Going Back to Jasper Street

Tate Hate-Gate

The wonderful world of Doctor Who fandom almost spontaneously combusted this week. The cause of such great wailing and gnashing of teeth was the announcement that the new companion in Series 4 of the new show was to be none other than Catherine Tate, reprising her role as Donna Noble, the eponymous Runaway Bride from the 2005 Christmas. For many people, this represented stunt casting of the most heinous type, although accusations that she is "just a comedian" are somewhat unfair given that although she is best known as purveyor of irritating catchprases on a sketch show, she has worked with the RCS, in the West End, and is building an acting career in various British movies. Now, I must admit that I am no fan of Ms Tate and I wasn't particularly overjoyed by the news. I thought that both she and the character were okay in the Christmas special, but was quite glad it was a one off appearance. I would also have preferred to have seen someone new in the companion role. However, the more I think about it, the more I see that there will be advantages. At the very least, the presence of Donna as a companion will almost certainly change the dynamics between the main characters since I can't see her falling in love with the Doctor in the same way as Rose and Martha. Indeed, will Donna have more in common with characters from the original show such as Tegan? The very fact that she is older should also change things; indeed, this is the first time that the companion will be older than the Doctor (well, in terms of the actors anyway given that the Doctor is over 900 years old). Some have suggested that this may alienate children. Who knows? The other thing to bear in mind is that Martha will be returning later in Series 4, so a younger character will be featuring as well. So at this stage, I'm going to wait and see. Certainly, I've found it difficult to fault the instincts of Russell T Davies in his first three years producing the show so I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt at this stage. At the very least, it's going to be a heck of a ride between now and next Spring as we learn more about the series. What with Catherine Tate and Kylie Minogue at Christmas, who knows what else lies in store?