History Recap / DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride

* ActorAllusion: Lance's listing of Donna's various inane interests sounds a hell of a lot like Tate's character Lauren.

* IncrediblyLamePun: This time, it's ''personnel!''

* LandmarkingTheHiddenBase: The Racnoss has set up shop in an abandoned Torchwood base under the Thames flood barrier. Donna is incredulous, the Doctor (who's [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E1Rose used]] to it), less so.

* TheScrappy: Donna, at least here. In her later appearances, [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap she gets better.]]

* TakeThatCritics: Lance can be seen as a particularly venomous response to those ''Doctor Who'' fans who complained that the earlier Davies seasons had too many contemporary-Earth stories and pop-culture references, and wanted more exotic settings and SpaceOpera content.

* [=~Chekov's Gun~=]: Donna calls the Doctor 'a Martian', which seems like a throwaway gag but leads to the Empress of the Racnoss underestimating him.

* LandmarkingTheHiddenBase: The Racnoss has set up shop in an abandoned Torchwood base under the Thames flood barrier. Donna is incredulous, the Doctor less so.

--> '''Doctor''': I know, unheard of...
** Perhaps an unintentional ShoutOut to the Nestene Consciousness back in [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E1Rose Rose]]?

* WhatTheHellHero: A relatively gentle one when Donna says she can't travel with the Doctor and that he needs someone who can stop him doing [[MoralDissonance the kinds of things he does.]]

* TheScrappy: Donna, at least here. In her later appearances, [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap well]]...

* Main/ArcWords: {{Torchwood}} and the first appearance of "Mr Saxon"
** First time the name is spoken perhaps, but not technically the first - at one point during [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS2E10LoveAndMonsters Love and Monsters]], the Absorbaloff is reading a newspaper. If you freeze-frame, you can see one of the headlines is about 'Mr Saxon'. It's barely visible unless you're looking for it, but it is there.
* Main/{{Bookends}}: the last time we see Donna, [[spoiler:she will be a bride again.]]
* Main/ChekovsGun: Donna calls the Doctor 'a Martian', which seems like a throwaway gag but leads to the Empress of the Racnoss underestimating him.
* Main/ChristmasEpisode / AnAssKickingChristmas
* Main/CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Irked that the Empress calls him a Martian, the Doctor - for the first time in the revived series, reveals the name of his homeworld - prompting an OhCrap from the Empress:
--> '''The Doctor:''' My home planet is far away and long since gone, but its name lives on. ''({{beat}})'' Gallifrey.
** The chase scene earlier in the episode was awesome too.

* Main/FailingATaxi
* FridgeBrilliance: The Way the Doctor destroys the Racnoss Children; Drowining them as they try and climb up a tunnel; "The Itsy Bitsy Spider ran up the water spout..."
* HeyItsThatGuy: The Empress of the Racnoss is played by ''[[{{Blackpool}} Natalie Holden]]''. Dare you to watch the episode again knowing that.

* Main/MissingFloor
* Main/MissingTheGoodStuff: Donna was out of town for the Sycorax and in the middle of nowhere in Spain for the Cybermen.
* Main/MoralDissonance: What the hell, Doctor, did you just [[spoiler:kill off a bunch of children]]? And, come to think of it, [[spoiler:commit genocide]]? ''Again?''
** Fresh off of killing off an army of Cybermen and Daleks from last episode, too.
*** Killing off the Cybermen doesn't really count, as they're robots into which brains are implanted - a fate worse than death.
** Kind of the point, really - the writer's intention was to showcase the Doctor's extreme dark side during his time of grief, and it worked very well. It doesn't justify his actions, but he was hardly thinking completely straight. Besides, he ''[[DontMakeMeDestroyYou did]]'' give the Racnoss Queen a chance, which she arrogantly shot down.
* Main/MoralityChain

* Main/SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: At the reception. (Murray Gold's "Love Don't Roam")
* Main/UnreliableNarrator: Donna's description of how she and Lance got engaged.
* Main/WhatTheHellHero: A relatively gentle one when Donna says she can't travel with the Doctor and that he needs someone who can stop him doing [[MoralDissonance the kinds of things he does.]]
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The bride--one Donna Noble, of London--demands to be put back on Earth ''right now, damn it.'' She's getting married! Unfortunately, our old friends the pilot fish(see The Christmas Invasion) have come back to help the MonsterOfTheWeek and crash the wedding reception(held without Donna, who is rather indignant upon discovering this).

* MEvilIsHammy: The Empress of the Racnoss, bringing ChewingTheScenery to simply epic levels.

* Main/HamAndCheese: The Empress of the Racnoss, bringing ChewingTheScenery to simply epic levels.

* Main/MissingTheGoodStuff

** Kind of the point, really - the writer's intention was to showcase the Doctor's extreme dark side during his time of grief, and it worked very well. It doesn't justify his actions, but he was hardly thinking completely straight. Besides, he ''[[DontMakeMeDestroyYou did]]'' [[spoiler: give the Racnoss Queen a chance, which she arrogantly shot down]].

* Main/SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: at the reception

The bride--one Donna Noble, of London--demands to be put back on Earth ''right now, damn it.'' She's getting married! Unfortunately, our old friends the pilot fish(see The Christmas Invasion) have come back to help the MonsterOfTheWeek and crash the wedding reception(held without Donna, who is rather indignant upon discovering this). She and her fiance, Lance, go along with the Doctor to help find out what's going on. They muck around together, get your mind out of the gutter, I mean running away from aliens, and it all comes to a head in a spiders nest inside a the Thames Flood Barrier. Turns out Donna's fiance was actually the Racnoss Empress' consort and had been feeding Donna huron particles in order to make her a catalyst and trigger a ship, which will carry Racnoss babies up to the surface of the earth - and, in the Empress' words, "Racnoss are born starving!" That's right, they would eat everything on Earth. The Doctor uses huron particle trickery to save his and Donna's lives and they rush off to work on defeating this new menace. The Empress decides that she'll need a new "key" - and lucky her, she has Lance right there! One of the pilot fish grabs Donna and drags her away. The Doctor realizes a bit too late to see where they go, and next thing we know, Donna and Lance are tied up in a web over the tunnel to the ship. The Empress messes with them for a bit, before she decides that she doesn't approve of Lance's treatment of Donna. So, like any sane, rational alien lady, she cuts him down - dropping him into the pit for her children. She monologues a bit, before turning and revealing one of the pilot fish as a masked Doctor, who gets Donna down from the web. Guess what? The Doctor has [[RunningGag *pockets!*]] The Doctor floods the nest (which turns out to have been the piece of rock that drew in enough space rubble to form the earth) but drains the Thames. Donna acknowledges that her husband was just using her for her huron-particle-catalyzing body and goes home, turning the Doctor's offer of traveling with him down and leaving him alone, but not before telling him he should find someone, because he needs somebody to stop him.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: The British tanks. How can you miss an object that big? Especially considering what goes up must come down – over densely populated London.

* Main/WebbedUpHuman

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: The British tanks. How can you miss an object that big? Especially considering what goes up must come down – over densely populated London.

The bride--one Donna Noble, of London--demands to be put back on Earth 'right now damn it.' She's getting married! Unfortunately, our old friends the pilot fish(see The Christmas Invasion) have come back to help the MonsterOfTheWeek and crash the wedding reception(held without Donna, who is rather indignant upon discovering this). She and her fiance, Lance, go along with the Doctor to help find out what's going on. They muck around together, get your mind out of the gutter, I mean running away from aliens, and it all comes to a head in a spiders nest inside a the Thames Flood Barrier. Turns out Donna's fiance was actually the Racnoss Empress' consort and had been feeding Donna huron particles in order to make her a catalyst and trigger a ship, which will carry Racnoss babies up to the surface of the earth - and, in the Empress' words, "Racnoss are born starving!" That's right, they would eat everything on Earth. The Doctor uses huron particle trickery to save his and Donna's lives and they rush off to work on defeating this new menace. The Empress decides that she'll need a new "key" - and lucky her, she has Lance right there! One of the pilot fish grabs Donna and drags her away. The Doctor realizes a bit too late to see where they go, and next thing we know, Donna and Lance are tied up in a web over the tunnel to the ship. The Empress messes with them for a bit, before she decides that she doesn't approve of Lance's treatment of Donna. So, like any sane, rational alien lady, she cuts him down - dropping him into the pit for her children. She monologues a bit, before turning and revealing one of the pilot fish as a masked Doctor, who gets Donna down from the web. Guess what? The Doctor has [[RunningGag *pockets!*]] The Doctor floods the nest (which turns out to have been the piece of rock that drew in enough space rubble to form the earth) but drains the Thames. Donna acknowledges that her husband was just using her for her huron-particle-catalyzing body and goes home, turning the Doctor's offer of traveling with him down and leaving him alone, but not before telling him he should find someone, because he needs somebody to stop him.

The bride--one Donna Noble, of London--demands to be put back on Earth ''right now damn it.'' They muck around together, get your mind out of the gutter, I mean running away from aliens, and it all comes to a head in a spiders nest inside a the Thames Flood Barrier. The Doctor floods the nest (which was at the center of the earth for whatever reason) but drains the Thames. Donna acknowledges that her husband was just using her to feed his spider friend and goes home, leaving the Doctor alone.

** Kind of the point, really - the writer's intention was to showcase the Doctor's extreme dark side during his time of grief, and it worked very well. It doesn't justify his actions, but he was hardly thinking completely straight. Besides, he ''did'' [[spoiler: give the Racnoss Queen a chance, which she arrogantly shot down]].

The bride--one Donna Noble, of London--demands to be put back on Earth ''right now damn it.'' They muck around together, get your mind out of the gutter, I mean running away from aliens, and it all comes to a head in a spiders nest inside a dam. The Doctor floods the nest (which was at the center of the earth for whatever reason) but drains the Thames. Donna acknowledges that her husband was just using her to feed his spider friend and goes home, leaving the Doctor alone.