LogFAQs > #965209633

More so than Tennant though, series four is spectacular because of Catherine Tate as Donna Fucking Noble. We first met her in Runaway Bride, and apparently the fans hated her for being too brash and obnoxious. I don't mind her personality in that episode, but I get it. But then the writers decided to bring her back (on the heels of Martha outright leaving, and Astrid getting killed off in the Christmas special), and it's the best decision they ever made.

For starters, by bringing back an old character, we didn't need to be reintroduced to Donna. Yes, she's grown and changed as a person, but for better or worse, the audience is already accustomed to her, so you're able to hit the ground running to an extent. Up until this point, every other season premiere (I'm including Christmas Invasion over New Earth) had to spend so much time developing a new character that the episode themselves are just average at best. Partners in Crime is hilarious by comparison.

That's the other thing with Catherine Tate: she's genuinely funny. David Tennant has that manic energy that can serve a character like the Doctor well, but up until this point, Billie Piper, Noel Clarke and ESPECIALLY Freema Agyeman haven't exactly been the most dynamic personality in their own rights. Yeah, Eccleston and Tennant had decent interplay with Jackie Tyler, but she's also meant to be a boorish, annoying side character more than anything. Donna though, is hilarious, and she's able to play off Tennant and rile him up, and they just have amazing chemistry with one another. Partners in Crime is spectacular in large part because of their relationship. From the first moment of them miming to one another, to Donna's brash behavior when Tennant mentions wanting "a mate", it's gold.

I think the Doctor/Companion relationship works best in two situations. One, you need a Doctor who is just abrasive and obnoxious and ANYONE acting opposite him is going to shine by responding to that kind of attitude. Or two, you need a companion who is not afraid to give the Doctor a piece of their mind. My favorite companions are the ones that aren't content to just sit back and let the Doctor hold their hand and tell them what a good little human they are. Barbara stands out as the closest person to an "equal" Hartnell's era gets. The same goes for Leela with Baker 1. And Clara with Capaldi, as I just said. But Donna plays this part better than any of those.

Donna's just so fresh and refreshing. She still has that blue collar attitude to made Rose a perfect audience surrogate in series one (able to be awestruck by the wonders that the Doctor can show her), but she's also not about to treat the Doctor like some God who can do no wrong. Yes, companions are needed to bring the audience into the show, but a great companion is one that provides contrast to the Doctor. At a point in his tenure when Tennant's Doctor has experienced loss after loss after loss (Rose's loss, Martha quitting, Astrid's death), he's definitely starting to show signs of becoming more cold and clinical in his attitude. Donna is the heart that Tennant's Doctor desperately needed at this juncture. Through sheer force of will, she's able to maintain that goodness inside the Doctor throughout this series of the show.

But Donna is more than just a plot device for Tennant's character; she's her own woman, too. She was obnoxious in Runaway Bride, but in the interrim period, the actor playing her father died, and as such, his character was killed off. Suddenly, Donna is that same obnoxious loafer, but she realizes that its no way to live her life. She turned the Doctor down once before, and then she seeks him out because she wants to take that chance and see the wonders he can show her. Over the course of the series, we see Donna grow and change, and she becomes more confident and she becomes a character the Doctor can rely upon to get things done, despite not being "special".

The entire back half of the season is especially poignant because of Donna more than anything else. The library two-parter is just as juch her story as it is the Doctor and River's, with the sorrow of finding happiness and having to lose it, because it's not real. Midnight and Turn Left highlight just how important Donna is to the Doctor, and then the finale gives her a crowning moment before the cruelest and one of the saddest endings to a character we've seen. I know Donna ends up happy...but that's not the Donna we know. That's not the Donna who made herself better, traveling with the Doctor. She saved the world, and the person who grew to love actually dies, replaced by the boorish woman who the fanbase hated back in Runaway Bride. It's tragic, but beautiful all the same.