Did anyone like Martha?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

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.

Didn't care for her - unattractive, loud and boorish, not overly bright.

And I certainly prefer the romantic tension that Nine and Ten had with Rose to the kind of relationships that followed her.

 

[C.E. Evans]

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.

The primary difference is the Doctor's regenerations have been skewing younger and younger of late to where he's physically not that much older than his companions. Recent Doctors are more approachable and a bit less like older authority figures than the earlier ones.

 

[captcalhoun]

i liked her. i wasn't convinced she was even in love with the Doctor until flipping TLOTTL

 

[Sci]

i liked her. i wasn't convinced she was even in love with the Doctor until flipping TLOTTL

What, her confession of unrequited love in "The Family of Blood" didn't convince you?

 

[Starkers]

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.

Didn't care for her - unattractive, loud and boorish, not overly bright.

And I certainly prefer the romantic tension that Nine and Ten had with Rose to the kind of relationships that followed her.

Nine and Rose played it about right for me, by the time Ten came along they gave up any pretense of a love that dare not speak its name and had the two of them running around like giggling schoolgirls, and again it was part of RTD's plan, make Rose so arrogant that she'd always have the Doctor that its more of a wrench when she can't, but again it kinda backfired in that a character I'd really liked in the first series I grew to increasingly dislike.

For me Donna was brilliant, personally I find Tate a lot sexier than Piper or Freema (yeah they're prettier but sexy isn't just about looks it's about attitude, presense, charisma) and I loved that finally Tennant's smart arse Doctor had someone willing to stand up to him rather than simpering on his every word.

Best Donna moment? When he tried to kill himself and blow the Sontarans up. Martha was all "Oh Doctor thank goodness you're ok." and you just know Rose would have teared up and choked "I thought I'd lost you."

What did Donna do? She punched him.

Fucking brilliant!

 

[Orac Zen]

I loathed Martha - a one-note pseudo-character with no interesting characteristics, no personality, and too much whining that the Doctor didn't drool over her like he did over Rose. An utterly boring excuse for a companion.

Nine and Rose played it about right for me, by the time Ten came along they gave up any pretense of a love that dare not speak its name and had the two of them running around like giggling schoolgirls, and again it was part of RTD's plan, make Rose so arrogant that she'd always have the Doctor that its more of a wrench when she can't, but again it kinda backfired in that a character I'd really liked in the first series I grew to increasingly dislike.

Amen. Rose was a person in the first series. In the second series she was no more than a dribbling adolescent. Far worse than that, so was the Doctor.

For me Donna was brilliant [...]

Amen again.

 

[The Lensman]

Seriously? Did anyone like that character at all?

Yes.

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

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.

... 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.

Yeah, I'm just gonna let Sci say it for me. I loved Martha. And aside from Amy, Martha was the hottest companion on nuWho.

 

[Starkers]

I would say there was one big plus point to Martha, she chose to leave, and I don't mean that in a snide way, I mean she was a companion who always it seemed planned to leave at some point, much as she loved the Doctor I don't think she envisaged herself travelling with him forever, and it was him she loved rather than his life I think, whereas Rose loved him and the life and Donna loved the life primarily.

I think the show needs more companions who aren't in it for the long haul. I mean many people go travelling but they mostly eventually settle down close to home.

 

[Sean_McCormick]

I actually have a pet theory, that they decided during the making of "Runaway Bride" or shortly after to make Donna a full time companion, but couldn't get Tate on a short notice, so they had to find another companion for one season - thus Martha was created.

 

[The Castellan]

I would say there was one big plus point to Martha, she chose to leave, and I don't mean that in a snide way, I mean she was a companion who always it seemed planned to leave at some point, much as she loved the Doctor I don't think she envisaged herself travelling with him forever, and it was him she loved rather than his life I think, whereas Rose loved him and the life and Donna loved the life primarily.

I think the show needs more companions who aren't in it for the long haul. I mean many people go traveling but they mostly eventually settle down close to home.

I dunno, I would not settle down if given a chance to travel through space and time.

It's like: "Lemme see...I can either travel through time and space and see all sorts of amazing stuff......or I can now go back home to bills, taxes, reality TV and working my ass off in the office again."

Like that's gonna be a tough decision.

 

[Starseeker]

For me, part of the problem was that I could never imagine Martha walking the earth as she was supposed to do in the Year that Never Happened. I felt that she was a very weak character without the Doctor, and that it was just something that the writers put in there and hoped got accepted. The same sort of thing was true of her leaving the Doctor, I liked the idea that she left him because he knew she would never be loved by him, but I never felt like she grew as a character during her time with him. She seems just as strong in 'Smith and Jones' as she did in 'The Last of the Time Lords', maybe even a little stronger, in fact.

I completely disagree. While Martha isn't my favourite companion of all time, I think she was the strongest of the NewWho companions and the one who needed the Doctor the least. She was more of a match for him in terms of intellect and cleverness, and she had an amazing ability to follow through when lesser companions would have waffled.

Unfortunately, she wasn't terribly well acted. And in her season, she was written to be a bit annoying -- though I think she redeemed herself when she kept coming back in season 4 and Torchwood.

 

[The Castellan]

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.

I think that the Doctor might have had a closeness with either Jo or Sarah in some form or another.

At the end of the Green Death, when he found out Jo was getting engaged, The Doctor drinks his wine in one gulp in a way when one gets dumped or breaks up with someone, I've done it myself like.

And with Sarah, I seen subtle, but noticeable things between the two of them. Like in Death of the Daleks, when the Doctor strokes Sarah's face a couple of seconds before going with Belal to the Exillon city. Or when the Doctor was at death's door from returning from the Spider Queen's realm, I thought Sarah was going to flood the room, and the Doctor seemed more focused on protecting her than most of the other people whom have traveled with her.


I am now having these funny thoughts in my head of the First Doctor putting the moves on Barbra. Give him a pimp hat with osterich feather, a father boa, a blinged out walking stick, and some more rings.

 

[Starkers]

I would say there was one big plus point to Martha, she chose to leave, and I don't mean that in a snide way, I mean she was a companion who always it seemed planned to leave at some point, much as she loved the Doctor I don't think she envisaged herself travelling with him forever, and it was him she loved rather than his life I think, whereas Rose loved him and the life and Donna loved the life primarily.

I think the show needs more companions who aren't in it for the long haul. I mean many people go traveling but they mostly eventually settle down close to home.

I dunno, I would not settle down if given a chance to travel through space and time.

It's like: "Lemme see...I can either travel through time and space and see all sorts of amazing stuff......or I can now go back home to bills, taxes, reality TV and working my ass off in the office again."

Like that's gonna be a tough decision.

Many people go travelling before they go to university, or during a career break, but very few of them keep travelling forever. Now there is a cost implication to this; Tardis travel is (so far as we know ) free, flying round the world isn't, but I think there are other factors at play- most people need stability in their lives, roots. Home, friends, family...and I can imagine travelling with the Doctor could get quite tiresome, too much of anything can be a bad thing.

And of course lets not forget that it isn't all fun and games, often its terrifying, harrowing, soul destroying-death and destruction. That's why Tegan's departure was one of the more believable ones, because she'd had enough of the bad stuff, it just wasn't fun anymore.

 

[The Castellan]

I would say there was one big plus point to Martha, she chose to leave, and I don't mean that in a snide way, I mean she was a companion who always it seemed planned to leave at some point, much as she loved the Doctor I don't think she envisaged herself travelling with him forever, and it was him she loved rather than his life I think, whereas Rose loved him and the life and Donna loved the life primarily.

I think the show needs more companions who aren't in it for the long haul. I mean many people go traveling but they mostly eventually settle down close to home.

I dunno, I would not settle down if given a chance to travel through space and time.

It's like: "Lemme see...I can either travel through time and space and see all sorts of amazing stuff......or I can now go back home to bills, taxes, reality TV and working my ass off in the office again."

Like that's gonna be a tough decision.

Many people go travelling before they go to university, or during a career break, but very few of them keep travelling forever. Now there is a cost implication to this; Tardis travel is (so far as we know ) free, flying round the world isn't, but I think there are other factors at play- most people need stability in their lives, roots. Home, friends, family...and I can imagine travelling with the Doctor could get quite tiresome, too much of anything can be a bad thing.

And of course lets not forget that it isn't all fun and games, often its terrifying, harrowing, soul destroying-death and destruction. That's why Tegan's departure was one of the more believable ones, because she'd had enough of the bad stuff, it just wasn't fun anymore.

I'd rather have that then what we got now.

Bills, taxes, a space program that won't tell people anything, a world where money is more valued that human life, among other crap.....I'll take traveling space and time, and running into nasty monsters over that any day.

 

[Sci]

I would say there was one big plus point to Martha, she chose to leave, and I don't mean that in a snide way, I mean she was a companion who always it seemed planned to leave at some point, much as she loved the Doctor I don't think she envisaged herself travelling with him forever, and it was him she loved rather than his life I think, whereas Rose loved him and the life and Donna loved the life primarily.

I think the show needs more companions who aren't in it for the long haul. I mean many people go travelling but they mostly eventually settle down close to home.

I completely agree, actually. Martha was always more grounded than Rose or Donna -- she was the type who didn't say everything she was thinking the way those two would, and she was the type who was not trying to get away from her family the way Rose and Donna were. Hell, watching "Smith and Jones," it's pretty clear that Martha is almost single-handedly keeping her family together: Her father and mother don't talk to each other, and her siblings both rely on her to make plans and keep everything at least functional. Martha was never going to leave them forever; she needed time away from them, but didn't want to never be with them again.

And when she fell in love with the Doctor, she tried living his life and lost, even before the Year That Never Was, at least six months of her life to a man who would never love her (three months when he was hiding in 1913 as John Smith, three months living in 1969 after the Weeping Angels sent them there, plus however much time the rest of the season sans "Last of the Time Lords" took up). It makes it all the more poignant to realize just how much time she spent trying to make a relationship with the Doctor work before she realized that it was destroying her to be living with a man who would never love her back. And goodness knows in life it is sometimes easier to cling to a fantasy that someone might love you than to recognize it will never happen and move on.

 

[Cyke101]

I liked Martha...

*dodges flying tomato*

 

[Professor Zoom]

Of 10s companions, I liked Martha, right after Donna. Rose... meh.

 

[DWF]

I didn't dislike Martha and it was nice seeing her after her season ended, Freema needed the experience as an actress and it shows on Law & Order: UK where she's doing a fine job.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I almost like Martha. I want to like Martha. I think Freema Agyeman did a great job with the character. I just don't think there was enough to her character to keep me interested. She didn't have the sharp comic timing of Donna or Amy.

Plus, it kinda seemed like the show itself didn't really like Martha. They kept reminding us that we were supposed to miss Rose (who I suspect only left the show because Billie Piper didn't want to do it any more). So there's this awkward feeling in Season 3 like they desperately want Rose to be on the show but they just can't get her. It kinda reminds me of the profound absences of Fox Mulder during the last couple seasons of The X-Files or Jack O'Neill during much of Seasons 6-8 of Stargate SG-1 or the frequent name dropping of Next Generation characters (particularly Captain Picard) on Star Trek: Voyager.

Of course, while that made it difficult for me to like Martha, it also made me retroactively hate Rose because she didn't have the decency to leave the show after she was gone.

And aside from Amy, Martha was the hottest companion on nuWho.

On that point at least, I think we can agree. In the Rose vs. Martha debate, I would definately say that Mickey ended up on the better end of that deal.

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.

I think that the Doctor might have had a closeness with either Jo or Sarah in some form or another.

At the end of the Green Death, when he found out Jo was getting engaged, The Doctor drinks his wine in one gulp in a way when one gets dumped or breaks up with someone, I've done it myself like.

And with Sarah, I seen subtle, but noticeable things between the two of them. Like in Death of the Daleks, when the Doctor strokes Sarah's face a couple of seconds before going with Belal to the Exillon city. Or when the Doctor was at death's door from returning from the Spider Queen's realm, I thought Sarah was going to flood the room, and the Doctor seemed more focused on protecting her than most of the other people whom have traveled with her.

I'd definately agree about the 3rd Doctor & Jo. I also suspect that, at some point when we weren't watching, the 4th Doctor & the 2nd Romana succumbed to their Moonlighting-esque sexual tension. As for Sarah Jane, I don't think it ever would have occurred to me if not for "School Reunion." And even then, I think it's a bit of a retcon cheat.

 

[od0_ital]

I liked her, still do, even if she did marry the idiot.