Donna Noble

Portrayed by: Catherine Tate
Travelled with: Tenth Doctor
Series: The Runaway Bride (2006 Christmas Special), Four

Prior to Donna Noble meeting the Tenth Doctor, she worked mainly as a temp in firms, living with her mother, Sylvia, father, Geoff and grandfather, Wilfred Mott. Though most humans knew or remembered the attempted Sycorax invasion in The Christmas Invasion (2005 Christmas Special) and the Cybermen invasion as part of the Battle of Canary Wharf in Doomsday (Series 2 : Episode 13), Donna somehow missed both events, being hung-over for the first and scuba diving in Spain for the latter. Donna worked as a temp at H. C. Clements, where she met and fell in love with, Lance Bennett, a man she eventually pressured into marrying her. What Donna did not know however, was that Lance was working in conjunction with the Racnoss, and was dosing her coffee with Huon particles. Subsequently, the Huon particles in Donna activated on her wedding day, pulling her onto the TARDIS as the Doctor said good bye to his previous companion, Rose Tyler, prompting her first adventure with him. Although Donna handled herself rather well during battle with the Racnoss, even saving the Doctor's life by making him leave the Racnoss' lair as he drowned the Racnoss children, she declined the Doctor's offer of travelling with him.

However, following the events under the Thames, Donna was unable to return to her normal, complacent life. She spent some time investigating unexplained mysteries in the hope of meeting the Doctor once more, and her waiting paid off, meeting the Tenth Doctor once more at the Adipose industries in Partners in Crime (Series 4 : Episode 1). Following the defeat of the Adipose industries and watching the march of the Adipose, Donna joined the Doctor as his companion. Unlike her predecessors, Donna came to the TARDIS well equipped, with many suitcases and even a hat box, unlike previous companions who usually joined the Doctor in the clothes they were wearing and nothing more. The Doctor and Donna journeyed back in time to volcano day in Pompeii, where Donna attempted to make the Doctor prevent the eruption, though he stated it was impossible, and even went on to cause it, though she did convince him to save one family. Later, Donna helped free the Ood from slavery on the Ood Sphere before returning to Earth when Martha Jones requested the Doctors assistance. Unlike the meeting between Rose and Sarah Jane Smith, Donna and Martha did not show jealousy towards each other, bonding as friends almost immediately, though Donna did question whether the Doctor turned all of his friends into soldiers, on account of Martha now working for UNIT. While the Doctor investigated the Sontaran invasion, Donna returned to her family to see them again, before assisting the Doctor in defeating the Sontarans, before travelling forward in time where she was present at the 'birth' of Jenny in The Doctor's Daughter (Series 4 : Episode 6). Following this, Donna met Agatha Christie in 1926 and was forced to kill a Vespiform to save Agatha's life, before travelling to the planet known as The Library, where she became one of the first companions in the Doctors timeline to meet River Song. Here, Donna was 'saved' by the library's computer, CAL to save her from the Vasta Nerada, with her face appearing on one of the information nodes, prompting the Doctor to briefly believe that she had died. However, during her 'saved' state, Donna experience years of idyllic existence where she married a man, took his name of McAvoy and had two children.

Donna Noble in her wedding dress on the TARDIS in The Runaway Bride

After this, Donna visited the planet Shan Shen, where a fortune teller occupied her while a Time Beetle jumped on her back to change her history, creating an alternative timeline. Here, Donna never met the Doctor, who was then subsequently killed during battle with the Racnoss because no one was there to tell him when to stop. Eventually, Donna met Rose Tyler, who by now was able to jump across the void from the parallel Earth, who made her go back in time to the day she turned left and make her turn right, to work at H. C. Clements and meet the Doctor, which she did, though she killed herself in the process. As the alternative timeline Donna died, she gave her a message to give to the Doctor, which she was able to do when the normal timeline was restored in Turn Left (Series 4 : Episode 11). Donna relayed the message to the Doctor and the duo immediately returned to Earth to discover it had gone, before travelling to the Shadow Proclamation for help. However, after finding Earth, Donna was unable to leave the TARDIS after it locked her in, and ended up creating a Biological Meta-Crisis Doctor, who was half human, whilst also transferring the Doctors mind into Donna. The information laid dormant within Donna until she received an electrical charge from Davros, which led to her stopping the reality bomb and helping defeat the Daleks in Journey's End (Series 4 : Episode 13). Following the restoration of Earth to its rightful place, Donna's mind began to overload with the information from the Doctor's mind, resulting in the Doctor wiping all of her memories of her travels with him to save her and returned her home, with strict instructions to her mother and grandfather not to reveal anything about him to her, otherwise her body would "burn up" unable to cope with the memory overload.

Donna Noble with the Tenth Doctor in The Fires of Pompeii

By Christmas 2009, Donna had her life back on track and was engaged to a man called Shaun Temple, however when the Master took control of the Earth and changed everyone to look like him, Donna's half-Time Lord mind meant that she was not affected, though her mother and Shaun were. The shock of seeing them transform triggered memories of her travels with the Doctor to resurface and resulted in her emitting a blast of energy, knocking out the Master clones that had been sent to get her, and rendering her unconscious. This was revealed to be a safety device the Doctor had left in her The End of Time part 2 (2010 New Year's Special). Afterwards, in the Spring of 2010, Donna married Shaun, an event that the Doctor visited shortly before regenerating, where he gave Wilfred a lottery ticket as a wedding present to give to Donna, a ticket which can be assumed was a winning ticket.

Donna's first encounter with the Doctor was bewildering for both parties, and prompted Donna's fiery temper to appear after she accused the Doctor of kidnapping her from her wedding. Despite her insistence that she was "only a temp", Donna displayed intelligence, mastering the Dewey Decimal System in just two days when she worked at a library. After she joined the Doctor as his companion, her quick and sometimes dry wit came out, coinciding with his own. Donna strongly represented the Doctor's conscience, which all companions do to a degree, though Donna played the role more openly, convincing the Doctor to save one family from Pompeii and insisting that he acknowledge Jenny to be his daughter no matter how she was created or what job she had been bred to carry out. Though she had a fiery temper, this hid a deep well of compassion, which was seen when she reached out to Agatha Christie over her failed marriage, intending to share stories in The Unicorn and the Wasp (Series 4 : Episode 7). Donna and Martha struck an almost instant friendship, swapping stories of their travels when they met, and was friendly to Rose in the real timeline, as well as enjoying a brief attraction to Captain Jack Harkness. Unlike Rose and Martha, who both experienced feelings for the Doctor, Donna was intent on keeping a platonic relationship with the Doctor, who at one point referred to Donna as his best friend in The End of Time part 2. The meta-crisis Doctor attributed Donna's brash attitude to her feeling that she was unimportant, and that she was "shouting at the universe, because she thinks no one is listening" in Journey's End, though the real Doctor attributed this to Donna's mother never telling Donna directly of her importance to her mother, though both the Doctor and Rose noted her as unknowingly being the most important woman in all of creation.