There’s something on your *brain*.
5 reasons I am not deeply upset (and one I am) over what happened to Donna Noble:
1. Despite how the Doctor feels about the matter, losing your memories of him is not, actually, the same as dying.
2. The nonsense that he took away what made her awesome remains nonsense! In Turn Left (and I think in the first season 4 ep as well, before she starts traveling with him) the case is made that Donna just needs some event to *wake her up*. And then, okay, some time to think about it. But given the universe she lives in, the odds are reasonable she’ll find her awesome again.
3. Having all the knowledge in the universe* and then losing it is a conclusion that I, as a person trained in science, find personally unsettling. And I like that in an unhappy ending.
4. All the knowledge in the universe* is still there, floating around in her brain! The Doctor just got rid of any referencing memories. At the least this sets her up for a life of extreme creepiness, shadow at the edge of your thoughts style of thing. Random bits of knowledge and know-how that leak through at times, although she doesn't know why or how to call them up again. At the least!
It is narratively interesting, you guys!
4a. Assuming we ever make it to consciousness uploads, Donna’s gonna need a surprising amount of processing power.
5. Anyway, there are tons more subtle memory cues than having her grandfather read her a list of her adventures in space.
You know what did bug me, though? The whole season we’ve been told that there is something Weird and Special and Most Important about Donna Noble. But it turned out that nope, the only thing Weird and Special and Most Important about her is her association with the Doctor. It is headdesky in the same vein as last year’s Martha Saves The World. BY TELLING PEOPLE HOW COOL THE DOCTOR IS.
OTOH, considering that last year I was writing fic about how Martha pwns the Doctor and/or threatening not to watch the show again, I’m much more zen about the finale this time around.
*okay, so I am exaggerating a little for effect. I do not actually think *that* highly of the Doctor’s braining skillz.