My sister and i were talking about Doctor/Rose versus Doctor/Donna again Sunday night, and i cannot believe how much i've done a 360 on this. i became a Doctor/Rose shipper with Doctor 9 (though i must admit i was a bit hesitant because of the age difference of all things... i mean, what does it matter that there's nearly a nine century difference in age when you look 50 rather than 30?), which only continued to gain strength throughout series two. The crazy thing is that the Doctor and Rose never actually got "together" as it were. They would flirt, but they were really just friends, and Rose made it clear that she would stay with him even if there was nothing more to their relationship. At the time i strongly identified with Rose but wasn't really sure why as i really have little in common with her.
Then came Heartbreak Bay. Rose chose to stay with the Doctor, but then gets sucked into the Void, only to be saved by her dad. At least she's alive, right? It wasn't ideal, but i could live with it. At this point, it became very clear, though, that the Doctor did love Rose but had just never taken the time/had the chance to tell her. This was slightly tainted by the whole Girl in the Fireplace thing, because the Doctor presumably would have chosen Madame Pompadour over Rose. At any rate, at the beginning of series three, it was abundantly clear that the Doctor's heart was unavailable.
It would have been a hard thing for any new companion coming into series three because of the open wounds left by Rose being torn away. i remember seeing the Runaway Bride for the first time... i wanted to hate Donna, but i couldn't quite manage it, annoying as she was. Then Martha showed up, and i didn't even have to try to hate her! Series three has some of the very best episodes but has, hands down, the very worst companion. There will always be one line that sums up Martha: "Oh, she was blonde!" She was living in Rose's shadow, and she was completely selfish. A companion is meant to support the Doctor, help him make hard choices, stop him when he goes too far. Donna did this from day one (once she got over the kidnapping bit) when she stopped him from drowning after killing the Racnoss (Turn Left confirms this). Martha is whiney whiney "Why doesn't he love me?", "Why do I have to work in a shop?", "Oh look, a fob watch!" She never stops to think of the repercussions of her actions, which is really odd because she's meant to be smart. My impression of Martha is still that she mostly got in the way and made the Doctor miserable because she was constantly mooning over him.
Martha exits, Donna steps back in, and it's like a breath of fresh air. Donna has no interest in the Doctor as a love interest when they resume their relationship (which is a ready relief, as we are all still Doctor/Rose shipping, right?). Once she's gotten over the entire "I'm totally oblivious to aliens" thing, and "Marry me, marry me, marry me Lance!" it turns out the Donna is smart, funny, and exactly what the Doctor needs in terms of being challenged and cheered up whenever the need calls for it. A third of Donna's season effectively gets sucked up by Martha still hanging around and then the whole finale reunion, but she never complains or is bitter about it. She's willing to share the Doctor (she's a better woman than i am, i'll tell you that).
Truth be told, Donna turns out to be a better companion than Rose was even. Rose was always getting into trouble (Donna does this a bit, but not nearly as much), lost about what was going on (Donna figured things out more quickly than the Doctor on several occasions), and most of the time didn't even challenge the Doctor to be a better person (this is from what i remember, the obvious exception being in the episode when she touched the Dalek). When Caan mentioned the "most faithful companion", i don't even consider Rose to be an option. Sure, Rose fixed the Doctor, but you have to admit that she's far from a pacifist. Donna spent a year searching for the Doctor before they started traveling together, and she didn't have a string of boyfriends hanging on (Rose had Mickey, Adam, and Captain Jack at various times), merely the one encounter with Lee in the Library that was really beyond her control. Over the course of series four, you have reminders of Rose in the background, and of course you still want her to get her happy ending, but at the same time the Doctor and Donna get on so well together, and as the series progresses they no longer even protest at the suggestion that they are a couple. Then we return to Heartbreak Bay.
So, my sister Megan thinks that even now the Doctor is pining after Rose (during the interim year of specials all the way up to the End of Time). My sister Katie and i disagree. First off, the Doctor could have decided to keep Rose with him, or Rose could have decided to stay with him (impractical on the part of the actors and certain logistics, but from the vantage point of logical options in the story, totally true). The Doctor chose to leave Rose behind with his clone: he didn't say that he loved Rose, he decided to leave. i'm sure that there was a part of him that wanted to stay with Rose, but for some reason he rejected that, and from that point forward any option of him ending up with Rose is completely over. The Doctor is a free man.
So Donna is the one to fly off with the Doctor, leaving him free to travel with her forever (or so we are possibly thinking the first time we watch Journey's End). Unfortunately, the Doctor already knows that Donna's mind is going to burn up. He already knows that he's going to leave Donna at home with her mind wiped. Which really just stinks on multiple levels because Caan and Rose both predicted Donna's death, and instead she gets her mind wiped, personality removed, progression undone. It is dark days for Donna, and unfortunately they have yet to be fixed. She doesn't belong with a guy she can push around, who is stupid and never going to amount to anything, she deserves the Doctor (whether you're a shipper or not, her life was meant to be spent with him as friends and equals at the very least).
For the Doctor's part, spending a year without a Companion actually brought about some very good character progression. His loneliness is more poignant in the Next Doctor as a result, and Lady Christina could not be a worse companion. The ending of the Waters of Mars would not have unfolded in the same way had Donna been there! Rose probably would have watched him save the day, cheering him on, but Donna would have seen the danger in what he was doing and stopped him before he went too far (or slapped some sense into him if need be). Rose is everygirl while Donna is exceptional. In my opinion it was okay to save those three people, he just shouldn't have taken them back to earth to affect the timeline (after all, the grandaughter was traveling through space as if searching for her lost grandmother). He should have left them on another planet, somewhere across the galaxy, to rebuild their lives, or kept them on as companions.
And so we arrive at the End of Time with a very wounded Doctor. The last time i watched this, i really did try to see it from a Doctor/Rose perspective, but it simply didn't work. When the Doctor sees Donna, he cannot help stare at her with longing, he cannot help but cry. Rose is not what his life is missing, it's very clearly Donna. It's true that there is no overt overture there that indicates that his love has shifted from platonic to romantic, but it is very much obvious that he has moved on from Rose and realized too late who the better woman was.
i still feel like the coincidences with the ring looking just like the first Doctor's and Romana = Roman woman, Donna = woman, first stop = Rome are too great to ignore. And it's very Lost fan of me, but come on, you have to admit that Amy Pond does rearrange to my Don(n)a... sure the p doesn't fit anywhere, except in standing for past possibly. River obviously knew something about Donna but didn't recognize her. So i'm still hoping that Amy = young Donna, but at the same time, realistically, Russell T. Davies burnt me too many times, so i'm not holding my breath. But it just makes so much sense! /sigh
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