PIC Donna is not a Revelation
Apr. 8th, 2008 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meddowIt’s kind of cool sitting back and seeing a good portion of Who fandom realise, that no, Catherine Tate is not going to be the end of the show, and yes, Donna really is quite excellent. On the other hand, a few things about the way people are realising this are bugging me – particularly when people go on about how much Donna has improved since The Runaway Bride.
Thing is:
1. Donna did not scream all the way through The Runaway Bride. She did do an awful lot of yelling throughout the first sixteen minutes (yes, I timed it) – however, yelling loudly is a perfectly valid response to being abducted by aliens while walking down the aisle on your wedding day and then being kidnapped by robot Santas and forced to jump out of a moving vehicle on a motorway.
2. The quiet contemplative Donna that we saw with her Grandfather in Partners in Crime, made two wonderful appearances in TRB. Firstly, at minute sixteen (i.e. at the quarter way though the episode point), in the rooftop scene, and then later in the final scene of the show. Quiet contemplative Donna is not a new invention for Partners in Crime. She already existed.
3. And another thing, why is yelling every now and again a bad thing? The criticism smacks of sexism for me, and always has – as if a woman should be seen and not heard. The Doctor can be loud and ranty every now and again and while we moan about this sometimes, we don’t ever name it as our number one reason why he shouldn’t be a main character.
4. Catherine Tate did not just learn how to act. She was quite magnificent in The Runaway Bride as well. And, strangely enough, she managed to get through that episode as without using a catchphrase as well. The fact that anyone assumed that she would be anything less than a professional actor and force RTD to turn Donna into Lauren Cooper is ridiculous at best and insulting at worst.
Donna has not had a personality overhaul. The only particular change in Donna between the beginning of TRB and the beginning of PIC is that she’s warmed to the Doctor, revamped her outlook on the world and has a new set of priorities, which make her more appealing to the audience. And of course, the brilliance of The Runaway Bride is that we get to witness this character development over the course of the episode. There is very little difference between the Donna at the end of TRB and the Donna we see again in PIC
Okay, rant over (sorry f-list, I know I’m preaching to the converted, but I needed to get it off my chest).
Thing is:
1. Donna did not scream all the way through The Runaway Bride. She did do an awful lot of yelling throughout the first sixteen minutes (yes, I timed it) – however, yelling loudly is a perfectly valid response to being abducted by aliens while walking down the aisle on your wedding day and then being kidnapped by robot Santas and forced to jump out of a moving vehicle on a motorway.
2. The quiet contemplative Donna that we saw with her Grandfather in Partners in Crime, made two wonderful appearances in TRB. Firstly, at minute sixteen (i.e. at the quarter way though the episode point), in the rooftop scene, and then later in the final scene of the show. Quiet contemplative Donna is not a new invention for Partners in Crime. She already existed.
3. And another thing, why is yelling every now and again a bad thing? The criticism smacks of sexism for me, and always has – as if a woman should be seen and not heard. The Doctor can be loud and ranty every now and again and while we moan about this sometimes, we don’t ever name it as our number one reason why he shouldn’t be a main character.
4. Catherine Tate did not just learn how to act. She was quite magnificent in The Runaway Bride as well. And, strangely enough, she managed to get through that episode as without using a catchphrase as well. The fact that anyone assumed that she would be anything less than a professional actor and force RTD to turn Donna into Lauren Cooper is ridiculous at best and insulting at worst.
Donna has not had a personality overhaul. The only particular change in Donna between the beginning of TRB and the beginning of PIC is that she’s warmed to the Doctor, revamped her outlook on the world and has a new set of priorities, which make her more appealing to the audience. And of course, the brilliance of The Runaway Bride is that we get to witness this character development over the course of the episode. There is very little difference between the Donna at the end of TRB and the Donna we see again in PIC
Okay, rant over (sorry f-list, I know I’m preaching to the converted, but I needed to get it off my chest).
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-08 08:46 am (UTC)And I do love how resourceful she was in PIC. And incredibly Sarah Jane-esq. You're right, there are quite a lot of similarities between Donna's introduction and Sarah's introduction, and Donna's investigation of Adipose Industries reminded me so much of Sarah Jane (there's that thing going around at the moment, that Rose=Jo, Martha=Liz and Donna=Sarah, and I completely agree with it).
no subject
Date: 2008-04-08 09:27 am (UTC)I think the defining moment for me was when he was dealing with the Adipose machine thingee (sorry, it's 5:20 am and I can't remember the name of it) and had decided he failed and she simply said 'What do you need?' and wouldn't let go until she got a reasonable answer. She didn't shriek at him. She wasn't a nag. She just was forceful and didn't let him get away with it. Which was brilliant.
I think too many people want to turn her into a modern day Tegan which is just wrong. Tegan was an awful character because she was written and played as a shrew who only knew how to bitch, moan and be contrary. At least that's my memory of her -- I might have a better opinion of her now. But RTD is not JNT (thankfully) and can actually create 3 dimensional characters.
Oh, I hadn't see that thing but it's a fair assessment. Although I like Jo better than Rose any day and Sarah was a bit more accomplished than Donna (i.e. SJS wasn't a 40 yr old spinster who was just discovering her life -- she was always resourceful and spunky, well as much as she could be on 1975 television, and had better people skills). But it's a decent analogy nonetheless.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-08 09:05 pm (UTC)I get the Rose=New!Jo (some definite character and arc similarities), Martha=New!Liz, Donna=New!Sarah (especially with the sneaky investigative skillz) analogy, but when I thought about it, the analogy that makes more sense to me is Rose=New!Peri (coming from me, that's actually quite complimentary to Rose; I think they relate to the things they see on similar playful, regular girl sort of ways, and are young and looking for experiences and have similar rapport with the Doctor), Martha=New!Barbara (I saw this and thought it was really accurate), Donna=New!Tegan (highly complimentary to Tegan; I try to hook onto the attributes of all of them).
no subject
Date: 2008-04-08 09:12 pm (UTC)