Ah, but the Doctor doesn't have any other Time Lords to play with any more, does he?

And to be fair, the UNIT entourage were rather more prominent and long-lived as characters than his current pals!

I find it frustrating because I personally think Martha could have been such a good character, but the unrequited love thing just dampened her somewhat.

I still can't believe people actually think The Doctor was in love with Rose, to me he just loved her as a very dear friend. There was never any sexual chemistry between them the way there was between, say, The Doctor and Madame de Pompadour.

The bigger question is why was Christopher Eccelstone's Doctor a flop? I mean, clearly he was because he was gone after only one series. He didn't even get some recurring parts in season two, so he must have been an even bigger flop than Martha.

I mean, it's so obvious, isn't it? Actors roles are entirely based on the popularity of the character. It's not like the storyline, or even the actor's personal choices, would ever be allowed to get in the way. No, that would clearly be frowned upon.

Because people, you included, seem to be under the impression that Martha's not being in the whole of series 4 is somehow connected to her popularity, when it isn't.


You did, and you're about to do so again.


See? That's saying that the character's popularity is connected to whether she was in the whole of series 4 or not.

And what I am telling you is that you are wrong. It was planned from the start for Martha to leave at the end of series 3 and to come back for some episodes of series 4 and Torchwood series 2. It would have been impractical, a massive logistical nightmare and a huge waste of money for them to have re-written either series because of the popularity or otherwise of one of the actors. Furthermore, RTD's actions with regards to Catherine Tate and the fact that she genuinely is an unpopular choice for her role, whereas the Martha dislike is a minority on a small portion of websites, indicate that he wouldn't be the kind of person to change plans because those plans might not prove to be the most popular. In fact, throughout his time as the showrunner, he's shown a singular and very vocal disregard for whether people have taken to his decisions or not.

Not only would the practicalities be unbelievably complex and wasteful of both time and money, but the whole thing is incredibly unlikely from the point of view of just thinking about who is involved.


You don't seem to believe the realities of television production, either.

Obviously I watched something else.

Apart from being two young girls from London who had strong feelings for the Doctor they couldn't have been more different. Rose's arc was about a directionless girl who found a whole new life with the Doctor (practically spelt out at the the start of Army of Ghosts if you hadn't already got it). Martha however was a girl who did have a direction, who did have responsibilties and priorities whose love for the Doctor came from falling in love with the person (or timelord) as opposed to Roses falling in love with the life and by proxy The Doctor.

Rose was giving up everything (which wasn't much anyway) to travel with the Doctor, she was leaving her old life where Martha wasn't. That with Martha there was alway the fact that she was a trainee Doctor with family responsibilities, that her travels with the Doctor was outside her life on Earth which still existed.

The mains differences were not on The Doctors side AT ALL. His treatment of both was actually quite similar (ie lots of hugging, holding hands and saying 'you're great' and 'I'm not gonna lose you' etc..). The diffence came far more from the companion and their reaction to him and his reactions when they acted differently towards him.

I dunno maybe it was too subtle but personally one of my main gripes with RTD is often his scripts are too jarring in his attempts to hit things home, maybe this is necessary afterall.

Infact I found Donna (as she was in The Runaway Bride at least) and Rose much more similar (being a bit older and slightly more gobby does not constitute being the polar opposite for me I'm afraid). Both were characters who lacked meaning and direction in their life, however even with them there was a fundamental difference. Rose wasn't happy with that where Donna was somewhat (however even by the end of The Runaway Bride she had decided there was more to life, just not enough to travel with The Doctor). If Rose hadn't of met the Doctor when she did, she would have essentially been Donna fifteen years down the line.