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

[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.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

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.

Well, One was a git at large before humans rubbed off on him. He didn't do it because he was supposed to be jealous of anyone, though, unlike poor Mickey's case.

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.

Wasn't me who said you're destroying the show - I'm just trying to point out why the idea of an only-Doctor/companion-relationship is distasteful to a lot of people. I think it's a relevant point.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Well, One was a git at large before humans rubbed off on him. He didn't do it because he was supposed to be jealous of anyone, though, unlike poor Mickey's case.

What was it that made Six such an asshole (I say 'asshole' with love, but... yeah, asshole), then? He's spent ages around humans.

Wasn't me who said you're destroying the show - I'm just trying to point out why the idea of an only-Doctor/companion-relationship is distasteful to a lot of people. I think it's a relevant point.

It would be a relevant point to make if it hadn't been clear that I already knew it (as I said in my OP -- "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."). I'm well aware of the reasons -- I've had these conversations so many times that I feel dizzy at the end of them, by all the circles we end up going around in.

I watch the show differently than you do. We view the character of the Doctor differently. We view Rose and her importance differently. I doubt that either of us will change our minds as a result of this conversation. I've fully thought out my position, which is subject to change based only on what I've not yet seen in Old Who or what's yet to air in the New and for y'all to come in here and tell me that I "don't get it" or that the only reason that I don't see things your way is because I haven't watched enough Old School Who just strikes me as the height of condescension (incidentally, City of Death was one of my first episodes, which I saw before I'd even finished the first new series).

I've had a lot of opinions about a lot of shows. Doctor Who is the only fandom where people seem to feel an evangelical duty to get newer fans to 'see the light'.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

It's also the only fandom where people wonder why dissing other people's favorites and ships gets them up in arms. Which is the point. I'm not telling you you "don't get it". I'm explaining why those of us who do "get it", or whatnot, are bound to get just a little bit upset when we once again see the characters we love delegated to the role of "assisant".

But to each their own.

[stoplookingup.livejournal.com]

It would be a relevant point to make if it hadn't been clear that I already knew it (as I said in my OP -- "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.").

I think you need to understand that many people who think the Doctor was a jerk to Martha and that Rose as OTP is misguided ACTUALLY REALLY LIKE THE CHARACTER OF ROSE. While the writing lost its way at points, she was an interesting character whom I and many others who disagree with you enjoyed thoroughly. I loved New Who long before Martha showed up. But, as I said somewhere way above this, the whole hearts-n-flowers, soulmate approach is 1. not what we saw in S1 and S2, and 2. an irritatingly simplistic view of the Doctor, of women in general, and, oh yeah, of love.

[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.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm really not sure why Ten/Rose gets blasted more than Nine/Rose. Is it because it's RST as opposed to UST? Personally, I find both seasons equally shippy. And Nine is the one going around calling Rose 'the best' and suchlike.

I mean, for me, that's mostly irrelevant because it's all the Doctor. Their relationship grows naturally out of the story in both cases, because it's a slightly different version of the same man. But if you do make the distinction, Nine was just as clearly blown away by Rose as Ten was, so I'd think that they'd been equally annoying to the people who don't like the pairing.

Anyway, I still don't feel as though you've clarified your position (possibly because we're not using words in the same way -- I find that many misunderstandings come down to that). Have there been companions that have had as big an effect on the universe of Who as Rose did with Bad Wolf? It's a genuine question because, as I said previously, I have not (yet) watched all of the older episodes.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Yes. there are. Ace is a pretty good example. I've got a short list of other people who've had a season's worth or more impact on the plot at the end of this thread (http://butterfly.livejournal.com/1174301.html?thread=6013981#t6013981) and I go more into the Curse of Fenric stuff, which is Ace's Bad Wolf. So to say.

(Except I think I forgot about Turlough, whose shouting at crystals and being bullied by weird old duck-wearing dude during the Black Guardian Trilogy was a huge chunk of the plot of Season Twenty.)

Anyhow, Ten/Rose probably gets blasted more than Nine/Rose because to a lot of people outside the ship they seem to have more obnoxious and frankly illiterate fans than Nine/Rose.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Ace is, actually, one of the few companions that I have not met apart from glimpses of her in the Confidentials (I've been going in a semi-sort-of-order, except, of course, I watched the Movie because it was so short). I've heard that she and the Doctor have a mentoring-type relationship, that he's very manipulative, and that I'll probably like her a great deal (I do like Turlough and his story -- I think the distinction that the fans make regarding Rose vs Everyone Else is on how much focus her story gets... of course, episodes/stories are a lot shorter (and yet more firmly held together) now than they used to be).

Anyhow, Ten/Rose probably gets blasted more than Nine/Rose because to a lot of people outside the ship they seem to have more obnoxious and frankly illiterate fans than Nine/Rose.

Ah, the kid factor. Billie and David are both utterly adorable and, thus (I suspect), adored by a large majority of the teen audience. I never take the fans who can't capitalize seriously, whether they're on my side or against me.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Ace is great. The Seventh Doctor is basically training her up to be his successor as Cosmic Gadfly and they have this great relationship where she blows shit up and he clucks at her exasperatedly but fondly. Seven and Ace are a great note to end your re-watching on.

[coneyislandbaby]

Personally, I think it's because a lot of fans either forgot Nine, moved on, or came to the show for David Tennant, myself, with a heavy lean to moved on, and bit of emo "they forgot him" angst at times. Because there are a lot of times I feel people do forget Nine - and as a Chris fan, it annoys the hell out of me.

[katesutton.livejournal.com]

*barges in* As a card-carrying Doctor/Rose shipper(we even have a secret handshake!) it irritates me because people act like Nine doesn't count, from both a shippy perspective and as the Doctor. I *heart* Nine, liek woah. I would have killed for another season with him.

And since I'm sharing, although I love both iterations of Doctor/Rose-am also up for past!Doctor/Rose, for that matter-I do not in any way, shape or form, ship Billie with either of her costars. I have no desire to see her shack up with either of them and NO, I will not go away, fandom, if the next Doctor is old or ugly. Too bad for you. Since you (didn't) ask. Hmm. Needed to get that off my chest, there.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

But Nine is love! Nine is so much love.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Totally! I'm crazy about Nine/Rose, but it seems harder to be all OTP and er "batshit" (if that's the right word) over Nine/Rose, because most of the comms and shippers are focused around Ten/Rose these days

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Though, amusingly enough, when I polled my journal a while back, more people picked 'Nine/Rose' than 'Ten/Rose' as a pairing that they shipped.

Ten/Rose is definitely more public right now, though.

[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.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Eight/Grace is about as canon as canonically possible, to begin with.

Ah, if you noticed, I mention Grace in my original post. Their interest in each other was canon... as was the choice, by Grace, not to pursue it (much as the Doctor also showed interest in Joan when he didn't remember himself... hmm, also an example of when the female character liked the man under the legend, but not the life that he leads. And, of course, Joan also chooses not to leave with the Doctor).

With regards to Four/Romana... the actors had a thing for each other. I think that's nice. But seeing as I saw City of Death far before I felt that Rose was the love of the Doctor's life, it's safe to say that I didn't view theirs as a very romantic relationship. I've actually posted about it... somewhere. I'll see if I can find it. But the sum of it was that Romana had the same kind of distance that the Doctor did, which actually me feel as though they had less chemistry together than, say, the Doctor and Jo Grant.

Also, believing that Rose is 'the love of the Doctor's life' isn't the same as believing that he didn't love people before. RTD very clearly adores the old series. Now, whether or not you feel that his continuation/reimagination is good is your business, but he's making a television show. By definition, he's forcing his views and his world on you -- this is RTD's Who. He's never pretended that it was anything else. I've never found a story or show anywhere that wasn't a reflection or examination of something inherent in the creator. We write what we know.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

Well, um, the actors say - they just plain say it - that it wasn't that they had chemistry and it leaked over to the Doctor and Romana, it's that the Doctor and Romana had chemistry and it leaked over to them. It was the weirdest interview I've ever read. Eventually, you have to grant to interpretation - you might not have viewed them as romantic, but a lot of people did. So is that canon or not? And speaking of Jo, who's to say the Doctor at the end of "The Green Death" was any less broken up than the Doctor at the end of "Doomsday"? There are just bound to be different views there, not the least because, obviously, "romantic love" doesn't mean the same to different people.

RTD had every right to produce his show as he sees fit and I'm not saying otherwise, but I am saying that he has no right to expect the fans to agree with what he's doing. There just... isn't an argument of "the producer says X so X is 100% true" when it comes to characters' relationships. That's what fandom is all about. And that's the "love of the Doctor's life" issue too - it is the same as saying he wasn't in love with people before, and if someone believes he did, they're going to get annoyed.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I find it intriguing that you believe Tom Baker and Lalla Ward in regards to the Doctor and Romana and yet don't believe RTD, David Tennant, Chris Eccleston, and Billie Piper when it comes to the Doctor and Rose.

Speaking of Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, I saw that commercial of the two of them that had 'the Doctor' being prompted to ask 'Romana' to marry him and thought that it was adorable, that they had sparkling chemistry, and that Romana was incredibly out-of-character. But I bet that Baker and Ward made a cute couple while it lasted.