Character Manifesto: Donna Noble - Doctor Who
Fandom: Doctor Who
Character: Donna Noble
Pairings Included in Manifesto: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor; Donna Noble/Shaun Temple; Donna Noble/Eleventh Doctor
Runaway bride Donna (Catherine Tate) and the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Blurb:
We first met Donna Noble during The Runaway Bride when she was pulled into the TARDIS as she walked down the aisle on her wedding day. Donna was shouty, brassy, and slightly vulgar...but really that was understandable considering her double-crossing fiance was about to feed her to a giant spider. At the end of their adventure, the Doctor invites her to come with him, but she decides to stay in Chiswick and "walk in the dust" on Earth.
Donna regrets that decision almost immediately. While she's still the best temp in Chiswick (100 words per minute!), she's floating from temp job to temp job, much to her mother's dismay. Sylvia Noble has never believed much in her daughter, and she never lets an opportunity pass to let Donna know what a disappointment she is. Approaching 40 years old and still single, Donna spends the next year searching for the Doctor. "Just look for trouble and he'll turn up," she tells herself. And it works.
While investigating a new miracle diet pill, Donna and the Doctor meet again. Donna has kept the car packed with her multiple suitcases and hatboxes just in case, and after dispatching the latest alien threat they're off to the TARDIS for adventures in space in time.
Action figure!Donna
Donna meets Agatha Christie, helps cause the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii but saved Earth, liberates the Ood from slavery, and saves the entire universe from destruction at the, er...hands...of the Daleks. Donna's secretarial skills save the day at least four times! The Doctor's former companion Rose Tyler calls her the most important woman in all of creation. In ancient Rome she's worshipped as a household god by a certain family from Pompeii. The Ood are singing songs of Donna Noble across time and space. The Doctor has always called her brilliant, although Donna never believes him. Our hearts ache when she says that she's nothing special.
The Doctor helps Donna uncover her brilliance...she's intelligent, passionate, and not afraid to kick some alien butt. She also acts as the Doctor's conscience at times, and always enjoys taking the Martian boy down a peg or three. Officially they are "just mates"...BFFs...but they are often mistaken for a couple in canon. "No, no...we are SO not a couple!" they say (but I say they protest a little too much).
Simpson-ized Donna by Dean at Springfield Punx
Donna's journey comes to an end (see what I did there?) in the final episode of series 4. After taking the Doctor's Time Lord consciousness into her own head, Donna becomes half human/half Time Lord and saves the universe from the Dalek invasion. But the DoctorDonna's human brain can't handle the whole of space and time, and it begins misfiring. The Doctor must remove his Time Lord consciousness, including memories of their adventures together, to save her. He brings her back to her mum and granddad in Chiswick and warns them that Donna can never remember him...it would kill her. We leave Donna gabbing on the phone about men and the pub, back to her brassy, shouty ways.
In a sort of coda at the end of the Tenth Doctor's life, we see a happier Donna engaged to Shaun Temple. They're dirt poor but happy together, her granddad tells the Doctor. As an anonymous wedding gift, the Doctor uses his time traveling ways to buy them a winning lottery ticket. And thus we leave Donna, happy with her new man and no money worries...and we hope that Donna and Shaun will walk in the dust and be brilliant together.
So many fabulous fics to choose from! It was difficult to narrow this down...I could've posted at least 30.
Fic Rec #1: Floating
Pairing: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor
Author: woffproff
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/doctor_donna/32866.html
Rating/Warning(s): G
Why This Must Be Read: It's a lovely moment early in Donna's travels with the Doctor...she experiences the beauty of space as no other human being has, and wonders what she did to deserve it.
Fic Rec #2 Anchor
Pairing: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor
Author: time_converges
Link: http://time-converges.livejournal.com/34197.html
Rating/Warning(s): R for a bit of fluffy smut
Why This Must Be Read: Another moment in Donna's travels...this time the Doctor takes her to an uninhabited planet where she's overwhelmed with the feeling of time and space reeling and spinning across the universe.
Fic Rec #3: Freudian Slips
Pairing: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor
Author: mskydragons
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/marriedonmars/47594.html
Rating/Warning(s): PG
Why This Must Be Read: Crackfic in which Donna and the Doctor are influenced by alien truth serum petals to confess how they really see one another. The Doctor gets slapped. A lot.
Fic Rec #4: Destination: Shag or Die!
Pairing: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor
Author: woffproff
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/doctor_donna/84180.html
Rating/Warning(s): R
Why This Must Be Read: It's the oldest cliche in the universe...so why do Donna and the Doctor keep repeating it?
Fic Rec #5: What Happens in Vegas
Pairing: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor
Author: time_converges
Link: http://time-converges.livejournal.com/12406.html
Rating/Warning(s): PG
Why This Must Be Read: A fluffy wedding story told in a backwards timeline. time_converges writes great Doctor/Donna fluff!
Fic Rec #6: Quid Pro Quo
Pairing: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor
Author: radiantbaby
Link: http://cantadora.livejournal.com/7788.html
Rating/Warning(s): NC-17 for sexual situations and language
Why This Must Be Read: The Doctor takes Donna to a pleasure planet to make up for the harsh times she's had so far, but (as usual with the Doctor) things don't go exactly as planned.
Fic Rec #7: The Ten Weddings of Donna Noble
Pairing: Donna/Tenth Doctor...et al.
Author: Netgirl y2k
Link: http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=20582
Rating/Warning(s): PG
Why This Must Be Read: Temporal paradoxes, aliens with sticks, and just plain coincidences (or are they?) cause Donna Noble to marry the Doctor. All ten of him. Timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly, etc.
Fic Rec #8: Balancing Act
Pairing: Donna Noble/Tenth Doctor
Author: ageless_aislynn
Link: http://ageless-aislynn.livejournal.com/82554.html (link is to chapter 1/8)
Rating/Warning(s): NC-17 for sexual situations and language
Why This Must Be Read: A Journey's End fix-it in which the meta-crisis also opened a mating bond between Donna and the Doctor. They must resolve the bond while still running from planet to planet battling aliens. Hijinks ensue.
Fic Rec #9: Handyman
Pairing: Donna Noble/Shaun Temple
Author: plutokitty
Link: http://plutokitty.livejournal.com/35366.html
Rating/Warning(s): G
Why This Must Be Read: A lovely Journey's End/End of Time fix-it fic...Donna is having awful headaches and spouting nonsense, but she directs her husband to make a gizmo that will help stabilize her Time Lord brain. The author did a wonderful job fleshing out the character of Shaun who was only glimpsed on screen a few times.
Fic Rec #10: No Ordinary Life
Pairing: Donna Noble/Shaun Temple
Author: time_converges
Link: http://time-converges.livejournal.com/104169.html
Rating/Warning(s): PG
Why This Must Be Read: A post End of Time fic...newlyweds Donna and Shaun have won the lottery, thanks to an anonymous wedding gift from the Doctor. They start a charitable trust and travel all over the world, but Donna is not content with the usual tourist spots.
Fic Rec #11: Concrete Angels
Pairing: Donna Noble/Eleventh Doctor (if you blink you'll miss it...pun intended)
Author: lenozzedifigaro
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/doctor_donna/1333763.html
Rating/Warning(s): PG-13
Why This Must Be Read: Thanks to a black hole and a time slip, Donna visits the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, and River Song during the events of Flesh and Stone and saves the day...and we get to see Donna Noble be brilliant once again.