Doctor Who: Did we need Martha?

[butterfly]

Because Russell T Davies seemed to feel that the show needed to have a character who would fall in (unrequited) love with the Doctor, thus illustrating the difference between Rose and everyone else. Did it?

In some superficial ways, Martha is quite a lot like Rose -- pretty, clever Londoner girls, both of them. They even get some echo dialogue in the early episodes. The show puts them in comparable situations frequently. There are both parallels to draw and contrasts to mark.

Mostly, though, there's the Doctor.

I wasn't surprised about Martha's emotional arc. And, though it was heavy-handed at times ("He had to fall in love with a human... and it wasn't me."), I actually do agree with RTD that it was necessary. In order to establish someone as One Thing, you need to establish someone else as Other Thing. And, in this particular context, he wanted to make a distinction between one character and the entire history and future of characters to come.

Yes -- Martha was, in part, all about how special Rose was. Which sucks if you hate Rose. If you hate Rose Tyler, then a series of television that is basically saying, "Yeah, that blonde chick? One of a kind," is pretty much guaranteed to piss you off (and, of course, to the person desperately missing Rose, having episode after episode point out how irreplaceable she was is hardly going to help in the process of getting over her).

But... as the show makes very, very clear -- Rose isn't special in the ultimate 'best person ever' way. She's special in the 'best person for this one specific character/relationship' way. The Doctor writes out that she's 'perfect Rose' and, to him, she is. Now, was Rose actually portrayed as a 'perfect' character?

*bursts out laughing*

She could be petty and jealous. She wandered off. She had a tendency to throw herself into dangerous situations for personal reasons. She nearly destroyed the world because she couldn't listen to instructions. Rose Tyler was flawed.

In a lot of ways, Martha is a 'better' person. Higher class (which matters to some people). More education. Better at staying put and following instructions. Tends to do the right thing. Not so apt to get into trouble. Again, not a perfect person (she, too, had the flaw of 'jealousy'), but from an objective standpoint, probably a better bet to make. But, as they say, the heart has reasons that reason cannot know.

Now, Martha is not the first time that New Who made the distinction between Rose and Other Companions. In fact, every time that the Doctor took on someone else, it was made clear that the Doctor and Rose were a unit and other folk were nice but not necessary (something that Jack took much more easily than Mickey). Rose is the person who invites Adam and Jack on board and is also clearly the impetus for the Doctor inviting Sarah Jane on board.

There are two pre-S3 examples of the difference between Rose and Everyone Else. The first is in The Parting of the Ways, when the Doctor sends Rose home, keeps her out of danger, while everyone else is involved in the fighting (made very clear when he calls her over to help him with the wiring and takes her out of the 'active fighter' count). The second is in School Reunion and the conversation in the street that ends with the Doctor telling Rose that she won't be left behind and very nearly telling her that he loves her ("Imagine watching that happen to someone you-").

And SR, of course, has Sarah Jane -- who serves as our stand-in for Old School Companions. The Doctor very clearly has both admiration and affection for Sarah Jane (just as he does for Martha), but he's utterly thrown by the notion that he was her 'life' and that she couldn't move on without him (we see this echoed when Martha says that the Doctor is 'everything' to her, while she's basically a side-note to him -- a fun, smart, lovable side-note, but a side-note nonetheless). And both Sarah Jane and Martha have to choose to say good-bye to the Doctor in order to start getting over him.

Back when S3 was first airing, I pondered the notion that RTD was using Martha to 'ramp down' from the idea of the Doctor as a sexual/romantic person. Grace was the ramp up, a person that the Doctor was interested in who liked him not his life; Rose was the bridge (the apex; the climax; the transformation), someone he adored who adored both him and the life he offered; and Martha was someone who liked the life he offered, thought he was attractive, but didn't seem to know or like him very much as a person. Going right from Grace and Rose to a Doctor/companion relationship that was completely lacking in romance/sexuality would either be a bit of a harsh break or possibly lead to confusion. So, in order to make his divisions clear, RTD put in an intermediary position where the Doctor was clearly still a sexual/romantic figure ('lost prince') but had no interest in pursuing sex or romance (and I find it so fascinating that both of the 'unsuitable' choices were doctors -- it may show that the Doctor needs someone who complements him, not someone who echoes him).

RTD appears to believe that Martha was a necessary character to show the difference between Rose and the rest of the Doctor's companions. In balance, though I think her part could have been more strongly written, I agree.

ETA: In the end, I think the real problem with Martha is that they only had a six-episode story to tell with her (Smith & Jones through Gridlock and Utopia through Last of the Time Lords). She would have worked better if she hadn't stayed the whole season.

Comments

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

Woah, there. "Rose and everyone else"?

See, that's exactly what gives your ship a bad rep, this lumping of "Special!Perfect!Rose" vs. "Everyone else", which inevitably leads to a disregard towards "everyone else", and look, there's Martha, conveniently not-Rose. So that, you know, RTD might have been aiming to use her to show us how special Doctor/Rose was, but that is not a good thing. You point it out yourself. It's all good and nice to write the Special One True Love if you're doing it in your own little Sue-fic; it's not when you're doing it for a television show with an audience of millions. Some of them are just bound to dislike your Special One, and getting repeatedly hit over the head with her specialness, at the expense of a character they like better, just singles out how sloppy a writer you are.

Dw does make a distinction between Rose and other companions, and that's a bad thing. Because it doesn't make the distinction shown, it tells us about it. The Doctor doesn't really act any different towards Rose - you watch any episode of Four with Sarah Jane, Three with Jo or Seven with Ace, it's clear as daylight - and yet we're constantly told that Rose is Special. We're placed in a really awkward place where we're pretty much told, this is the True Love, you have to approve of her, you have to love her, and you have to give up any hope of seeing - or of having seen - anyone else in that position.

Now, being a minority of sorts, a student and "higher class", and being uninterested in romantic adventures with David Tennant, Martha served as much better identification for me than Rose. I rather like the idea that you don't have to be uneducated but plucky and true-hearted to be a hero and loved as a hero. But then I'm told, oh no, not you, only the Mythological Blonde. All those other characters whom I cared for more, for whatever reason - Sarah Jane, Romana, Ace - can only hope to get lumped as "everyone else". Future companions? Don't get invested, can't measure up. See what I'm getting at with the sloppy writing angle? It's a very effective job done of alienating any of your audience who happen to not see Rose Tyler as the end-all of Who.

So basically, yes, your argument is correct, but that doesn't reflect badly on the writing of Martha - it reflects badly on the writing of Rose.

[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

"Rose and everyone else," versus "Martha and everyone else," what's the difference? There are just as many Martha fans who like to see her as the ne plus ultra of companions, and insist that she's the most awesomest of awesome ever, regardless of how this assertion is or isn't backed up in text.

I don't think making a sharp breaking point between Rose and the classic series companions was avoidable, given how radically different the portrayal of the Doctor/Companion relationship was from how they'd previously been shown. Some of it is probably attributable directly to the Doctor's state of mind when he met Rose, versus anything inherent in Rose herself. The Time War had changed him radically and irrevocably.

Do I think the writers did Martha a disservice by essentially using her as a case study of 'No, not every regular companion from now on is going to be a romantic interest for the Doctor'? Absolutely. I was really, really looking forward to having a Liz Shaw (or even Zoe) type as the new companion based on the way Martha was being talked about before the series started. What they promised and what they delivered were two radically different things. I don't think Martha had to be in wub with the Doctor to have done the things she did: in fact, I think the unrequited love angle diminished her character significantly. And I think the whole whiny-teenager manner in which the unrequited love story was played is what turned a whole lot of people off to the character.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Trying to justify yourself by attacking other fans is not helping your case.

[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

As opposed to y'all coming in and telling people who like Rose that they're insane? My point is that there are people who are fans of almost every companion who like to think that there is companion is 'OMG the bestest evah!' and that there's very little that can be said to dissuade them, because it's their strong personal belief.

I don't think Rose is the absolute best companion the Doctor's ever had. I adore old-school-style companions like Ace (nice icon), Romana (I'm partial to Romana I, actually), Tegan (you wanna talk about somebody who didn't put up with the Doctor's crap?), Leela... the list goes on. But there's a big difference between saying that other companions have been wonderful too, and denying what RTD's written because you don't happen to like it. I know that if we have another series of the Doctor doing everything save chucking himself under a bus over his Rose/Gallifrey/Master angst (not necessarily in that order), I don't know how much of the audience they're going to retain. I certainly hope they're going somewhere with this, that doesn't involve some handwaving to just act like his depressive period - for lack of a better term - never happened.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

The difference is that if there are such batshit Martha fans, they're very very quiet. Been on Teaspoon lately? How many fics have you seen in which the Doctor asserts that everyone except Martha was "just an assisant" and runs back to Earth to tell her "I love you" ten million times then settle down with her and have three pairs of twins?

The whole point is that the Doctor/companion relationship isn't different. Not according to what we actually see on-screen anyway - just according to the producer glorifying his pet companion. You've obviously seen Old Skool serials - what's so different about Rose's treatment then? You can't seriously claim that the Doctor never hugged a companion before? Never held hands? Never tried to keep them out of danger, sacrificed for them, wished they'd stayed forever, was broken when they left? Hell - Rose isn't even the first companion he kissed! The relationship is no different from what he had with Jamie, Jo, Sarah, Romana, Nyssa, Ace, Grace, the list goes on. It's just that this time, there are a little more violins in the background, and Tennant acts over the top, and RTD makes statements, and for some reason, fans who have never seen "The Green Death", "The Curse of Fenric", "City of Death", "The War Games" etc. are buying it.

The writers did not use Martha as a case study of no-romantic-interest; every darn character on the show is somehow in love with the Doctor, and Martha was a case study of how the Doctor can be a bitch about it. You're very right - the urequited love angle was done horribly, it's just not only a factor of the writing of Martha, it's also a factor of Rose-as-RTD's-pet.

[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

If you think the rabid Martha fans have been quiet, you obviously haven't spent much time on any of the remotely Martha-oriented communities, or suffered from a bunch of them decamping to your journal and heaping personal abuse upon you for being a fan of Rose. I've witnessed these things personally.

Picking particularly poor examples of crap!fic on Teaspoon as the justification for painting the entire community of Who fans who happen to like Rose as nuts is patently unfair, and I'm not interested in playing that game with you.

You and I have clearly been watching a different show for the past 27 years or so if you think the way Rose has been portrayed is identical to how previous Doctor/Companion relationships have been. If you'd prefer to think that David Tennant playing the Doctor as being in love with Rose is overacting, then that's your prerogative.

What this essentially boils down to, for me, is that if you don't like the person playing the Doctor, you don't like the writers of the show, and hate the companion that's had the most significant role in New Who so far, then why are you watching it? More importantly, why do people feel the need to watch it, dislike it, and then versus complaining to the people making the show where it might actually have some impact, they'd rather hound people who have the temerity to like the show largely as written?

This isn't to say I don't have criticisms for the way certain issues have been handled in the show (obviously, since I think Martha got used about as badly as a chew toy between two pit bulls, and since I think they did a solid disservice to Sarah Jane in SR's retcon), or that I don't think critical discussions of the show are warranted, but when every discussion about any problem in any of the episodes eventually boils down to people who don't like Rose jumping in and yelling 'ROSE SUX AND IT'S ALL HER FAULT!', it just gets old.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

Those 'particularly poor examples' take up 90% of the fics on Teaspoon these days. And, you know, I happen to like Rose and ship Rose/Nine myself. So the only painting going on is when people are sure that "stop writing stupid reunion fics already!" equals "ROSE SUX".

What this essentially boils down to, for me, is that if you don't like the person playing the Doctor, you don't like the writers of the show, and hate the companion that's had the most significant role in New Who so far, then why are you watching it? More importantly, why do people feel the need to watch it, dislike it, and then versus complaining to the people making the show where it might actually have some impact, they'd rather hound people who have the temerity to like the show largely as written?

Frankly, I could ask you the same question. If you believe the Doctor has lost the love of his life and could never again bond with a companion and is now the loneliest angstiest emo Time Lord in the cosmos and the show will never again be as good as it was with That One Companion, why do you continue to watch it? I'm enjoying the show because I don't believe that Rose is the end-all and am looking forward to future companions, and I'm debating the issue because it's not the Rose-ship I'm so hopelessly annoyed with, it's the attitude that it's the only ship that matters. Note debating, rather than hounding. Following a link from who_daily =/= appearing in your journal and dissing your mom or whatnot. If you don't feel like going into the debate, you're welcome to stay in your own corner of fandom where I promise not to bother you.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I could ask you the same question. If you believe the Doctor has lost the love of his life and could never again bond with a companion and is now the loneliest angstiest emo Time Lord in the cosmos and the show will never again be as good as it was with That One Companion, why do you continue to watch it?

*blinks*

I don't recall anyone posting here on the D/R side of things saying that the Doctor 'could never bond again with a companion' or that 'the show will never again be as good as it was with' Rose, so setting those up as your points make the entire discussion a bit futile, as you're asking a question that has clauses that don't apply to me (or to principa_coh. The only part of your question that does apply to me is -- 'if I believe that the Doctor has lost of the love of his life, why bother watching the show?' To which my answer is -- I like the guy. I kept watching the Bourne movies for Jason, despite Marie dying. I keep watching Doctor Who because I'm fond of that wacky alien with the broken hearts.

If you don't feel like going into the debate, you're welcome to stay in your own corner of fandom where I promise not to bother you.

Actually, as my friends have had happen to them -- when they stand in their own corner of fandom so as not to bother anyone, they get called 'anti-community'. Of course, when the people on the other side flock their stuff, they say that they're just 'trying not to be wanky' but it doesn't stop them from saying things like the above when the D/R side flocks.

Also...

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Those 'particularly poor examples' take up 90% of the fics on Teaspoon these days.

90% of all fic is crap, regardless of pairing or fandom -- it's a common saying, and for good reason. So, yeah, I agree that 90% of Rose fic is crap, but the ratio in most fandoms is hardly better (in some smaller fandoms, it's even worse, because you have a lower chance of good writers being attracted to your pairing).

And, you know, I happen to like Rose and ship Rose/Nine myself. So the only painting going on is when people are sure that "stop writing stupid reunion fics already!" equals "ROSE SUX".

Considering most of the people who say things like 'stop writing reunion fics' (which, you know, the people involved could just not read) also do say things about Rose's character (calling her not good enough for the Doctor because of her class -- and yes, someone did say that in a conversation with me -- and such), I'm not sure why it isn't a reasonable leap to make. They don't always say it in the same post, but when they have said things like that about Rose in the past, it's reasonable to assume that they still feel that way about her.

[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

If you believe the Doctor has lost the love of his life and could never again bond with a companion and is now the loneliest angstiest emo Time Lord in the cosmos and the show will never again be as good as it was with That One Companion, why do you continue to watch it?

I've never said he isn't going to bond again with a companion, or that he's never bonded with a companion before - unless you mean the royal 'you,' in which case I'd agree that there are some people that seem to have that mindset for whatever reason.

Following a link from who_daily...

And I didn't say someone following a voluntarily publicized link in a 'newsletter' is hounding anyone. I've simply cited examples of stuff I've seen happen to other folks in their personal journals.

I don't mind debate, but debate is not taking the most extreme hyperbolization of whatever the other person's said, or deliberately taking their statements out of context, and using that as a basis to start an argument.

If you don't feel like going into the debate, you're welcome to stay in your own corner of fandom where I promise not to bother you.

And by this you're well ahead of the people I was referring to, who spend a lot of time publicly attacking people who have chosen to go into 'their own corner of fandom' to avoid having abuse heaped upon them. They complain about having to hear about Rose, but then when the people who want to talk about Rose take their ball and go elsewhere to play, they then complain because the people who want to talk about Rose did feck off, versus sticking around for the bullying.

[okelay.livejournal.com]

so, let's say i have a good idea for a reunion fic.
or maybe it's not a good idea, but i've never written reunion fic and now i want to.

should i refrain simply cause there are already billions posted?
if you don't like it, don't read it.
but what gives the right to a) call all reunion fics 'stupid' and b) tell me what to write.
it's my fic, i'll write what i want.

i'm not gonna go and tell people to stop writing 'the Doctor seeks martha out' fic cause there's already too many. it's the most silly reason to say it.

if we were talking about producing a tv show or a movie that's gonna cost hundreds of millions of dollars, then yeah, go ahead and say you think it's crap and it's gonna fail.

but this is fics. and every fangirl deserves the right to write as she pleases. even if it's RPF. with furries.

[avendya.livejournal.com]

Generally, Martha-related communities would be about Martha. What else did you expect?

oh_she_knows and time_and_chips are about Rose. Are lifeonmartha and smith_n_jones any more Martha-centric than Rose comms are Rose-centric?

[jesidres.livejournal.com]

Yes, but some Rose fans may have a slightly discolored view of certain Martha communities when the people calling them batshit and batchip, calling a Rose community an "anti-community" and wrong in public posts, calling a moderator of said community a "twat", and mocking Rose fans as group in other communities are moderators of those Martha communities at the time. That may be coloring their view just a little.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Generally, Martha-related communities would be about Martha. What else did you expect?

You don't appear to be very good at reading things in context. The subject that principia_coh and fantasyjax were discussing was whether or not Martha fans are being disparaging toward Rose fans, which they both made very clear. If you can't figure out what's being discussed, it's a bad idea to attempt to enter said discussion.

[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

There's a difference between being Martha-oriented and spending a large chunk of the time heaping abuse on another character, one presumes in an effort to make one's favorite seem cooler.

I know that random childish Martha-bashing isn't tolerated on the two D/R communities you've cited - but bashing Rose seems to be almost encouraged on the Martha comms.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely certain how my saying this 'gives my ship a bad name' when it is, as you admit yourself, the same position that the executive producer/head writer takes. Now, you can certainly (and clearly do) believe that that's a bad thing for the writer of the show to believe or that it was badly written, but that doesn't change whether or not he believes it, and that was the main issue in my post (and, you may notice, I do point out that the writing of Martha was weak).

[biichan.livejournal.com]

It gives your ship a bad name because there are thirty other companions on this show that aren't Rose (and that's a conservative estimate, not counting people like Adam and Katrina who were in only one serial or companions who are strictly from the books and audios) and you're basically saying that those thirty other companions are Just Not Good Enough. And all of those thirty companions--even Peri and Adric--have at one point or another been shown to be Good Enough in the text.

We're not saying that the Doctor can't love Rose. He has loved Romana and Jamie and the Master and Jo and Cameca and Susan's granny. But making your ship of two/three seasons more important than the other twenty-six or so is offensive to the fans of those seasons.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure in what ways "The Doctor didn't fall in love with ___" and "___ wasn't good enough" are the same. Love isn't a contest. The Doctor isn't a prize. He's a person (albeit a fictional one). People don't fall in love with someone because "they're good enough" and they don't fail to love someone because they're not.

As Martha realized at the end of the series, whether or not the Doctor fell in love with her had nothing to do with whether she was "good enough" and she didn't need his love to validate her existence. She's 'brilliant' (as the Doctor said) and she's 'good' (as she said).

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

Well, we are shown pretty strongly that being "in love" with Rose makes the Doctor act like a git towards other people, you might've noticed - be they Martha, Mickey or any random person who came aboard. So yes, there is this notion being put forth that "in love" is More Special than other sorts of connection.

Besides, saying "he loved everyone but was in love with Rose" doesn't make it better when I think he was also in love with Romana/Jamie/Jo/Susan's grandmother and so on. And fans are entitled to that opinion too.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Well, we are shown pretty strongly that being "in love" with Rose makes the Doctor act like a git towards other people, you might've noticed - be they Martha, Mickey or any random person who came aboard. So yes, there is this notion being put forth that "in love" is More Special than other sorts of connection.

Hmm. I don't know. He was a pretty big git to Barbara and Ian in the beginning, too. It's not like this is a new side to his character.

Besides, saying "he loved everyone but was in love with Rose" doesn't make it better when I think he was also in love with Romana/Jamie/Jo/Susan's grandmother and so on. And fans are entitled to that opinion too.

Sure, but I don't come into your journal to tell you that you believing that the Doctor was in love with Romana is destroying the show, so I don't think that the situations are entirely comparable.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

And I am trying to say that it's about narrative importance, not shipping. People get annoyed at Doctor/Rose shippers (especially Ten/Rose) because it seems that they're placing more narrative importance on the character of Rose and the ship of Doctor/Rose than on any other character or ship in any other the prior twenty-six seasons of the show.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

It's giving the ship a bad name because, if the producer says and does something bad, you as a fan are perfectly entitled to resist it. I myself am not entirely certain why any fan would consider the producer's opinions relevant to her own - I mean, it's perfectly valid to love and ship Rose/Doctor, I happen to do it myself if you can believe it. But it is not perfectly valid to announce that that's the only ship in the dock and it doesn't get any more valid because RTD did it first. When the producer does something sucky, you call him out on it, not follow the party line.

When it comes down to it, I sorts of agree with your post - I just think it reflects on the writing team in a different way.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Clearly, you don't know me (I mean, obviously, you don't know me, because we haven't ever met before). I could point you to several essays where I mention that I find the creator of something merely one voice to consider out of many (especially in something as complicated as television, where there are many voices to consider).

But if I agree with the writer, I can't think of any reason why I shouldn't say so.

All my previous comment was saying is that... a canon ship is not batship. Pretty much by definition. Now, you can certainly dislike what RTD has said and what has been shown on the show, but that doesn't mean that he didn't say it and it wasn't shown on the show.

My saying that, from my read of the show, Rose/Doctor is the only ship supported by canon is my opinion, based on what I've seen. You don't have to share it -- I certainly didn't force you into my journal. I've been in fandoms where I didn't ship the canon couple (often). I'm a Buffy/Xander 'shipper in Buffy and I was mostly Jack/Daniel in Stargate (if you aren't in either of those fandoms, B/X is very much not canon and J/D, while the main slash pairing in the fandom, is likewise not canon).

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah, obviously I don't know you, I only got here because I have who_daily and don't have a life ;). But I would appreciate links to these essays so I may learn.

I guess what I still cannot figure out is why you think it's the only ship supported by canon. I really can't see what's different in the actual treatment Rose gets, just in how the producers refer to this treatment. I'm saying - dunno if it came through - that it's the only ship pronounced exclusive by canon, the only time we were supposed to believe that Rose is the Doctor's only love. You get a lot of ships in Who and a lot of them are pretty darn obvious - Eight/Grace is about as canon as canonically possible, to begin with. Four/Romana was so canon, the actors admit that the IC chemistry leaking into OC confused them into getting married. Really. This has happened before. What hasn't happened before is the show trying to convince us that a companion was ever-so-special. That's the batship, not the canonicity.

So that's what I don't get, and that's what I resent in the treatment of the ship, and that's where I believe RTD is taking on an authority he should not have. I might agree with his views here and there, but I still decry his attempt to force his views on me. I hope that makes more sense.

[okelay.livejournal.com]

so, out of curiosity, did the Doctor went to christmas dinner with other of his companion's family?
was he in anyway involved in their lives? did he take them to visit dead/alternate relatives or their own past?

i haven't seen the old series so i wouldn't know, but these are just some of the things that, to me, mark the Doctor's attitude towards rose.

and well, there's the looks, the physical contact and all that.
cause i really don't think looks of utter adoration such as Ten on Christmas dinner showed up very often on old who.