Regeneration is coming to Doctor Who faster than the TARDIS’ can drop its passengers in Victorian London. And, just like the Doctor’s regenerations themselves, the changes coming to the show will mix up the new with some old. While Ncuti Gatwa is taking over from Jodie Whittaker as the Fourteenth Doctor, former showrunner Russell T. Davies is coming back to supervise the next season. With the 60th anniversary of the series quickly approaching, the BBC recently announced that two beloved actors from the Davies era are also set to make a comeback: David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Known for playing the most hilarious duo to ever walk the time stream, the Tenth Doctor and companion Donna Noble, Tennant and Tate share comedic chemistry unlike any other in the show’s history. Their unique brand of bantering and weird allure has even escaped the confines of the Whoniverse, reaching Shakespearean levels in a 2011 staging of Much Ado About Nothing.
It is still not confirmed whether Tennant and Tate are coming back to their original roles in the upcoming special. In 2013, Billie Piper’s return to the Whoniverse in the 50th-anniversary episode, “The Day of the Doctor”, came in the form not of fan-favorite companion Rose Tyler, but as a manifestation of the Time Lord weapon known as The Moment. Thus, it is always possible that the Tenth Doctor and Donna aren’t the ones we will see when the time comes. Still, it’s always a pleasure to watch David Tennant and Catherine Tate sharing a scene. To celebrate their imminent return, here’s a list of their greatest episodes working side by side.
"The Runaway Bride" (2006 Christmas special)
A Season 2 episode revamped as a Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride” is Donna Noble’s introduction to the Who-niverse, even if, at the time, Catherine Tate hadn’t yet been cast as a companion. Written by Davies himself, the episode has Donna accidentally abducted by the TARDIS right in the middle of her Yuletide wedding. Utterly unimpressed by the Doctor and his alien nonsense, Donna only wants to go back to her reception and move on with her regular life. Unfortunately for her, regular life isn’t that excited to have her back. Not only have her family and friends decided to go on with the celebration without her, but she also has to deal with the fact that her husband had been secretly dosing her with Huon particles to feed her to the Racnoss.
“The Runaway Bride” isn’t all that memorable as a Christmas special. Neither does it feature a particularly remarkable monster of the week. What it does have is David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s unique chemistry that would awe fans all over the world and make this would-be run-of-the-mill adventure an incredibly fun romp.
"The Fires of Pompeii" (Season 4, Episode 2)
Marking the first appearances of Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi and companion-to-be Karen Gillan in the world of Doctor Who, “The Fires of Pompeii” is the second episode to feature Donna Noble as a full-time companion. As is usually the case with his new friends, the Doctor invites her for a holiday aboard the TARDIS only to trap them at the wrong place, at the wrong time. In “The Fires of Pompeii”, what was supposed to be a fun trip to ancient Rome becomes, as the title suggests, a fight for life in Pompeii right in the middle of “Volcano Day”.
Penned by James Moran, “The Fires of Pompeii” introduces two key elements of Doctor Who’s lore: the fixed point in time and the destiny trap. Having arrived in Pompeii fully aware of what’s about to happen, the Doctor and Donna have no choice but to let Mount Vesuvius erupt, taking down the city and its people. Worst of all, they must cause the disaster themselves, albeit to stop even greater horrors, and they can’t save even a single soul. Or can they?
“The Fires of Pompeii” further explores Donna’s infuriating but clever personality that made her so beloved in her two previous episodes. Through jokes like Donna telling the Doctor not to get clever with her in Latin, and the Doctor deriding the high priestess because not even a sacrificial knife would be able to shut Donna up, it solidifies the duo’s banter and dynamic. More than that, though, the episode also shows how Donna’s stubbornness has much more value than a mere comic relief: in the end, she’s the one that convinces the Doctor that, sometimes, it’s okay to bend the rules just a little bit, as long as it's to save a life.
"Planet of the Ood" (Season 4, Episode 3)
During their first trip to an alien planet, the Doctor and Donna find themselves in the Ood Sphere, where an infection seems to be plaguing the native people of the land and putting a damper on human operations. This time, however, it’s not a stand-in for the Devil that is causing the Ood to go wild, but, arguably, something much more sinister. Written by Keith Temple, this beautiful and sad episode takes a look at the underbelly of the much-lauded Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Now more than ever, Donna is not impressed.
“Planet of the Ood” brings back the titular alien race first introduced in Season 2’s “The Impossible Planet”. Its plot provides a sharp counterpoint to the Harry Potter House Elves and other fantasy slave races. Through the Ood, Doctor Who explores the horrors of colonialism, forced labor, and all the exploitation necessary to build an empire. Seen through the eyes of Donna – always the fighter and not yet jaded by constant travels across the universe – the enslaved Ood are portrayed as miserable and suffering, and not as joyous workers. It’s the Davies era at its best, using sci-fi and fantasy to comment on the struggles of the real world. It’s also the first time viewers hear about the DoctorDonna, an entity that will become more and more relevant as the series progresses.
"The Unicorn and the Wasp" (Season 4, Episode 7)
Writer Gareth Roberts uses the real-life disappearance of crime novelist Agatha Christie to tell the story of a giant alien wasp claiming the lives of a group of guests in a 1926 country estate. The crimes are initially attributed to the elusive Unicorn, a jewel thief that has been terrorizing the region, but as the Doctor, Donna, and the not yet famous Ms. Christie (Fenella Woolgar) set out to investigate the affair, they find out the killer has been an alien all along.
Vaguely reminiscent of the 1982 serial "Black Orchid", in which Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor and his companions find themselves in the middle of a 1920s costume party with a body count, this whodunit with a twist is just as mad as its premise. Granted, mixing alien bugs with Agatha Christie might not be for everyone, but if you’re into Doctor Who for the silly and the wild, “The Unicorn and the Wasp” is precisely your cup of tea. The episode makes the most of Tennant and Tate’s chemistry and comedic timing, gifting viewers with scene after scene of pure enjoyment and a ton of classic Doctor Who timey-wimey paradoxes, such as Donna giving Agatha the idea for Murder on the Orient Express and Miss Marple.
"The Stolen Earth"/"Journey’s End" (Season 4, Episodes 12 and 13)
Written by Davies, this two-parter is the most ambitious Doctor Who season finale to date. It reunites characters from all previous seasons, brings back classic villains, and calls on the Doctor Who shared universe to complete its amazing cast. Picking up from where its predecessor left off – the amazing Doctor-lite episode “Turn Left” – “The Stolen Earth” has the Doctor and Donna return to what they believe is a planet in shambles only to find the people of Earth going about their day-to-day business as if nothing is going on. Little do they know that their planet has been taken by the Daleks as part of their most recent universe-domination plan.
A mind-blowing adventure complete with parallel universes, a faux-regeneration, a Doctor clone, and the long-awaited (and slightly underwhelming) appearance of the Shadow Proclamation, “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” is David Tennant’s and Russell T. Davies’ de facto goodbye to Doctor Who. Everyone and everything that made their time in the show what it was is brought back for one last hurrah, from former prime minister Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) to the Torchwood team. Donna finally reaches her full potential as the most important woman in the universe, becoming part-Time Lord, deactivating the Daleks’ superweapon, and giving us one of the greatest scenes in Doctor Who history. It’s the Ood’s DoctorDonna prophecy, finally fulfilled.
And, then... It’s all over. In a final display of just how talented Tennant and Tate are beyond their comedic abilities, “Journey’s End” finishes Donna’s arc with what is arguably the saddest fate for a Doctor Who companion. Sure, Donna doesn’t die like Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), nor is she trapped in another era or universe like Amy and Rose, but is living on without the memory of the person you became really so much better than not living at all? Donna sure doesn’t think so. It’s a heartbreaking departure for someone that brought us so much joy.