Thoughts and Speculation

[meddow]

Mostly concerning Donna and the Series plot

I’m really starting to think “You can never tell her” refers to Sylvia and not Donna. I’ve always been leaning this way because I hate the thought of Donna having her memories erased and thus her character development erased, but also because there have now been two conversations between Donna and Wilf about not telling Sylvia.

I also hate the idea of Donna somehow being someone fobwatched. I adore Donna. If you reveal that she is the Rani/Romana/Susan/Susan’s Grandmother/The Doctor’s Sister/The Doctor’s Great-Aunt Mabel then the production team is essentially putting the audience in the shoes of Joan Redfern. We’ve lost a character we love and rubbing salt in the wound is that instead we have this person walking around in her body. (Yes, I hate the X character turns out to be Y fobwatched fics unless it’s done with all due reverence to the fact that X is essentially dying).

So, for sake of me getting the ending I want, I’m still very much predicting Donna dying tragically. This way the “you can never tell her” is still an upsetting prospect because Sylvia will not only have lost her daughter, but she will have never had the chance to know the woman her daughter was and just how much of a hero she is.

Although, I’m becoming rather weary of the prospect of Donna’s death. Donna’s journey is all about Donna taking control of her own destiny, as seen by her tracking down the Doctor, her asking to travel with him, her dragging him around all the time and her learning to fly the TARDIS – if something she did on the journey, such as letting that family in Pompeii live, is what is responsible for her untimely death, then the message is that a woman taking control of her life and future will come around and kill her. Bad subtext there.

Instead I favour the idea that whatever is sending Donna hurtling towards her demise was already set in motion before Partners in Crime. Actually, I really like this idea and I'm probably going to be advocating it for the rest of the series. If it is that Donna was always going to die no matter what, then Donna’s story becomes not about the fact that she died, but about the fact that she lived. The Doctor doesn’t need to feel guilty about her death, or feel that he somehow caused it (unless he actually did), instead he can feel happy as because of his help Donna got a life that others dream of. And further more, she didn’t live because the Doctor plucked her out of obscurity and chose her to live this life – she lived because she chose that life for herself. There’s a nice little moral: we’re all going to die and the life we lead between now and then is our choice. Don’t wait around for life to find you.

Interesting is the emphasis on children this season. Earth has now been interfered with by aliens as a breeding planet twice now – three if you count the Pyrovile trying to repopulate their species using humans – out of four stories. Theme, anyone? I think it’s an indication the Universe is desperate. Conquest of Earth is no longer about glory and empire; it’s about finding ground for the very survival of a species - something far more important. Whatever’s going on in the season finale is big. Planets are going missing and I still think it is because the universe is collapsing in on Rose’s. (I would laugh if there was some king of call back to Donna missing alien invasions as she’s too focused on the smaller picture in that the Doctor fails to notice the biggest picture – that the universe is collapsing – because he’s too by focusing on the relatively smaller picture of saving individual species).

Oh, and I’m starting to think that bees disappearing and the Medusa Cascade are red herrings.

So in conclusion: Death for Donna is vastly preferable to me than memory loss and fobwatch so long as RTD doesn't screw us over with the subtext. There is the option that she leaves on her own violation and leads a long and awesome life, but tragedy seems on the horizon for Donna.

Comments

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I think that the Medusa Cascade and the disappearing planets are related to the Big Bad that is coming down the pike in the last 2-3 episodes. The bees could just be a tee hee thing or something connected to the Agatha Christie episode with the giant wasps. I don't know if that has any connection to Donna's journey or not though... I really think the whole fobwatch thing is kind of lame and just a rehash of last year's plot thus just something fans want cos they're not seeing the big picture. I really don't think that RTD is going to use the same trick twice.

I think Donna's situation is different. Maybe it's something so horrible that she has to deal with that if she is not mind-wiped, then she'd pretty much be traumtised for life. I don't know what but something. I'm with you that Rose's universe is collapsing and that's the real reason she's looking for the Doctor, NOT out of some misguided romantic notion. Donna might be a catalyst for it and there is something on her back. But it's not the Master. Meh.

I suspect there is going to be a very sad ending for Donna which sucks. Then again, we only know that Jack, Mickey and Martha go off together in the end and the Doctor survives to go back to Victorian England for Christmas. Alone.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I think the fobwatch thing is incredibly unlikely as well, but fandom has seemed to latch onto it.

I don't know why, but I really hate that traumatized thing for life idea. It's realistic that it could occur, but it will seem like Donna's being punished for choosing to travel with the Doctor, and that sucks.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Fandom latches on to a lot of weird things. Like Adam is really Davros...I'm really not buying that particular one. It was last year's storyline for a reason!

I am hoping that whatever was going on with Donna was going on BEFORE she met him and his crossing paths with her was something different than what any of us thought. I do hate the whole 'she-can-never-know' if it means that all of her travels with the Doctor and all her changes in life wind up being wiped out. I really hope it doesn't go that badly. That doesn't cheer me up in terms of companions and being with the Doctor. It's supposed to be an uplifting experience. Now, other than Sarah and perhaps Jack, everyone (Rose, Donna, Martha although I would say Martha was resourceful enough to find her own way) is suffering in one way or another. Not good.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I'm very much not into the fobwatch idea, for the same reason. I want them to be important for who THEY are, not who they were hiding, and if they're fobwatched who they are themselves will get overshadowed.

But I don't think they're going for that anyway.

Donna, I will weep and miss her, but a death could be intriguing, depending on how it gets done, and how the impact is dealt with.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Exactly. You put that fobwatch thing in better terms than I can. Thankfully fobwatches have been done to death by the show, and I don't think RTD will repeat Utopia.

A death could be very interesting. The show hasn't killed off a Companion since Adric and in spite of what RTD said about Rose, I do think he would go there.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Donna is just Donna, and I only want her to be Donna. Because Donna is awesome as she is. Whatever happens to her, I hope that it's not just another opportunity for a Doctor guilt trip. (I'm more and more convinced she's going to die with every episode.)

I think the bees are a red herring, but I'm not as sure about the Medusa Cascade, although that too seems almost too easy.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Hopefully we will not have a Doctor guilt trip. Or if he starts guilt-tripping, Donna puts a swift end to it.

I'm not sure what's going on with the Medusa Cascade. The Doctor solved the rift and lost his name into it, which gives it this mythical quality, but then there's the easy visitable broken moon. I really hope they explain it.

[deneuve.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I'm very out of touch with spoilers. What is this "You can never tell her" that you speak of?

[wanderlustlover]

Me, too! I'd love to know where it's from!

[meddow.livejournal.com]

It's from a set report. The Doctor says it to Wilf.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

People watching the filming of either episode 12 or 13 overheard the Doctor yelling a line to Wilf "You can never tell her." Presumably the scene is one of the last ones of episode 13, but there has been no confirmation of its placement. Anyway, this one line is the basis for the belief that Donna is going to have her memories erased.

[deneuve.livejournal.com]

Aww, that makes me feel bad because I really don't want Donna to have her memories erased either because then, I mean, what was the point of it for her? For the Doctor, obviously, it made a lot of difference but it's gonna kill me if she never remembers any of it. It seems kind of probable though because they've been emphasizing Wilf's support of the Doctor so much and why would the Doctor be telling them to him and not to Donna, if it was about Sylvia?

Also, I agree with you on the other point as well. I don't want Donna to be someone else because I adore her the way she is. And that'd be such a dumb plotline to stretch out through an entire season. Like, the old man who turned out to be the Master was there for an episode (as far as I know, I haven't seen the whole of third season) and he was pretty irrelevant so I didn't mind that twist. Whereas Donna, they're givig us a season, and a kickass one at that, to get to know and love her. It just seems cruel that they'd deny all that and with such a contrived twist.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Well, he could be talking to Wilf about Sylvia if Donna is out of the picture. I agree with you completely about the memories. What is the point of following Donna's character development if it is just going to end up back at square one?

Thankfully, I don't think they're going to go with the fobwatch twist. It would be cruel if they did.

[deneuve.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, duh, of course. I'm sorry, I was way too tired when I wrote that. That obviously makes sense and as much as I'm going to cry for days if Donna dies, that does seem the best for her character.