Doctor Who: 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Ninth Doctor

3. He Unknowingly Saved Donna During His Very First Episode

Doctor Who the Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston
BBC Studios

Donna Noble didn't become a regular companion until 2008's Series 4, although she did have an earlier adventure with the Tenth Doctor in the 2006 Christmas special.

But unbeknownst to her - and unbeknownst to the Doctor - their connection goes back even further than this... sort of.

During the episode Rose, an army of Autons wreaks havoc throughout downtown London, terrifying shoppers and even murdering good ol' Clive.

As revealed in Russell T Davies' novelisation of the episode, Donna can hear the commotion caused by this Auton attack from the safety of her Chiswick house, with the book mentioning that she's "annoyed" by the noise. However, she then nods off, and sleeps through the whole thing. Classic Donna.

If the Ninth Doctor hadn't stopped the Auton threat, then they probably would've reached Donna quite quickly, given her proximity to the incident. So you could say that he saved his future companion in his very first episode.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.