Theory Time

[meddow]

I really, really should be writing an essay and not this.

Basically, my theory is based on the premise that the Bad Wolf = all of the power of the TARDIS + the emotions and wisdom of Rose Tyler. The Bad Wolf is not a particularly wise or fair being, if she was all-knowing she would not have screwed up Jack’s rebirth and Jack was singled out to be saved where all the others slaughtered that day were not. Those people deserved to live just as much as he did. But the Bad Wolf’s just a little selfish. Essentially, she’s a child god, like Jamie or CAL.

In those few moments on Platform One, the Bad Wolf could see the past, present and future. She could see the events of season two and Bad Wolf Bay, and further to Donna, Martha the Master etc. But also she saw that in Journey’s End it is quite literally the end of the universe, and the two people there at the epicentre are the Doctor and Donna. They fail to save the day. The Doctor and Donna die and so does everything else.

So, having the heart of Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf decided to prevent this catastrophe. She looks to the people there available to stop it and chooses Donna. She travels back on Donna’s life, right back to her birth, and gives her something: the key to saving the day. Or maybe the Bad Wolf gave both Donna and the Doctor something, and it requires both of them. Either way, nobody knows about it except for the Bad Wolf, who on ceasing to exist forgot it all. The only noticeable trace is what Rose and UNIT picked up around Donna in Turn Left, which is the fingerprint of the Bad Wolf’s meddling. Rose’s journey in series four has been her trying to figure out what she did as the Bad Wolf and make sure everything remains on track. If she can figure it out tell Donna and the Doctor about it, they can use it.

The price, however, for Donna is that she is still going to die. One person who was going to die anyway for the whole universe doesn’t seem that bad a trade off, but Donna’s going to lose her life and the Doctor’s going to lose his best friend. And there we have the tragedy that brought about River’s reaction to Donna.

Although from that point forward, the Bad Wolf loses her hold on the universe. She never saw further than the end and now they have moved past that she has no longer has influenced events. The Doctor and the show if finally free from the shadow of the season one finale and Rose Tyler’s journey ends along with Donna’s.

This would satisfy me quite a bit. Donna’s not a superwoman, nor a Time Lord, but rather an ordinary person whose specialness and destiny only emerges in one moment and is the result of her own choices mixed with chance and the meddling of a child god.

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I think it'd be really cool if somebody other than Rose was the manifestation of the Bad Wolf this time. Because, as far as I can tell, it's just the heart of the TARDIS in the flesh, and the phrase is the retroactive warnings it puts out. Which means, I guess, that it'll need to come into play at some point in the next two episodes, in order to do that retroactive-warning thing. I've taken Rose's whisper to Donna as a warning put into her mouth by the Bad Wolf just like all the other warnings in text and in mouths that it put up at the end of Turn Left and throughout s1 and other places. Rather than as the essence being carried around in her long after the heart was removed, because I think if something like the TARDIS was at play in her constantly it'd be far more apparent rather than something that subtly becomes a functional part of your usual self. So technically, Bad Wolf isn't specifically -- or doesn't have to be specifically -- Rose-related.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I like this theory a lot more than most of the others I've read (Donna is the Rani, Donna is Romana, Donna is the Master, Donna is the love child of Rose & the Doctor, blah blah blah). It makes a lot more sense in the big picture than any of the others, esp the child!god part of it. It also means that Rose is/was well meaning but not perfect.

I am terrified to see how this all plays out because of the knowing that Catherine is leaving no matter what at the end of the series. I just want Donna to be safe in the end. *hugs her*

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I do take the view that the Bad Wolf is Rose related, since I view it as the TARDIS + Rose. If the heart of the TARDIS combined with anyone else, it would form a different being. But that the Bad Wolf only existed for that for a few minutes, I don't like the idea that Rose carries the Bad Wolf around with her at all and ever since she had been special. In my view the Bad Wolf was born when Rose looked in, and dies when Nine kissed her (it was one hell of a kiss). Although Rose and the TARDIS may have the lingering memories of what they did somewhere.

Plus in the confidential RTD was really emphasizing Rose when talking about the Bad Wolf. Though it would be kind of cool to see someone else as the Bad Wolf. If I had a vote, I'd go for Jackie!Bad Wolf.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Some of the theories being latched on to by fandom seem rather out there to me. Particularly the Donna as a Time Lord. And people can't be talking the Doctor and Rose's love child thing seriously, can they?

And I really want Donna to be safe. I adore her and want her to stay forever. I want to sit down in forty years time and have the running joke on the show being characters mistaking Donna for the Doctor's grandmother.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Someone on my flist wrote a very serious essay about the love child thing. She's dead cert that Rose is Donna's real mother. *sigh* I don't want to link to it cos I dont want my friend thinking I'm mocking her. I just...*boggles* Most of the theories this year have been out there to me. Granted this is Dr Who and RTD but I can't see Russell redoing Yana=Master only a year later with another character. I do actually believe that Russell has more imagination than that! And even if you want to believe that 10 and Rose shagged like horny Gallifreyan Bunnies throughout S2 (and I don't), I cannot see her getting knocked up by him and then having his lurve child, then going back 40 yrs in time to put her up for adoption so Howard and Sylvia can find her etc.

Just...no. I really believe that the issue with Donna that is being so strongly hinted at is something about Donna's essence herself. She may turn out to be some sort of bizarre Time/Space anomaly but I dont believe it's because of Rose. or the Doctor or...anything. Clearly the Trickster or his minions saw that Donna was a fixed point in time and a way to get to the Doctor. She IS very very important. But I want her to be important because She's Donna Noble. Not anyone's kid or another Time Lord in disguise or whatever. *pouts*

I really want her to be safe. And damn, I want her to stay forever. It's really depressing that CT can't do more and I can only hope/pray that somehow she's kept safe enough that if there was a way to undo whatever happens, that she could potentially come back in future for some reason without it being stupid or totally retconning the angst.

And yes, I would love for her still to be there in 40 years. *sigh* Not fair!

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I really badly want her to be important for being Donna Noble as well. She's forever underestimating herself. If she is indeed special for being someone else, then it's sort of saying, no, Donna was right about herself all along, she's not particularly brilliant or special in any way and she is just a host for who she will become. But all points are pointing to Donna being special in some way and will become someone who is not Donna. I dunno. RTD's treading a fine line.

Hopefully no matter what happens, Donna becomes the new Romana, in that fandom are forever finding ways to bring her back.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I really badly want her to be important for being Donna Noble as well. She's forever underestimating herself. If she is indeed special for being someone else, then it's sort of saying, no, Donna was right about herself all along, she's not particularly brilliant or special in any way and she is just a host for who she will become. But all points are pointing to Donna being special in some way and will become someone who is not Donna. I dunno. RTD's treading a fine line.

I know he is which is why I am worried. For exactly those reasons. Considering Sylvia kept calling Donna useless in "Turn Left", I want Donna to be able to prove once and for all that she isn't. That she really IS special and it's not just a ruse by Rose to get things done. (I'm still not sure whether to believe Rose's statement that Donna is the most important woman in creation or the later part where Donna thinks she's not special at all. :-( )

I just know that all signs point to Donna be extra special, but in the end, being reset and not being allowed to know or remember ANY of it which is the cruelest thing anyone could do to her. It pretty much relegates her to deus ex machina and to the same horrible life she had before the Doctor and that, to me, is so very very wrong. *tries not to cry* (As I said in my own LJ, I have realised I am identifying way too much with Donna these days for reasons like that)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

A reset with Donna's memory being erased is worst case scenario for me. I'd prefer a character death. It completely undermines her journey and the emphasis we've had on how the Doctor's been good for her (just like she has been for him), and that in her lives in which she has not met him, she's not been better off (refugee in Turn Left, suspecting she's mentally ill in Forrest) And the Doctor looks like an arse. After all, how can he just leave her like that?

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I love your theories. They always make so much *sense* and are beautifully thought out. So much speculation is going around saying that Donna is human, or is a Time Lady or whatever, but I don't want that. I want her to be human, because to have her suddenley be something else would defeat all that character development of overcoming her own self doubt. Donna should be an ordinary human, but one who has it in her to save the entire world.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I just wish the essay I'm was working was as well thought out.

I really want her to be human as well, her storyline really should be able overcoming self-doubt and the empowerment of the average person to save the universe. Everything until Turn Left pointed right to that being her storyline. I do wonder what RTD is up to with her.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

That theory makes a lot of sense. If the Bad Wolf is the cause of Donna's specialness, that would mean she picked Donna for a reason--there was already something noteworthy about her. (Which, obviously, there is; we've seen it through the whole series.) The Donna as Romana theory is fun crack, but as an actual plotline... no. In my head, at least, Donna's supposed to be an ordinary person experiencing extraordinary events, and becoming a better person because of it. I love Romana and hope she shows up again, but not at the expense of all Donna's character growth.

I'm still not okay with her dying, though, despite being 95% convinced that she will. She had better have the best send off ever.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I want Romana to show up again, but not as Donna. It's the John Smith problem, the audience ends up in the Joan Redfern position of losing someone they're become attached too, but still have someone looking like them around. It's killing off a character and then rubbing it in.

Besides, Harriet Jones is fobwatched!Romana in my personal fanon.

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

This would satisfy me quite a bit. Donna’s not a superwoman, nor a Time Lord, but rather an ordinary person whose specialness and destiny only emerges in one moment and is the result of her own choices mixed with chance and the meddling of a child god.

I sincerely hope this is what happens but I have my doubts. Oh well, we just have to wait and see.

[rockthetardis.livejournal.com]

Could actually be Donna herself. One of the things that struck me about Turn Left was the fortune teller backing away in fear and yelling at Donna, "You're so strong! What will you become? What will you become?" That line just seemed a bit odd to me.