mrv3000 | On Martha Jones.

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On Martha Jones.

Some babble about Martha after watching Blink. Okay, a lot of babble.

I remember when they announced the character of Martha – it was in the week between Army of Ghosts and Doomsday, right when we were all speculating Rose was going to die. Oh, I was pissed. Talk about wretched timing – "Yeah, you're all stressing about a beloved character maybe dying since we heavily implied that in the promo, but who the fuck cares? Here's the new and shiny that you must instantly love."

Right.

But as S3 got closer, I started psyching myself up. Horrible press timing was no reason to dislike a character. And it was NOT the actor or the character's fault that BP decided to take a hike.

I went through SG-1 fandom back when Jonas replaced Daniel for a year. And it was UGLY. Looking back on it, I think I embraced Jonas *just* because there was this giant faction that was bemoaning the loss of Daniel. And I was not in that faction. Oh, Jonas was an okay character, but I like Daniel better – something you could not say back then without getting a label slapped on you. If you liked Daniel and wanted him back, then you were one of those insane Danielites or...Denialites.

So this time around I was determined to give Martha several episodes and keep an open mind as possible. I believe Freema said something to the effect of "I hope people will give me a chance," which is really only fair. So there was some mental bracing to not only *not* dismiss Martha offhand because she wasn't Rose, but to also not go too far in the other direction where I gave her too much credit simply because I didn't want a label slapped on me. Also, I have no drive to give my devotion to a character just because they happen to be what's on now. Just because companions change, does not mean I *must* love the new/current companion – there are a few in classic Who I'm not a fan of. Same with the Doctor – if DT had annoyed me, I'd be long gone from this show.

We'd heard the "unrequited love" premise about Martha beforehand, and I was completely miffed. I really did not want this kind of a story arc in S3. Not sure if it really swayed me in either direction with her before the series though, because much of the time I was thinking it wasn't really fair of them to saddle this character with that. Probably because I wanted Martha to be a shoulder to lean on for the Doctor instead of this. Because to me, the fact that the love was unrequited seemed to say to me it'd only be used to prop up the Doctor's love for Rose. And...I don't need a character to do that. Not on my account, anyway.

So Smith & Jones rolled around. I thought she was cool and was impressed by her, but I did have a comment back then: Martha! She was great! (Although she does need to be given a bit more depth, but I'm sure that will come. It's only her 1st ep.) Well...after ten episodes, she still hasn't been given very much depth. We know the basics about her – family, med school, and so on, but I still couldn't tell you what drives her. Her motivation for travelling with the Doctor seemed to be her crush/love/he's-my-everything and that's basically it. (And the "love" itself seemed a bit sketchy since I couldn't understand why she was this way with someone who ignored her.) Of course, in Blink, she's stuck with the Doctor and is really pissed about it, saying she wants to get back to the stars like he promised. So...I might have been able to take that love thing as her motivation before, but I seriously do *not* know where Martha's coming from at this point. And what about med school? Does she plan on getting back to that? Or is she forever gone from that life? Or...what?

To me Martha still hasn't been defined. There's no one thing that she's done that I could point to and say, "that's *totally* Martha" instead of "that's *totally* a competent companion." Unless you want to point to the unrequited love stuff. And that's just a really bad thing to have a character be notable for, so I'd rather not.

And then there's Freema. Bless her heart, she just does not have the acting depth that CE, BP and DT have. I look at her and I often get "this is my happy face," "this is my sad face" and so on. I'm just not seeing anything behind the basics. I can't look at her expression and read a million things. And maybe I'm just noticing it more since DT is in the middle of acting his ass off this series.

So why am I saying this all now? I think pondering all this happened when I watched Blink. I liked Martha in this episode probably the best out of the entire series, and then realized she only had about three lines.

Her probation period with me is done. I do not hate Martha. I do not love Martha. She has her awesome competent companion moments which I cheer. And she has her moody "love me" moments which I despise. When all is said and done with Martha, I doubt she'll make my Top Ten Companions list. Or my Bottom Ten. And any time she annoys me in this series or the next, all I have to say to myself is, "She's not Peri."

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And any time she annoys me in this series or the next, all I have to say to myself is, "She's not Peri."

BWAH!!! Amen to that, no one's as bad as Peri, although Mel comes darn close for me.

Yeah, Mel's pretty far down there. :D But at least Mel *tries*. And seems to understand words. Sentences. Life...

Oh, Peri. At least you ran off with a warlord where you will have stupid, STUPID children.

Although she does need to be given a bit more depth, but I'm sure that will come. It's only her 1st ep

I kept telling myself that ep after ep, but after a while, that stopped being a good enough excuse. I mean, they've proven over the course of almost three series that they are capable of creating fully fleshed out, fully realized characters in the time period of one or two episodes. My problem with Martha is that besides her job, and generic attributes like "brave" or "clever" which could be applied to any companion, who is she? What is the why of Martha? So far we know 1) She's going to be a doctor; 2) She's in love with/crushing on/infatuated with the Doctor; and 3) She makes a pretty good companion. But besides that? Nada.

With Rose in series one and two, I felt like she was a lead character in her own right. Martha feels more like a secondary character whose purpose is to prop up the Doctor's characterization. But then I think of Jackie and Mickey and how they already had more depth and development by their second appearance than Martha's had all season. And what are Martha's flaws? I feel like they've maybe given us hints, but nothing definitive. Right now, to me at least, she's still Generic Companion #43. I like her, but if she left, I don't think I'd really mind.

I mean, they've proven over the course of almost three series that they are capable of creating fully fleshed out, fully realized characters in the time period of one or two episodes.

Yup. And I'm not sure *why* they've done this with Martha.

My problem with Martha is that besides her job, and generic attributes like "brave" or "clever" which could be applied to any companion, who is she? What is the why of Martha? So far we know 1) She's going to be a doctor; 2) She's in love with/crushing on/infatuated with the Doctor; and 3) She makes a pretty good companion. But besides that? Nada.

Right. Her character so far is bullet points.

With Rose in series one and two, I felt like she was a lead character in her own right. Martha feels more like a secondary character whose purpose is to prop up the Doctor's characterization. But then I think of Jackie and Mickey and how they already had more depth and development by their second appearance than Martha's had all season. And what are Martha's flaws? I feel like they've maybe given us hints, but nothing definitive. Right now, to me at least, she's still Generic Companion #43. I like her, but if she left, I don't think I'd really mind.

I thought for a while that maybe they were just wanting to get back to focusing on the Doctor. Really doing the Doctor and companion thing again. Like you said - a main character and a secondary character instead of two main characters. But I also believe like you said that Jackie and Mickey got more depth and attention by the Aliens of London/WWIII arc than Martha has yet. So...

I gotta say, it is a bit of a disappointment. From almost the beginning, S1 gave us these very rich characters. But now a lot is on the surface. Eh, maybe they *do* want all the focus on the Doctor this series.

Yeah. I saw some of the route 'Martha is awesome' comments in episode reviews for Blink and HOW could you TELL? I mean, come ON, we have (it dawns on me), three episodes left. THREE. And who is Martha Jones? I honestly mean that. I have no idea what motivates her. None. Either that means she is not long for this show or she IS and will get character development at a glacial pace or this is all deliberate. I have no idea.

Yeah, I haven't got a clue either. I just know that whether intentional or accidental, the keeping of Martha as this very surface-y character has pretty much made me write her off. I just don't *care* about her all that much. Oh, I wouldn't want to see her die, but if she jumped ship tomorrow it'd be like, "well, see ya, I suppose."

Well, I started to reply to this and it quickly became clear that my response was going to be longer than the original post so I'm starting again, boiling it down to the important bits. First off, WORD to pretty much everything you say, I'm just expanding on a couple topics.

There are just a couple of places, where the structure around Martha's character has really hurt her. I think "Rose" did a better job of establishing who Rose, Jackie, and Mickey are than "Smith and Jones" did establishing who Martha is, much less her family. Because we truly got to see "Rose" through Rose's eyes, we learned little things about her and her life that Martha is completely without. Just little flecks of character knowledge, like Rose had to repeatedly remind Jackie to nail the cat flap down that carry a lot towards knowing who the person is pr at least showing them to be real, and we still never get those moments with Martha, like Rose's odd knowledge of Union Jack verses Union Flag because her mum went out with a sailor. Does Martha like chips? What sort of friends does Martha have? What's her romantic history like? We knew these things about Rose very early on, what do we know about Martha?

And then there's Martha's family. They aren't real, they aren't developed characters, Martha doesn't talk about her family or her life back home Leo and Tish are just there, dad and dad's girlfriend are barely that, Francine is at least tied in with the plot, but we don't know anything about her other that she'd rather bring her son as a guest than attend social events alone. Jackie and Mickey were *real*, they had developed characters, we could understand why the acted certain ways, even when they were wild. In the Doomsday commentary, DT and BP mention that the extended family of Jackie, Mickey, and even Pete are so often mentioned, that that they feel like more of a part of the show even than they were; can't say that about the Jones crew.

We knew these things about Rose very early on, what do we know about Martha?

Yes, exactly. It's the stuff in between that fills out a character - really makes them "live." We've gotten highlights of Martha. A sort of "Here's what you really need to know, and...GO."

And then there's Martha's family. They aren't real, they aren't developed characters, Martha doesn't talk about her family or her life back home Leo and Tish are just there, dad and dad's girlfriend are barely that, Francine is at least tied in with the plot, but we don't know anything about her other that she'd rather bring her son as a guest than attend social events alone. Jackie and Mickey were *real*, they had developed characters, we could understand why the acted certain ways, even when they were wild. In the Doomsday commentary, DT and BP mention that the extended family of Jackie, Mickey, and even Pete are so often mentioned, that that they feel like more of a part of the show even than they were; can't say that about the Jones crew.

Yup, that's very true. So very much involved Rose's world vs. the Doctor's world, that we got to know each very well. And the mentions and so on - like you said, "mum went out with a sailor" - just kept adding to those characters and that world.

It's strange. Here Martha was the one deeply ingrained in her family (per Smith & Jones), while Rose seemed to be looking for a way out of that life. But yet you always saw how tied Rose was to her mother and Mickey - she still loved them, but was in the process of going off in a different direction. Martha on the other hand - you've just got no idea if she even thinks about her family. She called her mother once, but only because she thought she was going to die.

I wasn't too sure what to think of Martha's character when I first heard that she was going to be the new companion. And I'm pretty sure that had to do with the whole waiting to see how Rose would be separated from the Doctor. I wasn't thrilled about a new companion but the show goes on so I tried to like the character. And I did... at least in Smith and Jones. After that I became just a tad bit annoyed with the unrequited thing.

Probably because I wanted Martha to be a shoulder to lean on for the Doctor instead of this.

Yep. That's what I would have wanted. Friendship is what the Doctor needed and still needs after losing Rose. Like Donna says he needs someone to stop him.

To me Martha still hasn't been defined

Facts are really all we know at this point. We know what she was training to become and we know about her family but not her really. Maybe more of her character will come out in the final episodes?... we'll see.

When all is said and done with Martha, I doubt she'll make my Top Ten Companions list. Or my Bottom Ten.

I only really know 2 companions (Rose and Martha) .... well actually 5 if you count (Mickey, Sarah Jane and Captain Jack) and at this point it wouldn't be too upset if she left or if she stayed for another year. If she stays for another year I hope we get back to the Martha of episode 1 and that the "crush" is done with.

Oh and I so hope that she finds out what actually happened to Rose because maybe then she'd get an idea as to why the Doctor is the way he is and why "he doesn't even see [her]."

And any time she annoys me in this series or the next, all I have to say to myself is, "She's not Peri."

I don't know much about the Classic series. Was Peri really that bad? And with which Doctor did she travel with so as to either avoid or check out one episode at least. ^_^

After that I became just a tad bit annoyed with the unrequited thing.

I could probably write a meta on that - it could have been played a whole lot differently so that I could have been sympathetic to Martha about it. But the writing and the acting during those moments only left me rolling my eyes.

If she stays for another year I hope we get back to the Martha of episode 1 and that the "crush" is done with.

Amen.

I don't know much about the Classic series. Was Peri really that bad? And with which Doctor did she travel with so as to either avoid or check out one episode at least. ^_^

Peri's...Peri. How do I describe Peri? She was dumb as a brick and would whine *constantly.* Come to think of it, not sure she ever said anything that wasn't a whine. She was basically added to Who to wear low-cut tops. She started with Five and went through a regeneration to Six. My own personal canon for why Six's personality is in a constant annoyed state, is because he regenerated while with Peri. *pets personal canon*

You know, I have seen ALLLLLL these comments to the effect that Martha is the awesomest companion that ever awesomed, and while I don't dislike her, and she *does* have her awesome moments, mostly? I'm not seeing it. So I'm left staring at the screen wondering if these people are getting extra episodes or something because I have no idea where they got that from.

There's this comic book character who's basically been re-written to have a new origin story about 10 times, which is only maybe an exaggeration. So they finally had a comic miniseries titles, "Who Is Donna Troy?" in an attempt to pull all the disparate stories together. Mind you, this is a character who'd been around for 20 years in real time, although of course in comic time it was much less. And I kind of feel that way about Martha; she's been with us for a really long time in Wholand, and I'm still asking the question: Who are you, Martha Jones? Except that at least with Donna, there was all kinds of backstory, it's just that a lot of it was contradictory. We've still got next to nothing for Martha.

And OK, it's late and I have no idea whether that last paragraph even made sense, so I'm going to bed now and will hope that it does make sense.

Well, I'm sitting here thinking that I could slip in, say, Sarah Jane or Romana or Tegan into Martha's place and not even bat an eye. ('cept for the unrequited love stuff, of course.) They could say those lines and do those actions and have the same outcome.

But with Sarah Jane, Romana and Tegan, I *get* those characters. I know where they're coming from and what their internal drives are. And I don't think it's because I've watched so many more episodes with them either. For Romana I've seen 15 episodes, but Sarah Jane and Tegan I've only seen 11 for each. And this is from character-development-lite classic Who and where companion's families were hardly even mentioned.

See, this is why Steve Moffat rules all. He should have been hired to write Martha all series. I have nothing else to add, everyone's already said it!

She definitely could have used his skill. He makes simple guest characters really come alive.

That's exactly why I suspect she's been brought on board with a very limited and clearly defined role. Everything they've done with her seems to be discouraging us from making an emotional investment in the character.

I know her agent's said publicly that she hasn't been sacked. But she may have only been hired for one series in the first place. That would make sense.

And wasn't it typical that the only line of dialogue she seemed to have in "Blink" was a whiney, "I've had to get a job to support him." What happened to "Stuck with you, that's not so bad?"

And wasn't it typical that the only line of dialogue she seemed to have in "Blink" was a whiney, "I've had to get a job to support him." What happened to "Stuck with you, that's not so bad?"

LOL! Because, unlike Rose, the idea of being stuck with him in a "normal" place and time for good isn't so appealing to Martha. She's hung up in the romanticism of the Doctor. I found Rose always kept a clearer head when it came to the Doctor. Sure he's an alien who travels in time and space, but he isn't perfect and he needs to be told when he's stuffed up.

I'm hoping the being stuck with him will have shaken Martha out of her infatuation and in the final three eps she'll get better. Or at the very least Capt. Jack wakes her up to what she's been avoiding asking about.

She's hung up in the romanticism of the Doctor.

Yes, I think that is VERY much it. She's fangirling him like mad, but only if he's this awesome Time Lord who can zip her around the stars. When she's stuck with him in mundane life, not so much.

That's exactly why I suspect she's been brought on board with a very limited and clearly defined role. Everything they've done with her seems to be discouraging us from making an emotional investment in the character.

You really have to wonder. It seems so *clumsy* otherwise.

I know her agent's said publicly that she hasn't been sacked. But she may have only been hired for one series in the first place. That would make sense.

Yeah, who knows. I really wouldn't be sad to see her go if she left at the end of this series.

And wasn't it typical that the only line of dialogue she seemed to have in "Blink" was a whiney, "I've had to get a job to support him." What happened to "Stuck with you, that's not so bad?"

Yeah, I noticed that. Not only "stuck with you, that's not so bad" but "he's my everything?" Well...maybe he's her everything, but only if he can whisk her around on exciting adventures?

Basically, I just wanted to say I agree with everything you said here. I still have a lot to see of the third series, but of what I have seen, I just don't understand what the point of Martha is. I've said this before, but I'm still disappointed that Martha's character didn't end up being more of a friend, someone the Doctor could confide in. I think you're right that the plot and direction of this series is appearing to dictate that the Doctor has to be adrift now, in order to continue on this dark, angsty path of his. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Another thing that bugs me a lot, for some reason, is the fact that they made Martha out to be this hardworking medical student, without any real examples of this throughout the whole series. Why did they even introduce that as a part of her background, when she's used her skills, once? Maybe, twice? As someone who has worked really hard at my studies and is currently doing all I can to get into the career field I love, I kind of resent the fact that Martha has just blown her career goals off like that, like they meant nothing at all. Did she go to medical school, in order to appease her mother? Because that could've been something interesting to explore about Martha's intentions and character, but somehow I doubt the writers cared to delve that far into her psyche. (Please correct me if I'm wrong, but Martha really hasn't used and/or talked much about her medical skills/expertise? Right?)

I really wanted to give Martha a chance, because even though I miss Rose and I want her back with the Doctor, I was also willing to watch the Doctor travelling with someone else. As long as that someone else actually contributed something important and different to the show, but that doesn't really appear to have happened. (I can't believe how much I wish that Donna had said yes to the Doctor at the end of TRB. Seriously? For all her annoying quirks, she really would've been a good influence on the Doctor and wouldn't have let him get away with everything.)

I think you're right that the plot and direction of this series is appearing to dictate that the Doctor has to be adrift now, in order to continue on this dark, angsty path of his. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Yup, ditto. I pretty well hate it. Hate that they've made the Doctor go this far. But I suppose I can see the framework for it all.

Why did they even introduce that as a part of her background, when she's used her skills, once? Maybe, twice?

It really has been pretty much wasted. You'd think that would have made Martha really interested in medicine in different eras.

As someone who has worked really hard at my studies and is currently doing all I can to get into the career field I love, I kind of resent the fact that Martha has just blown her career goals off like that, like they meant nothing at all. Did she go to medical school, in order to appease her mother? Because that could've been something interesting to explore about Martha's intentions and character, but somehow I doubt the writers cared to delve that far into her psyche.

It really is frustrating because they *haven't* given us anything about this. It looks like Martha's blown everything off. But yet I think she said she's becoming a Doctor, so it's not been completely blown off...or something.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong, but Martha really hasn't used and/or talked much about her medical skills/expertise? Right?)

I seem to recall her helping people in the Dalek episode, and when she talked about hand bones to Joan, but other than that, I really can't think of anything.

(I can't believe how much I wish that Donna had said yes to the Doctor at the end of TRB. Seriously? For all her annoying quirks, she really would've been a good influence on the Doctor and wouldn't have let him get away with everything.)

I did not really care for Donna in TRB, but I'm thinking she would have been much better for the Doctor, just because she immediately saw the badness going down. Of course, Donna was also smart since she realized she wouldn't be able to really do anything about the badness.

Yup, ditto. I pretty well hate it. Hate that they've made the Doctor go this far.

I know this dark direction for the Doctor doesn't sit well with me, especially after having a dream the other night where I watched the Doctor reach his hand inside someone's head and pull out their brain? some sort of glowy bits? and act like it was no big deal. He even says, (in my dream), "It had to be done," with this cold, detached tone in his voice. There was someone else standing next to me in the dream and both of us were just going "WTF?!"

*cough* Yah, I might be taking this a bit too seriously. *crossing my fingers that Emo!Dark!Doctor goes away soon and/or finds something to bring a little bit of light back into his everyday life.

Yeah, he's getting a bit...Cybermanish. Or Dalekish.

Yep. And that is so wrong and hard to watch.

*poor Doctor*

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