Women in Doctor Who by Valerie Estelle Frankel

Author:Valerie Estelle Frankel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2018-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

Brash Equal: Donna Noble

Unusually, companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) isn’t a slender teen in a miniskirt. She’s forty, less conventionally beautiful, almost stocky. “Her sexuality, coupled with her adornment, reflect her stage in life—mature well beyond maidenhood. Donna’s clothes are adult, exhibiting more color—shades of purple, blue, and deep red with splashes of pink, black, or grey. Her adornments are earthy, spiritual, royal tones” (Burke 170). Nonetheless, jokes keep appearing about her lack of attractiveness: After watching the Doctor’s daughter kiss a guard to distract him, Donna says, “Let me distract this one. I have picked up a few womanly wiles over the years.”

“Let’s save your wiles for later. In case of emergency,” the Doctor retorts (“The Doctor’s Daughter”). He and Donna have an ongoing joke about how they’re not a couple, not one bit. “You’re not mating with me, sunshine…. I’m not having any of that nonsense. I mean, you’re just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing,” she says when she agrees to travel with him in “Partners in Crime.” This is her second appearance, after what appeared a one-off in “The Runaway Bride.” In this episode, he invites her along and to his surprise she refuses. Pamela Achenbach explains in her essay, “Companions Who Weren’t”: “Neither the Doctor nor Donna was ready for the kind of relationship that would develop between them. The Doctor needed time to mourn the loss of Rose, and Donna needed to recover from the loss of her fiancé, who died on their wedding day. Donna refused the Doctor’s offer to take her along because she knew the Doctor was not ready for her, that he needed time.” Instead, she resolves, “I’m not going to temp anymore. I don’t know. Travel. See a bit more of planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something.” The Doctor bids her a friendly goodbye. When they meet a year later, however, she refuses to let him get away again, and announces she’s coming along.

Davies remarks, “[Donna’s] an equal to the Doctor, a friend, a mate, a challenge.” (Davies and Cook 197). Lynnette Porter adds, in an essay on New Who companions, “She assumes the role of the Doctor’s best friend or big sister—not quite an equal, but a confidante, a sibling playmate, a solid supporter but not always a fan” (255). Emphasizing their playfulness, she calls him “Dumbo” and “Space Man” among other nicknames. The Tenth Doctor and Donna squabble and bicker like adult siblings, though they also have fun together. “The Doctor and Donna are verbose to the point of euphoria and, save for Romana, no other Companion has ever matched his shrewdness. While some Classic Series companions can banter, it’s often irresolute and subservient to his dexterity. Rose, River, and Martha are quick with rejoinders, but Donna outshines them all” (Burke 171).

Of course, being friends is its own kind of relationship, no less joyful for its platonic nature. “Friends force us to reconsider our politics, indeed to notice parts of the world that without them we would pass over” (Hunt 262).

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