Gordon Bennett, Professor!

Aye. I thought Martha was excellent!

Ace was probably the least feminine female companion the series has ever had. One of her significant character arcs was her acceptance that she could be softer if she chose to, but she never stopped being a tomboy.


I think that proves my point - Wilfred worked as a one-off companion for the story, but would have no agency in a series.


That's a bit of a false dichotomy - I don't see that deportment is a part of heroism at all. But being self-motivating is somewhat essential.

Still - if you don't like your female heroes assertive, physical, cynical, or even arrogant, do you think that these are appealing features in a male hero? If not, then why target these attributes in females specifically?

I liked her and so did a lot of people who I worked with at the time. I've never understood why she gets negativity.

For me, I loved Freema and I thought there was a lot of potential with her to be a great companion, but she was hugely let down by poor writing for her character and a tedious subplot throughout her series.

I am sorry I just don't like the name bill. I am more than happy to give her a chance. I just don't like the name.
Is there more to it than that. And I don't mean transgendered either.

What do you mean fans didn't take to her? Shes one of my most favourite companions her and Donna and Amy rocked. IMO Martha was written like an actual real life female with emotions and feelings. Her home troubles, the struggle she went through being compared to Rose, her crush on The Doctor and the fact she was forced to face The Master and The Family of Blood sold her to me. I don't understand the negativity surrounding her?

Maybe its shortened for something like Amy is Amelia.

I agree. I also got the sense that the inconsistent writing of the character affected some of her performances.

Agreed, i really liked her as a companion, but her issue was the writing of her at times, mainly us being reminded she isn't Rose like it was a bad thing etc etc.

So, apart from everything she said and everything she did and everything that happened to her, what did you like about the character? :-P

Her hair was pretty cool.

Me too,by far my favourite companion of the new era.

Of the new girl,totally neutral but optimistic sometimes I think the producers feel we are all desperate for another Rose so hope they don't go down that road.
Aside from that am I the only one who doesn't want any "event" to introduce new characters,I thought having a show to reveal Capaldi was bad enough,but "New companion revealed on Match of the Day" is right up there as well.
What was wrong about just reading it in the paper or hearing it on the news.

Said before on here, I thought the whole 'Not Rose' stuff was an irritating subtext in a series that had some v good stuff in it. Halfway through the series, when she's more than proven her worth (yeah, she only saved his life in her first flipping episode), the Doctor makes a big thing about giving her a key and she holds her hands out, so grateful. On repeat viewings, just think he should just stop acting like a complete divhead, basically.

"(sighs) Rose would know what to say."

Would she b*gger. Big misjudgement and didn't do justice to Martha at all.

Really poor decision to do that reveal on Match of the Day, doesn't look like the advertising has picked up from S9.

I agree. It's not as if there's a huge overlap of Doctor Who and football fans! A drama casting announcement in the middle of sport!? What were they thinking!?

I didn't see it myself but somebody here said the look on Gary Lineker's face showed he didn't think it appropriate either.

I never liked Rose as much as the writing tried to convince me to, so it was really frustrating that even after she had left the show was still trying to sell her as the best thing since sliced bread, at the sacrifice of any real character development for Martha (imo) and adding a rather unlikable layer to the Tenth Doctor that was attempted to be justified. It doesn't help that I find "unrequited love" plots some of the most tiresome there can be, only feeling even more out of place in a show like Doctor Who where they simply don't belong.

Though the whole unrequited love thing was still there, Paul Cornell did a pretty good job with her in Human Nature, though. One hell of an underrated gem, that one was.

As I said though, I loved Freema in the role and she did a great job with what she got, I just wish her character had been written so much better than she was. I did, at least, still like Martha much more than her predeccessor.

And she remains the only New Who companion to leave the TARDIS through her own choice and on her own terms - unlike poor old Rose, Donna, Amy and Rory and (most recently) Clara. I loved Martha and still do. Season 3 is filled with gems and Martha's often hilarious.

Her delivery seemed very lumpen and as someone else mentioned, she had a very irritating vocal tic of that odd half laugh. She may grow on me (although I doubt it) but my first reaction was, Oh God, how quickly can we kill this one off? Still, we're nothing if not fair round here so I'll give her a few episodes before I come to a final decision.

Hope Bill and 12 will have fun on their adventures together.
However there are reasons to worry.

How will Bill react when she finds out it is not all sweetness and light ?.
Sometimes the Doctor can't save everyone. Other times he has to make difficult decisions.

Plus the doctors enemies use his friends against him.
Missy as a good example would love to get her hands on Bill.

Wonder if she will stay for 12's regeneration and after.
Plus is Bill her real name or is it just short for her full name or some kind of nickname?.

For now welcome to the Tardis and whoniverse Bill/Pearl.

Difficult to judge fairly on such short material so will reserve full judgement until the tenth series. She does seem a little bit annoying however, but hopefully I warm to her.

Isn't that the whole point, thought? The Doctor being short-sighted and insensitive, and Martha being undervalued?

Martha was too good, too competent, to live in Rose's shadow, which is why she left. The Doctor was effectively in a grieving period, and no new partner can match up to a memory.

Talking of the Doctor being short sighted and insensitive...

I was re-watching Tooth and Claw last night and was struck by a similarity between 10/Rose and 12/Clara. Fairly early on in the story the Doctor is examining the telescope device and being pretty disparaging of it in front of the son of its (deceased) creator. Then he pauses and says to Rose, "Am I being rude again?". Rose says "Yeah" and 10 then becomes much more complimentary.

It seems Rose kept 10 in touch with normal human social skills as much as Clara did with 12. Funny how much more in the foreground "rudeness corrected by the companion" was for 12 than for 10. I guess 10 had the charm with which to win people over when he slipped up.

It was refreshing seeing 10 and Rose at the beginning of that adventure taking it pretty light heartedly and having fun (with Queen Victoria, no less!). We've not seen much of that during 12's time so far.

Oh for sure. Just didn't much like the 'arc' is all. The whole 'rebound companion' stuff really got on my nerves. But well, yeah, maybe it was supposed to!

Some people didn't like the 'smugness' of Ten/Rose, but I saw the point of it. Their behaviour whilst people are dying in Tooth and Claw is a bit rubbish, but it leads to Torchwood and their ultimate seperation. Their tw*ttish behaviour towards Mickey at the start of the Cybermen story leads to him realising it's time to leave. It's just the unrequited love stuff, and then Rose popping up in Donna's first story as a regular ....what's that song from 'Frozen'? And I *Like* Billie!