*** SPOILER ALERT ***
OK, I have to say, for all the holes in them the last two episodes of Doctor Who Series 4 (The Stolen Earth and Journey's End) were great to watch... action filled, good special effects (for the BBC), nice writing, conclusion of a large story arc, and very bittersweet. I will miss Catherine Tate as companion Donna Noble. So far of all of the new companions Donna truly represented the "everyman" (or "everyperson") literary character. Donna began as a vacuous, loud, somewhat lazy, somewhat obnoxious person (why, almost American) who becomes the tether to The Doctor's high-flying antics. Donna is the companion who speaks for the viewer, who in the face of The Doctor's "we can't meddle about with time" tells The Doctor that they must do something, that just because they can't save everyone they can at least save someone (see for example the episode The Fires of Pompeii). Like many of us, Donna doesn't see herself as special, doesn't think she has anything of value to contribute, scream out at the universe because she thinks no one will listen to her. And yet, the "best temp in Chiswick", grounded in everyday human experience, shows her worth. Donna like many of us fall prey to what the existentialists warned against... defining yourself by what you do. People think of themselves as important based on what they do, their job, their standing in a community, how other perceive them. In truth that is not what makes you special. You are special because, simply, you are. You should not define yourself simply as the things you do, yet when you meet someone new isn't the first question (certainly one of the first three) "What do you do?" A better question might be to ask "Who are you?" If you are a sci-fi fan as I am you will see this as a twist on the Shadow question ("What do you want?") as opposed to the Vorlon question ("Who are you?") from Babylon 5 (there are actually four questions eventually asked. I'll save the other two for a future post).
At the finale of Journey's End Donna learns that she really is unique, that it is her "human-ness" that takes her even beyond what The Doctor is capable of... not because she was a scientist, a political leader, or even because she was "the best temp in Chiswick", but because she was human.
Donna is gone from the show and I will miss her. Let's hope that the next companion can retain some that good "everyman" character that she injected into the show.
Good job Catherine, thanks.
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