Did anyone like Martha?

[Winterwind]

If you or I or most people we know suddenly wound up on the moon through such means, panic is a pretty likely response.

And it was a more honest reaction than other episodes where people just treat aliens showing up on Earth as a daily event.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

...except for the pining after the Doctor.

That's all she had.

 

[DarKush]

I've only watched less than a handful of Who episodes, but from what I've seen, I liked her. I think she's hot, and I enjoyed her on Torchwood (which I've watched the entire series). I'm not a Tennatt (sp) fan, so I can't buy her pining over him. I thought she was a better fit on Torchwood.

 

[The Castellan]

If you or I or most people we know suddenly wound up on the moon through such means, panic is a pretty likely response.

And it was a more honest reaction than other episodes where people just treat aliens showing up on Earth as a daily event.

Not me, I'd be thrilled. I'd have LOVED to have something like that happe to me. I was never the white picket fence person to begin with.

Eh, refuse to believe they are all panic mongers...it's as if they are giving UNIT and Torchwood some sorta justification to hide the truth from them. I want to see a NuWho story where humanity FINALLY gets to have a first contact with aliens story.....I mean all those human empires and colonies, going into space and meeting aliens had to start at sometime, you know.

 

[Psion]

Rose made for an interesting companion in that she became a love interest for the Doctor ... a new angle on the Timelord/Companion dynamic. But she never felt like a terrifically competent companion and descended into damsel-in-distress territory too often. She was easy on the eyes, though and Billie played the part given to her well.

Martha sometimes shone. Especially in the Family of Blood episodes. But she often seemed a bit flat. I wanted to like her because I prefer characters who don't rely on the Doctor to do all the problem solving. Freema was also easy on the eyes, and I liked the way she played her part, even if it was too low-key in comparison to Tennant.

Donna ... now she's still my favorite companion of the new run. While she isn't as well-educated as I'd like a companion to be, she was downright feisty and never let the Doctor push her around. Sometimes, I kind of felt sorry for the guy. I wish we'd had one more season with Donna. Catherine wasn't very attractive, but she played the part with fire. Oi!

Amy and Rory are great. Love 'em to pieces even though I think Amy's too much of a cheat and a flirt. Like Donna, she's strong and confident and has found a place at the Doctor's side that isn't too pushy or too easily pushed. Rory needs to mature a bit more and become his own man as well and then I'd be happy to see both continue to help our favorite Timelord on his adventures. Karen and Arthur are well-cast, but it's curious how different they seem from their characters. Karen seems a lot more ditzy in real life and Arthur seems downright taciturn. I guess that means they're good actors!

Given that Liz Shaw and Jamie Macwhatzisname are also on my list of favorite companions, I prefer competent professionals at the Doctor's side. I'd love to see another trained scientist or professor go along with him for a while, preferably with a host of incorrect assumptions about the universe that gradually get worn away, while at the same time giving the Doctor a chance to share company with a character who will actually be able to understand the things that are happening and even provide useful commentary. I also prefer to see the Doctor have an entourage of companions; a well-written group can have a variety of motives and goals and bring a lot of drama to the adventures.

 

[TheLobes]

If you or I or most people we know suddenly wound up on the moon through such means, panic is a pretty likely response.

And it was a more honest reaction than other episodes where people just treat aliens showing up on Earth as a daily event.

Not me, I'd be thrilled. I'd have LOVED to have something like that happe to me. I was never the white picket fence person to begin with.

What about the whole limited air supply, murderous rhino aliens angle?

I thought she was a better fit on Torchwood.

Agreed, the trouble with DW is that its essentially a two person show, so each character has to do a lot of things, while still complementing the other. A big problem with DW is how fast the companions and the Doctor change.

I felt like Rose and Ecclestone were a good match, her love of life and humble good nature contrasting with the slightly pessemistic doctor that resulted from the time war. This angle never worked with Tennant's doctor, because he was so enthusiastic and optimistic himself, her role in the series become pretty redundant.

Then they sort of tried to redo Rose with Martha, but Tennants doctor was so extroverted that there was no room to explore her character, and so she only ever came across as whinging, or far to confident to be likeable. Martha was passionate, educated and often had her head in the clouds a bit, the problem was that the doctor was also passionate and educated, with his head in the clouds, but SO MUCH more so.

They finally got a good companion for Tennant with Donna, someone who was very grounded and brash, but also very sympathetic towards human suffering. This was really nicely show in the Pompeii episode. Thankfully, they left the show at (about) the same time.

Now we've got Smith's doctor and Amy. The brilliance of this is that we now have a very introverted doctor and a very extrovert companion, so they suit each other very well.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

I liked Martha but I think it was just because she was hot. And I think I disliked Donna for the opposite reason. But Rose and Amy are competing for number one right now.

Sadly, only because they are both hot.

 

[auntiehill]

I liked Martha well enough. She was stronger than Rose, less whiny, and fairly brave and held it together in most situations. She was calm, classy and a decent person. The only drawback was the "pining" for the Doctor; that was a bit much, especially after Rose. But at least Martha had the gumption and good sense to get out and live her life.

 

[Candlelight]

Martha was my favourite Tennant companion. It was only her desire to fall for the Doctor (clearly RTD had 'issues' about Billie leaving) was my only gripe.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

What is it with British actors leaving sci-fi shows so quickly? You get maybe 2 years and then they're gone.

 

[Atticus]

I liked Martha well enough, but there never felt like there was any particular commitment to her character in the writing. You can see it not only in the half-hearted way her character was developed but also in the handling of her family - why we were introduced to the number of relatives we were, when only really her mother played any sort of role, I don't know - and the equally bizarre "Hey look! She ended up marrying Mickey!" in DT's last episode, which came from nowhere.It was an odd handling all round, not helped by the fact Freema's performance was unarguably by far the weakest of any lead since the show's revival.

 

[Starkers]

The trouble is that RTD's entire plot arc for Martha revolved around her not being Rose,, being a tad insipid and pouty and generally a bit limp, thus shocking us when she saves the day in the end...conviniently forgetting that all she was in the end was another little pawn doing the Doctor's bidding, and ignoring the fact that many people had given up caring by the time she came good

 

[Worf2DS9]

I liked Martha well enough. She was stronger than Rose, less whiny, and fairly brave and held it together in most situations. She was calm, classy and a decent person. The only drawback was the "pining" for the Doctor; that was a bit much, especially after Rose. But at least Martha had the gumption and good sense to get out and live her life.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on Martha. That, and Freema is/was a gorgeous woman, which didn't hurt making an impression. Before Pond came along, M.J. was my fave companion.

 

[Sci]

Seriously? Did anyone like that character at all?

Yes.

I didn't like her, a weak character dumped on a weak actress having to play alongside a man who eats the screen...it was never going to end well.

However I know a lot of people on here really do like her so the answer to your question is yes, some people did (and likely still do) like Martha

Then I change my question to: why do people like Martha?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DecIdYoCZfE[/yt]

She moaned all the time about how the Doctor liked Rose more than her,

There were exactly four scenes in all of Series Three where Martha is upset that the Doctor is in love with someone else: When she's irritated that she's throwing herself at him in "The Shakespeare Code" and he doesn't notice because he's missing Rose; when she's upset that John Smith fell for Nurse Redfern instead of her in "Human Nature;" when she confesses her unrequited love for the Doctor to John Smith in "The Family of Blood;" when he is irritated to hear from Captain Jack that Rose was a blonde in "Utopia." At no point does she "moan;" her reactions are completely natural, and completely controlled.

she boasted to other characters about how she'd been in space and met Shakespeare,

... and this sets her apart from every character who gets to travel with the Doctor and then excitedly shares that news, how?

and the girl playing her was a pretty lousy actress. Her personality didnt complement the Doctor,

Completely subjective, but I don't agree. I felt that Freema Agyeman is a delightful and charismatic actor who brings life to lines that are seemingly boring, and I felt that Martha's more quiet, grounded nature complemented -- and nicely countered -- both the Tenth Doctor, and Rose.

and she didnt bring anything to the show.

Factually inaccurate. She brought to the show a story about how to cope with unrequited love and preserve your self-respect when in that situation. It may not have worked for you, but she did bring something to the table -- a message which I would suspect would be enormously useful to the many young Who fans about to discover love's keen sting in just a few years.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The producers clearly conceived Martha as a reverse-Rose: someone that would fall into unrequited love with Ten, who would show no such interest in return. Obviously they couldn't have the Doctor start another romance with another young woman immediately after Rose. The problem is that they then painted Martha into this corner - she was put forward initially as an independent young professional and quickly became a pouty, whining adolescent because of carrying that torch.

It was hard to tell whether Agyeman or the producers were more relieved to bring her story to an end, but they evidently learned their lesson - even writing in a scene between Ten and Donna making explicit that they had no attraction to one another.

 

[RoJoHen]

even writing in a scene between Ten and Donna making explicit that they had no attraction to one another.

Which is probably one of the main reasons that Donna is my favorite companion.

 

[timelord1010]

I liked Martha but like others have said why does every companion in NuWho have to fall in love with The Doctor? In the original (1963 - 1980's) stories The Doctor got close to his companions but never got as close as he did with Rose, at least on screen.
If you treated the old shows like the new than Hartnell's Doctor would have been making out with Barbara back in 1963.

 

[Jax]

Martha problem was after how close Rose/Doctor became, their was always going to be a fan backlash over Martha's whimping for our timelord's two hearts. I have to admit while I don't often bash for acting ability but I do think Billie, Catherine and Karen are far far stronger actors...

such a pity in the end after I felt in the Smith & Jones episode, the character's introduction was brilliant.

 

[Sindatur]

Yes, the shows might've been better without those 4 times. I remember the first time, I thought, "Oh, no, they're not going there are they". But, it wasn't that big a prescence, and that little bit of screentime, doesn't damage my like for the character/Actress.

I like Freema/Martha. It's a shame the writers did her dirty, she could've been better, the raw material was good.

 

[RoJoHen]

Actually, one of the things I liked about Martha's story was that she did love the Doctor, but he couldn't love her back. He had fallen in love with Rose, and he couldn't get over it. I know a lot of people don't like the Rose/Doctor romance, but I thought it was great. But what I thought was even greater was that losing Rose had consequences.

I know Martha wasn't in it, but "Runaway Bride" is one of my favorite Who stories because we see what a truly broken-hearted Doctor is capable of when his better half is out of the picture.

I also love that Martha herself was a strong-enough character to move on rather than live in Rose's shadow. The Doctor would never love her the way he loved Rose, and she made the adult choice and went on with her life.