what makes the doctor’s relationship with donna so special is that it is truly completely platonic. there are no secret feeling between them, no tension, nothing of that sort-, and yet they are treated just as important as a romantic relationship would be because platonic love is important and powerful too. you can be soulmates with a friend. destiny can lead you toward a friend, toward a sibling you never had.
the metacrisis, them becoming biologically 50(ish)% related, is about becoming fraternal twins. not becoming half of each other or the same person or different people or anything. for them, it’s symbolic.
this type of relationship between men and women in media is so rare and because of that i feel like it really needs to be cherished for what it is.
I’ve talked about this before but one of my favorite things about the Doctor and Donna’s relationship is that they set boundaries and expectations up front and I honestly think that’s beautiful. The Doctor is so tired when he meets Donna again and says, “I just want a mate” which she mishears, but because the expectations for their relationship are set, they’re free to love each other as best friends—and they do!
This must’ve been so relieving for both of them because they both lost and were hurt in different ways but their friendship is sacred and most importantly, safe.
In the Big Finish drama Death and the Queen, Donna meets a prince and gets whisked away (her choice). It takes the Doctor weeks to track her down and when he finally finds her she asks him, “Why did you come find me?” He responds, “Because I care about you.”
Later in that episode, the Doctor confesses to Donna that he’s having a really hard time with the idea of her leaving but he’s trying his best because he wants her to be happy. He says, “No man is ever going to be good enough for my Donna, but—but yes of course he is and…”
It’s just this really beautiful moment where the Doctor is honest about his feelings because he knows they won’t be misconstrued.
This is why I found watching the Doctor lose Donna to be more traumatic than watching him walk away from Rose the second time. With Rose, he knows there’s a part of him who gets to be with her, but with Donna…absolutely gut-wrenching to see him lose his best friend—someone who saw him at his lowest, who kept him in check but checked in on him. Someone he could be honest with and laugh with, who was there for him and he was there for her.
Platonic love is vital to the human experience and it is just as valid as romantic love. The Doctor and Donna are platonic soulmates. Their relationship should be cherished like OP said. And even if nothing else good happens in the 60th, they get to hug one another again.
Very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar. Surrounded by shop window dummies, oh, such a long time ago. I took your hand. I said one word… just one word, I said… “Run.” And we never stopped, did we?
the tardis interior symbolism of the eleventh doctor’s era is so *chef’s kiss*
actively chewing on glass over the changes to the interior of the tardis console room between the angels take manhattan and the snowmen. like eleven’s original tardis interior is full of warm light, with fun gadgets and buttons littered about. it has a certain whimsical element to it that inherently reflects the child-like optimism and heart that the eleventh doctor embodies as soon as we meet him—
but then—after the angels take manhattan, after the doctor loses amy and rory, his two closest friends, his FAMILY—he also loses that part of himself that he was when he was with them, specifically when he was with amy. he loses that optimism, that sense of child-like wonder, that whimsy that he brought with him when he first regenerated. and it reflects in his remodeled tardis.
no more warm, bright light. instead, a teal-ish hue—colder, less personable. and there are less buttons and gadgets on the console than before. it’s less fun, more practical. sterile even. it’s metallic and stark and above all else, it feels smaller than before. it’s less open, more compact, like the doctor was trying to make less room. like he didn’t want all of that extra space—all that emptyspace that amy and rory once occupied.
