Doctor Who: 8 Story Arcs Of The Revived Series Explained

5. Rose Returns / There Is Something On Your Back

Popstar turned Earth defender Billie Piper triumphantly stepped back into the shoes Rose Tyler in Series 4 and, as one of the most beloved Doctor Who companions of the revived series (and arguably of all time), her long awaited comeback was always going to preceded by a fevered foray of fanfare. She definitely got her fair share of the spotlight - and then some - after a string of cameo appearances were scattered throughout the series to prepare fans for her her eventful return in the finale. Her return in Turn Left coincided with the fruition of another arc which had been building up throughout the series, although this one concerned the Doctor's current companion, Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, who was warned In The Fires of Pompeii that "there was something on her back". Was it a guilty conscious? Perhaps she was harbouring a secret? No, because either of those would've made sense. It was, in fact, a foreboding reference to a time beetle which attached itself to Donna and created a parallel world around her in which she never met the Doctor - the results of which were catastrophic. Rose, meanwhile, who had spent the last two years developing a dimension canon (as you do) to return from her parallel universe to our own, ended up on Donna's new world rather than the real one. What rotten luck! In true hero style, though, she joined forces with the temp from Chiswick - albeit in a generally mysterious and whimsical manner - to restore her timeline and they both made it back to the real world in time to aid the Doctor in his battle against Davros' and his ensuing darkness. Bet they were thrilled. At this point Donna should probably be told that the answer is always no when a fortune teller offers you a free psychic reading, though it'd be pretty pointless seeing as she doesn't remember any of her adventures with the Doctor anyway. Too soon?