Donna gets own BF series because of course she does.

Her BFs are better than average but I can't help wondering if I'd prefer them not to push their luck and Donna to be left in the shining perfection of Season Thirty.

Also, where the hell is Wilf? (Not to mention Nerys...?)

They will have to explain how she solved the problem of her Time Lord mind litterally burning up her human level brain if allowed to reassert itself.

Nah, they quite sensibly set it before then, apparently 'she just wants the comfort of home for a bit' after 'the fallout from the Library (when she experiences life with a perfect family then has it ripped away from her)'. So it'll have to explain why Donna should abandon the Doctor WHEN HE'S JUST WATCHED HIS WIFE FRY HER BRAINS OUT instead.

Out of This World:

Donna gets the Doctor Who theme tune? On the one hand, if any Companion should get to keep the Sacred Music it's Donna, on the other hand I feel a bit cheated she didn't get a theme tune of her own. (And on the OTHER other hand, sensible of Big Finish not to pay extra to a composer that would be passed on to the misfortunate consumer who's already suffering enough from the insane glut of produce.)

The Doctor's not a ring-the-doorbell person, Donna announces. Actually, he is *gazes adoringly at Doctor and Rose at the Connolly door*

Sylvia (I literally started typing 'Jackie' there) is obviously blissfully unaware of the Doctor's true identity as our Lord and Saviour. Which is in direct contradiction of the Tenth Doctor Chronicles: Wild Pastures audio. OBVIOUSLY Wild Pastures is the one grossly at fault but equally obviously I'm gonna mention it here anyway.

Donna has never noticed the golf club lying around her home before? Never noticed her dad thinking of taking up golf before he died?

Neither Donna nor Sylvia think of PHONING THE POLICE about the balaclava-ed man who broke into their home?

Miss Wilf. NEEEEEED Wilf. Dammit, the guy is OLD, get more audios out of him while there's still time, you've got a massive stockpile of Toms and Wilf is pretty much the next best thing to Tom Baker.

Why does Donna not hang around outside the gate - or return at clocking-off-work time - to ambush Dennis?

So it was just a coincidence that after his wife disappeared Dennis joined the speed-dating club which had been responsible for said wife's disappearance/murder?

Why did Adrian pretend to be new on dating night? Was there really no one there who'd attended in previous weeks and could spot his unnecessary lie? Marge certainly would.

Why does Dennis make it so clear he's spectacularly uninterested in Donna? I thought he ticked her box too.

Is it just me or are 'Dennis' and 'Adrian' such similar names (not phonetically obviously, but just in the way they make you FEEL about anyone called Dennis or Adrian) that it's hard to remember which is which?

When Sylvia finally realises that Marge wasn't talking about the Doctor, why doesn't she even bother to ASK whether it's Adrian or Dennis who Marge thinks is about to murder her daughter? Or why Marge kept the murderer on her dating books? Or why Marge hasn't phoned the police?

'You can come out now Nat' - why does Donna give the game away to Adrian that she expects friends to be waiting to save her here when she doesn't actually know if Nat and Dennis have managed to make it to the house before her?

Dennis (and everyone else) just assumed his wife had left him - leaving all her possessions behind, every pair of shoes included? Not that she'd been MURDERED or anything, despite never giving the slightest indication of being alive anywhere ever again?

That was quite good. (At least I THINK it was, I could be deceived by my happiness at hearing Donna again.)

Is it just me or are 'Dennis' and 'Adrian' such similar names (not phonetically obviously, but just in the way they make you FEEL about anyone called Dennis or Adrian) that it's hard to remember which is which?

It's just you.

Dennis (and everyone else) just assumed his wife had left him - leaving all her possessions behind, every pair of shoes included? Not that she'd been MURDERED or anything, despite never giving the slightest indication of being alive anywhere ever again?

The human uncanny ability to not see what they do not want to see.

It's just you.

Fair enough.

Dennis (and everyone else) just assumed his wife had left him - leaving all her possessions behind, every pair of shoes included? Not that she'd been MURDERED or anything, despite never giving the slightest indication of being alive anywhere ever again?

The human uncanny ability to not see what they do not want to see.

If they'd just had a row or she was generally unhappy with Dennis (quite understandable, he's not exactly inspiring even when you leave the whole VIVISECTIONIST thing out of it) I can certainly understand why DENNIS assumed she'd just stormed out, but she must have had friends or family who'd be deeply, DEEPLY suspicious when her husband said 'Yeah, she just stormed out one day leaving absolutely everything, no, I've no idea why she didn't tell you or where she is or how she's living given that she hasn't touched her bank account, honest.' They'd be onto the police like a shot. (Five times poor darling Mickey was taken in for questioning, FIVE TIMES!)

Unless she was desperately short of friends and family and THAT'S why she was desperate enough to marry a vivisectionist...?

Or maybe she wasn't that well liked and people were just relieved that she was no longer around?

However little they liked HER, they'd've liked her charmless vivisectionist husband even less, so surely out of distaste for Dennis and/or a vague sense of duty, whatsherface's vanishing-off-the-face-of-the-earth would have been reported to the police?

Unless the Whoniverse just takes disappearances a lot less seriously than we do, as a large percentage of them will be due to alien abduction and we're REALLY in denial about the whole alien thing. Didn't see the police and media exactly swarming around in Fear Her when all those ickle kiddies went missing...

Spinvasion:

Bloody fortunate that Donna and Nat managed to evade the pursuing mob, especially given that they're a completely different colour to everyone else on this planet...

'You can't believe a word she says. Have you ever seen her eating a sandwich? Weird.' For those fortunate enough not to be British, this is a satirical reference to that time Labour lost an election quite possibly due to its leader's inability to eat a bacon sandwich naturally. Said election loss led eventually to Brexit - as one Tweeter said when surveying the wreckage of our country, 'If Mr and Mrs Miliband had just taught him how to eat a ••••••• sandwich properly...'

Nat sounds a bit too much like Donna.

'The truth just can't compete with the power of Parsnip & Coxhead' - Coleridge. Donna: 'You're buying into the hype. Never believe the PR, especially not the PR about the PR' - but Donna AGREES that truth can't compete with the power of Parsnip & Coxhead! Her entire planet-saving strategy is based on this!

Donna offers to drop Nat back home and think none the less of her if she can't take the lifestyle - which sounds suspiciously as if she's offering to inflict Nat on the Doctor without his consent if she CAN take the lifestyle. Also, Donna seems remarkably optimistic about getting home for someone who doesn't seem to have heard of a fast-return-switch...

The Sorcerer of Albion:

Since when has a TARDIS Emergency Programme left the TARDIS and gone wandering around?

Why would TARDIS-instructions rip a hole in the universe if they fall into the wrong hands? Surely someone pressing buttons on the console WITHOUT the benefit of a cheat-sheet could do so just as easily?

Donna has 'Not a clue' about driving the TARDIS, repeating YET AGAIN the lie about her never having Sexy-driving-lessons.

'You've got such a great life, and there was no harm in you thinking that I did too' - but Donna DOES have a great life - approximately the greatest life of ANYONE IN THE UNIVERSE - why does she think she doesn't? Why does she think that great life = being able to fly the TARDIS? Frankly none of my decades of plans for my own life aboard have entailed me even TRYING to get my head around coping with that crazy bint's controls.

'I didn't want you to think we were lost in time, you'd get upset' - and why are they both acting like the start of Spinvasion never happened? You know, the comedy scene where Donna's showing Collector Nine which switch goes ding in a blatant display of hasn't-got-a-clue-how-to-fly-this-thing.

It's bad enough women being in this sort of controlling abusive chauvinistic toxic relationship when she's IN LURVE, let alone when it's with some random lunatic she just took pity on. Vivien's just pathetic.

So the Monks have spent - years? - in a state of decaying zombiehood but once they wake up they just, um, start singing - if they have any reaction at all to the whole SORCEROUS ENSLAVEMENT stuff we certainly don't hear it.

'We're stranded here at the rubbish end of time' - no you're not. You can drive Sexy elsewhere, you just can't really control where you land. And why act like you'd be stuck without decent booze and medicine when YOU'VE GOT THE TARDIS to provide such things? In fact, why bother going outside at all? Sexy's got a GREAT library and once you've picked up a couple of cats (or, given the near-infinity of space at their disposal, a lot more than two) you can just jump around the universe hoping to get home to the Doctor whilst never leaving the safety of the interior. Or maybe just wait for the Doc to phone you with some instructions, since presumably if you could phone him you'd've had the sense to bloody do so by now..

The Chiswick Cuckoos:

TENNANT! MY DARLING TENNANT!

(I was really preparing to get OUTRAGED if he didn't make a surprise appearance - if he did it for Jenny (daughter-wife or no daughter-wife) he can damned well do it for our Donna - but luckily it wasn't necessary.)

'We could spend hours trying to work the scanner, or...' - JESUS CHRIST NOW YOU'RE CLAIMING DONNA CAN'T EVEN WORK THE SCANNER!!

Duplicating Donna 'always seemed like a gamble. She's important, but erratic. Her projections were always unclear' - excuse me she's gonna be THE MOST IMPORTANT WOMAN IN THE WHOLE WIDE UNIVERSE!

This painfully emphasises the godawfulness of Resurrection of Daleks' total failure to deal with its duplicates...

'Remarkably refreshing, spending time as a popsicle' - why does the Doctor find it remarkable? Wasn't his brain 'working with the speed of a mechanical computer' when frozen in The Space Museum?

So I'm guessing around a 7/10 then?

Oh, 8 at least.

Three out of four stories were really good, Nat was an excellent addition to the Whoniverse and DONNA! OUR DONNA IS BAAAAAAAAAAACK!

the Doctor lost a spouse in that Library too
I think this is placed before the Library- fairly early on in her run with the Doctor (I'm only guessing but I'm supposing it's after "Planet of the Ood")

Donna has never noticed the golf club lying around her home before? Never noticed her dad thinking of taking up golf before he died? Given her preoccupation with herself, I think it's perfectly in character for her not to notice a single golf club or some random conversation she had with her father ages ago.

Miss Wilf. NEEEEEED Wilf.
Yeah- maybe when season 2 comes out next year we'll get some Wilf. To be honest, I'm a little sick of Sylvia.

Why does Donna not hang around outside the gate - or return at clocking-off-work time - to ambush Dennis?
a) She doesn't know what time they "clock-off" and b) it would surely be noticed by the security that some strange women were lurking around the lab?

Is it just me or are 'Dennis' and 'Adrian' such similar names
Literally just you

That was quite good.
Yeah it was alright.

I think this is placed before the Library- fairly early on in her run with the Doctor (I'm only guessing but I'm supposing it's after "Planet of the Ood")

Nope, it's definitely after Donna has mislaid a husband and kids. (Of course, now Big Finish have got their claws into her, Donna will have several thousand other hitherto-unsuspected adventures, possibly involving such creatures.)

Given her preoccupation with herself, I think it's perfectly in character for her not to notice a single golf club or some random conversation she had with her father ages ago.

My GOD who do you think you are - SYLVIA?

maybe when season 2 comes out next year

OMG we're definitely getting a Season Two?!

To be honest, I'm a little sick of Sylvia.

Bad, BAD human!

She's no Jackie, but she's still good value.

a) She doesn't know what time they "clock-off"

Turning up at 4.45pm should ensure that she doesn't miss him, whilst also ensuring that she doesn't have to hang around for TOO long.

and b) it would surely be noticed by the security that some strange women were lurking around the lab?

It's Britain, Donna can park and lurk around suspiciously if she wants.

Why the hell does Collector Nine decide to take over a planet ALL BY HIMSELF, with any back-up potentially centuries away?
He didn't- he had a force but sent them offworld after the invasion. Of course this then opens the NEXT question- why the hell didn't he leave an Invasion force on the planet???

I don't think 'grafter' means what you think it means.
Buh??

Nat sounds a bit too much like Donna.
A little bit but I can discern them easily enough and I have wonky hearing...

Also, Donna seems remarkably optimistic about getting home for someone who doesn't seem to have heard of a fast-return-switch...
Well apart from being self-absorbed (previous episode) she's also a little full of herself (this episode)

Blimey, for an episode you apparently enjoyed, you did nothing but ••••• and moan about it.

As for me- I think it was the most fun since Tennant's "Bring your Judoon kid to work day" episode.

He didn't- he had a force but sent them offworld after the invasion. Of course this then opens the NEXT question- why the hell didn't he leave an Invasion force on the planet???

No, I was talking about the Collector who arrived in the TARDIS with Donna and Nat, whipped out a gun, announced he'd taken over this planet single-handedly, and promptly got lynched. Not the Canton Horde who sent everyone-bar-one home after the invasion went so well. (Which is a pretty stupid thing to do now you mention it, but not as stupid as trying to take over an entire world all on your lonesome, and after all, things WERE going so well and you obviously CAN fool all the people all the time...until Donna Noble turns up...)

I don't think 'grafter' means what you think it means.
Buh??

They're talking like 'grafter' is a good thing - as in, hard graft, i.e. hard manual work. Whereas a graftER is a cheater and robber.

Nat sounds a bit too much like Donna.
A little bit but I can discern them easily enough and I have wonky hearing...

I do like Nat very much but the FIRST thing on your list of choosing her actor should be NOT TO SOUND LIKE DONNA. (OK, the second thing. The first should be NOT TO BE BETH CHALMERS.)

Well apart from being self-absorbed (previous episode) she's also a little full of herself (this episode)

Oh why would you SAY such things of our Best Companion Ever!

Blimey, for an episode you apparently enjoyed, you did nothing but ••••• and moan about it.

You expect me to NEGLECT THOSE NITS just because I ENJOY it? That would be SO UNFAIR!

In fact, I probably spot more cos my brain's not just switching off/attempting to leap out of my skull and make a run for the door, as with so many other Big Finishes...

As for me- I think it was the most fun since Tennant's "Bring your Judoon kid to work day" episode.

Oh, this is way more fun than One Mile Down!

Though there is a certain similarity - both managed to shove their Moral Messages down our throats with all the subtlety of Colin Baker spotting an acid bath, and they made us LIKE it.

both managed to shove their Moral Messages down our throats with all the subtlety of Colin Baker spotting an acid bath,

The sixth Doctor didn't throw those people in the acid, they threw themselves in there. His only sin was to make a bad joke about it, which was actually more sympathy than they deserved.

No, I was talking about the Collector who arrived in the TARDIS with Donna and Nat, whipped out a gun, announced he'd taken over this planet single-handedly, and promptly got lynched.
OH! Duuuh.... Yes of course you're right...

the FIRST thing on your list of choosing her actor should be NOT TO SOUND LIKE DONNA.
But....but....she doesn't really....

Oh why would you SAY such things of our Best Companion Ever!
But I'm talking about Donna- not Clara or Romana I

You expect me to NEGLECT THOSE NITS just because I ENJOY it? That would be SO UNFAIR!
Of course not- but how about balancing it out with some NICE things as well?????

Oh, this is way more fun than One Mile Down!
Not by much...

His only sin was to make a bad joke about it, which was actually more sympathy than they deserved.
This. ALL of this...

The sixth Doctor didn't throw those people in the acid

Hey, did I SAY he did?

Interesting that this is what you and EVERYONE ELSE EVER automatically thinks of, though, isn't it?

Frankly what we see on-screen isn't always what happens (we're stuck in a permanent Trial of a Time Lord situation, aren't we) and sometimes what we JUST KNOW is true - Tom's name isn't Theta Sigma! McGann's not half-human on his mother's side! Colin chucks people into acid baths! - should override the evidence of our own eyes.

Just remember - the Daleks have never used Ogrons as servants (Eighth Doctor Audios: Time War 2: Planet of the Ogrons) until they retroactively started inserting 'em into Dalek history, and yet we ALL think we've seen Day and Frontier with Ogrons ALL ALONG! THAT'S the kind of trickery we're dealing with, you've just gotta trust your gut instincts - Colin chucks people into acid baths and The Division or something is just covering it up.

His only sin was to make a bad joke about it

You're talking like making an incredibly nasty and incredibly unamusing 'joke' isn't fundamentally detrimental to who and what the Doctor IS.

Oh why would you SAY such things of our Best Companion Ever!
But I'm talking about Donna- not Clara or Romana I

Of course, I'm not denying that lesser beings can occasionally, if you're in the right mood, challenge Donna's crown but I think you accidentally said 'Clara or Romana I' when you MEANT 'Rose or Romana II or K9 or Captain Jack or Sarah Jane'...

how about balancing it out with some NICE things as well?????

Yeah, I did belatedly realise I should have said a few more nice things about the first couple of episodes. So I slipped in the praise whilst expressing my feelings for that godawful episode three...

You're talking like making an incredibly nasty and incredibly unamusing 'joke' isn't fundamentally detrimental to who and what the Doctor IS.

I have only one thing to say about that: "Yeah. Top layer, if you want to say a few words."

But that was hilarious!

a highly enjoyable box set has just been RUINED by this endless magical drivel.
I can't disagree this wasn't the worst of the bunch so far but it has FAR from ruined the set- that's as bad as when McGann utters a couple names you don't like and suddenly one of the greatest 6 minutes in Who history becomes worse than Timelash. Get a grip, old girl...

that Nat would be so panicked at the sight of a creepy room full of nightmare monks that she'd run outside to get slaughtered by the Burning Knights...
To fair to Nat, I'm not sure she knew the knights were already there or that the monks would react the way they did...I mean, it's not like she's experienced at these things or anything....

Surely someone pressing buttons on the console WITHOUT the benefit of a cheat-sheet could do so just as easily?
I think the TARDIS has protocols to stop random buttons causing rips in the universe- a cheat sheet may just override them...

once you've picked up a couple of cats (or, given the near-infinity of space at their disposal, a lot more than two) you can just jump around the universe hoping to get home to the Doctor whilst never leaving the safety of the interior.
Or just open the doors and jettison them into space like they deserve

Oh and on top of being self-absorbed (Ep 1), a little full of herself (Ep 2), she's super vain and egotistical (this episode)

that's as bad as when McGann utters a couple names you don't like and suddenly one of the greatest 6 minutes in Who history becomes worse than Timelash. Get a grip, old girl...

If you'd SUFFERED through ALL the Big Finishes the way I have you'd have SOME IDEA of the hideous life-destroying BLASPHEMY that results from The Moff's CRIMINALLY CARELESS canonising of the Eighth Doctor Audios. Do you WANT McGann to spend six hundred years with some jellyfish? Do you? DO YOU??

...Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious that the whole getting-a-grip thing a) is a very good idea and b) ain't gonna happen any time soon.

To fair to Nat, I'm not sure she knew the knights were already there

But she knew that even if they WEREN'T already there they were bound to pop up and attack at ANY MOMENT, right? Hell, even if they weren't, dashing out alone into a medieval landscape - abandoning Donna in a cell - is pretty stupid/reckless/mean in itself.

I think the TARDIS has protocols to stop random buttons causing rips in the universe- a cheat sheet may just override them...

Well the Doc wouldn't have had the supposed cheat-sheet in Time Crash when he nearly wiped out the universe...

once you've picked up a couple of cats (or, given the near-infinity of space at their disposal, a lot more than two) you can just jump around the universe hoping to get home to the Doctor whilst never leaving the safety of the interior.
Or just open the doors and jettison them into space like they deserve

There's no point carrying on this pretence, we all KNOW that Tosh converted you...cats have a Cyberman-like ability in this regard. 'You belong to us. You will [be] like us.'

Oh and on top of being self-absorbed (Ep 1), a little full of herself (Ep 2), she's super vain and egotistical (this episode)

And we all know you love Donna too! EVERYONE loves Donna!

EVERYONE loves Donna!

That's what they said about Ned Flanders.

I'm just loving seeing Emily's head exploded at the anti-Donna talk....

And why bother when it's just a constant refrain of 'look at the paper'?
Because the paper is actually helping her??

TENNANT! MY DARLING TENNANT!
I will never understand why girls cream their knickers over this guy....

If Tim went "NYSSA!!! MY SWEET BEAUTIFUL NYSSA!!!" everytime she rocked up on an audio I suspect Emily would pull him into line...

excuse me she's gonna be THE MOST IMPORTANT WOMAN IN THE WHOLE WIDE UNIVERSE!
A) She isn't at that point in time..

B) PLEASE STOP SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS!!!

If you'd SUFFERED through ALL the Big Finishes the way I have you'd have SOME IDEA of the hideous life-destroying BLASPHEMY that results from The Moff's CRIMINALLY CARELESS canonising of the Eighth Doctor Audios. Do you WANT McGann to spend six hundred years with some jellyfish? Do you? DO YOU??
Yes quite frankly! If it wasn't for BF poor Paul McGann's Doctor would have been a footnote in history and Ol' Sixie would be left with a handful of rubbish stories only and not had the chance to turn around the ghastly betrayal of his character.

And why bother when it's just a constant refrain of 'look at the paper'?
Because the paper is actually helping her??

IS it, though? It just seems to be 'Waaghhh, rescue me' and the more the psychic paper nags her about it, the more Donna just can't be bothered.

Also, the point is, if the Doc can speak directly into Donna's head, why not just give her her instructions (um...I mean grovellingly beg for her heroic rescue) instead of simultaneously sending his (alleged) instructions to the psychic paper for her to read?

If Tim went "NYSSA!!! MY SWEET BEAUTIFUL NYSSA!!!" everytime she rocked up on an audio I suspect Emily would pull him into line...

If she UNEXPECTEDLY popped up in someone else's audio he'd get a pass.

Obviously if it was a Fifth Doctor audio with Nyssa on the cover and he started up like that he'd be told to get a life (no matter how hypocritical such a suggestion would be, coming from me).

excuse me she's gonna be THE MOST IMPORTANT WOMAN IN THE WHOLE WIDE UNIVERSE!
A) She isn't at that point in time..

When you're the most important woman in the whole wide universe the echoes ripple back in time. Hell, Donna couldn't even be destined to get stuck to a beetle without Romans making prophecies about it.

B) PLEASE STOP SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS!!!

I'll...give it a try.

If it wasn't for BF poor Paul McGann's Doctor would have been a footnote in history

The hell he would, he'd've been the second-best thing about TSLABYOD (the best being Lawrence Miles novels, obviously), he'd've been blessed with one decent TV story* and thanks to the novels he'd be the guy who attended an auction of his own corpse before getting one of his hearts ripped out and marrying an eighteenth-century prostitute.

and Ol' Sixie would be left with a handful of rubbish stories only and not had the chance to turn around the ghastly betrayal of his character.

And now, thanks to Big Finish, he has hundreds more rubbish stories!

Of course, you're right too, Colin now has a few good episodes and a well-earned rehabilitation but, to be brutally honest, the Colin Baker Era ruined my life, I don't have an enormous problem with it ruining Colin Baker's life too.

*Give or take the C'rizz and co mentions, obviously.

and here is my review of this set.

How annoying, I can't disagree with a word of it.

I feel so proud of myself!

What is that creature on the right of the cover image?

•••• knows.

Um...maybe a Collector? They were the main villains, after all...did we ever get a description of them? I think they zipped themselves into human duplicate-bodies so we didn't actual see much of 'em (I mean, even aside from the fact we don't actually SEE anything).

So how was Nat notified if any way after the doctor wiped away donna's memories of all her adventures with the doctor? Wouldn't nat bring this up at anytime and thus "trigger" Donna.

Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much. To quote the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre:

"[Donna's] head will explode and the whole universe will explode if [she] remembers for even a second."
"Is that - by any stretch of the imagination - ever so slightly exaggerated?"
"It ... may be a bit exaggerated, but if she does remember, then ... well ... the three people standing near to her will fall over. But really badly, you know - they'll twist their ankles and everything!"