Story #192: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky (2008)

Harry -
As we kicked off the DoctorDonna season, I was interested to see what my reaction would be when we got around to this two-parter.

"The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky" had an asterisk stuck to it virtually from the moment it was announced. Helen Raynor was the writer who gave us "Daleks in Manhattan" the season before -- a story that ranks very low among Whovians, us included. There were a lot of things that went wrong with that one, but Raynor bore the brunt of it. There's a section in The Writer's Tale where Russell T. Davies recounts the night when that story was first broadcast and received instant condemnation online. Really nasty stuff, as only a fandom could deliver. Raynor was shaken by the experience, but to his credit RTD backed her up and asked her back for another story. At the time I remember being wary of another story coming from this writer. When it first aired, I remember not being overly impressed, but not feeling as negative as I had over the Dalek story.

That's why I was looking forward to watching it again a decade later. Do you remember any of the buildup to this story?


Sarah -
I have to admit that don’t remember much about the anticipation of this story. While "Daleks in Manhattan" is my all-time, least-favorite Doctor Who story, "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky" is a solid story. It’s not the best of the season, but it’s far from the worst.

Perhaps the story’s biggest weakness is its lack of originality. There are few tropes left unturned in this two-parter, but I still enjoyed it because a good trope never bothers me!


Harry -
I seem to say this a lot, but this one felt like a Pertwee-era throwback. Once again, we see a collision of alien invaders and rogue technology, with an action-heavy TARDIS team coming to the rescue. And UNIT!


Sarah -
I think you’re right. It’s very Pertwee-ish and that’s probably what I like about it.

The story begins with journalist Jo Nakashima being thrown out of the Rattigan Academy. She drives away in her car, which is fitted with ATMOS (Atmospheric Omission System), a device that reduces carbon emissions and includes a GPS. Jo is suspicious of ATMOS, which has been developed at the Rattigan Academy, founded by Luke Rattigan. While she’s trying to contact UNIT, Jo’s car drives itself into a river, where it sinks with her inside.


Harry -
I wonder how many GPS-skeptics watched that and went "I knew it!"


Sarah -
Right? This is not the first Doctor Who story to take a common item and make it terrifying. This trope will reach its zenith in the Steven Moffat era, but RTD has a strong record of making us question technology. It’s hard to believe this story predates the smartphone era, but a GPS system was definitely a fancy thing to have in 2008. And who wouldn’t want a device that reduces carbon emissions? That said, I was really happy not to have a GPS after watching this story.


Harry -
I'll stick with paper maps and/or my uncanny sense of direction, and I don't care who knows it.


Sarah -
If we’re not already knee-deep in tropes, bring on Rattigan. (Some signaling going on with that name? I just referred to him as Ratt in my notes.) Oh, look, another stupid human who thinks he’s going to partner up with aliens and come out ahead. He’s Tobias Vaughn all over again -- but without the charisma.


Harry -
I remember HATING Rattigan the first time around. So obnoxious and condescending. The only redeeming thing about him were his cool Pumas.

But this time around, with the Doctor's helpful observations, I saw the struggling smart kid beneath the bratty exterior. Still, he was woefully over his head with the aliens and all-too-willing to sell out the planet to chase his own utopian visions. So yeah, I still hated him.


Sarah -
He’s one of those characters with whom you can almost empathize when they get their comeuppance, which is definitely on its way.


Harry -
Amid all of this scene-setting, RTD and Raynor treat us to a fantastic mid-season reunion. A phone rings inside the TARDIS, and it's Martha. She calls the Doctor back to contemporary Earth, and the TARDIS lands outside the ATMOS factory. No sooner have the Doctor and Martha welcomed each other, and Donna and the Martha immediately struck up a companions friendship, than the scene is interrupted by a UNIT raid.


Sarah -
Martha and Donna immediate becoming besties is flat out my favorite thing in this story. The Doctor almost looks disappointed that they’re not fighting over him. Big Finish should develop a Donna and Martha series. I would be all over that.


Harry -
How about UNIT! Oh, it was a thrill to see a 21st century UNIT roll into action. Very butch, with heavy vehicles and waves of troopers in black uniform swarming all over the facility and a mobile command centre overseeing the assault. Long gone are the days when Benton and three other grunts would charge an alien menace by themselves.


Sarah -
If they still had Benton, UNIT wouldn’t need all that gear to fight the aliens. There’s something to be said for homespun.


Harry -
With the Brigadier in Peru, the UNIT operation is headed by Colonel Mace, a very by-the-book officer who greets the Doctor with a salute. The Doctor cringes at this, but Donna happily requests a salute of her own. Throughout the story, the Doctor and Mace will keep up some back and forth heckling over each other's ideologies. One of the things that felt overdone in this story was the Doctor repeatedly whinging about salutes and guns. He's right of course, but his "OH DON'T SALUTE" and "WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT GUNS" lines were repetitive. Mace, meanwhile was unable to break from the military code ingrained in his own personality. The story bounced along at such a rapid pace that there was no room to explore his character more fully, nor for he and the Doctor to reach more than a superficial understanding of one another.


Sarah -
While the Doctor is faffing about with Mace, Donna puts her temp skills to work and discovers that there has never been a sick day at the ATMOS factory. Things are getting curiouser and curiouser.


Harry -
I love how Donna's HR knowledge comes in handy throughout this season. It turns out there's a lot of weird stuff going down at the ATMOS facility. The Doctor discovers that while ATMOS is carbon-friendly, it is also capable of turning 800 million cars into weapons at the disposal of whomever controls the ATMOS devices. We the viewers also discover -- through the explorations of two UNIT soldiers -- that there's some kind of homunculus being grown inside a bubbling tank down in the basement.

The soldiers' presence triggers an alarm. The aliens behind the scheme decide to show themselves. Their leader beams down to confront the soldiers, and we are given our first glimpse of RTD's 21st century Sontarans in the person of General Staal.


Sarah -
Christopher “Mike Thecoolperson” Ryan is back, UNIT b*tches! Twenty-two years after his triumph in Mindwarp, Lord Kiv is here to give us Sontaran realness. I wouldn’t call it pulling for the baddies, but this Trial of Time Lord fan girl will always have her biases.


Harry -
Ryan's Doctor Who resume spans the classic era to the Tennant years, but he's always been submerged under layers of alien makeup. Hopefully he'll get to play a human someday... unless he prefers wild aliens.


Sarah -
Still, Staal and I can never be friends because he’s used the UNIT soldiers to lure our dear Martha Jones to the basement where she’s cloned onto the creature in the tank!


Harry -
Sontarans doing Sontaran things. I did like how the New Who Sontarans were given fresh uniforms and the quickest of backstories without getting bogged down in details. One of the weaknesses of the Classic Who Sontarans was that, considering they are a clone race, their appearance and voices kept changing from story to story. And I'm almost positive that they were made to look like giants in one of the classic stories.

Here, they really play up their militaristic imperatives. Staal can barely contain his lust for war.


Sarah -
Meanwhile, after a chat with Martha in which she reveals that her family suffered because she didn’t tell them about her relationship with the Doctor, Donna decides she needs to check in on Wilf and Sylvia. When she tells the Doctor she’s going home, he goes into a long spiel thanking her for traveling with him and telling her how much their time together meant to him. Enjoying the moment, Donna lets him wind himself up before he realizes that she’s only planning to go home for a visit. Tennant and Tate play this scene perfectly.


Harry -
"You dumbo." That was brilliantly done.


Sarah -
While Donna pops off, the Doctor heads to the Rattigan Academy with Ross, a UNIT private.


Harry -
At this point in the RTD era, I'm not going to bother wondering why yet another companion mum got painted as a negative character. Wilf and Donna are thick as thieves and she tells him all about space, aliens, and her adventures with the Doctor, while Sylvia is a big ball of misery in the background. Whatever.


Sarah -
It’s one of my least-favorite aspects of his era.


Harry -
The Doctor's confrontation with the Ratt having gone nowhere, and having escaped a near-fatal act of vehicular death by ATMOS, he joins the Nobles just in time for the part one cliffhanger. Their cover blown, the Sontarans trigger poison gas to pour out of every ATMOS-equipped vehicle on Earth. Wilf is trapped inside the family car just as he was moving it out of the street. The episode ends with a nice shot of a frustrated Doctor silhouetted against a sunlit sky filling with poison gas.

Wilf begins to choke on the fumes and Donna pounds on the side window in futility, when Sylvia appears out of nowhere with a firefighter's axe (!) and smashes the windshield open. I feel like I really need a firefighter's axe in the home now.


Sarah -
Sylvia saves the day while everyone else is running around in circles! That’s the woman you want around in an emergency.


Harry -
Crisis averted for the moment, but the Sontarans have only just begun their war footing. With their never-before-heard "Sontar Ha!" chants ringing out, they snatch the TARDIS and beam it up to their mother ship as war booty. The Pertwee-era throwback is now complete: the Doctor is stranded on Earth and must work with UNIT to repel an alien invasion.


Sarah -
When Ratt starts chanting "Sontar Ha!" along with the Sontarans, he looks like the lonely kid tagging along at the edge of the popular group. Trying to fit in with the aliens after all of his students walked out on him felt so sad this time around.


Harry -
In the Doctor's absence, UNIT has ramped things up at a ludicrous rate and are preparing to launch nuclear missiles from all over the Earth (including North Korea, hmmm...).

Clone Martha is the Sontarans' eyes and ears at UNIT HQ, but the Doctor knows she's not real. He's barely holding things together during the nuclear countdown as UNIT soldiers get massacred in the ATMOS factory and it is Donna who is forced to take the bravest action ever. Having been teleported into the Sontaran ship while inside the TARDIS, Donna must sneak outside, slip past an assortment of Sontarans and teleport the TARDIS back to Earth.  I would crack for sure.


Sarah -
That’s our girl! She more than earned her TARDIS key in this story.


Harry -
UNIT counterpunches by bringing in the Valiant to clear the skies over London, setting up the final confrontation between the Doctor and Staal aboard the Sontaran ship.


Sarah -
The Valiant is quite the ship. UNIT really has come a long way.


Harry -
Normally, I'm not a fan of stories that are resolved by someone committing suicide to foil the enemy, but it kind of worked here. The character was Rattigan, whose utopian fantasy was shattered by Staal's revelation that they were all a pack of lies to enlist his cooperation in the betrayal of Earth. The Sontarans had no plans to aid him in creating a new human colony on a distant planet. Instead, they intended to purge the Earth of all life and turn it into a clone hatchery. Devastated beyond recovery, Rattigan rigged up a final teleport to switch places with the Doctor and blow himself up, taking all the aliens down with him.

Overall I'd say this two-parter has aged well over the years.


Sarah -
Who doesn’t love a redemption story? Heartstrings are pulled again when clone Martha dies, having met the real Martha, whose memories she has.


Harry -
That's another moment where I would have cracked.  Imagine watching yourself die.  How do you bounce back from that?


Sarah -
With order restored, Martha plans to head back to her life when the TARDIS door slams and she, Donna, and the Doctor are swept off to another adventure.


Harry -
This whirlwind season is really picking up now.  Let's see where they land next.


Sarah -
Best Line: "Yeah, long time ago. Back in the 70's. Or was it the 80's? But it was all a bit more homespun back then."

Favorite Moment: Donna and Martha’s meeting

Lasting Image: the new Sontaran look

6/10


Harry -
Best Line: I'll stick with "You Dumbo."  It captures that great kind of partnership where one person can insult the other but totally not mean it.

Favourite Moment: modern-day UNIT rolls into action

Lasting Image: pathetic Rattigan with the Sontarans

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #193: The Doctor's Daughter...

Story #191 - Planet of the Ood (2008)

Sarah -
It's interesting timing that we watched this story in the month that marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves in North America. When we first met the Ood in "The Impossible Planet", they were presented as a race of empathetic servants, not the actual chattel slaves they are. I guess it's all in the marketing. It's been a while since I've watched "Planet of the Ood", so my sense of horror was almost as fresh as the first time.


Harry -
We spent so much time waiting for the DoctorDonna era. "It will be loads of fun!" we told ourselves. Whew! No fun to be had here on the Ood Sphere. Even Donna starts having second thoughts.


Sarah -
What a situation for Donna to find herself in on her first-ever alien planet. After raiding the TARDIS wardrobe for a warm winter coat, she and the Doctor discover an Ood, Delta Fifty, that has been shot. Donna keeps him talking while the Doctor examines him, but Delta Fifty doesn't last long.


Harry -
We watched Delta Fifty use its translator ball to murder a corporate honcho before fleeing into the snow. The Ood was just one of thousands that are raised, processed and shipped out around three galaxies for use as docile servants. From the opening death scenes, there is a dark strain to this story. This is one of the more uncomfortable ones to watch, but that's the point. "Planet of the Ood" reminded me of the Pertwee-era stories of Malcolm Hulke with their strong moral tone. It's something that has been largely missing in the new era of Who so far.


Sarah -
I hadn’t thought of it, but you’re spot on about its Hulke-ish feeling. Mac, of course, would have been even more excoriating.


Harry -
The story jumps between the corporate enterprise that humans have established on this planet (with a marketing session that is getting underway), and the DoctorDonna's infiltration and investigation.

The guest cast is mostly forgettable except for Tim McInnerny. Beloved as goofy Percy on the Blackadder series, here he plays the vile CEO of the enterprise.


Sarah -
I commented to Mr. Smith on the casting of McInnerny and that, really, Percy should never have been left in charge of anything.


Harry -
Percy is a beloved character from our younger days, so seeing McInnerny play a villain was a jarring surprise, especially as he pulled it off brilliantly.


Sarah -
He really worked the rat-bastard vibes, didn’t he?


Harry -
The fact that he inherited this family business seems to give him licence to be extra vile. Arriving after a string of recent deaths onsite, he is there in person to get to the bottom of things. In between gulps of hair tonic, he reacts in disgust to the news that a group of Ood have become infected with a red-eye disease that makes them volatile. He rages at his employees and orders that a rabid Ood be shot dead.

Donna is all of us, reacting with growing horror as she and the Doctor investigate the facility, finding Ood cowering in cages and locked in shipping containers. The Ood keep telling them that "the circle must be broken" but the meaning of the message eludes them.


Sarah -
The circle must be broken so they can sing, but Donna is the only one who is listening.


Harry -
Breaking the circle is the ongoing theme of the Ood plight, and it takes some further investigating for the DoctorDonna to figure it out. I don't think I've watched this story since the original broadcast because the suffering of the Ood was very heavy. Slavery and the Holocaust bound together with grisly scenes of captivity and violence. Watching it again this time, it has lost none of its impact. Donna's distress over it all is completely relatable.


Sarah -
I’m sure I haven’t watched it since first broadcast. I didn’t remember much these many years later, so the story definitely hit me. What I did remember was Donna’s general awesomeness and her defense of the Ood.


Harry -
Being Donna, however, she turns that distress into rage against the corporate monstrosity that brought this all about.


Sarah -
Donna don’t play. Everyone else may be willing to stand by, but Donna is having none of it. This is why Donna is still my favorite companion of the current era.


Harry -
The final showdown features some more gross-out moments. The Oods have been kept passive and subservient because their hive brain is imprisoned inside Warehouse 15. With all hell breaking loose and the Ood rampaging, McInnerny's villain orders it to be destroyed with explosives. The DoctorDonna save the day, and McInnerny meets his fate: the hair tonic that he's been chugging has been prepared by the Ood, and now comes their terrible revenge: he converts into the very thing he has exploited and abused.


Sarah -
That is definitely playing the long game!


Harry -
The Ood being wonderful, they take him in as one of their own now.


Sarah -
Because it’s the right thing to do.


Harry -
And they are free to sing!


Sarah -
Huzzah!


Harry -
I found the singing voices didn't quite line up with the Ood's speaking voices, but then they are aliens. The story ends with some tasty foreshadowing, as the Doctor is told that his song will soon end. He makes a face and swings back inside the TARDIS.


Sarah -
And so begins the drama of the Tenth Doctor. So much kvetching about his coming regeneration. I’ll do my best not to dwell on it too much. Probably.


Harry -
This story was pretty much as I remembered. It's not an enjoyable watch. RTD and writer Keith Temple took us to a dark corner of the universe.

So after three adventures with lots of traumatic scenes and near-death experiences, Donna has been put through the wringer and then some. I always think of her season as a fun one, but hopefully the fun starts soon.


Sarah -
It’s a solid story with an excellent performance by Catherine Tate. Ready for some Sontarans?


Harry -
Best Line:
DOCTOR: "These are really good handcuffs."
DONNA: "Well, at least we've got quality."

Favourite Moment: Donna rages at the system.

Lasting Image: the caged Ood.

6/10


Sarah -
Best Line: "If you don't do what she says, you're really in trouble. Not from me, from her."

Favorite Moment:  Donna’s empathy towards the Ood. 

Lasting Image: The Caged Ood.

6/10

Our marathon continues with Story #192: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky...

Story #190 - The Fires of Pompeii (2008)

"But you can't rewrite history! Not one line!" –The First Doctor

"Or can you?" -- Donna Noble


Sarah - 
Ensconced in the TARDIS, Donna is on her first trip to the past in what is meant to be Rome, but turns out to be Pompeii -- the day before volcano day.


Harry -
"Ancient Rome!"
"Oh my God, it's so Roman!"

Donna reacts how the rest of us probably would. Wide-eyed and reveling in the opportunity to see the past and experience an ancient culture, which, as the Doctor points out is the present-day for the locals.

Following his own advice, the Doctor walks around like he owns the place. Donna interacts with people and tries out her Latin.

The "Roman Holiday" is short lived, as our friends spot a great mountain on the outskirts of the city. It's Vesuvius, and it's beginning to emit smoke, and they both realize in horror where and when they are.


Sarah -
Wherever the Doctor thought he was going, the TARDIS had other plans. Donna, being Donna, is ready to lead the evacuation of the town but the Doctor explains that no one would listen, assuming she's a complete nut job. It's also an opportunity for the Doctor to deliver his eternal sermon -- that there are fixed points in time that cannot be changed, no matter how awful they may be. Unsurprisingly, Donna is not on board.


Harry -
Right away Donna asserts her excellence in wanting to protect every single person in Pompeii from what is about to happen. The Doctor's hands-off aloofness angers her, establishing the story-long debate that they will engage in. Up to this point in New Who, we have seen the Doctor's companions generally willing to follow his lead, but Donna's bluntness in challenging him is a fresh change.


Sarah -
This is why I love Donna so much. She’s a grown-ass woman who isn’t going to do what the Doctor tells her without understanding why. Total breath of fresh air.


Harry -
She represents a clean break in the show. Amy and Clara definitely follow the Doctor-companion template established by Donna.


Sarah -
Always the trailblazer, our Donna!

Speaking of Amy, did you recognize the mysterious woman observing the Doctor-Donna argument in the street? Of course you did. It's Karen Gillan, who will become Amy in a couple years! It's also Peter Capaldi's first appearance in Doctor Who, following Colin Baker in appearing in the show before becoming the Doctor. I was already a fan of Peter Capaldi and was so excited to see him on Doctor Who. I imagine Capaldi, a life-long Doctor Who fan, saw this as the pinnacle of his career, with no idea of what was yet to come!


Harry -
In a story filled with seers, auguries and visions of the future, it was sublime to catch glimpses of future Who woven into the fabric of the episode. A month after this story was first broadcast, Steven Moffat was announced as Doctor Who's next showrunner. I can't help but wonder if this story brought Gillan and Capaldi front and centre to Moffat, or if he already had them in mind for his iteration of the greatest show in the galaxy.


Sarah -
I’m sure it was all part of his puzzle-box master plan.


Harry -
In the role of marble merchant Caecilius, Capaldi is among many excellent guest actors. He, Tracey Childs, Francesca Fowler and Francois Pandolfo form an upwardly mobile family with ambitions for their business and for the two teens. Caecilius is also a collector, and he's just scored a piece of "modern art" from the local market. It's the TARDIS, and it soon brings the Doctor and Donna to his door pretending to be marble inspectors. At the same time, the arrogant city augur Lucius arrives to collect a sculpture he commissioned from Caecilius.


Sarah -
They’re a lovely little family, but I’m more than a little creeped out by Evelina’s prophecy abilities. The Whole Sibylline Sisterhood makes me uncomfortable, to be honest. I don’t care for true believers of any stripe, which leads us to Lucius. Phil Davis was the perfect actor for this part; I was uncomfortable every moment he was on screen!


Harry -
The only other thing I remember Phil Davis from is the star-studded 1984 version of The Bounty. Even back then he played a sneering authority figure as one of the ship's officers. So he definitely found his niche early on.


Sarah -
You’re forgetting his excellent performance as Jud on Poldark!


Harry -
And he sneered through most of that too.  

His character Lucius goes above and beyond the true believer. He is aiding and abetting some unseen side. The work he commissioned from Caecilius turns out to be stone carvings of electronic circuitry. Naturally, this grabs the Doctor's attention, and he follows the plot back to Lucius, where an entire array of stone circuitry has been assembled piece by piece. The technology will power an energy converter built by the Pyroviles, an alien race that wants to conquer Earth and destroy humanity. 

The story kicks into gear as the Doctor escapes from Lucius' place to find the Sibylline Sisters, who have kidnapped Donna and plan to execute her for heresy. The heresy was merely Donna attempting to make them understand that Pompeii was in imminent danger.


Sarah -
Heresy, facts; potato, potahto -- it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Donna, of course, does not go quietly!


Harry -
The Doctor saves Donna with the clever use of a water pistol, and we finally get to the killer plot twist. In order to stop the Pyroviles, their energy converter must be destroyed. In doing so, it will trigger an explosion under Mount Vesuvius -- the explosion that destroyed Pompeii.


Sarah -
I always have mixed feelings about these sorts of plot twists -- Adric kills the dinosaurs, the Tenth Doctor feeds lines to Shakespeare, and the Fifth Doctor lets a fire in Pudding Lane become the Great Fire of London. Part of me loves them and the other part rolls my eyes.


Harry -
He's like a Meddling Monk with the best of intentions.  Eventually every fixed point in Earth history will have been caused by the Doctor.  What will he/she/they do then?

Seeing the story through Donna's eyes, it's devastating. All this time the Doctor has rebuffed her pleas to warn the people of Pompeii, and now the stunning realization: the disaster of Pompeii will be caused by the Doctor, and for the good of the entire planet, it has to happen.


Sarah -
It’s a heartbreaking moment when Donna begs him to save one person if he can’t save the city.


Harry -
Even knowing what was coming, this scene is really gut-wrenching.  Donna went from giddy time tourist to tormented witness to history in the space of a few hours.  I did love that she took on a share of the responsibility and she and the Doctor threw the fatal switch together.


Sarah -
The Doctor relents and saves the Caecilius family, taking them to the hills above the city.


Harry -
Despite the overwhelming weight of his actions and the urge to cut and run, he performed one small act of kindness. It's a moment that will reverberate through the Doctor's future timeline.  Having lost so much, from Gallifrey to Rose, in a moment of total chaos he still found it in himself to be kind to total strangers in distress.  Sure, this Doctor will go on to storm the universe wreaking vengeance as the angry god, but this moment will come back and reignite the will to goodness that was almost buried within.  

Donna did this.  She is bloody brilliant.  She saved both the Doctor and the Caecilius family.


Sarah -
Six months later, the family has relocated to Rome, where their new household gods bear a striking resemblance to our TARDIS team. 

"The Fires of Pompeii" is a solid and pacey story. It was fun to rewatch it after many years.


Harry -
Great story, great acting and great design work.  The fire monsters were a bit clunky, but that's a minor complaint.


Sarah -
Best Line: “You must excuse my friend, she's from Barcelona.”

Favorite Moment: Donna asking the Doctor to save just one person. 

Lasting Image: The family home and its modern-art TARDIS

7/10


Harry -
Best Line: the TARDIS team's closing exchange.  Quiet and meaningful.

DONNA: Thank you. 
DOCTOR: Yeah. You were right. Sometimes I need someone. Welcome aboard. 
DONNA: Yeah.

Favourite Moment: the Caecilius family leaping into position every time a tremor rocks their house.

Lasting Image: the survivors observing the destruction of Pompeii.

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #191: Planet of the Ood...

Story #189: Partners in Crime (2008)

Sarah -

We’ve waited so long -- well, it feels like it was so long -- at last, Donna is back on the Sofa!

Harry -

There she is, Donna Noble. Fab as ever!

Donna's first encounter with the Doctor was back on her ill-fated wedding day in "The Runaway Bride". Her nuptials had been ruined, she'd been kidnapped, betrayed by her fiance, and seen the world saved from a giant spider monster by a skinny know-it-all with a flying time ship. Not knowing much about Catherine Tate at the time, I figured she was playing the role as an understandably angry and freaked out guest character. Turns out this was just one character in the Tateiverse. 

When it was announced that Tate would be returning for a full season, I looked up her eponymous sketch show and was delighted to learn that she's a brilliant character actor. One of her recurring personas was teen schoolgirl Lauren Cooper, who found herself in all manner of situations...

Sarah -

Brilliant! I remember sharing this sketch with you around the time of Donna’s return. It still cracks me up. 

Harry -

Hilarious!

So I was genuinely buzzing to see a whole season of the Doctor and Donna.

Sarah -

After the drama of the Rose-Tenth Doctor era and the complicated emotions of the Martha era, Donna was a breath of fresh air.

Harry -

And so it unfolds, eventually, in "Partners in Crime".

First, it opens with both Donna and the Doctor paying separate, mutually unawares visits to Adipose Industries, a corporation that has launched a miracle weight-loss pill. Donna is skeptical and the Doctor is uneasy. What they find does little to ease their suspicions, so they set off, still separately, to interview a couple of Adipose's customers. The Doctor's got a hunch, and Donna experiences horror. Stacey, the woman she paid a visit, went into distress and then vanished from her bathroom.

Sarah -

I love that Donna decided the best way to find the Doctor would be to investigate suspicious situations. Her plan definitely worked. Clever Donna!

Harry -

We the viewers saw what happened. Donna inadvertently triggered the "miracle" solution behind the pills when she fiddled with one of the free gift pendants given to each customer. Poor Stacey witnessed a blob of fat bursting out of her body. Living, sentient fat. Baby Adipose!

Back at Adipose HQ, the face of the corporation is the cold and enigmatic Miss Foster. Stacey's emergency has sounded an alarm, and Foster eliminates her by causing her entire body to transform into Adipose babies.

Sarah -

The scene of Stacey vanishing is truly horrifying. She’s so sweet and I feel badly for her every time she experiences the unscheduled parthenogenesis, but, damn, those Adipose babies are adorable. And, really, it’s not their fault. They’re not trying to hurt anyone, they’re just being born and living their lives.

Harry -

Weight loss as horror. It's something you might have expected to come from the mind of Steven Moffat.

Sarah -

I was thinking the same thing! Moffat is definitely the master of turning everyday things into horror. Honestly, I think Foster could have been upfront about the whole scheme and people still would have willingly signed up to birth those Adipose babies.

Harry -

Miss Foster is the true villain.

Sarah -

Sarah Lancashire is absolutely perfect as Miss Foster. She a particular favorite of mine from Lark Rise to Candleford, Last Tango in Halifax, The Paradise, Happy Valley, and, most recently, Yesterday. She can project officious disdain without breaking a sweat. Spot-on casting.

Harry -

Foster dispatches a cleanup crew to gather up the Adipose babies. Donna and the Doctor pursue them unsuccessfully, and again just miss out on a reunion. RTD teased this out so well.

The next act of the story shows the Doctor puzzling over the mystery inside the TARDIS, alone. Meanwhile, we meet Donna's family. She, her mum, and grandad Wilfrid all live together and as one would expect from RTD, it's not an entirely happy family. What a surprise, Russell!

Sarah -

Gee, imagine that, a companion with a difficult mother. I feel badly for his mother, Barbara, who died before he created a string of negative mother figures in Doctor. That would have been hard to watch from your child. 

Wilf, of course, is lovely, and his conversation with Donna is burned into the memory of everyone who has watched Doctor Who on DVD in the past decade: 

Wilf: You seem to be drifting, sweetheart. 

Donna: I'm not drifting. I'm waiting.

Harry -

That clip played in endless promos at the time, but it's iconic. So is the moment when Donna's investigation finally brings her face-to-face (through a door, a room, and a window) with the Doctor. A joyous reunion and quick catching up ensue via pantomime. This might be my favourite moment of the entire Doctor-Donna era.

Sarah -

It’s my favorite moment of the entire Tennant era. Comic gold!

Harry -

It kickstarts a wild second half of the story, as the new TARDIS team crashes Adipose Industries and get to the bottom of things. Crashing, running, falling, dangling, climbing and rescuing, all right off the Doctor Who action checklist.

Sarah -

The scene on the window-washing crane is probably my single most terrifying moment in the entirety of Doctor Who history. I felt like I was going to faint, and it’s not like this is the first time I’ve watched it.

Harry -

Miss Foster has been fronting a bizarre plot by the Adiposian First Family, which lost its breeding planet and is using Earth as a replacement. Their cover blown, an Adiposian ship descends to Earth to tractor beam all the babies up. Another favourite moment happens here, when the monstrous ship glides past the Nobles' property and right behind Wilf, who remains blissfully unaware.

Sarah -

Runs in the family, apparently.

Harry -

Miss Foster believes she will be part of the evacuation, but is left to plummet to her death by her thankless bosses.

Sarah -

The little Wile E. Coyote moment when she hangs in the air cracks me up every time.

Harry -

Donna asks if the Doctor will also destroy the Adipose babies, but he lets them go. Just babies, they can't help who they are. So they wave goodbye to all the little cuties. "I'm waving at fat," Donna marvels.

Earth is saved again, hurray!

Sarah -

Good work, TARDIS Team!

Harry -

We move to the wrap-up scene, and this time Donna agrees to join the Doctor in the TARDIS. Thankfully, this time RTD put the kibosh on romantic attachment between the Doctor and companion. Not before a final kick at Martha, whose time with the Doctor is depicted as "complicated".

Sarah -

And we know whose complications they were! 

I love that Donna is the one not having any of it:

DONNA: You just want to mate? 

DOCTOR: I just want a mate! 

DONNA: You're not mating with me, sunshine! 

DOCTOR: A mate. I want a mate. 

DONNA: Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense. I mean, you're just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing. 

This exchange cracks me up every time. Get over yourself, Doctor.

Harry -

So glad that's the end of the Doctor-girlfriend theme. Or is it? As Donna heads off to the TARDIS after dropping off her car keys, we get a shock appearance from ROSE TYLER. Augh! What the hell RTD!

Sarah -

I watched it with my daughter, who nearly fell off her chair when Rose turned up. It was nice to remember the shock of Rose turning up. It’s mostly downhill from here, so I’ll try to savor this moment.

Harry -

Anyway, off they go, Doctor and Donna, to travel the universe as best pals. This outstanding season opener finishes off with a final scene at the Nobles. This time, Wilf spots the TARDIS floating past in the sky, with Donna inside, waving back and looking ecstatic. 

Best Line: "I'm waving at fat."

Favourite Moment: the Doctor-Donna reunion scene.

Lasting Image: the Adipose babies floating away.

8/10

Sarah -

A most excellent start to the season!

Best Line:

DONNA: That Martha must've done you good. 

DOCTOR: She did, yeah. Yeah. She did. She fancied me. 

DONNA: Mad Martha, that one. Blind Martha. Charity Martha.

Favorite Moment: Definitely the slapstick reunion scene. 

Lasting Image: Donna in the porthole telling the Doctor, “It’s me!”

8/10

Our marathon continues with story #190: The Fires of Pompeii...