Martha Jones Deserved Better (And Other Correct Doctor Who Takes) 

Hey y’all two notes 1) this will be my last attempt at using background music in a whole video. Y’all don’t like and I’m not that great at it lol. I feel like audio is just something I struggle with because sometimes folks are hearing stuff I don’t so boo 2) due to some tech issues this came out two days after I intended but I am playing at MCVegas today and tomorrow if anyone wants to play and is in the area xx P

Literally so much would have been solved with the simple switch of not making Martha in love with the doctor 😭 those showrunners smh

Disregarding the romantic aspirations and the racial undertones of the entire series, it must be noted that Martha is probably the most heroic of all the companions the Doctor has had. Martha literally had to walk the Earth to convince billions of people, most of them antagonistic at first, to contact the Doctor at the right moment. This year was replete with being chased, hunted, betrayed by temporary alliances, imprisoned, and with her wits only, single-handedly got everyone on the planet to help save the Doctor, who was a millenniarium (speed-aged hundreds of years). Of course, there was no episode about this; it was implied it happened between the two-parter episode, but there was a book writted about it called "The Story of Martha." I highly recommend it. It makes her actions make all other companions' actions pale just in the sheer length of time that she had to be heroic every second, over a period of a year.

The thing I hate most about Martha’s time on the show is that they stuck her with Mickey at the end. When we last saw her before that episode, she was a doctor and engaged to Tom Ellis’s character (who seemed to adore and respect her). It made ZERO sense that she was now an alien hunter with Mickey.

The only problem I ever had with Martha was that I found it PHYSICALLY PAINFUL to watch this incredibly beautiful, smart, strong woman written to act like a pathetic fool over this man who so clearly did not appreciate her and it reminded me of a friend (who was also studying to be a doctor at the time). Otherwise her episodes are actually some of my favorites.

can you imagine nine getting to run around with martha? he wouldn't have taken her for granted. he really had heart(s).

As someone who used to run a Martha Jones stan tumblr with the sole purpose of reblogging Martha Jones haters to tell them they were racists, THANK you for this.

As someone who has had a few unrequited loves I really love aspects of Martha's journey. What I wish most is that 10 had been taken to task for his treatment of her. He is callous with her feelings and her safety, which sort of makes sense given the darker aspects of the character, but the narrative doesn't always acknowledge that darkness. Throwing her and Mickey together is unforgivable

There was this weird phenomenon where a lot of people wanted 10 to run off with that white nurse woman from the 1900's two-parter, and so many people defended her back then and fully excused her of being racist because "oh she's just a product of her time, so it's OK" that it was just unreal. There was also this salt-in-the-wound moment in another season where the Doctor scrolls through these holograms of his previous companions and brags about how Martha had a crush on him, and I was like "If you knew, then why did you treat her like shit?!"

What REALLY didn't help with Martha was the Doctor constantly comparing her to Rose in that really melancholic way. I was a teenager when her series aired, I hadn't seen any old-who... and I was a MASSIVE Rose fan. So my dumb teenage brain was angry with MARTHA for trying to force the Doctor to move on when he wasn't ready to; when honestly I think now I'm more upset with the Doctor for taking out his emotions on this poor woman who didn't do a thing wrong. They really set her up to fail especially hard for anyone who was invested in Rose x Ten. It's so frustrating, because by the end of the season I had begun to see how awesome Martha was as her own person, but it had been hidden from me thanks to them drawing attention to the fact that my favourite companion was gone, and this was meant to be her replacement. MARTHA DESERVED BETTER!

"Most guys only have a podcast, he got a whole time machine." Laughed at the line! I like the point that you're making at that part of the episode. In God Complex, the 11th doctor acknowledges this power dynamic and his overwhelming allure by describing what he does as "offering a child a suitcase full of candy." He is opening up to one of the episode characters and says it like a confession... then immediately invites that character to join team tardis. It shows that he knows what he's doing, yet he can't seem to help himself. The Martha case is a really potent example of this.

Martha is criminally underrated. I hate that they had her end up with Mickey out of thin air. She deserved so much better.

The problem with the Family of Blood episodes is that it’s based on a novel that originally had a white companion. In the book, the companion, Bernice Summerfield, is able to live her own life while the Doctor lived as a human (which in the book is done so he can better understand what it’s like to feel human emotion). By choosing to adapt this specific story, they sort of intentionally chose to put Martha into a situation where she would be belittled and hurt.

The way race is handled in the Capaldi years was a huge improvement, it was a bit of a relief after how they treated Martha

I know lots of Martha's haters used the fact she was in love with the Doctor (one-sided) as a reason to despise her. But I personally think it makes her relatable. Ngl I also had (have?) a crush on Ten(nant) so how could I blame Martha for falling for him? A handsome mysterious stranger, who KISSED her, and invite her to travel where she never thought she could... how could she NOT fall for him? She's not different from Rose. Rose was just "lucky" to have her feelings being returned. And the fact that Martha knew deep down that the doctor will never love her the way she loves him, makes her very brave and selfless imo. She never complains about it, but she's always here for him. Until she realised she deserved and can have better than someone who'll never love her the way she deserves and walk away like the QUEEN she is.

I never see Martha as just a "black girl" or "Rose replacement". She is a girl who unlike many other companions actually has a life she doesn't want to throw away any time the Doctor is bored.

Martha was the best and frankly, if any companion could carry their own spinoff like John Barrowman got to, it would be Freema. I would absolutely watch Special Agent Martha Jones, MD, saving the Earth from pathogens and monsters, though I also wouldn't blame her if she was wholly uninterested in ever returning to the Whoniverse after the way the fandom treated her.

I am certain that it's probably already been said down in the comments, but Martha left the doctor fully intact so to speak. She's a She left on her own terms with her mind intact, she's the only one that was actually educated with a profession, she also solved the main story arc problem on her own completely not powered up by The Doctor or some other outside power (She "Walked the earth", ). Telling the story of the Doctor. And, the ONLY Companion to not just straight up ABANDON her family and life for the Doctor! Martha always had her family on her mind, and though she had a "crush" on the doctor, she would always check up on them.✊🏽✊🏽

I'm so glad to see other people actually liked Martha and thought she deserved better. She was always one of my favorit characters but I found the unrequited love thing really degrading. I think whole all companions must desire the doctor thing is bad in general and needs to stop. Now and then is fine but having it be constant is weird.

Amy and Rory’s final episode is easily one of the most frustrating in the whole series. Previously, in that very same season, they seemed to be clearly set up to grow-out of traveling with the Doctor. It would have been 200% more satisfying to have them choose to leave and the Doctor having to acknowledge that things end with some grace. It would have also allowed the two of them to really complete an arc, Amy in particular. To have them meet their fate with the Angel’s the way they did felt cheap and contrived.

It always strikes me that some of Martha's episodes were originally written with Rose in mind and I think it shows. Sometimes it feels like they did nothing much beyond "find and replace" on those scripts. There was a delay in getting to know who Martha was, because she's been poured into a Rose-shaped hole, only with the Doctor not having the same regard for her as he had for Rose. It honestly just felt to me as if the writers did not understand that they were writing a black woman and that they needed to engage with this.

Martha was my favourite companion and I loved that she wasn’t beholden to the Doctor. Wish she’d had more seasons.

"why couldn't have martha been [...] a lesbian who's not interested in little white twinks. some of us are free, and by 'us' i don't mean me." GOD THIS IS SO REAL. i ghostwrote this fucking line.

Love for Martha! Initially I didn't mind the unrequited bit, thinking after a few adventures' time she'd realize not only was it not going to happen, but she's actually the one saving the Doctor and he's going to be SOL when she decides to move on. But then every time, all season long, she'd get giggly flirty with him whenever he was charming only for it to be crushed immediately. Martha is smarter than that and after a short while, wouldn't have it. That said, I do think she was a great companion - one whose arc wasn't tied to "I'm Nobody!" She was damn brilliant, figured a lot of stuff out on her own, and had people on Earth who *actually* loved her for her - and she knew all of this about herself. The season finale was her time to shine - she made shit happen, not space magic, or the Doctor. And she got to live to tell the tale, walking away when she wanted, not because trauma forced her, as it did every other companion in NuWho. It very much feels like RTD never really got past not getting Donna to replace Rose due to scheduling. So much of her character feels like a sulk over her not being Donna Noble and it's gross.

The biggest issue I have with Martha's last cameo on the show, (bigger than her engagement/marriage to Mickey which wasn't explained on Dr Who) is what she was doing in that cameo. After Martha left the Doctor she joined UNIT (a militaristic organization that defends the Earth from alien threats) the Doctor hates UNIT, sees all military personnel as a group of gun toting apes who shoot first and ask questions later. During a Dr Who/Unit cross-over the Doctor expresses his disappointment with Martha for joining UNIT, to which she defends herself saying "Look at me, am I carrying a gun." She goes on to say that she has a chance to change UNIT from the inside, and be a voice of reason. And the next and final time the Doctor sees Martha, she and Mickey are in a gun fight.

The complicated feelings of Martha because she so deserved better but that also meant that I found her basically dumping the Doctor after what he put her through to be cathartic, especially in light of how so many NewWho companions are forcibly parted. That wasn't the storyline they should have given her but I'm glad she knew her own worth and left on her own terms. I have softened on Rose over the years but I may have jeered a bit when Rose thinks she's going to be mentioned in the uniting scene in Stolen Earth and then it's revealed to be Martha, whose been doing all this work setting it up in the first place. I probably don't want Companions to keep returning all the time, but seeing how this christmas special is addressing Donna's complicated memory wipe, I wouldn't mind seeing Martha come back and got a proper apology from the Doctor.

Just want to say: It's SO worth revisiting the Peter Capaldi era in depth. It's really fantastic, with a few episodes that arguably the best of the entire modern series. I think a lot of us who were mostly fans of Eccleston/Tennant/Smith may have checked out a bit when Capaldi started. The tone of the show got a little more morose, and I think it's worth remembering that 2014 - 2016 was a big period of political nightmares for both England and America. It's possible a lot of us fans were preoccupied...

Totally agree with everything you said. As a half West African half Iranian (Freema is half Iranian Kurdish, not Arab. Iranians aren’t Arabic, just a small correction) fan of Doctor Who, I was really excited about Martha, but hated how they treated her. And then I found out about the hate she got in the fandom and it made me really sad and upset, but I’m glad there’s someone pointing these things out lol Thanks for this video!

As an innocent 11 year old watching Dr Who, I was so confused why Martha got so much hate. I loved the fact that she was smart and had an aspiring career. As a kid I always thought Rose was a bit dumb (especially since she qualified as "other girl" when being an nlog was all the rage), so when they replaced Rose with intelligent and independent Martha, I got really excited. But then they treated her so unfairly and replaced her with Donnna too soon. Donna might have been a cool character, but I never liked her, because she replaced Martha.

Martha deserved so much better. So did Bill. I really liked Bill and Peter Capaldi's relationship. It was sad to lose her.

I was definitely big into the Rose/Ten dynamic (well, really, Rose/Nine, but Ten felt like satisfying enough payoff if you were a Rose fan) so I remember when it first aired I didn't like Martha. It didn't take long though to realize that Martha is not the problem. The writers definitely wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wrote this smart, independent, educated, hard-working, empathetic, and drop-dead gorgeous young woman - she's practically perfect in terms of companion material. She should have been a clear fan favorite. But she *had* to play second fiddle to Rose, so she was also written to be so infatuated and cloying as to bounce people off. Heck yeah it's racist. In a better show Martha would have been just a friend, or a messy rebound, and people would hate it but in a fun way.

Martha is amazing! I remember not liking her crush on the Doctor, and wishing she was more about herself. Cause whenever she was flashing her medical degree in old times, or saving the literal universe countless times, she was so-so fierce. RTD did her dirty with that pining nonsense.

“Rose would know” girl no she wouldn’t. I love Rose so much but she would not know

In a single season she went through absolute hell multiple times for The Doctor, far more than most companions ever did, and in the end she was still forever in Rose's shadow. Her goodbye speech of telling a friend to leave a one sided relationship encapsulated her character perfectly, she truly gives herself physically and mentally to see somone she likes better to the point where she almost forgets about herself.

So interesting - i noticed that Mickey was a completely different character from the NewWho pilot to when he came back a couple episodes later (chronologically after Rose left). It was as if RTD realized how messed up it was to portray the character like that, and decided to correct it. Then Mickey ended up (temporarily) leaving everyone in order to care for his elderly grandmother so she could have a natural end of life 🥲 so, I liked Mickey after the pilot BUT it’s still a total ass pull that he ended up with Martha with no context as to why

"most guys only have a podcast and he got a time machine!" i am six feet under, decomposing, deceased. subscribed honey.

Martha is my favorite companion with Donna in a close second. I liked that she had personal ambitions that didn't get overridden with "time travel with the doctor forever." And she goes on to save the entire world! She is exemplary in many ways, even though her time on the show also comes with several failures from the writers room. She definitely deserved better.

I’m reading the book “the Only Good Indians” by Stephen Graham Jones and the main character works at a post office and mentions that essentially his coworkers are shipping him with another coworker just because they’re indigenous despite him already being married. That and this video have got me thinking how deep this “like with like” mentality runs. It’s in our everyday lives, it’s in our media, and it’s even in our own heads too. I know my grandfather has always emphasized not dating anyone other than another indigenous person. It’s sad to think some of my favorite ships have been ruined just because the writer of the show couldn’t see how they could be happy together even if the characters themselves could.

"Everybody Lives!" I just sob uncontrollably during this episode, it's so good...

What I hate the most is how people paint her as jealous and petty and not worth the time as Rose was. Martha was brilliant, skillful, and brave, and could meet the Doctor in almost every aspect beyond age and ability to regenerate. Meanwhile Rose gets all the praise literally just for existing. Any of the Rose stans would feel the exact same way if the Doctor whisked them off into space just to constantly talk down on how superior Rose was in every single way. RTD *wanted* us to love her and it was shown all throughout his writing. I mean, watching back on it, what kind of "X" factor did Rose ever have that triumphed over any and all companions? She gets name-dropped more than Sarah Jane...or Susan...and Susan was his own damn GRANDAUGHTER

Martha and Micky always got to me because I genuinely hated that ending for them and in my head cannon that just didn’t happen. It was so lazy having two black rejected characters thrown together to give them both some sort of happy ending after the way they had both been cast aside by the doctor. Also I love Micky so much out of all the reoccurring characters he is definitely my favourite

I'm so happy to hear your appreciation for the 9th Doctor! I really love Eccleston and feel like he's super underrated (though understandably so, considering he only did one season). When it comes to Martha... I get a little frustrated whenever I think about her. She's great but man do I hope she wasn't made into a unrequited love interest for the Doctor and constantly have it rubbed in her face how she's not Rose. She deserved better. An excellent video as always, Princess, loved to hear your takes on DW!

The fact that Martha is the only companion who as far as I know had her entire family held hostage and essentially turned into the Master’s slaves is so wild to me. Like yeah it’s not like companion parents don’t get into danger or get killed off. But really! They really had to subject the first black companion’s family to that! P.S also Princess if you do ever give Capaldi a try again I’d do it strictly for Michelle Gomez as Missy. She’s probably one of the most iconic anti-hero characters I’ve seen in a long time. She straight up bullies Clara for an entire episode if that’s enough draw for you lol

You’ve perfectly described why I have a love-hate relationship with Martha’s series. I loved how much she managed to face and yet knew she had hit her limit in the end and deserved better, but hated how she was treated. Her series had some of my favourite episodes like ‘Don’t Blink’, but as a whole I can’t watch her series because I hate to see how she’s treated. It would’ve been great if she was able to be the friend the 10th Doctor needed like Donna, without the pining and one sided feelings. It’s so easy to do that. They did for Donna.

While the pining was a tad annoying, I actually like how the writers used it to strengthen her character in the end - she was given the opportunity to walk away from the Doctor and became the first (and one of very few) NuWho companion to leave the Doctor’s side 100% willingly. Having the strength and self respect to walk away from something she wanted because she realised it would do her no good to keep chasing it is a big part of what makes her my favourite companion!

She didnt die or get memory wiped and went to have a full career and life. So, there's that

Absolutely! She was fantastic and unfortunately "Rose rebound" became her primary function in series 3.

I agree that Clara's run is a bit of a slog, but I really would recommend what's after it. Bill is fantastic, she's smart, curious, headstrong, very gay, and I love the fun familial relationship she has with the Doctor. On top of that, that's the season with all the Missy content which is very very good.

52:08 “chronic aversion to Clara syndrome” fair if you never watched Capaldi’s run, they improved the way she was written significantly by the time season 9 came out. Counter Argument: Heaven Sent. Any pain you might suffer dealing with janky episodes and poor writing is worth it for this one episode. Absolute masterpiece.

If you watch any Bill episodes, I recommend "Thin Ice." I'd be interested to know your take. (Spoilers ahead) They have two important moments in that episode when it comes to Bill being a woman of color. The first is basically a mirror of the moment in the Shakespeare Code but the doctor has a better answer. Bill voices her concern about it being extra dangerous for her as a POC (she even says "hello! melanin!" while pointing at her face lol). The Doctor is basically like, yea, it's always dangerous and that's a danger here. He doesn't try to pretend it's not there or even promise to protect her from it more than his usual "duty of care" because how could he realistically do that? You couldn't even promise that in 2023. The second instance is later, they kind of know they are going to talk to this mega-racist and the doctor is basically like "we need to show diplomacy in order to get the information out of him so keep it cool" - his exact wording that stuck in my head was "remember Bill, passion fights but reason wins." You can FEEL the injustice of that moment through Bill's face- Pearl Mackie is a great actor, her face is so wonderfully expressive. You can see the practicality of what the doctor is saying but it just feels patently unfair that Bill is being told to stay quiet even if she faces mistreatment. Bill is like whatever and follows through. But when the racist gets verbally aggressive, the Doctor straight up clocks the dude. Aside from the humor of getting to see a racist punched in the face and also the fact that they use this as evidence that he's human, not alien (Bill says "that racism was way too convincing to be alien" lol), it's a huge moment of hypocrisy for the Doctor. Bill is asked to stay quiet but he gets to show his anger. They don't shine too bright a spotlight on it but I don't think it's unintentional or not self-aware. The Bill relationship with the doctor is great because it's a student/professor style relationship, similar to 7 and Ace. The power dynamic is more realistic - the show doesn't try to make them seem like equals because they aren't, really. Same as every other companion ever. Of course they love each other but in a normal, platonic way, even fatherly/daughterly. In one episode, after he talks to her, he looks at a picture of Susan on his desk which kind of hints at his emotions towards Bill. It's also great that they're so casual about her being a lesbian. It's just something about her rather than a defining trait. They make some choices with her journey that I don't fully agree with (I will NEVER forgive the show for her ending) but they are choices that aren't really related to her blackness. At least from what I can see, I'm open to the idea that I'm missing something. As for 13's era, it's a mixed bag. They have the episode "Rosa" where they go back and meet Rosa Parks (not intentionally) and it is an absolutely BRUTAL realistic portrayal of the south in that era. It's not perfect but it's a great episode imo. More generally, Ryan sucks. He's just poorly written and I'm sorry to say, poorly acted. Not much more to say about that. The development with Graham is compelling though. Yaz is steadily better as time goes on. I do hate that she becomes another love-struck companion because that's just so uninteresting to me. The difference is that the dynamic is more Rose/10 than Martha/10. Just like 10 loves Rose but not all the way romantically because she's human, 13 loves Yaz but not all the way romantically because she's human. Yaz is an incredible companion though. On an unrelated not, I met the actor who plays her in person and she's super cool!

It's kind of a shame Martha, or at least Freema Agyeman, couldn't have been the first companion of New Who, instead of the second. I was so disappointed in the John Smith episodes for her (and his dumb human romance). And, I'm sorry, Rose or no, how could he not fall for Martha? She's gorgeous and amazing. Not saying every companion-Doctor relationship needs to be romantic but they started out this whole thing with kisses and I don't care what the excuse was. Then too, a big deal is always made about how the Doctor is an alien and has alien attitudes and feelings, so there is no need for him not to move on from Rose and keep carrying the torch; as a viewer, Rose's shadow over Martha's era was just annoying. Mickey's not good enough for Rose but okay for Martha, apparently. (Not that I even disliked their little cameo together, but that is a problem.) Okay, before I do a whole essay, so I better stop.

I was actually someone who really disliked the 10/rose dynamic too. That also had a spill over of finding the 10/Martha dynamic extra annoying. So much of her character got overshadowed by her being in the shadow of Rose and being the one the doctor didn't pick. In hindsight I can appreciate the idea of showing actual emotional ramifications over multiple episodes, but it didn't need to be so frustrating. I think there even could have been a similar story line without Martha being in love with him. It could have been just him keeping an emotional distance bc he's scared of losing another companion and Martha leaving because of it. In that way Martha could have shown him the consequences of being closed off and taught him an important lesson that leads into his friendship with Donna. I'm sure it still wouldn't have been perfect, but it would've been far less frustrating and there would have been lasting consequences to her time in the TARDIS at least. Sometimes I feel like writers use het romance as a cheat code to automatically create a dynamic without putting much thought into why or what it adds to the characters. I think DW especially doesn't really need it, but it keeps being pushed into so many parts of new who. I hope they will be more frugal in the future, or at least consider the storylines/dynamics first before considering romance.

you're really missing out with capaldis era, it's my favorite of the whole show. 12 and clara's dynamic is much different than hers and 11s, they get so fucked up and codependent it's so interesting to watch, and her ending leads to heaven sent which is the best doctor who episode ever. series 10 with bill is one of my favorites, i think that finale is one of the best in the show. and missy is fantastic im obsessed with her, and sacha dhawan as the master from 13's era too.

I could never fully get behind Rose because of the way Mickey is treated like. Oh my G-D was the Mickey shit atrocious. It's beyond punching bag, beyond butt monkey, whatever, Mickey is literally and textually treated as subhuman it's appalling

I know wanting old characters to return is unhealthy, but with RTD here I am hoping to see the SJA gang appear as adult companions for a story, especially Daniel Anthony. Clyde grew to be other star of that show next to Sarah, and I'm so suprised Anthony's career didn't breakout given how strong an actor he was.

I hated that all the female companions always seemed to have to be in love with him. Probably why I clung to Donna so much. I really loved Martha as a character though and always hated how she was written off and drag out her having this one sided crush on him.

The Danny Phantom example definitely opened an old wound

Martha may not be my top favorite companion, but I agree that she deserved better. She should've been allowed to be *her,* her own character, without also needing to be in love with the Doctor then constantly rejected for it (whether outright in the show or by fans), and all because of a) her race and b) she wasn't Rose. As a TenRose shipper, Series 2 remains a personal enjoyment for me despite its messiness, largely due how much it's carried by David and Billie's chemistry. But Series 3 is responsible for some genuinely superb episodes, like Blink and Human Nature/Family Blood, the latter of which is greatly reliant on Martha's role. She constantly proves herself as a valuable companion in her own right, so it's sad to see how much she's been ignored or disregarded, both by the Doctor himself and by "certain" fans. (On that note: Thank you for teaching me about the "disposable black love interest" trope, and how it relates to both Martha *and* Mickey). 😔🙄 And also, yes: Donna fan for life, and I'm so excited to see her again for the 60th Anniversary special! I always remember how (understandably) apprehensive my mom was about her becoming a regular after The Runaway Bride, but in the end, Donna went on to become one of her favorite NuWho companions (alongside Rose and Amy). 💙

As an old school Doctor Who fan (Pertwee-Baker) I prefer the way companions were handled back then. The companions trusted the Doctor, they didn't love him. But I guess that's not modern enough for the 21st Century showrunners. Frema Agyeman played one of the best companions, was compelling in the role, and it was disappointing to see the Doctor written as not just aloof but insensitive. I agree with you 100%, the character deserved better, but moreover the actor deserved not to be troped into a corner.

I cannot express enough how much I love Martha. She's smart, funny, generous, beautiful. She's just amazing

Pretty sure RTD said if he could change anything about his run it was Martha story arc and he wouldn’t write it like that now

its wild to me that people can watch sound of drums/last of the time lords and still not like martha or dismiss her as the anti-love interest. girlie saved the world and the doctor like three times over

Now this is what I call good food! Your Martha takes are great and as young Who fan from a Ghanaian background who was expected to be a doctor my parents ate her up as representation. She meant so much to me and she deserves an apology as does Freema Agyeman. I'm nervous for RTD writing a black doctor and what all the Doctor's moralising will look like when it's ultimately a white writer with a black mouthpiece. I hope strong black writers will be in the room and be listened to. Clara episodes are exhausting but the episode Heaven Sent is a Clara free episode and it's brilliant, a tight short story that got friends to watch the earlier seasons. What happened to Bill broke my heart, it's not worth the heartache.

10:38 something I’ll always remember from 9 run is just the glee and sheer joy of “just this once everybody lives”

my thing with steven moffat is that he is really good at doing one off episodes but a whole season(s) is where it begins to fall apart :/ (also he's very good at individual scenes, my depressed teen self genuinely was clinging to eleven saying "900 years of space and time and i've never met anyone who wasn't important" so hard, it still makes me tear up). since RTD is coming back for the new series i hope they've added more poc writers and sensitivity readers (or the tv equivalent of it bc idk) for ncuti!!

Can we get a shoutout to Danny Pink? Did everything right and still ended up dying and being forgotten in order to raise Cl*ra and the Doctor’s stock.

This refueled my anger over how Ten treated Martha. 😂

Martha is and has always been my favorite companion. She was smart, competent, and resourceful. She was the one that everyone (her family, The Doctor, etc.) relied on and showed how she learned to navigate that space. Also, having walked away from a toxic relationship at the time, I related to her decision to leave.

Most underrated companion by far. To her credit she's the only one of the era that got to just go home because she wanted to instead of being 'tragically' torn away from the Doctor.

As someone who was a huge BBC Sherlock girl back in the day, and has recently started getting into Elementary, I can tell you that Elementary is the superior show!! I’ve only been watching for a couple of months but it already holds such a dear spot in my heart

I love Martha sm. She’s always been one of my favorite characters from DW

THANK YOU for giving Martha her flowers. She was, honestly, my favourite companion growing up. It's so annoying having to explain myself every time I say she's my favourite.

Other tokenized black side characters: Roz, Prudence and Ambrose in the recent run of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (also the unnecessary pairing of the latter two for voodoo investigations in Season 3) and Bonnie in the Vampire Diaries (the author refused to allow a relationship with Damon despite the actors insane chemistry, instead she was paired with the worst people in existence and/or they were promptly killed after an emotional bond was formed).

As someone who fell off of Doctor Who around the same time this video felt very cathartic. Great too hear some Martha love as well as someone who remembers some of the Martha hate on Tumblr…

Series 3 aired when I was 9 and social media didn’t exist and I wasn’t on message boards and I was so taken aback years later when I found out people didn’t like Martha. Of the first 3 companions, the relationship between Donna and Ten is definitely my favourite, but I can’t choose a favourite character. They’re all my childhood and I’m so glad I was able to enjoy and love Martha completely away from discourse. Love this video, thank you so much ❤

i haven't even watched yet but the title, and the fact it's you covering this - is so exciting to me. i spent my formative years telling everyone i didn't like rose tyler just because i was so so sick of how both the show and fans acted like martha was some kind of step down when she was literally one of the most formative and important female characters of my childhood. aged thirteen, i literally recorded a youtube video (since scrubbed from the internet, thank god) that was a twenty minute incoherent ramble of how much i loved martha and how much she deserved better. ten years later, i am finally getting vindication in the form of a far more coherent video from a far more coherent person. thank you so much for doing this video.

watching this is such vindication, you have no idea. as someone who never really cared for rose, and who adored both martha and donna, i was remain forever pissed at how unsatisfying both their endings were. donna had a great character arc and personal growth (particularly due to not being held back by a shittily handled romance arc), but her ending just... undid all that growth. SO disappointing. and martha had such great potential that kept getting hindered by the unrequited feelings she had towards the doctor. all martha fans know the frustration of having this fantastic character being repeatedly held up (by both the show and its fans) as an inferior replacement for rose. thank you for saying out loud what i've felt for the past 10+ years.

My worst doctor who ship opinion is that on rewatch, I thought it was actually cute Martha and Mickey got together. In their initial runs their arcs were based on having unrequited love for someone and the situation around that bringing out the less admirable qualities. But after Journey's end we see Mickey having found his identity and inner strength, and also separately see Martha at her most unhindered and truly heroic (imo), and then they joke at the end like "oh hi who are you?" when they're leaving the tardis. Then the next time we see them it turns out that who they've become is better than they would've been if they'd gotten the relationship they'd initially wanted. Like they were always "good enough," it's just the doctor made them feel like they werent. Does it make up for how much of a careless afterthought them getting together is? No, but it sure makes me feel a lot better about the fanfiction I wrote in eighth grade.

THANK YOU. I havent watched the video yet, but I felt SO BAD for Martha, all of her adventures were horrifyingly dangerous or just straight up horrible destinations. Like the Doctor just met this woman and hes like 'lets go to the endless traffic car exhaust planet, that'll be fun.' Like what the fucking hell. It felt like the whimsy was all gone, and it was such a waste since Martha was an amazing character. Freema Agyeman deserved better.

For Amy and Rory's departure, I think the important thing is that they already were pretty much ready to leave the Doctor (the episode before ATM, The Power of Three, was all about how they were reaching the end of their time with Eleven), and so while the canonical reason is a bit silly, it still feels pretty satisfying for their story, imo.

thank you so much for making this video!! it makes me so mad that martha was the only companion who was shamed by the fandom for falling in love with the doctor😭 the only difference is she’s black so it makes it pretty obvious why the fans didn’t like her😒 also she deserves so much better i hate how the writers screwed her over

Martha Jones/Freema is actually who got me into Doctor Who so i’m glad you (and other people) recognize her contributions to the show. 💜

What annoyed me but was also hilarious was how a lot of women who were interested in the doctor tried shitting on Martha because they were threatened by her. Rose for example was obviously jealous of her and acted snarky towards her by saying “I was the first, not you”, because she just KNEW how inferior she was to Martha. Yet the doctor constantly chose her over Martha because… She’s blonde? Martha was just as bold as her and as human as her but was better in every way, shape or form. She didn’t need the Tardis to save the doctor as well. She did that all on her own with her own determination. Rose was okay, but it took Martha and Donna being with him to make me see just how much the doctor wasted on “loving” her. Donna challenged him, and Martha worked with him. Rose however only followed him, so what was so good about her?? Then there was the matron in the family of blood episode who was completely disgraceful towards Martha as well. I could accept her being a product of her time, but what disgusted me in that episode is that at the end, the doctor actually asks her to come with him. This isn’t even a “you, me and Martha travelling together” thing, he explicitly invited her to REPLACE Martha as his companion, and it’s only from the Matron saying no to his pleas that he resigns himself and goes back to the girl who put her back out for him by living in the 1900s as a black woman (KNOWING she would get horrible treatment from most people, including the doctor himself) as if he’s going back to a wrecked apartment after losing the lottery. What the actual hell? The matron would have *never* done that for John Smith, so why is the doctor acting like he missed out on something good in having Martha his companion instead of the Matron who he’s known for three days? It’s like there’s a pattern of women who knew they weren’t as good as Martha trying to compensate by acting awful towards her. And the worst part is that the doctor KIND OF encouraged this treatment by actively acting better towards them than he did with her. Even after all of these years, this annoys me so much. Martha was too good for the doctor. Girl deserved better.

I love Ten and his dynamics with the people in his series, but he really did Martha so dirty, intentionally and otherwise-and not just in the romantic sense. It’s the main beef I have with Ten in his run. So thank you for this!

I love that depending on how you count, you can pretty much argue any number between 13 to 41 when talking about actors who have played the doctor (13 numbered ones + Fifteenth + War Doctor + Fugitive Doctor + the two replacements for the First Doctor + The Morbius Eight + The Valeyard + The Watcher + The Seven Timeless Children + Master Doctor + The Red Nose Doctors); it makes it so easy to explain the show to people.

Honestly, growing up, Martha was the first companion I started watching from, and having missed the Rose episodes, I never could understand why he was so dismissive of her as just a generally competent human. The best thing to serve her arc I think was at least for her to ultimately realize, "she was good," but Lord knows looking back now that poor woman deserved better than to be a constant Rose foil.

Smith and Jones was my first Doctor Who episode and watching Martha's entire run before sometime later going back and watching the Rose era definitely affected my perspective. It is SO easy to see how poorly Martha is treated by both the Doctor and the narrative when you're not starting with the presumption that OF COURSE everyone loves Rose and the Doctor should be with her.

Donna was the best companion because she was played by the best actress and she was so fun and yet her arc was so emotional and I loved her so much. I'm glad she's making a return in the specials coming up soon

Thank you for showing thoroughly how wonderful Christopher Eccleston's iteration of the Doctor is. He's always so overlooked, but he's been my favorite for a long time. David Tennant sometimes ties for first. I enjoyed Rose's dynamic with the Doctor period, but I also understand why people don't like the love story aspect of it. It was a much better love dynamic than anything I had seen before (but I was also young and my shows and movies before then were chosen by others). I loved how the Doctor respected Rose and cheered her on in her ordinary life. The fact that he does not give Martha respect even as a friend really upset me in the past. I am white, so I'm sure I will never understand the full scope, but I do know I was very uncomfortable with how she was treated throughout it all, and most especialy in the two-part-er you discuss a lot. I know there were different writers involved, but the difference between how Rory is treated (Amy still very much pursues the Doctor and is dismissive of him the same way Rose was of Mickey), and then how Mickey is treated... I remember really feeling upset that Rory got this massive epic arc in the end when it just felt so unnecessary... I basically just felt he was so favored but still treated as horribly/dismissively, and why did he get this amazing outcome and legacy and Mickey was always "just Mickey". Mickey grew and deserved better. And also hidden emails could be something to do with p*rn and people deserve a healthy amount of gratification in the privacy of their home. I remember feeling bad for Mickey during my whole watch time... I definitely never picked up on Mickey being a "bad" boyfriend though. Again, I was really young at the time. But still, he doesn't ever stand in Rose's way, and he did search for her and everything. Still felt he and Rose should separate, but I liked him just fine too. I was happy he eventually became empowered, but it was very late. And it was also just not... it never made sense that Mickey and Martha ended up together. I eventually rationalized it as people who've interacted enough with the doctor would gravitate to each other because of the shared experiences. Didn't change how it as entirely unsatisfying. Also, avoiding Clara is a solid plan. I was extremely frustrated with Moffat's writing by that time, and it didn't get better. I know I'm basically just long form saying I'm agreeing with your points. But I really appreciate this all put into one very solid video.

As someone who was a ride or die Rose and Timothee Chalamet guy back in the day, you are entirely correct. I have no notes. The whiplash I felt when my fandom acquaintances were actively distraught about my defending Martha was a surreal experience.

100% agree with that take. I always thought Martha was a great change of pace from Rose. She was different. An actual grown up. Had a life, career, goals, ran into a man who captivated her for a while before she realised she had more important things to do in her life. Good for her.

I’m glad you covered this because Martha did… SOOOO MUCH FOR THE DOCTOR… like wow in retrospect the amount of shit she endured and then eventually her family got involved.. it was a whole mess. I’m just happy her character is alive. If Moffat wrote her character, she would’ve died in some scifi bittersweet ending as opposed to peacefully leaving on her own terms.

I wish that we had gotten to see more of Martha and Bill. Martha deserved to find someone who wasn't hung up on their ex and Bill was an amazing character who could have used more/better episodes. Plus could you imagine what the Bill-13 dynamic could have been?

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!!!!!! Martha is my favorite companion, when I first watched the show, I loved how she didn't call The Doctor by Doctor until he proved to her that he deserved it.

I’m sooo glad you did this. They did Martha so wrong. I literally get secondhand embarrassment watching a lot of her episodes. And it’s frustrating because Freema acted beautifully and the season has some of my favorite episodes. All they had to do as just not make her in love with the doctor, or at the very least, have him pull his head out and reciprocate just a little. Thank you! Thank you for talking about it.

“I loved him so much that I didn’t even realise that he didn’t have eyebrows” - I’m glad that I was not the only one who had this revelation only after a friend pointed it out to me.

My best take about the eleven/river song dynamic is that once the actors got to a point where they can just revel in the "Dommy Mommy with her Hot Young Twink" vibe, they struck GOLD. Like I hate how squirrely the plot got by the end of season six, but somehow through it all, I still ship the ships they want me to. (Alex Kingston should be sainted for this role)

I love Martha. She deserved so much better

19:18 you are not wrong. I remember watching family of blood, that he could have picked any time or place but chose one where Martha would suffer the most. She was an interesting character, but they relegated her as a swooning love sick puppy. I never rewatch anything with Rose in it, she absolutely overstayed her welcome. But the story with the master that season was terrifying.

I do feel like we missed out on a lot of cool Martha stuff thanks to the bandwidth dedicated to showing her pining after Ten, but I also think it is a fine storyline in theory. I just wish they hadn’t made her QUITE so “ugh why doesn’t he like me and why can’t he see I like him?!?!?” about it and that Ten had gotten more crap for absolutely not caring about her feelings. Plus her being paired up with Mickey feels like one of those things where they obviously went “hey here’s our two black characters that exist, good enough” and it’s such a random and unpleasant pairing. I think if we got to see Mickey do more in that badass hero storyline he supposedly spent his offscreen time running maybe they’d fit together more as cool world-saving fighters but it’s all nonexistent subtext baybee