After Rewatching Series 3...Martha was actually really good!!
Scoobyh1
Posts: 2,131 Forum Member
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I decided to watched Doctor Who again Series 1 onwards and when i came to Series 3...my reaction was...oh no Martha.
But after rewatching it on dvd, she is so much better than i first thought.
Maybe it was because i was a big fan of Rose and at the time, i probably found it hard to accept Martha.
But now i can say that i really love Martha now.
But after rewatching it on dvd, she is so much better than i first thought.
Maybe it was because i was a big fan of Rose and at the time, i probably found it hard to accept Martha.
But now i can say that i really love Martha now.
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The cast is solid. Tennant is a lot more varied in his role and a lot less OTT than he was for much of Series 2. Freema was also brilliant as Martha, and I always loved the character, even if at times she was given little to work with apart from being second fiddle to Rose. Aside from that, we have some of the best supporting characters given to us from the likes of Derek Jacobi, Thomas Sangster, Alexandra Moen, Harry Lloyd, Chipo Chung and Michelle Collins. Special mention to John Simm, John Barrowman and Carey Mulligan also.
There are some brilliant stories. Aside from the widely acclaimed Blink, there was also a long list of solid episodes. Utopia, Human Nature/The Family of Blood and Gridlock were all brilliant too, as were a number of less popular episodes including 42 and The Sound of Drums. I dare say that I even enjoyed (to a lesser extent) the daleks story. All that said, the first half of the series was certainly the weakest of any, but still did an admirable job.
That said, Series 3 remains the weakest for me. Such is the standard of the show that we can have all of the aforementioned and still call it the worst (at least from my point of view). Despite all of that, and also having perhaps the cleverest series arc of all brilliantly revealed as YANA in Utopia and despite the growing ambition towards the series, it has to be said that Series 3 perhaps tried to do too much when it also had to move on from Billie Piper (despite the protagonists reluctance to do so) which was an undeniably big deal - for much of the audience, Martha was the first real change to the regular cast, as she was the first major new character replacement of Nu-Who (unless you count Eccleston to Tennant, but they were still the same character).
This is all just my opinion anyway, but be nice to me, its my birthday today
Honestly, Martha Jones is the one companion from New Who I can't make up my mind on. Rose - liked to Parting of the Ways, hated the rest of the time. Donna - liked, shame they weakend her story with End of Time but she survives that just about. Wilf - awesome in every way. Jack - as much as he should annoy me I'd have him back in a heartbeat. Rory - wonderful. Amy - by far my favourite companion of the modern era and closing the gap on Ace rapidly. But Martha...
I think it comes down to the writing. When she's treated as a companion, given stuff to do and properly involved in the story, she's great. Human Nature / Family of Blood for instance shows her at her absolute best and THAT Martha I'd have very near the top of my list. Unfortunately the character was too often dragged down by the shadow of Rose and frankly we didn't need the unrequited love angle so soon after we'd just gone through Rose's story. Swap Donna and Martha around and it would have been a bit more bearable (although still annoying). The fact she was still a 'passenger' rather than companion for the first, what, five, six episodes didn't help either. Plus I still believe companions need at least a couple of years plus a story that works over that time frame to really establish themselves, there's only so much you can do with 13 episodes and 9 stories after all.
Have to say as well, I think Freema was the weakest of all the companions thus far (again, New Who only). Not saying that was her fault as she really was given some clunkers to work with but there are times when she just feels... off to me somehow. More so in series 4 it has to be said. Again, not saying she's bad (I still stand by my belief we've never had a TRULLY bad actor in the Doctor or Companion roles in this series) just that she tends to get eclipsed by the others.
edit - Huh, just reading back through this and really hit me how much Rose damaged my enjoyment of the series from Season 2 onwards. Dragged Martha's time down very badly, ruined Donna's season for no damn reason, turned the Doctor's 'have fun' setting very firmly off.... I wouldn't mind so much if there was an actual payoff for it all but leaving her dumped back on Bad Wolf Bay with Handy for NO reason (seriously, why couldn't she stay with the Doctor after all that? If it was to have someone look after Handy because he tried to kill the Daleks, umm, Doctor, you do know you've tried to do that on several occasions and commit genocide on a regular basis right?)... gah, that really was bad fan fic level writing without which Journey's End might actually have reached a decent conclusion. Anyway, sorry, rant over.
Donna is my favourite companion so far but Rose will always have a special place in my heart for getting me so into Doctor Who
I don't even mind the unrequited love element, because on rewatching series 3, it really isn't that much of a focal point throughout.
I did prefer her appearances in Torchwood, although again, I couldn't quite believe that she'd risen to such a prominent position within UNIT (even with help from you know who!).
While I didn't rate Freema as an actress in DW she was much better in Law and Order UK.
With the exception of Jack who I think will reappear at some point, I doubt we'll see anyone else from Russell's era again.
I think like Matt Smith following David Tennant, she had big shoes to fill after Billie Piper as Rose, who is still my new series fave, but she pulled it off. She certainly came into her own in Human Nature/Family Of Blood where The Doctor was out of action, so to speak, and she certainly didn't let let herself down with her actions in the both finales of Series 3 and 4.
Like I said in the other thread, she shouldn't have been in The Doctor's daughter as she wasn't needed and was underused terribly.
I think Freema suffered because she was squeezed in between two popular and well-known actresses in the companion roles. I didn't see her as irritating at all and I thought she was just fine.
I have experienced the exact opposite with Tate.
I havn't got an opinion about Freema one way or the other but never really liked Martha and her appalling family, not one of them we that likeable and she was too Rose-lite in every way. She was a lot better in Torchwood though.
Yeah, that's how I feel, too. I liked her at the time and couldn't understand why she seemed to get such a bad rap from a lot of people. But when I've watched any of series 3 back since then, I've found her acting really, REALLY bad.
Surrounded by such other good actors so much of the time, I'm surprised I didn't notice how bad she was first time round. Granted, she's not terrible all the time, but for most of it she's like a block of wood tied to the Doctor's ankle.
Her brother, Leo (or was it Leon?) seemed all right.
Although, that's probably because we saw less of him than the rest of the family!
The family were never really made that much of, not in the way that Rose's mother was.
I liked Martha a lot. I thought she was an engaging and resourceful character, played very likeably by a very beautiful actress.
Pre Donna she was my favourite, mainly because I thought series 3 was my favourite after series 2. Obviously, when talking about DW even rubbish DW is still better than mostly everything else on TV and while I loved series 2 for what it was, its still the weakest series for me. I think series 3 is when DT really started to shine as the Doctor; he was less manic and we saw more of the dark aspect of the Doctor he was so good at playing. I think Martha complimented that and helped it. Her opening episode was the best of the four under RTD imo and I really enjoyed her stint. Would like to see her come back in Torchwood at some point even if it dosen't look very likley now.
Yes I concur...
Agreed. Though I got told off before for saying she was beautiful.
Martha's family were pretty poor, though, the brother is probably the single most pointless character to appear in Nu Who....
While I agree about the family I do think her brother might have played much better if the actor had been available for the final two episodes of the season. From what I remember it was meant to be him, not Thomas Milligan, who met Martha after her year of walking the earth. That would have added a lot to his character.
he was in the penultimate episode of the series, and indeed briefly in the last one (you see him through the window at the end). I know the actor was unprofessional enough to double book himself reducing his role in the least episode a little, so therefore we can only judge him on what we saw, which was a character that added not one positive thing to the show by his presence.
Heh, is it bad that I snickered at a typo that referred to the Last of the Time Lords as the 'least episode'? Seems accurate to me...
But yes, brother added pretty much zip to the story as-was. Though I'd also say Tish was right up there as well, even if only because of her seeming to be too dumb to live with regards her career choices...
whoops....heh!