3. Donna Noble
Played by Catherine Tate
First appearance: The Runaway Bride (2006)
Last appearance: The End of Time, Part Two (2010) She was going to be with him forever but unfortunately time and space had other ideas. For Donna Noble, her time in the TARDIS was one of personal growth and she was originally convinced that life as a time traveller wasn't for her when she first crossed paths with the Tenth Doctor. After surviving a particularly eventful Christmas, which resulted in her missing her wedding, losing her job and discovering that she had been used as a pawn in an Earth-dominating ploy executed by her devilish fiancé, who then transpired to be a manipulative minion of the Empress of the Racnoss, you can't blame Donna for wanting to have a lie down. However, her decision to decline the Doctor's invitation to accompany him on his forays through time and space was one she would ultimately live to regret. Inspired to become a better person by her - albeit brief - encounter with the Doctor, Donna attempted to recreate the adrenaline of adventure by travelling the world, though it soon became all too apparent that nothing would ever be able to compare to the wonders that the Doctor had on offer. As such, she subsequently set out to find him by investigating the extraterrestrial excursions of present day Earth in the hope that one day the Doctor would be investigating them, too.
Her luck came in when they were reunited at Adipose Industries and it was the start of a beautiful friendship which ignited a new life and energy into the TARDIS, as well as into the show as a whole. Together they embarked on escapades featuring the Ood, Sontarans and even a murder mystery with Agatha Christie herself, and throughout their travels Donna was transformed into a brave, open minded and compassionate ally. Long gone was the erratic and loud-mouthed bride we originally met in The Runaway Bride. It was eventually revealed that their previous chance encounters had been determined by a much greater force as Donna became a human/Time Lord meta-crisis after absorbing copious amounts of the Doctor's regeneration energy. With her new found Time Lord characteristics, this temp from Chiswick singlehandedly saved the universe from Davros and his fleet of dreaded Daleks, but the unbearable pressures of her new Time Lord brain would have ultimately proven fatal had the Doctor not wiped her memories of their time together. As such, Donna was left to return to the life she had lived before knowing the Doctor, going about her day to day activities whilst being completely unaware of her true potential. Truly one of the most heartbreaking Doctor Who companion exits to date. The next time we saw her in The End of Time, though, she had finally got the wedding she always deserved and the Doctor, though he couldn't speak to her directly, even dropped off to give the newlyweds a present of a winning lottery ticket. She may not have had the Doctor anymore, but Donna Noble was about to become a millionaire. Money can't buy the experiences and life lessons that the Doctor taught her, but it
can buy holidays to Caribbean and plasma TV. So, you know. Swings and roundabouts.
Her luck came in when they were reunited at Adipose Industries and it was the start of a beautiful friendship which ignited a new life and energy into the TARDIS, as well as into the show as a whole. Together they embarked on escapades featuring the Ood, Sontarans and even a murder mystery with Agatha Christie herself, and throughout their travels Donna was transformed into a brave, open minded and compassionate ally. Long gone was the erratic and loud-mouthed bride we originally met in The Runaway Bride. It was eventually revealed that their previous chance encounters had been determined by a much greater force as Donna became a human/Time Lord meta-crisis after absorbing copious amounts of the Doctor's regeneration energy. With her new found Time Lord characteristics, this temp from Chiswick singlehandedly saved the universe from Davros and his fleet of dreaded Daleks, but the unbearable pressures of her new Time Lord brain would have ultimately proven fatal had the Doctor not wiped her memories of their time together. As such, Donna was left to return to the life she had lived before knowing the Doctor, going about her day to day activities whilst being completely unaware of her true potential. Truly one of the most heartbreaking Doctor Who companion exits to date. The next time we saw her in The End of Time, though, she had finally got the wedding she always deserved and the Doctor, though he couldn't speak to her directly, even dropped off to give the newlyweds a present of a winning lottery ticket. She may not have had the Doctor anymore, but Donna Noble was about to become a millionaire. Money can't buy the experiences and life lessons that the Doctor taught her, but it can buy holidays to Caribbean and plasma TV. So, you know. Swings and roundabouts.