the Doctor never let that close, and I don't know if Martha truly wanted to get that close - because she's a doctor herself, a healer, and she wanted so badly to fix the Doctor but some of his wounds go too deep to be healed.) Donna isn't really pushing him for the stories, doesn't think she could fix him - but oh, she feels for him.

Feels for everyone - and compassion's pretty much a required trait in the Doctor's companions, he brings them along for their humanity, and Donna is so very, brilliantly human - she gets freaked by her first sight of an Ood, but she gets over it and tries to comfort it - him - and is so saddened by their plight. Which doesn't stop her from panicking and shrieking and getting huffy with the handcuffs and the nearly dying and - gah! So much love!

(...I am also hereby declaring my SEKKRIT X-OVER OTP of Donna + Rodney McKay, because they would so bond over common sense.

At first they would hate each other, because Rodney's so obnoxious and bossy and Donna is...just the same. But then they'd get into some awful scrape, and the Doctor and Sheppard would be like, "We can do THIS absolutely insane thing to get out!"

And Donna & Rodney would say simultaneously: "Us, try to do THAT? Are you NUTS?"

And then they'd look at each other, and Donna would say, "Hey, you actually are a genius after all!"

And Rodney would say, "Hey, you're actually not as dumb as you sound after all!"

And then Donna would smack him. And then crack up, and Rodney would blink at her in wide-eyed what-the-hell, and then snort and grin lopsided and maybe mumble something almost resembling an apology.

And the Doctor and Sheppard would stare, and shiver.

...also if the Doctor is so totally not Donna's type physically, then Rodney might be. Donna's not blonde, but they could work something out XP)

I love, too, that she is so very not interested in the Doctor in that way. Because that story's overplayed, and I like the Doctor as pretty much asexual, and I have the biggest thing for platonic male-female friendship, as incredibly rare as it is on TV. So that they're mates - like that, not like that - just the bestest ever.

Also in the Confidentials, every time it shows DT and CT on-set together, they're laughing! Soso cute!

And also - we're 3 for 3, 3 eps and 3 hugs. Yes, I <3 my show so very muchly!!!

Comments

[airairo.livejournal.com]

Yes yes YES!!! I haven't seen ep 3 yet, but so much love for this season so far. I love Donna. I've been excited ever since first hearing that she was going to be in this season because she's just... she's exactly what he needs right now. I feel the same as you, I loved Rose and Martha and all that they are to the Doctor and all that he is to them, but he needed someone like Donna who would just love him in a completely platonic way. And, yes, I love how she is older, more mature, knows who she is. And their reunion scene, when they saw each other through the windows was just lkdjslkdjf ♥

I am loving this. ♥

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

THE WINDOW SCENE! eeeeee!

Everything you said times 1,000, with many many <33333!

[naye]

I might love Donna more than kittens. ...no, really. I have kittens on the brain right now, because - KITTENS. (Neighbors had surprise kittens. I cuddled them. They STOLE MY SOUL.) But Donna... I actually mean it when I say I want her to be my girlfriend. I think life would be AWESOME with a girlfriend like Donna.

And Donna with the Doctor... OH. OH. I-I'm rendered speechless by the sheer force of SQUEE I feel when I think about them, and oh. Donna! Doctor! Doctor-and-Donna friends.

*flails*

...seriously, I don't have anything to add, because I'm just. Reduced to grinning stupidly and going eeee~ and flailing in their general direction.

I desperately need a Donna icon!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I saw your lj post - KITTENS!!! EEEE HOSHIIII~!

Donna would make a great girlfriend, no? She'd get you out and doing stuff and always push you to be your best and have fun <3

And Doctor-Donna eeeeeeeeee bestest friends love squee *incoherent*!!!!

[naye]

And you have a KITTEN + TEN icon, so you just win at everything. Me, I don't even have a Donna icon. WHY DO I NOT HAVE A DONNA ICON??

This needs to be rectified. As soon as I get back home! (Well. As soon as I'm back home and have a moment to spare. How did I become such a busy person?? It makes no sense.)

And YES! Donna shouldn't be the DOCTOR'S girlfriend - she should be mine! And we could have adventures and fun and spur each other on and then be totally silly together and... oh. How can I love her so much after just three episodes? She feels so... different. From most other female characters ever, and she's hitting all those spots so many other "strong women" just MISS in me.

Really, I'm just going to sit here and grin for a while, and emit VISIBLE HEARTMARKS as I think of Donna. ♥ ♥ ♥

[fragilistikal.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for summing up what I was trying to figure out about Donna's strong points. I think I'm really going to like the juxtoposition of her common sense and friendship with the doctor with however the Rose arc plays out this season. I really did like that for all the tension that was played up between Rose and the Doctor, there was always a childlike joy between them that went beyond just relationship-py, which is why I endoresed them 100% in whatever shape or form. Glad to see that aspect with Donna.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, one of the things I loved about the Rose-Doctor relationship was that it wasn't necessarily romantic - it clearly wasn't just platonic, but whatever it was transcended definition; like you say, it was mostly just joy - they loved each other, and that's that. (as I say, I like my Doctor asexual, and I actually didn't have trouble seeing him & Rose as like that - that Rose loved him so much that she didn't mind or care what form that love took. Er, I'm weird?) And Donna and him just enjoy themselves (and hug! I love the hugging so much.)

I'm wondering how the Rose arc will play out. I loved Rose-and-the-Doctor at the time, thought she was just what he needed, but now the Doctor has, hmm, moved on? And I was hoping Rose had too (...I wanted Mickey to finally get his chance!) so, yes...curious!

You... don't know me. Oh well! I subject you to my commentary anyway.

[thejabberwock.livejournal.com]

Waitwaitwait--I loved that Xmas special! Why am I so alone in this?

And I am in SQUEELAND with this serial (though not as much as the third)! A lot of people I know are complaining about how these episodes seem rushed or half-hearted (or the very vague statement of, "this just didn't do as much as it could.."), or that Ten isn't doing anything Doctor-y in saving the universe--but I actually PREFER that; the Ood didn't need Ten, they were going to save themselves. This series seems to be more about characterization and the journey and coming to self-realizations than single-handedly saving the world, and I LOVE that.

(Sidequirk: Personally, I don't GET why everyone loves Rose; she drove me absolutely bonkers--I mean, her only redeeming quality is that she can sort-of handle investigating away from the Doctor, but even that is limited because she inevitably buggers it and has to be saved. Martha, on the other hand, was completely KICK ASS.)

And I'm so split on Donna's characterization. I loved her in the first ep, despised her in the second, and felt halfway in the third. On the one hand, I LOVE that Donna is honestly "a mate" for Ten--their personalities clash and connect in JUST the right ways; she can be giddy with him, but not share the ueber dorky love, she can challenge him when he needs it, but she knows her own boundaries, she's got her own "I talk way too much" fault that works completely differently than Tens...

I just wish she wasn't so WHINY. (No, Donna, Ten really cannot save the entirety of Pompeii on a whim. Of course he WANTS to, but he can't. But that can be forgotten with her "just save someone!" plea... I just wish she'd realized the Doctor's side a lot faster.) I hate that she begged the Doctor to take her with him, but then made that "I want to go home" comment, which seemed just SO out of place.
And her Latin is terrible.

So I would have to disagree with the entire idea that Donna "gets" the Doctor--she gets aspects of him, but she doesn't grasp others. She's put him up on this high platform, and expects him to perform top-notch, and when he didn't (Pompeii), her reaction was to scream at him, not to try and understand why he couldn't, honestly couldn't, as much as it really hurts him, save everyone.

I DO love the whole "NOT in love" thing, though. I hated the Doctor-Rose relationship, because Rose just didn't seem to jive with the Doctor, but I was a fan on the unrequited love in Martha, but--Something wonderfully different than the run of the mill companion, at last~! Platonic friendship, finally!

And I'm so excited to see Martha's reaction at 'being replaced,' and Donna's reaction at meeting Ten's latest 'failure.' I hope we GET to see Martha's reaction, and that they don't pull an Atlantis-writing-team move on us and cheat us of the actual-emotional-backlash...

Alright, random stranger shutting up now~

Re: You... don't know me. Oh well! I subject you to my commentary anyway.

[naye]

I'd disagree with you about "I want to go home" being out of place, but... Well, disagreement feels like it'd be a lot out of place in a post where the owner of this journal specified that This is a post of squee, so if you're not so enamored, please to be politely covering your ears and moving along.

But if you make your own post about it, I'll gladly come over there and present my view of that scene, as well as the other things you were discussing here!

Re: You... don't know me. Oh well! I subject you to my commentary anyway.

[thejabberwock.livejournal.com]

Apologies. >.> I didn't mean to squish the squee in any way--especially since I agree with 99% of everything you said. I was aiming more for general discussion and hopes to find answers to my own disgruntlement/"Am I just seeing this in the wrong light or what," than to create more disgruntlement.

And it's quite possible that my reaction to that particular scene will change once I get a chance to sit down and watch the episode properly, as opposed to at one AM, after an obnoxiously long and early day>.> And if time presents itself in the next day or so, I will certainly do a proper post of my own^_^

Re: You... don't know me. Oh well! I subject you to my commentary anyway.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

It's okay, my squee is too strong to be easily squished. And I can understand wanting to find answers for one's disgruntlement; I go looking for positive takes on things I disliked myself. And hey, I like talking about why I love this show!

I wanted mostly squee because, while I love a good friendly debate, I have a hard time being at all objective about Who - like I said, watching it triggers a reaction in me such that I'm suddenly 9 years old again. I'm also one of the few fen who managed to love both Rose and Martha - I believe that each of them were what the Doctor needed at the time. And Donna is as well.

(a side note - I love whiny characters who still buck up and get the job done when they have to. See: Rodney McKay. I'm a bit weird in this; it's because I'm a naturally whiny personality myself, so to see pessimists and complainers being the heroes is very, heh, inspiring? ^^)

I think Donna is good for the Doctor now because she is bitching him out and yelling at him when he does the wrong thing, even for the right reasons. She's great for him because she's saying everything the Doctor feels himself - the Doctor was always a renegade among his people; he never cared for Gallifrey's stuffy society and stolid, unforgiving rules. He feels the obligation now to uphold the order they tried to maintain, for the sake of the universe, but he's not comfortable with that responsibility. He's been settling into it by walling off his hearts, ignoring the parts of his conscience that disagree.

Rose loved the Doctor unconditionally, gave him the strength to heal. Martha adored and admired him, gave him the confidence to take up the responsibilities of a Time Lord. Now Donna, vocal and emotional and so intensely compassionate, but not so in love with the Doctor that she won't say things for fear of hurting him, is externalizing all his inner conflict - bringing it out, making sure he doesn't lose touch with his soul. She wants to know why the people of Pompeii can't be saved, and won't accept "because it's the rules" as an answer, because that's a bad answer, when there are lives at stake. And the Doctor knows it's a bad answer. When she's told it's the people of Pompeii or the people of the world - that's a real answer - a terrible answer, but a true one, and Donna is right there to push the lever with the Doctor, to take on that pain and guilt with him, because it has to be done. Never mind that he's a Time Lord, practiced in enduring it; and she's a Human with barely the ability to grasp the extent of the guilt - she accepts it anyway, because they're partners.

She doesn't yell at the Doctor because she thinks he's a bad person; she yells because she knows he's a good person, a great one, and she wants to see that side of him, believes in it enough to yank it out of him. If she applies higher standards to him - well, he's got the fate of cities, planets, universes in his hands; anyone who takes on that responsibility better have some pretty damn high standards applied to them!

Re: You... don't know me. Oh well! I subject you to my commentary anyway.

[naye]

...you are AWESOME and I love you. This - it just - oh. YES.

Exactly.

♥ ♥ ♥

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Pretty icon you have there!

I didn't warm up to Donna immediately. I think it's that PIC and FOP had so much of hyper, babbling Donna, and I don't hundred percent like CT's portrayal of squee, like at the beginning when she squeed about being on an alien planet (Martha and Rose's squee seemed a lot more natural.) I like serious Donna lot better, and sad, weepy Donna is great, too, because she does it without ever being annoying. You feel for/with her when she's unhappy. I never felt that way about Rose. And her dynamic with the Doctor is great... I'm not dazzled by Donna the way it was with Martha, but I like her fine as a companion.

What is it about Who that it *always* manages that? I mean, the concept of changing your main characters all the time sounds like it would never, ever work, but it has been working for forty years.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a lovely icon? I kinda like Donna in part for not being a standard young pretty girl, but she is so beautiful in this shot. Also, yay girl-icons! I have too many boys...

I actually took a while to warm up to Martha myself - I really liked Rose, and while I never disliked Martha, it wasn't until near the end of the season that I started preferring Martha, in all her Martha Jones AWESOMENESS. Donna, though, I enjoyed her in Runaway Bride, thought if she were toned down a bit she'd be great, and then she was, so, yeah, I was primed to love her from early in PiC. I sorta agree with you about CT's squee being not as convincing (I thought BP's Rose was the best at such squee - but then Rose was so young, and Donna's old enough to not be able to give herself entirely over to such giddiness), but she does the emotional stuff so very well. (Comedians often make great dramatic actors, I've noticed...)

I don't know how Who does it! The changing characters really do work great. And they manage an amazing number of lovable female characters, which is especially impressive.

[dhrachth.livejournal.com]

Fellow Donna fan here too. Rose and Martha were nice girls, I liked them well enough, but they were just kind of cute and bland wide-eyed tag-a-longs. Donna's a grown woman who can so hold her own. I loved in the first episode where she was pulling the exact same tricks as the Doctor while they were investigating and how she jumped right in with the bogus company title.

Ditto on the not doing the love interest thing again. Yeah, David Tennant is hot, but the Doctor doesn't do that kind of thing.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I liked/loved Rose & Martha myself, but oh man am I loving Donna! I'm omni-Companionable, I love 'em all, which seems like a weird place to be in this fandom...but Donna especially is different and great and eee~!

And, yes, just like you say - one can hardly blame people for falling for the Doctor, but I don't see him going for it, that's just not who he is.

Donna rocks!!!

[roving-rez.livejournal.com]

I agree 100%
I think Donna is so very awesome. I think they (Donna and the Doctor) have a bickering sibling relationship. They argue and think the other is, at times, silly (for example, Donna calls the Doctor on a number of occasions i.e fires of pompaii; and same for the Doctor to Donna i.e planet of the Ood when she first sees the ood). But he comes across as SO proud of her. I'm not sayin anything in case you haven't seen 4x4, but he always has these little looks that imply "yep, she's awesome".
oh...I heart Donna and the Doctor being best mates...

Re: Donna rocks!!!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes, I love their friendship (just watched 4x04, and they were so much fun in that! I love how she teases him and calls him dumbo - especially when everyone's acknowledging what a genius he is, the Doctor needs to be checked sometimes ^^) And the way he gets proud of her, and the way she takes care of him, and the way she was actually learning how to drive the TARDIS - hee~!

Re: Donna rocks!!!

[roving-rez.livejournal.com]

I adored the bit where he thinks that she is leaving him and his face just falls. And when he said "but there were so many places i wanted to take you"... he just looks so ... so .... you know! Its that so sad and disappointed but I'm smiling thing!
And then she calls him on his obvious trying to convience her to stay with descriptions of cool things, "The broken moon?""I know I know".
I got so excited over the weekend I made a vid concerning Donna as a companion. I did it in an afternoon and naye was lovely enough to say she'd have a look at it for me. Its likely TERRIBLE but because I'm so happy with Donna I didn't notice. lol.

Re: Donna rocks!!!

[roving-rez.livejournal.com]

btw - your Donna icon is BEAUTIFUL!!!!