Oncoming Storms - Prompt 156.2 - Mun
What part of your character's life do you like to write about most? What is it about it that makes it so interesting to explore?
- That's easy. I love to explore her life with the Doctor the most. Who wouldn't want to go on an adventure with the Doctor?
But there we get to an interesting aspect of her. She originally said, "No," to him. I mean, it's understandable why she would. Here she was, about to be married, when particles she'd been drugged with for the past six months activated on her wedding day of all days, and she was whisked halfway across the universe and met this tall, skinny man inside an impossible spaceship. Who wouldn't be angry and frightened at that? Or continue to be when the day that was supposed to be the most special in her mediocre life was turned completely on its head. One would think being "kidnapped" the way she was would be enough, but oh no, not for her. On top of all that, the man she loved for the past six months wasn't in love with her, had been using her, and oh, wanted to use her for this alien spider queen's nefarious deeds.
Oh, and that he died during the course of the day. He only got away with a telling off before he was dropped into the center of the Earth! Plus there's the whole thing with the Doctor doing what he did to the Racnoss's children and oi. Doesn't leave a whole hell of a lot of options for closure.
It does, however, make for one hell of a day. Emotionally, mentally, and physically straining. The woman did all that in her freaking wedding dress--and no doubt in heels that were only meant to be worn for that day, not running around all of London or underneath the Thames in a secret base. Really, that she came out well-adjusted at all is a wonder.
I remember when news came out about the companion for season 4, and going ohhhh, that should be interesting. What made her change her mind? (While half the fandom went, "OHGOD NO," or variations thereof.) After all, what would make her change her mind? She's the type who can't be convinced that easily about things because she rebels like crazy against such notions, as well as the person making the "suggestions" (i.e. Sylvia), until she can properly see them/do them/experience them for herself. It has to be her idea, or no deal. It won't happen. That's what interested me. Under what circumstances would she say, "Yes," and what would the adventures be like with her?
After seeing the season, it's easy to see how she would have said no initially and then regretted it the next day. She was hurt so much, but she was introduced to something so great and terrifying and exciting that day as well. That's a lot to process! But a meeting with the Doctor changes you. How, well, that's another story, but in Donna's case, it was for the better and that was apparent the moment we saw her again.
Change and a personal journey really were the keys to Donna's time in the TARDIS. She wasn't interested in romance with the Doctor. She wasn't running away on a whim, leaving behind a potential prosperous life. For her, the Doctor was the sort of man who could take her shit and give it back, but most importantly, he got her. And she got him, probably a lot better than most. Neither of them wanted to be alone, deep down, but neither wanted the ties where such attachments would leave them in one place. After her failed wedding, she'd given up on that. Even told the Doctor so before he left. And, well, her life had always been one that drifted from temp job to temp job, and never really settled down or found her niche. And she certainly wasn't prosperous. No one in their right mind would consider moving back home in your mid-thirties and being constantly unemployed "prosperous" by any means. She'd given life on Earth a shot and it just wasn't having her. If anyone would, it'd be the Doctor because he'd made that offer for her to join him. Someone needed her--and it just so happened to be an alien who could travel in all of time and space. Gotta love the coincidence there.
I think my most favorite aspect of her life with the Doctor to write about is her relationship with him. I adore exploring their friendship and their interactions. As a companion, she's a bit of an odd duck. She's not the sort to wander off while he's in the middle of an explanation and get into trouble. If anything, she interrupts him and points out the weird shit going on that he just walked by because he was busy name-dropping/showing off/acting as our exposition into the situation they were now in. Donna always stuck with him, and only separated from him if he told her to go check something out while he did something else--or if something or someone forcibly separated them. It's practically in the companion's handbook as rule #1 that wandering off is the order of the day in any new place and time. Donna ignores that rule.
She also ignores the justifiable killing rule as well, but with one exception. Donna doesn't send anyone to their deaths to save the Doctor or the people they're with in any given adventure, not before or after their meeting with Agatha Christie. She saved Agatha from a premature death when she threw the Firestone into the water, knowing full well what water does to wasps, and thus drowned the Vespiform. Now yes, she also pushed the button in the Pyrovile's escape pod, thus dooming 20K people to their deaths, but that's different. That was a fixed point in time that had to happen, and she shared part of that burden with the Doctor when she joined hands with him and did what needed to be done. Agatha's potential death would've only meant that she wrote like six novels and that's it. The world's greatest mystery writer cut off so soon out of the starting line, but there was more to that. Donna identified with her as a woman scorned by her lover. When she told Agatha, in her own way, about Lance, that probably was the first time she openly spoke about it. If Donna hadn't travelled with the Doctor, she never would have grown as a person, and she probably never would have talked about Lance or that day ever again. She never would've talked about it even with Wilf. It'd be one of those things she kept to herself for the rest of her life.
So yes. That's the long of it why I've set most of my pieces during her tenure as a companion. The short of it is, well, all that time passed and we only got so many adventures with her. Only one season and she had all her memories of him and her time there wiped clean. The unfairness of it all just...appalled and deeply saddened me, really, and I wanted to see her live on somehow.
Muse: Donna Noble
Word count: 1190