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]

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.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

I believe them because they really did get married, which is as freaky as it is endearing; otherwise I'd have written it off just as easily. Much as I adore him, Tom Baker was infamous for hoarding creative control...

That commercial was the essence of freaky and endearing itself. I suppose it's the distance that actually does it for me with Four and Romana - they seem to be having two completely different conversations yet still are the only two people in the room who understand each other. It's the glorious sense of inhumanity of these two. Which really goes to explain why I'm less enthralled with the very human Ten and Rose. I suppose it does boil down to understanding love differently.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I suppose it does boil down to understanding love differently.

Probably. For me... distance is just about the opposite of love. I can't think of any pairing that I enjoy where I don't feel a visceral, vulnerable, connection between the two characters.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yes, that makes sense. Old Skool just doesn't get round to portraying the Doctor as vulnerable, does it? Even with Five, it's very much a facade. And I confess I usually can't stand the Doctor's portrayal as vulnerable, I enjoy him as an aloof alien, so I fall hard for romance as joy and play - what I think Four/Romana was very much all about.

... d'you know... have you heard any Big Finish audios? I get a feeling you might be very pleasantly surprised by the Six/Evelyn relationship.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

*bounces*

I love Five. He appears all retiring and nice and... his episodes totally have, I think (though feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), the largest body count in the series. He's probably the guy that made Clive think that the Doctor brings the 'storm in his wake' and has death as his constant companion, because... damn.

I haven't actually listened to any of the audios -- sadly, I'm very much not a radio-drama person. Or an audio-book person -- I love David Tennant's voice and I think that The Stone Rose is a fun little book, but I had to turn the audio version off after five minutes because it just doesn't work for me. I like audio-visual media and I like books, but plain audio on its own doesn't tend to do it for me.

[fantasyjax.livejournal.com]

Aww... well, as a good shippy missionary, I'm going to try to recommed Six's audio dramas anyway, because if you think Six is wonderful on the show (and he is!), you should hear him there- him and his 55 years old history professor companion Evelyn. They reach levels of painful, beautiful connection that put Doomsday to shame. Although if you do decide to purue them, I should warn you that the writers are also pretty determined to make this the end-all Who ship, and I can't support that any more than I do RTD. It's worth a try, anyhow, and hey, they're downloadable!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I might give them a try. But, like I said, I couldn't even listen to the D/R shippy audio book that was read by David Tennant for very long.

Are they available as transcripts?