Doctor Who Meta Rec

[penfold_x]

ionlylurkhere has a great Martha character study. Martha is one of those characters I want to like, but have difficulty finding a core to thread through; ionlylurkhere does a great job of defining her arc. Given the last minutes of Journey's End, I think I'm going to need it for the Torchwood miniseries.

Comments

[mrwubbles.livejournal.com]

Interesting meme. I liked the concept of Martha as I do with Donna. A more modern, go-getting, non-romantic sidekick who doesn't always need the Doctor to come to the rescue.

The concept that is.

Unfortunately (for me at least), Martha began shaping a little too close to a Mary Sue-ish towards the 'Utopia' arc for me. Yes, yes, she walked the world but hello, Time Lord in a bird cage had a wizened hand in it too! LOL. She became a little bit too much for me because the way they sold it in DW, then TW, Martha can't go wrong which was sometimes how I felt they were pushing the Doctor at times.

Her character has been peaks and valleys during the season and while the 'Utopia' arc was a great peak character-wise, it felt to me no logical leap in development from the Martha in the previous episodes to the wandering Jones in the arc.

But, like you said, I want to like her. There's a lot in her I should like. But there are times, it feels like I'm being sold a shiny 21" Dell laptop with only a Pentium 2 chip inside. LOL

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

She became a little bit too much for me because the way they sold it in DW, then TW, Martha can't go wrong which was sometimes how I felt they were pushing the Doctor at times.

Oh, yeah. That was definitely an issue for me with the Doctor during that season, and now that you mention it, Martha in that arc.

it felt to me no logical leap in development from the Martha in the previous episodes to the wandering Jones in the arc.

*nods* I think her lovesickness was part of the problem. It weakens the character, and we don't get any evidence that she's gotten over it before she enters the Utopia arc, so we don't see how this character could achieve that. And witnessing her lovesickness for the previous umpty-episodes, it tinges her Doctor Evangelization Tour with a bit of sadness, like that girl in the chess club who has a crush on the quarterback and won't shut up about it.

Her character should have an arc, should get over some character flaw as a result of traveling with the Doctor, and ionlylurkhere posits a good one, but layering Martha's unrequited love on top of it weakens what they were trying to achieve rather than strengthening it, IMO.