Probably the most frequent complaint I hear about Martha is that her story was bad -- that someone might have liked her, if not for her "crush", or that someone did like her, except for the unrequited love story, that they thought she was better than the story she was given, or that the worst thing about her character was the unrequited love story. Even among people who do like Martha, I often see the complaint that her story made her seem like second-best, and that the person liked the character despite hating the story.

I love Martha Jones, and I think now, three seasons later, I can safely say I loved the unrequited love story, too.

( Here's why.Collapse )

A common complaint about Martha in series 3 is that she's too "jealous". And to be fair, she does make a few comments under her breath in series 3 about this Rose person the Doctor keeps talking about. But that's well before she meets Rose, and before she even knows what's happened to Rose, and in Martha's defense it would be supremely annoying to be repeatedly compared to someone you've never met.

But this post is not about whether or not Martha's jealousies were justified. This is post is about THOSE TIMES MARTHA AND OTHER COMPANIONS HUNG OUT AND IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME, YOU GUYS.

Exhibit A: Jack!


Jack is the first companion Martha meets up with and they hit it off right away and start gossiping -- largely about the Doctor, which is his greatest fear. Jack can sympathize with Martha's unrequited love, and later on when Torchwood can't tackle something, who do they call in? Dr Martha Jones, of course! Because Jack knows that Martha is awesome.

Exhibit B: Donna!


When the next time trailer for The Sontaran Stratagem first aired at the end of Planet of the Ood I was SO EXCITED by seeing Martha, you don't even know. And so this time, Martha meets her successor rather than a predecessor... and once again they immediately start gossiping, to the Doctor's horror. I'll always find it something of a shame that in the three episodes that followed we didn't get that many scenes with Martha and Donna together, but the scenes we did get are awesome. Martha warns Donna about the dangers of travelling with the Doctor and advises Donna to learn from Martha's own mistakes. Donna is quick to make sure Jenny knows that Martha is not "collateral damage", thank you very much. They have an adorable hug at the end of The Doctor's Daughter and I can only assume Donna got Martha's mobile number in order to text her about the Doctor's idiocy in the months to come.

Exhibit B: Rose!


This is my favourite example, even if it's the briefest. This brief meeting just made me SO happy. It was so nice to see Martha and Rose finally come face to face... and appreciate each other. This post is about Martha, so I'll focus on the sheer class she displays by reacting with such wonder and happiness to the fact that the mythical Rose Tyler is back with the Doctor. AND THEN ON THE TARDIS THE GREATEST 3 SECONDS OF ANYTHING, EVER HAPPENS:


MARTHA AND ROSE ARE HUGGING YOU GUYS

Fandom spends all this time drawing speculative fanart of the School Reunion-esque showdown that might take place between Rose and Martha if they met, and then when they do meet they have a hugfest in the TARDIS. I can and do watch this gif on loop because everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

I have lots more Martha meta in me, but I haven't actually sat down to write any of it yet, BUT I don't want to go another day without posting anything, soooo let's talk about the awesome that is Martha's Theme!:



I love all the companion themes and a lot of Murray Gold's work, but I decided recently that Martha's is probably my favourite. I'm not quite sure why, except that I think something about it is just so Martha -- it's sort of hauntingly beautiful, and quite sad, but also quietly strong. I dunno, listening to it just gives me All The Feelings about Martha and series 3 in general. Click play! You know you wanna!

It's pretty crucial to the role that the companion be smart, and when we first meet Martha Jones, she's a med student preparing for her exams, so it probably goes without saying that she's pretty clever. But what struck me on my recent rewatch of series 3 was precisely how clever Martha is, both in terms of resourcefulness and in terms of the straight-up level-headed logic the average person probably couldn't apply successfully in a life-or-death situation. She comes up with the plan to use lightning as a defense against the pig slaves; she lets Lazarus kiss her hand to get a DNA sample; she thinks of telling Milo and Cheen to turn off the engines to hide from the Macra. Martha's ability to keep her head in amongst utter chaos is one of the things that makes her a perfect candidate for the role of companion, and indeed it's one of the first things the Doctor notices about her, too.


But they're not exactly air tight. If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?

This scene always impresses me the way it impresses the Doctor. I'm pretty sure if my workplace spontaneously ended up on the moon, I'd collapse into panic and terror much like the other doctor. Martha doesn't. Martha winds up on the moon and her first thought is to wonder why everyone can still breathe. THAT IS AWESOME AND BRILLIANT, and the Doctor thinks so too.

Then, still on her very first outing, Martha is left to salvage the Doctor's terrible plan by being clever enough to piece it together and force the Judoon to do a second scan of Mrs Finnegan.

It's a good thing Martha Jones is so clever, because a lot of series 3 hinges on her ability to run with minimal instruction from the Doctor. She has to make sense of what he wants her to do with the psychic paper in New York, she's left on her own to protect all of them in Human Nature/Family of Blood, and in Last of the Time Lords she has a year on her own to use some very cryptic (and frankly unhelpful) advice to save the world. Fending for herself in The Doctor's Daughter, she makes friends with the Hath and comes to the same decision as the Doctor without outside guidance. She uses the Osterhagen key not as UNIT intended but as a bargaining chip.

Basically, to quote Rose Tyler, Martha Jones? Oh, she's good.

I am back and alive and totally not going to class today, har har. So I'll probably start uploading photos and make a post about my trip (and by 'post about my trip' I mean 'a post with one paragraph on the old stuff I looked at and ten paragraphs on my feeeeeeelings about Much Ado') later today, but in the meantime, some promotion:



You sign up for one of the much-maligned ladies of fandom and for a week you make a daily post about her. Up to 5 people can sign up for a character in each language, so go forth! I signed up for Martha Jones, because with fauxkaren and goldy_dollar you guys should be covered for your Rose Tyler love. (Won't even lie, though, this is probably the first time I've been sad that Donna doesn't get more fandom hate, because I could probably write sonnets about Catherine Tate at the moment.)