Warning: spoilers ahead for Doctor Who 60th anniversary special "The Star Beast."
Summary
- In Doctor Who's "The Star Beast," Donna Noble's lost memories are fully restored, and the threat of her death is removed. Rose Noble, Donna's daughter, plays a crucial role in the solution.
- Upon falling pregnant with Rose, Donna's inner Time Lord naturally divided between mother and child, allowing her memories to resurface without causing death.
- Rose, inheriting half of her mother's Time Lord energy, becomes a hybrid of human and Gallifreyan, enabling her to assist in saving the day. Both Donna and Rose eventually release their Time Lord energy to live normal lives.
The first of Tenth Doctor's regeneration energy, Donna's mind overloaded. The only way to save her was repressing all memories Donna had of space, aliens, and the TARDIS. ing them would result in Donna's death, but with Tate and David Tennant both returning for Doctor Who's 60th anniversary specials, a more permanent solution looked inevitable.
"The Star Beast" delivers exactly that. By the time Doctor Who's first 60th anniversary special rolls its end credits, Donna's memories have been fully restored, and the imminent threat of her demise removed. Moreover, Donna no longer possesses the Time Lord energy from David Tennant's severed hand. The solution rests heavily upon Rose Noble, Donna's teenage daughter. In a timey-wimey whirlwind of scientific waffle, wordy exposition, and trans symbolism, Doctor Who fixes the issue of Donna's memory once and for all.
What Happened To Donna After Her Doctor Who Exit
Donna Noble was last seen in David Tennant's Doctor Who regeneration episode, "The End of Time." As the Doctor watched her marry archetypal "normal bloke" Shaun, the enigmatic Gallifreyan dropped by a lottery ticket as a wedding gift, guaranteeing the Noble family's financial future. Donna and Shaun used this money to purchase a house, but Donna insisted on giving the remainder to charity. This extreme act of generosity was due to the "Doctor" side of Donna sneaking out.
Under normal circumstances, Donna would have kept the money - most of it, at least - for her own family. This is why the Fourteenth Doctor acts so surprised upon learning otherwise, and why Donna is so annoyed at herself upon regaining her old memories. Because a hidden part of Donna carried the Doctor's selflessness, however, she was compelled to do what the Doctor would have done without truly knowing why in the moment.
15 years have ed since Donna left the TARDIS, which means she must have fallen pregnant with Rose around the same time she married Shaun, judging by the youngster's age. The trio have been living as a regular family ever since, with Donna's mother, Sylvia, a frequent visitor, and Wilfred, Donna's grandfather, moving into a plush assisted living home at UNIT's expense. Since both Shaun and Rose seem oblivious, only Sylvia and Wilf know the truth about Donna and the Doctor. They convinced her that all memory loss was due to some mental health crisis, but Donna never shook the sensation that something had been stolen from her during this blank period.
How Donna Survives ing The Doctor
As expected, the coming together of the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble in Doctor Who's 60th anniversary specials results in Donna's memories gradually creeping back. Sylvia cannot help but notice when her daughter instinctively calls the mysterious stranger "Doctor," despite the Time Lord deliberately not introducing himself. The dam is fully opened when the Meep leaves the Doctor no choice but to call upon Donna's Time Lord intelligence to save London from disaster. Counter to the Tenth Doctor's ominous prediction from "Journey's End," the return of Donna's Time Lord knowledge does not result in her death.
This is entirely thanks to the miracle of childbirth. The Tenth Doctor repressed Donna's memories because the Time Lord energy she absorbed was too powerful for a one human mind to handle, but upon falling pregnant with Rose, one human mind became two. Donna's inner Time Lord naturally divided between mother and child, splitting the energy into two manageable chunks that would not instantly kill a regular human. When the Fourteenth Doctor awakens Donna's hidden memories, therefore, she merely falls unconscious for a minute. Had Donna remained child-free during the 15 years since leaving the TARDIS, she would have died on the floor of the Meep's ship.
Rose's Connection To Doctor Who's Metacrisis Explained
Inheriting half of her mother's Time Lord energy meant Rose Noble herself became a hybrid of human and Gallifreyan, with the latter half hidden beneath the surface, just like her mother. Similar to Donna giving away her lottery winnings, Rose's inner Time Lord manifested in various subtle ways. Her shed workshop shared a vague resemblance to the TARDIS, the name "Rose" was chosen in honor of Billie Tyler's character, and the toys she sold online were cuter versions of monsters Donna and the Tenth Doctor faced, from Adipose to the Daleks. In Doctor Who's 60th anniversary special, Donna and the Doctor also surmise that Rose identifying as non-binary is "because the Doctor's male and female."
Rose's Time Lord half is only unlocked after her mother's is unleashed first. Once the Fourteenth Doctor breaks the seal on Donna's mind, Rose undergoes the same process, gaining an identical level of extraordinary, otherworldly intelligence, as well as Doctor-Donna's vast knowledge of time and space. This is why Rose suddenly knows how to commandeer the Meep's control and remove the psychedelic sun rays from the possessed UNIT soldiers, reverting them back to their usual selves.
Doctor Who makes no attempt to obscure its commentary on trans rights. Rose's gender is presented as something to be celebrated - a beautiful and unique part of her that derives from the good deeds Donna and the Doctor did together, and that ultimately contributes toward saving the day. By contrast, the Meep switches from being sympathetic to calling Rose "weird." It is not by accident that a monstrous Doctor Who villain is revealed as a closeted transphobe.
How Donna & Rose Release Their Time Lord Energy
Although Donna and Rose survive the awakening of their Time Lord energy because they shared the burden, they cannot remain part-Doctor forever. The consequences of doing so are not fully explained, but the Fourteenth Doctor points out that the metacrisis has only "slowed down," leading audiences toward the assumption that, should Donna and Rose retain their Time Lord powers, they will die sooner rather than later. The solution to this conundrum, however, is revealed to be deceptively simple. Donna and Rose both voluntarily let the Doctor's essence loose, releasing it into the wind.
As Donna points out, the art of "letting go" is something only a woman can properly understand. The meaning of this line is deliberately ambiguous, but Doctor Who implies that the discrimination, prejudice, and negative treatment women endure in everyday life make them considerably better at "letting go" than men, or male-presenting Time Lords. Consequently, the Fourteenth Doctor fails to realize that Donna and Rose can simply breathe out any remaining energy received from the Tenth Doctor's hand 15 years prior. This permanently resolves the metacrisis, but also means Donna and Rose no longer possess super-intelligence. Donna goes back to being her usual self, and Rose becomes her "true self" for the first time.
Doctor Who's "letting go" solution raises the question of why Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor - the only female-presenting iteration across all actors who have played the Doctor who would Donna - never revisited the troubled ex-companion and advised her to release the dangerous Time Lord energy voluntarily. Whittaker's Doctor, however, did not know about Donna's inner energy being siphoned into a child. It appears highly likely that Donna letting go of her Time Lord power only became an option after Rose inherited some of the Gallifreyan glow herself.
Of course, the Thirteenth Doctor would have found out about Rose had she bothered to visit Donna, but the risk of triggering Donna's memories would have deterred Whittaker's regeneration from dropping by, despite having a new face. It makes sense, therefore, that despite the solution to her predicament being surprisingly straightforward, Donna was not saved earlier in Doctor Who. Donna should be thanking whatever mysterious force made the TARDIS land near her in Camden Market.
Doctor Who's 60th anniversary specials continue on December 2.
