Thirty Days (Or Posts) Of Female Characters! Post 10
Here's where things start to get a bit sticky. The technically correct answer to this question has already appeared in another post. So here's the runner-up to Post 2, winning in a genre category.
Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Since Lieutenant Uhura already has a spot, I choose . . . Donna Noble!
Donna is my absolute favorite Doctor Who companion so far, for two reasons. The first is that she's the only one who is more woman than girl. Rose and Martha and Amy and Clara are all wonderful people and have great adventures, but there's something . . . I don't know, "unfinished," maybe? about them. It's like they already had Doctor-shaped holes in their lives before the Doctor appeared. They're not quite grownups, and they're content to follow the Doctor around and mostly let him call the shots. That's fine -- the show is called Doctor Who for a reason -- but it doesn't take advantage of the full potential of the role of the Companion. Donna is a grownup, with a job and a family and a fiance, and you get to see her making her choice to travel with the Doctor, and you also get the sense that she's giving up more to do it -- even Martha the medical student didn't seem to be making as high-stakes a decision when she started her travels. Donna is the one who seems most like a grownup, and as such, she has that little bit more of an advantage. No one can ever really be the equal of a 900-year-old alien, but Donna comes the closest, and I find that I like the Doctor better when his Companion is on more equal footing with him.
The other reason that Donna is my favorite companion is that her story was never played for romance. She didn't want to be the Doctor's girlfriend, she didn't feel the need to compete against any other love interest he might have, and her story was not overwhelmingly a love story. She was the Doctor's friend, and she was brilliant at that. She laughed with him, she teased him, she mocked him when he deserved it, she stood at his side when he made difficult choices, and she saw him clearly enough to provide him with the moral compass that he so desperately needed. Deep friendships between men and women are not nearly as visible in the media as they should be, but the relationship between Donna and the Doctor was a beautiful example of that. For everything that he gave her, she was able to give him something in return, and both she and he grew as people and benefited from their friendship before its tragic end.
Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Since Lieutenant Uhura already has a spot, I choose . . . Donna Noble!
Donna is my absolute favorite Doctor Who companion so far, for two reasons. The first is that she's the only one who is more woman than girl. Rose and Martha and Amy and Clara are all wonderful people and have great adventures, but there's something . . . I don't know, "unfinished," maybe? about them. It's like they already had Doctor-shaped holes in their lives before the Doctor appeared. They're not quite grownups, and they're content to follow the Doctor around and mostly let him call the shots. That's fine -- the show is called Doctor Who for a reason -- but it doesn't take advantage of the full potential of the role of the Companion. Donna is a grownup, with a job and a family and a fiance, and you get to see her making her choice to travel with the Doctor, and you also get the sense that she's giving up more to do it -- even Martha the medical student didn't seem to be making as high-stakes a decision when she started her travels. Donna is the one who seems most like a grownup, and as such, she has that little bit more of an advantage. No one can ever really be the equal of a 900-year-old alien, but Donna comes the closest, and I find that I like the Doctor better when his Companion is on more equal footing with him.
The other reason that Donna is my favorite companion is that her story was never played for romance. She didn't want to be the Doctor's girlfriend, she didn't feel the need to compete against any other love interest he might have, and her story was not overwhelmingly a love story. She was the Doctor's friend, and she was brilliant at that. She laughed with him, she teased him, she mocked him when he deserved it, she stood at his side when he made difficult choices, and she saw him clearly enough to provide him with the moral compass that he so desperately needed. Deep friendships between men and women are not nearly as visible in the media as they should be, but the relationship between Donna and the Doctor was a beautiful example of that. For everything that he gave her, she was able to give him something in return, and both she and he grew as people and benefited from their friendship before its tragic end.
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