Battlefield painting <3 I’ve had this image in my head for a while, I’m happy I got to put it down last night! I need to draw more backgrounds, every excuse is valid XD
A crossover of Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Batman was supposed to happen in 1967, but when shown to test audiences, the audience died due to how powerful the crossover was
There actually was supposed to be an episode where The Doctor has to go kill some cult leader, but ends up becoming like said cult leader. However, this was scrapped due to it being too similar to Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece Apocalypse Now
Over the last 55 years, we’ve seen a lot of people come and go through the doors of the TARDIS. For the most part, once they are gone, they tend to stay gone. On rare occasions, we get to see them again, although for the most part, if they return, they tend to return to the same Doctor they started with. Other mediums have tackled the idea of introducing companions to different Doctors regularly, but the main show saves these matchups for special events. What if a past companion got a second chance to travel with a new Doctor though?
Perhaps the most obvious choice for this reward is Donna Noble. Originally intended to be a one-off character, Catherine Tate returned to play Donna in the 2008 series. After that series, Donna had her memories of her travels with the Doctor wiped to protect her brain from the Doctors memories. She would later return to the series but would only briefly regain her consciousness of her time in the TARDIS.
Of course, for her, traveling with a different Doctor could present a host of risks that wouldn’t come into play for other companions. The Doctor’s face might be different and the interior of the TARDIS unlike that which she is accustomed to, but the risk of ‘burning her mind out’ remains. Looking at where the character began before traveling with the Doctor versus all that she had become, putting her back where she started seems one of the more criminal departures of the show.
Recapturing the magic of the pairing of David Tennant and Catherine Tate also could prove to be complicated. For a purely speculative article, all the constraints of reality are gone, and fantasy pair-ups are supreme. It is a bit of a toss-up still as to which Doctor would be the most fascinating to see her with. I think we can safely remove Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor. Donna already comes with a strong paternal influence in Wilf (Bernard Cribbens) and wouldn’t need Pertwee’s gentle fatherly nudging. Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor already has traveled with the brash Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), so pairing Donna with him would feel like a bit of a retread. Suffering foolishness wasn’t precisely Tom Baker’s strong suit making it difficult to imagine much coming of Donna roaming the timestream with the Fourth Doctor. The underlying malevolence of Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor would not sit well with Donna leaving him out of the running as well.
On to the Doctors of the modern era. I’ll admit to not really knowing enough about Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor to know if the two characters would work well. There might be something in the exuberance of his early era to make for exciting television. Just getting any version of his Doctor back on the screen is appealing enough. His later hardened version of the character might prove too much for Donna’s sensibilities though so we’ll leave him out of the running. Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor was perhaps overly interested in his own history to be much of a guiding influence on Donna. Having not yet seen enough of Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteen, it’s difficult to tell if Donna could have a place in her TARDIS or not.
Of those who remain, there are intriguing possibilities for all. One can easily imagine the situations that would come up between William Hartnell’s First Doctor and Donna. There would be a certain charm in watching how little patience the two would have for each other’s idiosyncrasies. I’m not as sure about how the bumbling ways of Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor would play. He was the first Doctor to really show how deep his friendships with his companions went and Donna would benefit from that. The arrogance of the Sixth Doctor would be well-tempered by Donna so it could be interesting to watch their adventures. Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor was looking to see the wonder in the universe again, and who better than Donna to show him that. Her eye for the injustices around her would also appeal to his nature.
Perhaps the most captivating matchup would be between Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor and Donna though. His questioning of whether or not he was a good man combined with Donna’s need to prove her worth would serve as good story fodder. Each character would emerge stronger from their time spent together. His arc of rediscovering who he is combined with her arc of discovering all she can become also play well off each other. He’d know well enough that she couldn’t find her memories of traveling with his previous incarnation. Having Donna replace Clara Oswald in Twelve’s narrative allows for the perfect denouement for both characters. Each would need to forget the other for the universe, and themselves, to survive. What better way to revisit Donna’s exit and return it to its heartbreaking status?
