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]

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.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Well, part of the reason that this entire thing is becoming vaguely amusing to me is that... well, I like pretty much all of the companions that I've met. I like Romana and Jo and Sarah Jane and Turlough and Tegan and Barbara and Susan, etc. (and, yes, Jack and Martha). I like their relationships with the Doctor. But because I only see one relationship as romantic, it's been decided that I am 'dissing' everyone else by default.

Because I examine what I believe to have been the relationship as portrayed on the show, I get several people 'up in arms', telling me exactly what I think and why I shouldn't (both parts of which I find equally offensive). I say in my post that I do not believe Rose to be the best person ever and that I do not believe that she was better than Martha, just that I believe that Doctor was portrayed as being in love with one and not the other and why I think RTD made that choice.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

We're talking about completely different things, aren't we? The whole point is, RTD insists that the Rose-ship is More Special; some people agree with him; some people are upset that any number of other ships get short-changed because of that apparent specialness. That's all I was trying to say, and I think it's a reasonable thing to say. I don't see what other reaction is possible, for anyone who ships Doctor/anyone-other-than-Rose.

You also have to realize that your views aren't exactly shipper standard - most Doctor/Rose fics you see out there really do insist that the Doctor thought Rose was More Special Than Everyone, while I've never seen a Doctor/Romana fic proclaim that the Doctor can Never Love Again after "Warrior's Gate". So it's rather a given that people, at least those who arrived via who_daily, come here with an understandable bias.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

We're talking about completely different things, aren't we?

Entirely possible. Most arguments tend to be a case of that, I've found. It's frustrating, though, trying to figure out exactly where the other person's vocabulary differs from yours.

You also have to realize that your views aren't exactly shipper standard

It's the standard in the community that I hang out with and with the shippers that I spend time with. So, you can see why it's less than enjoyable to have people assume things about me -- because, for me, the things that you're assuming have pretty much nothing to do with my shipping community.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

If there's an entire shipping community out there that's this sane about the issue, I want in it. I do ship them - I just ship a lot of other people too.

I can understand how this would be frustrating - just as I think you can understand how frustrating it is that 90% of the fics on Teaspoon really do go about degrading, if not dissing, every other companion. So eventually, perhaps we'd do best to cordially agree to disagree.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Probably. I mean, I don't read Teaspoon and I don't read who_daily -- I only read D/R fic by people that I trust already, because I have a fairly narrow window of Doctor & Rose characterization that I believe (anything that involves Rose being semi-suicidal post-DD gets backspaced from very rapidly).

There is a whole lot of DW fandom out there that I'm just not all that involved with. Which is why it's a bit of a surprise to, well, have that fandom come to my journal. Not entirely unwelcome -- if I didn't want people to comment, I'd flock my entries to disable comments -- but surprising.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

... woah, you really do have an entirely different view of this ship than the one I'm familiar and exasparated with. Luckier than I. Perhaps instead of a biased debate we should exchange fic recommendations by way of trying to convince each other? You never know.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

The Urge to Fall (http://community.livejournal.com/time_and_chips/3011219.html) was an enjoyable read for me. Five Times the Doctor Reduced Things to Science (and One Time He Didn’t) (http://wendymr.livejournal.com/31875.html) is a nice Jackie-pov fic. It is reunion fic, if you have issues with that sort of thing. If you do like those or if you've read them already, I can recommend some more.

I'm a bit of a canon nut, which means that I have a very hard time reading Nine/Rose smut -- I can't believe that they went there on the show because the kiss at the end is such a big deal -- but it's quite easy for me to make the shift from friends to lovers with Ten/Rose, because of their flirtiness in Fear Her and the Doctor's "You're not?" on the beach in Doomsday.

This naturally limits the number of stories I read, but considering how many fandoms I'm in, that's a good thing.

[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]

Damn skippy!