meddow

Of the many brilliant moments in the Stolen Earth, one of my favourite is a little one that flies in under the radar, when the villain is revealed Donna leans over to the Doctor and quietly says: "Doctor, it's alright. We're in the TARDIS. We're safe." She's basically treating him like he's having a PTSD flashback to the Time War, which he probably is. Really, it's just another little moment of the many this season that illustrate how the Doctor and Donna are just ridiculously perfect for each other. She gets him, and even better, it works both ways. He thinks she's brilliant, even when she doesn't think so herself. RTD calls the Donna the Doctor's best friend in the whole of time and space. I wouldn’t go that far, but I would call her the Tenth Doctor's best friend in the whole of time and space.

They are certainly my absolute favourite Doctor and Companion team, surpassing in my affection even Sarah and Four and the One, Susan, Ian and Barbara team which, although I was wildly enthusiastic about the prospect of Ten and Donna together in July last year, I didn't expect would happen.

Thing is, I think the Doctor and Donna have finally managed to capture all the best the new series has to offer, in that there is much more time spent on character and relationships, and the best of the old series, in that it's two people travelling through time and space having a great time with a relationship that doesn't ever get weighed down in baggage. I'm not intending to slight either Rose or Martha by saying this, but the teenage co-dependency that developed between Ten and Rose was not particularly fun to watch, and neither was it fun to watch Martha being left in the cold by the Ten.

And then add on to that the fact you've got David Tennant and Catherine Tate, who have such brilliant natural chemistry they should really star in a screwball romcom. Plus it seems that with Catherine Tate as the lead actress the writers have been willing to do more with the Companion. Small things like giving Donna a good share of the funny lines instead letting the Doctor do the vast majority of the comedy serves to emphasise their relationship as a genuine partnership of equals. And even in scenes when she's just standing there while the Doctor is talking, her reactions to him (usually variations on WTF?) are always fascinating to watch and seem to reinforce their bond.

And then there's Donna herself. She's not smitten with him (although he may well be with her, DT certainly seems to play it that way sometimes), she finds the romance in the travel and adventure not in the Doctor. The complete lack of jealously and hero worship on her part gives him someone to confide in. He's working through his issues. This all combined means that finally, the Tenth Doctor has become a Doctor I can love to pieces (like Nine, One and Four).

I must admit, I do kind of ship them, as much as I do Sarah/Four, in that I sometimes love interpreting everything in a way that’s shippy, and sometimes I just leave them as best mates and adore them that way.

I can say that series four has been my absolute favourite of the new series, and a large part of that is because of the Doctor and Donna team. The other part is because of Donna by herself. (Actually, I think for me my series four love breaks down to 40% Donna/Catherine Tate, 35% The Doctor and Donna 15% the Doctor/David Tennant and 10% Harriet Jones, Martha, UNIT, Sarah Jane, Mr Smith and Luke).

Thing is, I don't while we don't know yet what's going to happen in Journey's End to split them up, they are going to be split up. And while I'm alright with this fact, and I have been alright with this since the beginning of the season ('alright' in the Time Lord code sense of the word), they're still going to break up. So I shall hope for more Ten and Donna books, and then hopefully one day Ten and Donna Big Finish audios, and tonnes of wonderful fanfic about them because they shall probably forever more be my team TARDIS of choice and I love them to bits.