Sylvia Noble
Sylvia Noble (née Mott) was the mother of Donna Noble and the daughter of Wilfred Mott.
Biography
Sylvia was the daughter of Eileen (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos) and Wilfred Mott, (TV: Partners in Crime) the wife of Geoff Noble and the mother of Donna Noble. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
Sylvia bought Donna a bottle of Odeur Delaware as a gift at Christmas 2001. (COMIC: The Widow's Curse)
On Monday 25 June 2007, Sylvia insisted that Donna apply to work as the secretary of Jival Chowdry, who Sylvia knew, rather than working as a temp at H.C. Clements. Donna refused, and got a job at H.C. Clements. (TV: Turn Left)
At Christmas 2007, she attended her daughter's unsuccessful wedding to Lance Bennett. She did not believe Donna when she returned for the reception, but the party was soon attacked by Robot Santas and killer Christmas trees. According to her daughter, Sylvia cooked enough for twenty every Christmas. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
In 2008, Sylvia lost her husband. Subsequently, Donna moved back at home with her mother and grandfather. Sylvia tried to persuade Donna to get a job and find a place of their own. In 2009, during a night out with her friends at De Rossi's, one of them, Suzette Chambers, started producing Adipose infants. Along with other passers-by, Sylvia saw the nursery ship picking up the infant creatures. (TV: Partners in Crime)
Encounters with the Doctor
When Donna briefly returned to her family, she chose not to tell Sylvia she was travelling with the Doctor. However, Sylvia met the Tenth Doctor again just before she saved her father from suffocating in her car by smashing the front window with an axe. She made it clear she didn't like him as she blamed him for what happened at the wedding and thought he had "blown up the car" upon activating the ATMOS placed in it. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky)
Some time later, the Doctor showed up at her door, intending to take Wilf on an adventure to investigate the Wild Pastures Rest Home. Seeking respite for a sprained ankle, she browbeat him into taking her instead after seeing the nursing home's brochure, believing she was in for a tranquil holiday. She was checked in as a resident, while the Doctor posed as 'Nurse Smith'. The Doctor disappeared for a week, but Sylvia lost track of time, believing him only gone for a day, whilst slowly coming to the realisation that there was something wrong with the other patients - and that something was being done to her as well.
When she discovered him trapped in a secret basement along with an alien plant, she was drawn to touching the plant. When the Doctor came into the contact with the plant instead, and began to experience intermittent lucidity, she had to act as his de facto carer. They discovered that the rest home's residents were being harvested for their memories and life experiences. Whilst the Doctor was incapacitated, Sylvia made the decision to spray the harvested life essences into the clone nurses, giving the residents a new lease on life and severely cutting into the profits of the rest home's alien owners. She also disposed of the plant with weed killer, but chose to keep this from the Doctor when he came around a few days later. Together they left the rest home. (AUDIO: Wild Pastures)
Medusa Cascade incident
When the Earth was moved to the Medusa Cascade, her father told Sylvia to stay inside as it was "the women" the aliens always wanted. Sylvia went out and with Wilf, witnessed the Daleks killing an entire family in their own house using total extermination. In a bid to escape, Wilf, armed with a paint gun, fled from the Daleks with a hesitant Sylvia, but they were stopped by a Dalek scout. Wilf tried to disable its eyestalk with a paint gun, but the Dalek melted the paint away. Sylvia told her dad to leave it. When the Dalek was about to exterminate them, Rose Tyler saved them by blowing the Dalek in half. Rose had been trying to find them to locate Donna. Sylvia and Wilf took Rose to their house and Sylvia was shocked when Wilf said "Donna phoned last time from the planet Midnight". Sylvia had not figured out Donna was travelling with the Doctor across the stars and it took her father to open her eyes. When the subwave network broadcast came from Harriet Jones, Rose was unable to participate because of lack of a webcam, which Wilf said was because Sylvia thought they were naughty.
Harriet Jones, Torchwood Three, Sarah Jane Smith and Martha Jones sent a signal to the Doctor using the subwave signal and a telephone number as the message. Sylvia and Wilf contributed to sending the signal out with their own mobile phones. When contact was made with the TARDIS, Rose asked them to wish her luck and vanished from Sylvia's living room in a bright flash. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
Sylvia was relieved when the Earth was returned to the solar system. She was resentful of the Tenth Doctor for wiping Donna's mind after the human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis and asked him to leave their home. After these events, she had a much healthier relationship with her daughter, as in her eyes, Donna was still the most important woman in the universe. (TV: Journey's End)
Later life
Sylvia and Wilf never mentioned the Doctor to Donna. It was not till Christmas Day 2009 that she saw the Doctor again, when he was chasing his old enemy, the Saxon Master. She was mad when she saw him. Wilf joined him in battling the Master rather than face her wrath. Later that day, when the Master took control of the Immortality Gate, she became a member of the Master Race. When Sylvia returned to normal, she watched as Gallifrey appeared in the Earth's sky and was then sent back by the Doctor. Sylvia finally accepted the Doctor, even praying for his help when Gallifrey appeared. When the Doctor returned Wilf home, she smiled at the Doctor, mildly scaring him.
Sylvia later attended Donna's wedding to Shaun Temple and with Wilf said farewell to the Doctor. The Doctor gave them a winning lottery ticket as a wedding gift for Donna, securing their financial future. When Sylvia learned he had got the money for the ticket from her husband Geoff, she was shocked and touched by his actions, gaining more respect for him. (TV: The End of Time)
Parallel world
In a parallel world, Sylvia's hectoring Donna to work for Jival Chowdry succeeded. Donna never went to work at H.C. Clements and the circumstances which led to her meeting the Doctor never occurred; as a result of this, the Doctor didn't survive his encounter with the Racnoss and various catastrophes he had stopped in the original timeline weren't averted.
Sylvia despaired when her husband Geoff Noble became ill and died. While at a hotel for a Christmas country holiday, Sylvia told her daughter how Donna's father would have loved the place they were staying in. Before long, (as the Doctor wasn't alive to prevent it as in the original timeline) the Titanic crashed into London and obliterated it, killing everyone in the city. The Nobles were forced to move to Leeds, where a huge relocation scheme was running. Southern England was flooded with radiation and conditions became much harsher as Donna and her family shared a house with Rocco Colasanto's family. Sylvia slipped deeper and deeper into depression, thinking each day of someone she knew in London who was now dead, although she managed to occasionally do things like joining in group singing of "Bohemian Rhapsody". As Sylvia's depression worsened, Donna asked if she had always been a disappointment in her mother's eyes, and Sylvia just answered, "Yeah".
This version of Sylvia was erased from history when Donna's parallel timeline was negated. (TV: Turn Left)
Personality
Sylvia was bossy. She liked things her way and was rarely tactful, often insulting or condescending when speaking to her father or daughter. She seemed depressed after her husband's death and did not act as if she valued the rest of her family very much. In particular, the Doctor asserted that she had been neglectful to Donna, never telling her she was important or special, and contributing to Donna developing an inferiority complex, viewing herself as "just a temp". (TV: Journey's End)
She tended to be very practical and had a hard time believing in aliens, even when presented with very obvious encounters. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
Sylvia deeply mistrusted and disliked the Doctor due to his actions at Donna's wedding to Lance. (TV: The Runaway Bride) She was similarly annoyed when the Doctor reprimanded her for her neglectful attitude towards Donna, kicking him out of the house in response. However, her attitude towards him later changed. She prayed for his help when Gallifrey appeared in the sky. His saving the world again apparently changed her attitude towards him as she gave him a smile when he returned Wilfred home and was very nice to him at Donna's second wedding, even being deeply touched by his actions to help them out. (TV: The End of Time)
Behind the scenes
- Sylvia was dubbed in German by voice actor Karin Buchali.
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