My best friend, taking great delight in the fact that he can watch Doctor Who as it is broadcast, informed me that he can't stand Donna because she is so fucking annoying. Sorry, David, can't even remotely agree with this, and that's mainly because you suck. A lot. Donna rules, Donna's cool; better believe it crazy fools.
No, but seriously, I love Donna as a companion because, quite frankly, she's not a puppy dog. OK, so both Rose and Martha had independence, but it is Donna who really sticks it to the Doctor and this is great because, without someone to admire him, the Doctor tries to go overboard with his smugness, and thankfully Donna is there to bring him right back to Earth. The Doctor's alienness and Time Lord nature can see that there are areas of time, such as the eruption of Vesuvius, that is "fixed" and cannot be altered. They cannot save anybody from Pompeii because that's the way it goes. He even can't save his own people, all of whom, as we know, were killed in the Time Lord/Dalek Time War.
Donna, however, can't see this fact. As far as she is concerned, if the Doctor can save everyone in 2008, then there's no reason why he can't go and rescue everyone in Pompeii. And as far as she's concerned, all the Doctor's claims don't answer her simple question - Why not? It's a question, really, that most of us would ask as well if we weren't so enamoured of the Doctor. Rose and Martha were happy to accept that the Doctor knows best, but Donna is not. She questions and she argues and she nags, and while that may make her annoying, it makes her unique and it makes her a truly believable character. I love Donna. Donna is excited by the Doctor when he fights a flaming rock monster with a water pistol, but disappointed when he won't even consider saving one family from death. And she's got the guts and heart to accept that her death might be necessary to save the entire world, and she faces that head on.
So obviously I can't gush enough about Donna. And how good looking is Catherine Tate? Blows me away that she's pretty fine, to be honest.
Meanwhile, on with the show. For the first time in 23 years Doctor Who leaves the confines of Great Britain and travels to another country for its filming, but to be fair, I hardly even noticed. OK, so it was on the set of Rome, and I'm sure it was done to save money, but the fact is Doctor Who looks so good these days that I'm confident that the production team could have easily created the same set. Again I know it's to save money, and if that results in the absolutely stunning CGI (how cool were the Pyrovar? How good did Pompeii look getting erupted on?...Erupted on...there's something I don't get to say nearly enough). Still it was fun to film on the set on HBO's "Rome" (notice that it's always HBO's "Rome", never just "Rome").
The story was quite interesting - lo it was aliens that caused the eruption of Vesuvius (OK, so the alien was the Doctor, but the Pyrovar landing there and causing the problems were the primary cause, really...no? Whatever) but these aliens were cool and could turn people to stone and let them read the future. Interesting that for the first time in the new series we discover that the Doctor is not the Doctor's real name. And that "she" is coming back...whooo...and someone will have to make a difficult decision...and Donna has something on her back...So exciting. Everything is presumably building to a huge series climax.
Did I like it? Hell yes. Bring on "Planet Of The Ood" as Series four is pressing all the buttons.
"A"
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