The Blonde, A Non Blonde and the Season Four Arc

[meddow]

I came up with the theory yesterdays that Donna is going to be the character that saves the day in the season finale by providing what is needed (or alternatively, being what is needed). I’ve also been running with the idea for some time that Donna is somehow doomed, just because it would nicely fit with the parallels between her and the Doctor and reading between the lines of what various people such as RTD have been saying).

Seems that the consensus idea is that Turn Left (the Doctor-lite) is set in an alternative future in which the Doctor is dead. But what if Turn Left is actually an alternative future in which Donna never found the Doctor? Basically, my idea is that Donna is some how pivotal in preventing a catastrophe, and while neither the Doctor nor Donna knows this – Rose does.

Rose’s presence in Partners in Crime is her ensuring they meet and that ominous look about her is because she knows that by ensuring Donna meets the Doctor she’s ensuring the whatever awful thing is going to happen to Donna actually happens – which is a horrible thing for a person to have to do. Rose is doing this from her side of the rift. If you watch the OMG!Rose scene, her footsteps make an echoing sound out of place with the crime scene. She’s quite possibly a projection coming through the rift like the Doctor was in Bad Wolf Bay.

I also think there’s going to be some mixing about time stuff going on and I predict the Rose’s chronology in season four is actually going backwards when compared to Donna’s (i.e. for Rose, the season finale happens before the Doctor-lite, and the Doctor-lite takes place before Partners in Crime). And this happens because it’s Donna in the season finale that sends Rose on this mission. Basically, Rose is charged by Donna to ensure Donna’s future. Donna knows about her future and that Rose must be the one because Rose told her. The two are linked and each holds the other’s future in her hands.

And it is because of this future that Rose cannot stay with the Doctor. There is something bigger than both him and her at work, and something bigger than Donna, and I think (based on casting spoilers) it’s been building since The Christmas Invasion.

Comments

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I like your theory. I do think that we're going to see the end of "Partners in Crime" from the other side at some point (prolly in "Left Turn" -- and not just because I know the ending was filmed on the same day as other stuff in that episode). A similar device was used in "Babylon 5" where we saw the events of an episode happening in S1 which was "WTF was THAT" and then 2 years down the line, it all came into play from the other POV and everything fell into place.

I think something bad is happening and Rose is aware of it. Someone has said (was it Radio Times) that Rose's world is collapsing so she's trying to save herself and everyone else. Obviously, Donna is somehow tied to that along with the Big Bad. Based on what I've read about "Turn Left", it definitely sounds like a big "What If". Whether it's that or the Doctor truly taken out of time, we'll find out, but obviously Donna IS the focal point of the story.

I am pretty certain that in the end, Rose will go back to her world and stay there - the universes will once again be saved and needed to be kept seperate. But not until everything else is resolved. And a lot of people (Jack, Martha, Sarah Jane, Jackie, Mickey, Francine, Wilf, possibly Team Torchwood, possibly the SJS kids) will be needed to help.

And yes, all of this has been building since "Christmas Invasion" and beyond, maybe even since "Parting of the ways". (I suspect Rose might have some vestiges of the TARDIS in her which might account for her ability to come through the Rift) It's going to be interesting.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I think the Rift maybe hasn't closed properly, and the Doctor's prediction of two worlds colliding into each other that he made in Doomsday is happening. And when it's fixed properly Rose will actually be separated from the Doctor and I'm pretty certain like you that she will be staying in Pete's World for good.

If it is the Rift, I'm kind of thinking that maybe the Rift not closing has something to do with Donna. She did turn up in Doomsday just as the rift was closing, and there was all sort of odd stuff already happening with her, the Huon particles and the heart of the TARDIS - something could have gone very wrong.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Well, there's still The Rift as compared to the other rift that lead to The Void so it could also be that the Hellmouth Cardiff Rift also has something to with this which would also explain why Jack is involved (other than of course if he knew the Doctor was on Earth doing stuff, he'd be there in a heartbeat). But yeah -- it sounds like stuff is happening there. Actually, in the TW episode 'Adrift', there was a whole thing about how the Cardiff Rift actually worked both ways, not just spitting stuff out -- which might definitely be connected.

I had forgotten about the timing of TRB and Doomsday. Damn. It's one of those things where I want it all to connect and yet I don't -- because of the probability factor. Unless Donna is actually something/someone more than we thought -- i.e. a locus for weird phenomena. (I know there's a better word for it from some other sf/fantasy book/film/show but my brain is soggy today). I know Lance dosed her with the Huon particles but maybe there's something more to that than we realise.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

There could be more to why Lance/The Racnoss chose Donna. According to Catherine Tate, random things from TRB are going to connect into Donna's story in ways that make it appear like the whole thing was planned from her appearance in Doomsday.

I don't think the Cardiff rift is going to be involved though - mainly because theres going to be a third series of Torchwood and I think they want to keep the Doctor Who rift separate from the Torchwood rift.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

My current crack theory is that Donna will die, but the Doctor (and Martha) will be able to clone her body and put her memories into, um, somehow. Which is why we are getting Sontarans, with all their cloning malarkey. It's the fact that Donna is actually a clone of herself that the Doctor was telling Wilf in that set report that people were panicking over. Wilf needs to know, in case anything goes wrong medically with clone!Donna, but the Doctor doesn't think that Donna needs to worry about it. Maybe.
Of course, I may just be trying to find some justification for a Helen Reynor two-parter.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

See, now I have an mental image of the a Dalek invasion force being taken out by and angry horde of cloned Donnas. Now that would fit nicely with the description of the season finale as 'bonkers'

Though, I think that Martha's the justification for the Helen Reynor two parter. The Doctor has some groveling to do, and it's going to take two episodes to get through it all.

[eclecticmuse.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I agree with that.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

It's interesting about Rose's timeline going the other way. Her expression in that scene last night seemed like she knew something about Donna that Donna didn't. (It was nice to see her looking, while tragic, more like wearied rather than mopey.)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Some people seem to think that she sad about missing the Doctor, but I read it as being nearly entirely about Donna. And it was great that she looked weary - it suggests that its not continuing on from the Bad Wolf Bay misery, instead that's in the past and this misery has an entirely different origin.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I'm in fact rather hoping it isn't bay-related moping. (omg rhyme)

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Your theory is brilliant. My head, at this stage, just cannot even begin to work around all the potential possibilities, but yours seems one of the more thought out ones that I've read. And yes, I think the S4 finale is going to be EPIC. As in, it is going to tie in everything we know about new Who, and everything we've learnt through all four seasons and use it. Which will be brilliant as long as it is done coherantly.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I think it's going to be EPIC as well. I just hope RTD doesn't squander it and give us another Tinkerbell Doctor moment, but then I really enjoyed The Parting of the Ways and Doomsday and generally have little issue with his season finales. I'm actually really looking forward to it at this point.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

There was a time when I had concern with the fact that there could potentially be so many converging plot lines - ie: Jack, Sarah-Jane, Rose, Doctor, Martha, AND Donna, and whatever baddie we have (I think we all have an idea), but hopefully RTD does EPIC properly, not just for the sake of "OMG, REUNION TIEM!"

[meddow.livejournal.com]

He had pointed out in interviews that shows such as The West Wing have casts that size and can produce brilliant television. I've not been so worried about the plotlines, but more the plot trying to give an arcs and development to all the characters and so spreading itself thin over too many and not spending enough with the Doctor and Donna. Though Mickey, Jackie, Jack and Sarah Jane presumably have not particular character arcs of their own are there serve the plot, Martha's arc (those unresolved issues with the Doctor) may be resolved in her stint earlier in the season, so she may also only be there for the plot. So really the only three characters in play are the Doctor, Donna and Rose. So I'm not feeling that bad about the cast of thousands any more.

[mojitochica]

LOL, RTD is no Aaron Sorkin by any stretch of the imagination! Love your theory mostly because it's a plausible explanation for emo!Rose that doesn't involve her mooning after the Doctor.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I dunno - they do have RTD and Aaron Sorkin do have similar sized egos and both seem to revel in pissing off fans ;) And I'm really hoping emo Rose has very little if anything to do with the Doctor.

[mojitochica]

Here from who_daily, btw.