Relationship Spotlight: The Doctor & Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Back when I first saw “The Runaway Bride,” I never would’ve figured Donna would become my favorite new-series companion or that I would grow to love her relationship with the Doctor as much as I do.  But while there are some hints amidst the early combativeness of “The Runaway Bride,” her next appearance hits the ground running, and from there, the Doctor and Doctor are all awesome, all the time (some Doctor-Donna-related spoilers.)

I love everything about “Partners in Crime,” the story of Donna and the Doctor finding their way back to one another.  Even as they conduct their separate investigations into Adipose, they’re so in sync.  Sure, part of that is to highlight them just missing each other so many times, the “so close, yet so far away” thing, but another part of it is to show how ready Donna is for this.  She’s done her homework, she pounds the pavement, and when she finally does cross paths with the Doctor again, it turns out she’s already packed and always has her luggage in the car.  It all sends a clear message:  Donna’s got this.

The episode also gives us another important element:  Donna’s got the Doctor, too.  As the Adipose plan goes into the final phase and the Doctor is freaking because he can’t fix it, Donna’s the one at his side calmly saying, “Doctor, tell me what you need.”  And again, because her investigation has so closely paralleled his, it turns out she just happens to have the one thing that will save everyone.  And that’s a lot of what the Doctor and Donna are about.  Whether it’s with a doodad, an action, or an empathetic word, Donna knows how to support the Doctor.  On that last point, she’s especially good at recognizing when he’s not all right – the stuff with Jenny in “The Doctor’s Daughter” and the tail-end of the Library two-parter are both great examples – and she’s such an excellent, caring friend in those moments.

For his part, the Doctor is quite a good friend to Donna as well (which, after his periodic obtuseness with Martha, is very welcome.)  It can sometimes be hard to pick up on Donna’s insecuritites, because she so often masks them with overconfidence, but the Doctor’s often the one saying, “Don’t you know how brilliant you are?”  Even though, over the course of the season, he learns this about her, it still surprises him every time.  Not because he hasn’t noticed or it hasn’t sunken in – the moments show up multiple times in the season – but because he thinks so highly of her and her abilities that it’s a recurring shock to him that she can’t always recognize that about herself.

And come on – they just have fun together.  As the Doctor tells Donna at the end of “Partners in Crime,” “I just want a mate” (i.e., the British meaning, “friend.”)  And that’s exactly what they are, mates, having tons of fun getting into all kinds of crazy situations throughout time and space.  She models period duds for him when they visit the past, he relishes showing her new things, they crack jokes in front of bad guys and bicker as they run for their lives.  They’re an absolute blast, proving that the company you’re in can actually improve upon the objectively-awesome experience of seeing the universe.

In “The End of Time,” the Doctor calls Donna his best friend.  While the Doctor has obviously loved pretty much all his companions, it’s not often that he actually says those words, but he says them about her.  That alone makes it special.