Index → Timey-wimey detector → Timeline - Donna Noble
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This page lists appearances of Donna Noble in the order in which she experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed that for each novel, anthology, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.
Timeline
Before the Doctor
- Donna chooses to "turn left", leading to her job at H.C. Clements. The Trickster's Brigade attempts to alter the course of this event through a Time Beetle, but the Donna from Donna's World sacrifices herself to set history on the right track with the help of Rose Tyler.
- Set during the teaser of The Runaway Bride. Donna inexplicably appears in the Doctor's TARDIS to the bewilderment of the Tenth Doctor.
- Donna is spirited away from her marriage to Lance Bennett, whom she met at HC Clements, through huon energy on Christmas Day. Donna discovers that Lance was using her, having worked with the Empress of the Racnoss in her bid to bring forth her children only to be fed to them. Losing her husband and her job, Donna declines an invitation to join the Doctor, planning to explore the world.
- Donna is kidnapped by Adam Mitchell among companions of the Doctor but is soon freed by Frobisher. Deeming that the Tenth Doctor remembered too much of him after he had taken Martha, Adam presumably retrieved Donna from this period, where she had met the Doctor but had yet to travel with him. As Donna is not shown to suffer any memory complications, a post-Journey's End timeframe is unlikely. Leads into Endgame.
- The first eleven Doctors rescue their companions from Adam and the Tremas Master.
Traveling with the Doctor
- The Doctor is reunited with Donna while investigating Adipose Industries. Having regretted turning down his invitation, Donna invites herself aboard the TARDIS as the Doctor's newest companion. The Doctor identifies Martha as his last previous companion, and learns that a planet has gone missing.
- Donna takes her first trip in the TARDIS, arriving in Pompeii on the eve of Mount Vesuvius's eruption. Realising that it is a fixed point in time, the Doctor causes the eruption, with Donna's support, but saves a single family from the destruction of Pompeii. The Doctor learns that another planet is missing, and is informed that "she" is returning by Lucius Petrus Dextrus.
- Donna visits her first alien planet, the Ood Sphere, where she and the Doctor free the Ood from enslavement. Ood Sigma tells the Doctor that his "song must end soon".
- The Doctor and Donna are dealing with the fallout of Partners in Crime. Donna is still adjusting to life in the TARDIS.
- Donna claims she is still "a bit new" to meeting aliens, setting this early in her travels in the TARDIS.
- Donna recalls the events of Planet of the Ood.
- Donna refers to the events of The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood.
- Donna recalls the events of The Doctor Trap, and notes that this is only the third time that she has met machine intelligences, setting this before Pest Control.
- While teaching Donna how to pilot the TARDIS, the Doctor is summoned by Martha to assist UNIT in investigating the ATMOS factory. Donna visits her family for the first since Partners in Crime, and the Doctor is formally introduced to her grandfather, Wilf. The Doctor finds the Sontarans are behind the ATMOS plot, leading directly into The Poison Sky.
- After foiling the Sontarans' plot, Martha bids the Doctor and Donna farewell in the TARDIS, which takes off of its own accord with her still inside, leading directly into The Doctor's Daughter.
- Arriving in a Human-Hath War on Messaline, the Doctor's DNA is taken to create a female clone; Jenny, who appears to die shielding the Doctor from a bullet. Donna learns the severed hand in the TARDIS once belonged to the Doctor.
- The Doctor eventually gets Martha back home, and continues to travel with Donna.
- Ending leads directly into Merchant of Menace.
- Donna recalls facing the Sontarans, setting this after The Poison Sky.
- The Doctor and Donna attend the coronation of Elizabeth II.
- The Doctor and Donna meet Agatha Christie, and learn the circumstances of her disappearance. The Doctor recalls the events of The Lonely Computer.
- The Doctor and Donna are preoccupied with "dinosaur business" while the Doctor is helping Shakespeare write The Tempest.
- Donna knows Martha, setting this after The Sontaran Stratagem.
- Ending leads directly into Sting of the Serpent.
- Ending leads directly into Attack of the Rats.
- Ending leads directly into The Zantraan Invasion.
- Donna knows of the Sontarans, setting this after The Poison Sky.
- Ending leads directly into Swarm of the Zenith.
- Ending leads directly into Prey of the Zenith.
- Ending leads directly into Lair of the Zenith.
- Answering a distress call, the Doctor meets someone from his personal future, River Song, in the Library, and fights off the Vashta Nerada with her. Ending leads directly into Forest of the Dead.
- Set during Silence in the Library, when the Doctor is admiring the Library before River Song arrives.
- The Doctor watches River sacrifice her life to rid the Library of the Vashta Nerada, but is able to save her consciousness by uploading it into the Library computer system.
Taking a break from the Doctor
- AUDIO: Prequel (Donna Noble: Kidnapped!
- Donna arrives home for a break following the events of Forest of the Dead.
- Donna has been back home for a while now. Sylvia still doesn’t trust the Doctor. Donna is reunited with her best friend from school, Natalie Morrison. Donn, Nat and the TARDIS are kidnapped by The Collectors, leading directly into Spinvasion.
- The Collectors force Donna to operate the TARDIS, which results into them arriving on the planet Valdacki. Donna attempts to pilot the TARDIS back to 2009 Chiswick, leading directly into The Sorceror of Albion.
- Donna and Nat arrive roughly 1000 years in the past where Donna is mistaken for Merlin. Donna has been travelling with the Doctor for months. The TARDIS sends Nat to recover a book of TARDIS cheat codes, which she uses as a guide to pilot the TARDIS back to Earth, leading directly into The Chiswick Cuckoos.
- On their way back to Earth, Donna and Nat are psychically contacted by the Doctor, who needs them to rescue him.
Resumed travels with the Doctor
- Donna knows that she shouldn't read about her future in books, setting this after Forest of the Dead.
- Donna visits Wilf, setting this before Midnight. The Doctor and Donna are still recovering from the recent events of Forest of the Dead. Donna mentions having had two husbands, setting this between Forest of the Dead and Death and the Queen. The Doctor and Donna recall meeting Gully during Time Reaver.
- Donna has already visited Mercury, Venus, Pluto, the rings of Saturn and seen the death of the Mestophelix Galaxy.
- The Doctor mentions "spoilers", implying that this takes place after Forest of the Dead. Wilf teases Donna about being in a relationship with the Doctor, suggesting this is set before Wilf had gotten to know the Doctor better.
- Set between The Poison Sky and The Stolen Earth, with Donna off vacationing without the Doctor. The Doctor has a good relationship with Wilf and shares a week long adventure with Sylvia.
- Donna visits Sylvia and Wilf, setting this before Midnight. The Doctor has a good relationship with Wilf, and Wilf has gained a high admiration for the Doctor.
- Donna encounters the Judoon for the first time.
- The Doctor and Donna recall the events of The Fires of Pompeii.
- Ending leads directly into School of the Dead.
- Ending leads directly into Ghosts from the Past.
- Ending leads directly into The Battle for Time.
- The Doctor learns that a moon has gone missing. According to Wilf in The Stolen Earth, Donna makes her last contact with home before Journey's End during this story.
- The Doctor and Donna encounter the Cobalite.
- The Doctor claims to be 903-years-old.
- Donna reflects on how far she has come as a person since first meeting the Doctor, setting this late in her travels.
- After Earth goes missing, the Doctor tracks down the missing planets to the Medusa Cascade, where he finds UNIT, Torchwood 3 and the Bannerman Road gang repelling an invasion by the New Dalek Empire, spearheaded by Davros and Dalek Caan. Rendezvousing with Rose and Jack, the Doctor is struck by a Dalek gunstick and begins to regenerate, leading directly into Journey's End.
- The Doctor averts his regeneration by siphoning off the remaining energy into his severed hand, which makes contact with Donna, growing into a new Doctor and giving Donna the mind of a Time Lord. After learning that Caan had manipulated the timeline to get the Doctor and Donna together for this purpose, the new Doctor destroys the New Dalek Empire and returns the stolen planets. After exiling the new Doctor to Pete's World to be with Rose, the Doctor is forced to erase all trace of himself from Donna's memory to prevent her brain from burning up, and returns her home.
After the Doctor
- The Doctor finds himself in Donna's house, but leaves before she can see him.
- Donna is engaged to Shaun Temple. Briefly menaced by the Master Race on Christmas Day, Donna is endangered as she begins to remember her time with the Doctor, but is saved due to a failsafe the Doctor had implanted into her mind.