N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
After all the moping around poor Martha Jones had to do in Series Three, Donna Noble is the proverbial breath of fresh air.
“He saves planets, rescues civilisations, defeats terrible creatures. And runs a lot. Seriously, there’s an outrageous amount of running involved.”
Donna, The Doctor’s Daughter
True, the spectre of Rose lingers over the series (almost literally with all those shots of her on screens the Doctor manages not to see) from the moment of her cameo in Partners in Crime, but she’s not affecting Donna’s experience of travelling with the Doctor. Well, not at least until she is – in Turn Left!
It’s not just that Donna Noble has less emotional baggage to lug around. (She has plenty of actual baggage to make up for that!) The quality of stories seems a bit more consistent. True, there’s nothing quite up to the level of Blink or Human Nature / The Family of Blood, but by the same chalk there’s also nothing quite as bad as Series Three’s Dalek two-parter or its dire finale.
Even my least favourite episode of this run – The Doctor’s Daughter – has its moments (unsurprisingly, they involve Donna).
“What sort of doctor blows up cars?”
Sylvia, The Sontaran Strategem
Being a Catherine Tate fan has probably contributed to my judging this series less harshly than I perhaps would otherwise, but I do genuinely think the Doctor and Donna’s rapport is the best we’ve seen in the RTD era of new Who.
That Tennant’s reprising the role for the 60th anniversary is accompanied by a return for Donna Noble is no surprise at all for me. Indeed, as RTD has said, it was Catherine Tate’s idea. That sense of joy both actors seemed to have had making the show really does come across in Series Four.
One final tip: don’t watch Captain Jack’s Monster Files before viewing the episode said file accompanies. Some of them files come with spoilers!
