The other constant in Doctor Who is the Doctor’s companion: the human (or sometimes alien) that travels with the Doctor on adventures. Every season of the show has featured one or more companions, each of them a unique character who has something of their own to bring to the story. There have been over fifty companions since Doctor Who began, varying widely in age, profession, personality, and time spent with the Doctor.
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Martha Jones became a companion in 2007, during the third season of the recently relaunched Doctor Who. Martha, played by British actress Freema Agyeman, was a companion to David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor. Martha was a regular human, an ordinary med student who joined the Doctor on his travels after helping him during an incident in which the hospital where she worked got transported to the moon. Despite being funny, clever, strong, and competent, Martha is often underrated compared to many of the other companions in the modern series.
Why Martha Flew Under The Radar
Part of this is due to timing. Martha replaced the previous companion, Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper. Rose had been on the show two seasons, traveling both with the Tenth Doctor and Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor. She served not only as a human companion who helped ground the Doctor to Earth, but as the Doctor’s love interest, creating a bond that audiences easily got invested in. Her exit from the show was heartbreaking for her, the audience, and the Doctor.
Martha developed romantic feelings for the Doctor during her time traveling with him; however, they were not reciprocated and barely acknowledged by the Doctor, who was still pining over his lost love. Some Doctor Who fans had a problem with this storyline, believing either that she was being brought in to replace Rose as a love interest, or that the companion-falling-for-the-Doctor storyline was played out and being done again too soon after Rose’s departure. These are valid points; however, Martha as a character was more than just her feelings for the Doctor.
Why Martha Deserves More Credit
Martha is introduced as a medical student, and continues to express interest and knowledge in medicine throughout her time on the show. She is consistently curious about and interested in the new worlds, technology, and species that she encounters along her journeys. She presents theories and solutions to problems based on not only her existing knowledge base, but what she learns on her travels and observes in the world around her — she’s consistently helping the Doctor with situations that arise. After leaving the Doctor of her own volition at the end of season three, Martha is next seen on spin-off show Torchwood. She has joined UNIT as a medical officer, making use of the knowledge of alien physiology she learned with the Doctor.
On top of her arc on Torchwood, Martha returns to Doctor Who for five episodes of the fourth season, still as a member of UNIT and requesting assistance from the Doctor and his new companion, Donna Noble. Her final appearance in the series comes in the Tenth Doctor’s final episode, where she is shown to have left UNIT and now fights aliens alongside her husband, former companion Mickey Smith. Martha uses knowledge, bravery, skill, and independence to move forward and make her mark on the world beyond her adventures with the Doctor.
It must also be acknowledged that some dislike of or disinterest in Martha can be attributed to racism. While every fan is entitled to like or dislike any companion or character on the show, there are some who criticize Martha for things that they do not, and would not, criticize white companions for. For example, some claim that she has to be saved by the Doctor too often during her season, despite this not happening significantly more often than it does with other companions. She gets criticized for her feelings for the Doctor, despite it not being the only facet of her character or storyline — and she’s not the only companion to show such feelings. Unfortunately, there are some who try and find every little thing wrong with her, because they can’t admit that they dislike her for her skin color.
Although she was constantly underrated, Martha was part of some of the most iconic Doctor Who episodes of all time. These include “The Shakespeare Code,” “Human Nature”/“The Family of Blood,” “Blink,” “The Sound of Drums,” “The Doctor’s Daughter,” and “The Stolen Earth.” Despite the naysayers, Martha was a key aspect of each of these episodes, and was a huge part of what made them great. Martha was a fantastic and worthy companion, and worth taking a second, third, and fourth look at.
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