"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Favorite Characters: Martha Jones (Doctor Who)


More companion love!  Martha’s time on the TARDIS is rough; the Doctor, reeling from saying goodbye to Rose, is forever mooning over his lost companion and unfavorably comparing Martha to her.  He’s frequently moody and dismissive of Martha, and it doesn’t help that she has a decidedly unreciprocated crush on him.  Well, we’re off to a terrific start, aren’t we?

But that’s okay, because despite all of this unpleasantness, Martha herself rocks.  She has a good foundation of basic companion traits – brave, curious, clever, adventurous, compassionate – and she displays these and other qualities to us and the Doctor almost right away.  She wins instant points for not going, “Aliens?  Don’t be daft – there’s no such thing!” when the hospital she’s training in gets transported to the moon, and her first encounter with the Doctor demonstrates her perceptiveness, quick thinking, and a remarkable ability to keep her head under pressure. 

I’m not sure if the Doctor even realizes how much he asks of her.  Even in that initial adventure, he expects her to operate complex medical equipment, leaves her to serve as a diversion for some unfriendly space rhinos, and probably banks on her knowing how to resuscitate someone with a binary vascular system.  Her tenure of course culminates in what is perhaps the most demanding victory for a companion in an RTD season finale; others pack a bigger, more impressive punch, but they’re bolstered by an augmented “specialness” that elevates the companion beyond the capabilities of a normal human being.  Martha just works, surviving a horrendously dangerous situation, all on her own, for an incredible length of time.  No help, no extra powers, and no weapons, and when she’s brought before the most volatile foe in her season, she laughs at him.  (Let’s put it this way – if Rose and Donna’s big wins are superhuman, like Thor or Captain America, then Martha’s is like Black Widow, non-powered but just.  That.  Good.)

And of course, there’s “Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood,” which also sees Martha having to work entirely on her own to keep her and the Doctor safe.  Again, this is a burden placed on her shoulders for a long period of time in a hostile situation, and she does what needs to be done.  I can’t imagine many companions doing as well as Martha in scenarios like these, and more than that, I can’t imagine the Doctor asking them to do it.  More than anything, they might offer and he’d argue against it as too dangerous or too much to ask of them, ultimately insisting on doing it himself.  But Martha gets put in this situations time and again without half the kudos a lot of companions get.

As awesome as she is, her season can be hard to watch, because seeing how little the Doctor acknowledges her is so aggravating.  With Rose and Donna, they’re bright women who’ve yet to realize their potential, working unimpressive jobs and living telly-and-takeaway lives.  The Doctor shows them how wonderful they are, believing in them when they can’t see it.  With Martha, though, it’s almost the opposite.  She starts out as a hard-working medical student, a cool, confident woman who’s the go-to voice of reason in her family.  Being with the Doctor actually dents her self-esteem, when she works so hard and does such incredible things, and he can barely see her through his Rose-angst.  In the end, she comes out of all of it okay, but to me, that’s just not something the Doctor does.  It’s why I’m not a fan of Six, and after gradually warming to Ten in season 2, it made me wary of him again.  So, my biggest complaint isn’t about Martha herself, but what the Doctor’s treatment of her says about him.

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