OK, OK. Let's do this.
What do we know? Rusty's got previous. Series One: Bad Wolf turns out to be... Rose. Humh.
Default theory: Donna is... Donna. The only thing special about her is that there is nothing special about her. She's not specially unspecial. But that can't be right. There is something special about her. She has the unconscious ability to manipulate time and probabilities and we know she has been watched from birth by Rose/Bad Wolf. OK, she was chosen at random because she was unspecially unspecial and given her power by... more actor in the Time War: the (future) Doctor/Rose/Bad Wolf/Dalek Caan/Davros or whoever. Her power is going to save the day, but she herself is going to have to do something horribly hard and humanly brave, probably involving self-sacrifice. You see, children, isn't this wonderful? It couldn't have been any of us who were chosen and we all must be prepared to sacrifice ourselves to save those those we love and the universe (no-one said life was easy).
Well, it's a morality tale certainly. But it means that Donna is just another Rose (this time without the squee). It means that all the hints that Donna is something more (but, heh, what could be more than a human...) are red herrings. It seems a deeply lame and disappointing payoff not just to the season, but to Rusty's entire tenure as executive producer of NuHu. Surely, it has to be something more interesting?
Well, OK, the Brave Little Tailor is a perfectly good topos of fantastika (thanks heavens, for The Encyclopedia of Fantasy), but the Hidden Monarch is a equally good and potentially more interesting one. Here we go...
Donna Noble... well "Donna" is an honorific and "Noble" means, well, noble. Which suggests she is some kind of noble and the only nobles who matter in the Whoviverse are the Time Lords. And we know that is possible for Time Lords to pass for human and we know that Donna heard a heartbeat and was wearing a mysteriously large ring at the time. Plus, of course, she keeps telling us she is just a temp - Noble Temp - > Time Lord. But if she is a Time Lord, which one is she?
Well, there are three candidates
- The Rani. Nah, too obscure. I barely have any idea who is she and no-one who is not a die-hard fanboy is going to remember her from the dying days of Old Who. Also she's a villain and I don't think we are going to get Bad Donna now.
- Romana. Well, she is certainly a noble. Wasn't she President of Gallifrey during the Time War? Lalla Ward turning up on Saturday would fit with Dickie Dawkins last week and Great British Public are more likely to remember her. And we know that Donna isn't just a Time Lord (if she's one at all). Perhaps Romana fobwatched herself and some secret weapon back in time during the Time War. And Roman-a fits with "The Fires of Pompeii". Donna doesn't seem very Romana-like though, compared to the fobwatched Doctor and Master to their Time Lord selves.
- Susan. Rusty is obsessed by families - and what better way of leaving a mark on the show than by giving the Doctor one. We know he had one before the Time War. (In 1963, you might have been able to get away with "Grandfather" as a euphemism, but it was a more innocent age as anyone who has seen "The Invasion" knows.) Again, Donna doesn't very Susan-like. Donna was "born" around 1968, the peak year for adoption in the UK. That might be a connection to Susan. Donna has a grandfather, but that's only because the actor who played her father in "The Runaway Bride" died in real life. Humh... It would certainly help explain Donna's not being attracted to the Doctor. Susan was presumably involved in the Time War and could have pulled a similar trick to that I've suggested for Romana. Humh... I don't know. This doesn't feel that interesting, but it does feel quite Rusty in a way.
OK, what else have we got... Donna's mother is called Sylvia. Sylvia was the mother of Romulus and Remus, who were suckled by the Wolf. Remus is killed (possibly by Romulus) some time after the foundation of Rome (there is even a grandfather in the story). The Doctor and Donna are mistaken for brother and sister in Pompeii. Jenny is the Doctor's clone and thus both the Doctor's twin and the Doctor's daughter. Thus the Doctor and Donna could be twins.
But Donna is also "My Donna" -> Madonna. We know that Rusty has a messiah complex. Tennant in "Midnight" could hardly have been more Christ-like. And Dalek Caan has told us that the Threefold Man is coming - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We know that the Doctor is half-human. We know that Time Lords can temporarily become humans. Could a human temp temporarily become a Time Lord? Is Donna is the most important person in the universe because she gives birth to the saviour of the universe - the Word Become Flesh, the Godhead Become Man? Well, Time Lords probably don't give birth, so we can avoid any ickiness. The Doctor is a clone of Donna (when she is temporally a Time Lord - that's what the Ring enables her to do). She is thus able to mother an entire new race of Time Lords - including the Doctor - the Last and First of the Time Lords - now we know what the Doctor's name means at least - he is the New Adam, that is Christ. Like Mary, Donna is involved in an immaculate conception - where does the other half of his DNA come from? (From Donna and Donna's mother and father and from her grandparents - including Wilf. Unlike Jesus, there is no bilking problem - I once wrote a story about this - no, no, not Jesus! - but come to think of it - for a short story writing class at the City Lit with Leonie Ross and I also recall an article on the Virgin Birth in New Scientist that stared that the problem would be much easier to solve had Jesus be a women). Thus the Doctor can regenerate temporarily into Donna (he is Donna - she is his mother and sister), who can then sacrifice herself before being resurrected, mindwiped and returned to Wilf and Sylvia - she must never be told (possibly because the self-knowledge would unleash her powers - as in that PKD story about the robot bomb). Donna will be not only the Co-Redemptrix of the Human Race, but the Co-Saviour of the Universe(s).
Some of the planets being taken 2,000 years ago is clearly a reference to the Nativity and the beginning of the New Era, just as we are about to witness the birth of a New Era for the Time Lords (and a New Adam). Donna being told that someone is sorry for her loss is a reference to the Sorrowful Mysteries. Note also that Mary was unique as a human because uniquely she did not carry the taint of Original Sin. This might explain why Rose/Bad Wolf detect something different from ordinary humans. She has lost something that all other humans (after Adam and Eve - and Donna is the New Eve of the Time Lords) possess - original sin. Does anyone know if Rusty was a Catholic? An added bonus of the Doctor as the First of the Time Lords is that he gets a new complement of regenerations, so solving that problem.
I don't know how to work in God the Father or God the Holy Spirit into this, much less Rose/Bad Wolf, the Trickster (the Devil? - Bad Doctor? - The Valyard? - David Morrisey?) or the Doctor's Hand (and why are there two?). And I've got to think more carefully about the timeline - we may have both a baby/child and an adult Donna being sent back in time, although she can produce a baby clone of herself - "All You Zombies" and bilking paradoxes seem more Moffat than Davies though).
Just a few ideas. Saturday could be interesting.
Now if only Sylvia were called Anne...
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