“[Never] Really Left Me”: Why Catherine Tate’s Doctor Who Return Was Easy (Despite 14-Year Gap)
Doctor Who actor Catherine Tate explains why returning to play Donna Noble came naturally to her despite the 14-year gap since portraying her.
Doctor Who’s Catherine Tate explains why her return to the British sci-fi show came easily. As the BBC revived the series in 2006, Tate portrayed the Tenth Doctor companion, Donna Noble. The actor recently returned to the show for the first of three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials, “The Star Beast.” Following the ending of Doctor Who‘s 60th Anniversary episode 1, Tate will continue to play Donna in the last two special episodes, the next of which, “Wild Blue Yonder,” premieres on December 2.
Speaking on the BBC’s Doctor Who: Unleashed podcast, Tate describes what it was like to return to Doctor Who after a 14-year gap. The actor says that Donna Noble is “such a brilliantly drawn character that [she doesn’t] think she ever really left [her],” making it easier to get back into the role. Check out the full quote from Tate below:
“Yeah, it’s such a brilliantly drawn character that I don’t really think she ever really left me. I don’t think I ever really let her go.”
Why Bringing Back Donna Noble To Doctor Who Was The Right Decision?
Similar to co-star David Tennant during his tenure as the Tenth Doctor, Tate is one of the most beloved actors to come out of Doctor Who. It was a major announcement that Tennant and Tate would be returning together for the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials, where Tennant plays a reincarnated Fourteenth Doctor opposite Tate’s Donna Noble. While their dynamism was initially altered by Donna having forgotten the Doctor at the beginning of “The Star Beast,” Donna now remembers the Time Lord again, setting the actors up for an engaging next episode.
Donna Noble’s return to the show after over a decade has also given Doctor Who a chance to mature the character since her last appearance. In “The Star Beast,” Donna Noble is a wife and a mother to a teenage daughter, Rose Noble. While Tate still emulates the same Donna qualities of her strong will and spunk, she also adds a new, intense maternal energy that underlies her character’s motivation.
This treatment of Donna’s character well-positions Doctor Who to create a bittersweet nostalgia in the specials. Donna is fundamentally the same, but her growth into a mother reveals the huge amount of time that has elapsed following her exit. Viewers’ heartstrings will continue to be pulled as Donna fights to return home to her daughter in Doctor Who’s next special, “Wild Blue Yonder.”
