Gordon and Donna were both excellent engineers. However whereas Gordon got a decent job as an engineer without much effort (assumed anyway as we begin the show with him already working as one) the same is not true for Donna who is 'stuck' in a more admin role being somewhat ignored by her boss and at times belittled clearly because she is female.
The main difference between Gordon and Donna is that she has a lot more 'drive' than he. Gordon was happy to settle as being 'just an engineer' hacking away on circuit boards and such whereas Donna always dreamed of more which we see with her character development over the seasons into business management and investment.
There are a few moments where Donna shows more 'outside the box' thinking in solving a problem such as space saving in the laptop they are designing for Cardiff, however I don't think that is enough to say she was superior to Gordon. I always saw them as equals in terms of technical ability but with Donna having ideas far beyond being an engineer whereas Gordon had that 'kid at heart' personality and would quickly lose interest in the higher level managerial aspects. Cameron's character was very similar to Gordon in that respect.
Breaking it down the four main characters have some very interesting overlap. Even Joe had good technical ability but was clearly the more 'visionary' character who used his technical understanding to try new things and push forward into new waters.
...Gordon was happy to settle as being 'just an engineer' hacking away on circuit boards and such whereas...
hmm, not exactly. Much earlier, Gordon had 'followed' his dream and done something which ended up not working out (think of it like starting a startup and it folded). That initiative basically left them broke and they had to depend on Donna's parents or something like that. So Donna/Gordon had an agreement that he would get a 'safe' job
True they tried some kind of startup with the Symphonic that failed. The failure of the Symphonic originally put Donna off working on the Giant at Cardiff but she quickly came around. After that thought Donna seemed the more driven of the two.
I guess it is kind of unfair of me to say Gordon "settled" as he was clearly still quite driven (getting involved with Joe's mainframe project, ARPANET/NSFNET, CalNect etc.) but his health issues forced him to prioritise his health and work/life balance.
Without a deep analysis into each character I guess I will leave it that my summation of Donna and Gordon leaves me feeling Donna was the more driven of the two however as Gordon's life was cut short it is impossible to really say. Donna had the opportunity to do so much more whereas Gordon did not both because of his health issues and ultimately his early passing.
And all of this has made me realise just how involved I got with the characters in this show. I am talking about them as if they were real people which is a little strange when I think about it but I think speaks volumes about just how great the show was :)
Yes, you're right, I should have called her by her name. It slipped my memory and I was not feeling motivated to search for it. Given the contributions she has in the show she is a person of her own beyond being "Gordon's Wife".
I wouldn't say that Gordon was a fool, since that would mean he was stupid. I don't think anyone on the show was stupid. He was constrained by his fears and insecurities. That was the major driver in many of the mistakes he made over the show.
Donna is presented as quite gifted and competent pretty much all the time, yes, but to say that Gordon isn't is a bit of an oversimplification.
Donna's genius is tempered and tamed; she spends most of season 1 being "The Adult" because she has to. Gordon is indeed presented as struggling both with being a doormat and lacking inspiration at times, even being saved by Donna's inspiration in some cases, but he more than makes up for it over time in the show. They don't stop (mostly unfairly) shitting on him throughout until maybe season 3 or thereabouts, however.
