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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:25 pm
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I love Donna. I always have. I loved her from the instant I saw her in Runaway Bride, despite nearly everyone else hating her, and her return was the only thing that kept me optimistic about series four (which is turning out splendidly, by the way) after the shithole that was series three.
Why do I love Donna? This is copied and pasted from my livejournal, so apologies if it's a little disconnected. ;D
If you don't want to read all this, just tell me why you do or don't like Donna!
I think she's fantastic. She's the first new series companion I've really loved. I liked Rose enough in her first season but I grew to really dislike her over the course of her second. I could never bring myself to care even the tiniest bit about Martha, she was so bland. She was like a non-entity to me. I really liked pre-death Jack, but post-death Jack is sort of a cliched character. I like him but I definitely don't love him. I liked Mickey a lot by the end but it took me a while to warm up to him and then he left.
But Donna, I loved Donna from the moment I saw her. I thought, "Oh, there's a character I can connect with!" Rose's and Martha's reactions to the Doctor always seemed unreal to me. They were never anything more than characters. I could never imagine being so blase about the sudden proof that alien life exists, about the sudden revelation that time travel is possible, etc. I've actually thought about it (yes, I admit, I have seriously considered what I'd do if the Doctor dropped in on me. I get bored during lectures, okay?) and I know I'd panic a bit and I'd be pretty disbelieving and when I came around from that I'd have questions. I'd want to know how and why and I'd want all sorts of explanations even if I'd have no chance at really understanding them. I also know I'd want to go everywhere. I love traveling, more than anything, and the chance to see anywhere in all of space and time at no cost? I wouldn't know where to start, but I'd certainly have a few ideas! (Actually I'd probably ask to go see some dinosaurs first. I've always wanted to know if they really look like how we think they do. ;D)
Anyway, if I were walking down the aisle and then I suddenly found myself in some really strange room that looked like the entirety of the Industrial Revolution happened in a really confined space all within five minutes I'd probably freak out at least as much as Donna. I'd probably try to rationalize it, and of course I'd be angry and sort of frantic.
Her reactions aren't the only reason I love Donna. I love Donna because she is loud and opinionated and forceful and she's not a perfect character who is instantly likable and always smart and brave. I love her because she has obvious faults and because they're not the generic not-so-bad faults that people usually give their characters to make them seem less perfect, like clumsiness. She's genuinely not always likable. I love that she's sarcastic and a little bit rude and has no qualms about taking the Doctor to town and yelling at him. I love that she doesn't hero-worship him and that she can't see he has faults too. I love that she feels like a real person and that even further, she feels like a real person who is really quite ordinary.
It is amazing how much Donna can make okay. Runaway Bride has the space spider, following the disappointing tradition of taking earth animals and pretending like they're aliens (ala the space cats, space rhinos, space squid, space scorpion, space trees, and space bats), and it doesn't even matter because Donna makes it all better. If it had been Rose or Martha or even Jack in Planet of the Ood I'd have hated the episode, but because it was Donna the episode was okay. If there had been more of Donna it would even have been great!
Donna is the only companion who can even hold a candle to Jamie, as far as I'm concerned. He's still my favorite, but Donna is a close second. <3
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:24 pm
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:20 pm
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:02 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:46 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:52 pm
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I love Donna too. I think she's going to be my favourite companion from New Who. I did start off a little apprehensive, but I knew I was wrong for that by the end of the Runaway Bride episode.
The character makes me laugh a lot, while at the same time, being sympathetic and lovable. More importantly, she's a believable character. She is very rude at times, but she also has a great deal of compassion and humanity.
She's like a breath of fresh air because the dynamic between her and the Doctor is so different to how it was with Martha and Rose. It isn't about how perfect, and kind, and wonderful she is, and she isn't all about how amazing the Doctor is. I must admit, that aspect of female companions in this show was beginning to irritate me somewhat, because they seemed more like typical love interests than anything else. Too perfect, not really believable. Nothing that I could relate to. Donna seems to be signaling a movement away from that sort of character, and towards the sort that actually is very human, and I wholeheartedly support this. It is also nice to acknowledge that platonic friendships can exist.
I also agree that she stands up independently as a character to a greater extent than did Martha or Rose. Not that I don't like them, but they seemed more like they existed for the sake of relating to the Doctor, and I can't really picture either of them doing something that doesn't concern him. Obviously, it'll happen, but they almost feel like blank canvases to me. That's fair enough I suppose, because the show is centred around the Doctor, but at the same time, it is great to have someone there who I can picture having a life of their own. Donna could get her own show, no Doctor, no aliens even, and I'd watch it.
And amen on the no hero-worship thing too. To be honest, I probably would hero-worship if I were to meet someone who could take me around the universe like that, so fair enough for the characters who do. But it's nice to watch someone who doesn't always take his word for it, and argues back when she thinks he's in the wrong. Makes it more a relationship of equals, which in turn makes her a more engaging character because she feels more like she's there for her own sake. I care about what she says, because her opinion isn't invalidated by her being just a silly little human who doesn't understand how the universe works.
So yes, much love for Donna. I hope she stays for a very long time. whee
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:57 pm
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:21 pm
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:16 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:43 am
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Arttic Witchica You have to admit, she is the most different when it comes to the companions for the new series. I felt that she wasn't just a companion, but more like an acquaintance or equal. It might be her sassy Sarcastic, awesomeness, but she didn't just due what the doctor told her, she questioned things and showed a human side. No offense to Martha and Rose, but she is my favorite. biggrin I understand what you mean, but I think you really have to be Romana to be his equal, lol. I think she frustrates me because she is, to me, the Holden Caulfield equivalent. She is disrespectful and rebellious in spite of the fact that the person she is rebelling against is significantly more intelligent and significantly more knowledgeable. Then again, there is a good portion of the population that loves Holden Caulfield as well. xD
She certainly has many good points, though. biggrin
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:36 pm
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:26 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:04 am
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:51 am
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Ah, Donna... my favorite companion by far. Rose was OK, I guess, but she got boring pretty quickly. Martha? I HATED her! OK, perhaps some of that hate stems from the fact that Season Three was basically crap anyway, but I was SO glad when she left.
ANYWAY, my problem with the two of them is that they're all ZOMG I LUV U DOCTOR HAV MY BABIEEZ OH NOES AN EVIL ALEIN HALP HALP WATEVER SHALL I DO I KNOW I WILL SAVE TEH ERTH BCOZ I AM SO BRAVE AND AWESOME AND U NO, A RLLY NICE PRESON!!1!. Whereas Donna... she's pretty much OI YOU CAN YOU SPEAK IN ENGLISH PLEASE HOLY CRAP A BLOODY GREAT ALIEN WHAT THE HELL??.
Donna is about as far removed from Rose and Martha as you could get, and I think that she's a breath of fresh air - loud, rude, and (on occasion) a little bit thick, but she's a good person overall. Unlike Rose and Martha, who don't really seem to care all that much about the fact that they're ON A DIFFERENT PLANET, Donna reacts in much more real ways to the incredible things that she sees. She didn't immediately want to go with the Doctor - and when she did, it wasn't dull. She took SUITCASES. The Doctor... I'm so glad that she didn't really have any romantic feelings for him (or at least, not as much as the other two). It was a more brother-sister relationship, and I much preferred it.
It makes me sad that she went in the way she did. My thoughts are that, if they wanted to make sure that she could never come back, EVER, then they would have let her die (and, for some reason, I think that I would have liked that so much more than the actual ending). So she's probably coming back. Hopefully. If they just did the mind-wipe thing because the little kiddies might be sad if she died, then I will be SO pissed. The little kiddies should stop being such wimps.
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:17 pm
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