Series 4 - David Tennant - Partners in crime

Partners in Crime is the episode that signals Donna’s return to the show following her appearance in the ‘Runaway Bride’. Though possibly not one of her best episodes it gives a good insight into the relationship that the Doctor and his Donna will share for the rest of the series.

Catherine Tate’s Donna is almost definitely one of the most exciting companions that the Doctor has had, not only because she is the only one of the Doctor’s companions thus far in the modern series who does not fancy the Doctor and isn’t looking for any kind of romantic attention from him but because she is also an incredibly independent and strong woman who knows her own mind and isn’t afraid to tell the Doctor off when he is simply not being human enough. Donna finds the Doctor again after she finds herself unable to settle back into her normal life following their last encounter. Intent on finding the peculiar man in the blue box, Donna begins to investigate the mysterious Adipose Industries whose diet pills supposedly allow your fat to just walk away.

Series 4 - David Tennant - The Stolen Earth and Journey's End

This two part story from the fourth Series of the re-launch Doctor Who is the finale of David Tennant’s last series with the show.  Following these episodes he only appeared in a series of specials before he gave his life to save Wilfred and regenerated into Matt Smith. Remarkably this episode didn’t just mark the end of David Tennant’s time as the Doctor but also celebrated Doctor Who’s 750^th episode and tied up a whole load of loose ends left over from the series.

So much happens in this episode and there are so many moments for the fans that you almost forget that this is the first appearance of Davros since the show’s return. Who doesn’t love a good Dalek episode? Davros’ plan is to use the 27 planets that he has stolen to create a ‘reality bomb’ which he will use to destroy the universe, very dastardly. As ever the Daleks are a very formidable foe, they work their way around the world cutting off communication links between the Doctor’s allies in the hope of stopping the Tardis from locating Earth. Martha, Sarah Jane, Harriett Jones and Torchwood are using their combined power to create a subwave signal that the Doctor will be able to track down from outside of the pocket universe they have been confined to.  

Series 4 - David Tennant - Turn Left

Turn left is another of those episodes where you barely see the Doctor; in fact for a large part of this episode the Doctor is dead! This is the episode where Donna is educated on her own importance and comes to understand how finely intertwined her destiny is to the destiny of the universe. In this episode conspiring presences from the universe and beyond force Donna to turn right at a crossroads in her life that had originally lead her to the Doctor.

If Donna never meets the Doctor then she doesn’t convince him to leave after he kills the Racnoss children and the Doctor dies, leaving the Earth to fend for itself. Without the Doctor Martha and Sarah Jane die at the hands of the Judoon, thousands of people die when the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace, 60 million people die in America as the Adipose rise and the Sontarans kill the entire Torchwood team bar Captain Jack who is left alone. England is thrown into a state of martial law, thousands of people need to be rehomed following the destruction of London and refugees are sent all over the country meanwhile immigrants are rounded up and placed into ‘Labour Camps’  in a horrible flashback to the holocaust.

Series 4 - David Tennant - The Fires of Pompeii

The Fires of Pompeii marked Donna Noble’s first adventure in the Tardis as the Doctor’s new companion and is really revealing for anyone trying to work out what kind of companion Donna will be. The Doctor takes Donna to ancient Italy with the intention of showing her Rome and filling her mind with the wonders of time travel, however the Tardis lands in Pompeii instead on the day of Vesuvius’ eruption. 

We’re once again reminded in this episode of the horrible events of the Doctor’s past when Donna presents him with the task of trying to evacuate the people of Pompeii who they both know will die within a day. Donna is outraged when the Doctor tells her that they can’t save the people and exclaims “But that's what you do, you're the Doctor, you save people!” Which leads the Doctor to explain that he just can’t.