Donna Noble: Kidnapped!

A four-episode story featuring Donna travelling in time and space and facing typical Doctor Who problems... but without the Doctor being present.

Out of This World – The first episode sees Donna trying to get over the traumatic events of Silence in the Library by spending time at home away from the Doctor. Sylvia's attempts to fix a problem she doesn't really understand coincidentally draw Donna's attention to an Earthbound mystery that seems to have alien involvement. And it's from there that we kick off the arc that forms the basis of this collection. Despite ending on a minor cliffhanger, it feels comparatively standalone, as if it were the pilot episode for something bigger, setting up a concept without necessarily being part of anything bigger. (Rather like Rose, perhaps).

The result is nonetheless a decent story, full of misunderstandings and seeing Donna placed in real peril towards the end. Sylvia is good in it, and there's some great chemistry and banter between Donna and her old schoolfriend Natalie, who becomes the other major character in this mini-series – the “companion” to Donna's “Doctor”. Donna's late father also gets a mention, adding depth to Sylvia in particular, which is a nice touch. It's not spectacular, but it's a good start and shows that Donna has the strength to take centre stage without the Doctor being present. 4.5 stars.

Spinvasion – Unfortunately, I didn't feel that the same could be said for this second episode. It's a comedy, and these are often hit-and-miss in Doctor Who. A lot probably depends on your sense of humour and I can't say that this suited mine. The cliffhanger from the previous episode is dealt with perfunctorily and then we're off to an alien planet where everyone is astoundingly stupid. Yes, it's supposed to be a satire on PR, but it's clumsily done, with cartoon characters and no real sense of peril – despite the fact that there's clearly intended to be.

One of the strengths of Donna (and Tate) on TV was her ability to be both mouthy and emotionally vulnerable, caring about the terrible things she was sometimes seeing, and drawing the audience in with her and making the fantastic seem real. There's no sign of that here, just broad comedy based around people being thick, and Donna shrugging off the massive death toll that the story eventually includes (although largely off-screen). Natalie also seems to be taking to the strangeness far too easily and the whole thing just doesn't feel at all believable. Which, at least for me, made the comedy fall flat. 2 stars.

The Sorcerer of Albion – It's something of a convention in Big Finish collections like this one that one of the four stories has to be set in the past. This time around, that's medieval England as Donna is mistaken for Merlin (per the classic episode Battlefield this is apparently the Doctor, which is why nobody is surprised ‘Merlin' has seemingly regenerated into a woman). It's a considerable improvement over the previous episode, avoiding most of its pitfalls. For a start, it's a good deal funnier, despite not obviously being a comedy – instead it has plenty of great one-liners, many of them at Donna's expense.

It also does a better job with Natalie. Indeed, she's really the main character in this one, with Donna being side-lined for a chunk of it, forcing her reluctant companion to struggle on her own. This makes use of what was established about her in the first episode and shows a more plausible reaction to being unexpectedly thrown through time and space. There are some quite inventive ideas in here too, albeit largely in what would be the visuals were this a different medium. 4 stars.

The Chiswick Cuckoos – The final episode returns to the present day to wrap up the loose threads from the first one. The focus is naturally back on Donna, although there are some good scenes with Natalie, showing her as the sort of character that would make a good companion but would never voluntarily chose such a life. Sylvia is back again, too, if not quite so prominently as in the first episode, and there are a couple of guest appearances from other recurring characters.

Here, it's up to Donna to save the Doctor, with the latter out of the picture and the result is a good piece of action-oriented fun. As in the previous episode, Donna is very much on form and there is some reflection on her relationship with her mother in between the action on alien spaceships and so on. Of all the episodes in this collection, this is also the most female-led, with the only male characters either unimportant or in the background for most of the story. (Which not only feels right, but goes to show that you can have an all-female “Doctor”/companion pairing without everyone assuming there's a lesbian romance going on.) 4 stars.