Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Oh, Donna… It’s not easy picking a mere five from the tons of wonderful things Donna does during her time as a companion.  She’s brave, clever, tenacious, compassionate, and spectacularly human – these are, for me, Donna’s greatest hits.  (Spoilers, of course.)

Solo Investigation (“Partners in Crime” – Series 4, Episode 1)

After turning down the Doctor’s invitation in “The Runaway Bride,” Donna doesn’t just regret her decision.  She takes matters into her own hands, looking for Doctor-worthy mysteries to investigate.  She hopes to find him again, but she also throws herself into the mysteries, sneaking into buildings, concocting cover stories, and doing some fabulous detective work.  Gotta love it!

Pushing the Lever (“The Fires of Pompeii” – Series 4, Episode 2)

A horrible choice:  let the Pyroviles take over the world, or destroy them at the cost of Pompeii?  This is the terrible decision facing the Doctor, and though he knows what he has to do, the weight of it crushes him.  Time War memories crowd his head as, once again, he’s the one staining his soul to save others… and Donna places her hands on the lever.  She’s never faced anything remotely like this, and the last thing she wants is to see Pompeii destroyed, but in that moment, she bears some of the burden so the Doctor doesn’t have to carry it alone, not again. 

Saving Someone (“The Fires of Pompeii” – Series 4, Episode 2)

How much does Donna rock in “The Fires of Pompeii?”  So much it gets two separate entries!  Throughout the episode, she vehemently opposes the Doctor’s insistence that Pompeii is a fixed point in time and they can’t save the people doomed to die.  She argues with him, repeatedly tries to go around him and change things herself, and even as the air fills with ash, she screams at the people to get out.  And in the end, as the Doctor collapses under the enormity of what they’ve done, she sees what he needs – to save someone.  Not everyone, he can’t, but just someone.  

Supertemp (“The Sontaran Stratagem” – Series 4, Episode 4)

What a fun moment.  In this midst of a wild conspiracy, a bunch of UNIT soldiers, and some obviously alien technology, Donna’s office knowhow leads her to a vital clue.  At the personnel department for the factory they’re investigating, she discovers that the sick-day folder is empty, meaning something is off about the workers.  (And while she describes them as not getting sick, her examples – “hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping trip” – hit on a bigger point.  It’s not just that the workers don’t get sick; it’s that they don’t act human.  I love that she sees that.)

Changing the Past (“Turn Left” – Series 4, Episode 11)

In a parallel world in which Donna never met the Doctor and instead watched the Earth get ravaged by alien assailants, she still accepts the call from a stranger to travel back in time and heal the world, and she’s so determined that she gives her life for it.  This version of Donna never learned how to be a hero alongside the Doctor, but she dug deep and learned it for herself.