Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 72

Policing Amy Pond [WHO-50--2010]

I’m not sure if anyone has ever noticed this, but Amy Pond (played by Karen Gillan) wears a few short skirts in her first season as a Doctor Who companion.

I hate to draw attention to it, really. I mean, it’s the 21st century, we’re not going to critique a female fictional character based largely on what she wears, are we?

Oh, wait.

All female Doctor Who companions have been held under intense scrutiny since the show returned in 2005, and while the narrative of critique often starts out with “let’s look at how the showrunner/scriptwriters have screwed up in portraying female characters” somehow it often seems to come down to burying those female characters under criticism and complaints while the Doctor and male companions get away largely unscathed.

And you know, I can’t help but compare the situation to Australian politics. We have recently had two years of our first female Prime Minister being scrutinised for every jacket choice, every hairstyle, every skirt length and heel height. Indeed, in the week that Julia Gillard made a passionate speech against misogyny in politics which went viral in the international media, most of her TV coverage in Australia was devoted to a mishap during a visit to India in which her high heel got stuck in soft grass.

Because shoes, you know? Ladies and shoes. What ya gonna do?

On our recent election night, new Prime Minister Tony Abbott (not incidentally, the subject of the aforementioned misogyny speech and without nearly enough irony to swallow, our new Minister For Women) was criticised because of clothing choices too – the clothing choices of his wife and daughters.

Oh, and in the first week of the administration, as discussion about the lack of women in the new Cabinet reached critical fever pitch, an article ran nationally about the hairspray and styles utilised by the few women who have a prominent role in Abbott’s government.

“THERE may not be many women in Tony Abbott’s team, but the ones who are there will waft through the halls of Parliament House in a cloud of hair spray.”

I saw a lot of comments on Twitter about how this last incident proved why newspapers were no longer relevant, but Twitter has been the medium for a LOT of critical comment on the clothes and appearance of female politicians in recent months so frankly, no one is covered in glory here.

Clothes are not irrelevances. Clothes are actually quite important to how people are perceived by the world. I once spent several years studying the public image of imperial women and political femininity in the Ancient Roman Empire so, you know, I’m not going to suggest that we should forgo discussing women’s clothes and what they symbolise.

On the contrary, we should probably have more discussions on this topic, as long as we’re all aware of the gender baggage and double standard that comes along for the ride.

In a slightly more uplifting story about politics and women’s clothing, if the hashtag #standwithwendy means anything to you, then you may also remember feeling a surge of pride and delight at the way that Senator Wendy Davis’ awesome sneakers became as iconic as the subject of her filibuster to protect the rights of women in Texas.

Sometimes the most politically rebellious thing you can do is wear comfortable shoes.

Amy Pond, it has to be said, wears comfortable footwear. She always actually looks pretty comfortable. Yes, her skirts in this first season are very tiny, but we never see her confined by them – if anything they are far more practical than the excessively tight but much longer skirts Tegan was lumped with back in the 1980’s.

While the attractiveness of actresses had often been used as a publicity drawcard for Doctor Who in the old days, it was rare that the characters were allowed to demonstrate much in the way of overt, active sexuality on screen – if you look back at classic Who companions, there is often a stark difference to how they are dressed and posed flirtatiously in publicity shots, and their far more “wholesome” appearance on screen where romance was kept to a minimum, actresses were often required to play much younger characters than themselves, and in the case of the Davison era the women on the show weren’t even allowed physical contact with the youthful-appearing Doctor in case it gave the “wrong” idea to the family audience.

Yes, there were quite a few sexy outfits along the way (there is a reason there are more action figures of Leela and Peri than any other companions) but Doctor Who generally managed to give its actresses something to do other than flirt and look glamorous.

In New Who, where references to sex and sexuality became more commonplace in line with how television had changed since 1989, there was a restraint in the portrayal of the women of the show and their sexuality. There was a lot more flirting than ever before – Rose made eyes at Adam and Jack before deciding to keep her eyes only for the Doctor, Martha had her own flirtations alongside her unfortunate crush on Ten, and Donna eyed up quite a few handsome fellows along the way.

And yet, the more serious and/or sexual relationships were kept for before and after their journeys in the TARDIS (ahem, stand down, fan-ficcers, I know) to the point that when Martha went for a guest run on the more ‘adult’ Torchwood, there was concern from fans that her character and reputation would be affected by the more sexually explicit antics on the spin off show…

Companions could look sexy, but they were not supposed to *be* sexy.

Long before The Eleventh Hour screened, when early images of Karen Gillan in a too-short “police uniform” were leaked on the internet, anticipation, suspicion and salacious speculation began to build among fans, critics and tabloid newspapers that this character was going to be The Sexy One.

The revelation in the actual episode that Amy was a kissogram and not actually an inappropriately dressed police officer didn’t (funnily enough) make these concerns go away, though it has to be said that many reviewers reacted to the job ‘kissogram’ as if Amy was either a stripper or a sex worker.

The Doctor himself was quite judgemental when he discovered that Amy’s job description involves going “to parties and I kiss people… in outfits… it’s a laugh!” but his paternalism here had more to do with the fact that in his head, she was still eight years old.

The kissogram revelation was only the start of a massive, overwhelming debate between Doctor Who viewers about whether Amy was too sexy/sexual, and therefore a problematic character. I don’t disagree with all the analysis in this regard, but I do draw the line very sharply at the criticism of the character’s hemlines.

Amy Pond’s casual attitude towards sexuality raised further eyebrows in the scene in Flesh and Stone where Amy revealed to the Doctor that she had run away in the TARDIS the night before her wedding, and she then promptly attempted to seduce him.

For once, many old school fans were quite happy with a sexual plot twist in the show, largely because of the Eleventh Doctor’s obvious disinterest in taking Amy up on her offer – but there were protests too, the beginning of the mass stirring of criticism against Steven Moffat for his writing of female characters that has reached something of a fever pitch over the last few years.

I have absolutely no problem with people not liking a scene, or a script choice, or a character. But the slut-shaming of Amy Pond because of her sexuality and especially her clothing choices has always made me deeply uncomfortable.

What makes the whole short skirts critiquing thing so very odd to me (apart from the fact that if you can’t wear whatever the hell you like in your early twenties then what’s the point of anything?) is that Amy was quite obviously wearing clothes that reflected Karen Gillan’s own dress sense. So in criticising the character, while many were directing the complaints at or around Steven Moffat as show-runner, they were also attacking the real person who wore the clothes.

A big part of the reason why her skirts look so short is because Karen has very, very long legs. The fashion choice certainly shows off those legs. But how much of the criticism is about the tiny skirts, and how much of it is about her legs? Yep, now it’s uncomfortable. My job here is done.

In an interview in the Independent (Karen Gillan: Obsessive fans, short skirts and life with Doctor Who) Karen was asked to comment on her outfits, and whether her hemlines were coming down in Season 6 (they did). She replied: “Now she’s more settled in herself we’ll see that reflected in her outfits. I didn’t want to get rid of the short skirts completely – because that’s what young girls wear. I know that because I am one of them.”

More recently, in a video interview of several companion actresses, Karen reiterated that the costume choice was her own, based on what she (and other women her age) liked to wear. She also added that she always insisted that the footwear, however, was practical. Because RUNNING.

The transition between Amy wearing tiny skirts in Series 5 and wearing mostly jeans etc. in Series 6 was marked by a Comic Relief sketch Time/Space in 2011 which included a lot of jokes about the perceived sexiness of Amy and her skirts, anecdotes of her using sexuality to get her own way, and Rory being regularly distracted by her legs. It also marked the first time that “comedy slapping” was used, a tired comedy device that really doesn’t work between fictional couples in the 21st century regardless who is doing the slapping.

Many fans of the feminist persuasion were put off by the Doctor’s edict “Pond, put some trousers on,” because it suggested he was making responsible for her husband’s lack of control… and yet if you take that sketch in the context of a whole year full of negative press and online commentary about what Amy was wearing, it makes a lot more sense.

I don’t believe that Moffat or the Doctor had any particular investment in what Amy was wearing in this or any other Doctor Who story – both of them were commenting in this sketch on the fact that so MANY commentators had been policing Amy Pond’s clothing down to a minute detail. Many of those commentators, sadly, were doing so in the name of feminism.

Ironically, the reason the sketch is largely not funny is, I think, because complaining about and attempting to control the clothing that a woman chooses to wear (in this case, AT HOME) is not especially amusing. The joke might have been aimed at the critics but it backfired somewhat, making it look like the show (and the scriptwriting show runner) also had a Thing about Amy’s Short Skirts.

It’s true that Doctor Who has a long and wince-inducing history when it comes to forcing actresses into uncomfortable costume-related situations. Caroline John being sent down a mineshaft in a mini-skirt comes to mind, where the production crew refused to let her change clothes until Jon Pertwee stepped in and supported her. Tegan slipping and sliding around the TARDIS in mini-skirts and tottering high heels that quite obviously restricted her movement… and of course Nicola Bryant, costumed over and over in a fashion style she had invented in a moment of audition desperation (shorts over a leotard, the only thing she had at home that counted as the ‘something tight’ that had been requested).

But until we hear that Karen Gillan didn’t want to wear the Amy Pond wardrobe, I’m not sure we should care so much that in 2010 she wore a few short skirts in the workplace. And I find it particularly distressing how often she as a character is dismissed as being a sexual object, with the character’s other excellent attributes (bravery, heroic feats, emotional intelligence, exuberance, confidence, sense of humour, ability to mock the Doctor) somehow forgotten because everyone was so busy staring at her legs.

When fans look back at this era in ten or twenty years time, chances are that people will think Amy’s skirt length is just as odd and dated as Zoe’s catsuit, Jo Grant’s every outfit ever, and Turlough’s obsession with his school uniform. Or maybe they’ll just notice that like Rose, Martha and Donna before her, she mostly looked perfectly comfortable in whatever she was wearing, and that she was, like Jamie McCrimmon before her, capable of running quite fast in a crisis.

Karen Gillan & Matt Smith, dressed as (and presumably, by) themselves

ELSEWHERE ON 2010



Things We Like: Bow Tie Edition [Verity!]

This One Goes To Eleven [Verity! Podcast]

Chicks Dig the Eleventh Doctor [Tor.com]

Fezzes aren’t Cool [Tor.com]

On Eleven and Amy [TansyRR.com]

The Eleventh Hour[ArghInk]

Watching New Who: The Beast Below/Victory of the Daleks[TansyRR.com]

The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone [The Angriest]

Underwater Love [The Ood Cast]

Amy’s Choice: Golden Slumbers [Radio Free Skaro]

Vincent and the Doctor [The Angriest]

Art [The Ood Cast]

The Lodger [The Angriest]

The Big Shebang [The Ood Cast]

35 Joyous Things about Doctor Who [TansyRR.com]



PREVIOUSLY:

A (Great) Year in the Life of Big Finish [WHO-50—2009]

You know what, I’m just going to say it. 2009 was pants.

I mean, some pretty good things happened that year, don’t get me wrong. Apart from anything else, I got a pretty sweet daughter out of it.

But for Doctor Who fans, it wasn’t that great.

After a successful reboot, four years of full seasons of Doctor Who, and unprecedented mainstream popularity and success for the show, suddenly it all looked to be going terribly wrong.

David Tennant, whose star as a popular actor had risen with and greatly supported Doctor Who, was leaving on the grounds of Shakespeare. A whole new audience had come to the show with Tennant, drawn in by his maniacally attractive Doctor, and were grieving his impending loss. For many, it was hard to imagine what Doctor Who would look like without Ten.

It wasn’t a clean break up. Instead, we were introduced to the impending Doctor, the very young and hand-flappy Matt Smith, at New Year and then had a whole 12 months of saying goodbye to David Tennant, one disappointing Special at a time.

Perhaps more concerning, the producer and show runner who had brought Doctor Who back with such success, Julie Gardner and Russell T Davies, were also leaving. Soon. Any day now.

We were promised grand cinematic specials, but while the show certainly looked better than it ever had before, the pressure on the stories to be worth the long wait was extreme. And while the ‘new one-off pseudo-companion for every story’ formula allowed the production team to experiment with some different types for companions – and to bring in some wonderful guest actors – it was quite jarring for many to accept the Doctor as the only point of view character, when we were used to following a human companion over a whole season.

Also, I hated The Waters of Mars, the story that many fans grasped to their hearts as the best episode of this year. I did rather love The End of Time but I appreciate I’m one of the very few people who felt that way…

Meanwhile, Big Finish Audio was going from strength to strength. The company had struggled in the years since Doctor Who came back to television – they had hoped that the return of the show would bring a whole new generation fans to the Big Finish range, but instead what happened was a massive dip in subscriptions as many people dropped them in favour of “New Who.” Piracy also affected them badly – as a small company, they relied on regular subscribers to allow them to keep making new content with actors, scriptwriters etc., and the ready availability of illegal downloads had a harsh effect on their finances.

They rallied, though, using humour, personality and podcasting to deal with the issue – simply asking people not to take their content without paying for it, and using behind the scenes interviews and office podcasts to show the work behind the product. Their downloads are still DRM free, and where available they also provide a free electronic download to purchasers who choose the CD option, meaning you can listen to it before it has shipped to your house.

By 2009 it was clear that Big Finish were thriving creatively, not only with multiple streams of Doctor Who stories, but also some based on other creative properties. In 2009, the non-Who releases included Dark Shadows, Robin Hood, Highlander, StarGate SG-1, StarGate Atlantis, Judge Dredd and The Scarifyers. Perhaps most significantly, they also launched a Sherlock Holmes series that would develop substantially in the years that followed.



Bernice Summerfield, the original Big Finish hero, was up to Series 10 of her own adventures – having lost her home and all pretence of a safe base, she was now rattling around the universe with her teenage son, still digging up mysteries and treasures while running for her life.

2009 was a year of Doctor Who disappointments for me as a TV viewer, but as an audio listener it was the beginning of a grand adventure – this was the point at which I started listening seriously. Here’s a top 10 of the Doctor Who material that Big Finish was putting out in the year that David Tennant was mostly doing Hamlet:

1. The Key to Time returned in a new trilogy (The Judgement of Isskar, The Destroyer of Delights, The Chaos Pool), in which the question of ‘what is a real person’ was raised by the creation of Amy, a living version of the time tracer, and her possibly evil sister Zara. Together they plunged into a journey to hunt down the pieces of the Key to Time, with the occasional help of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctor… and were enough of a hit with listeners that they later scored their own spin off series, Graceless.

2. Ace and Hex turned the tables on the Seventh Doctor, keeping secrets from him at a mysterious Swiss Alps retreat in one of my favourite all time audios, The Magic Mousetrap. They also fought the Daleks in a traumatic base-under-siege situation in Energy of the Daleks, and then Hex visited Florence Nightingale in The Angel of Scutari, teaching the Crimean war a thing or two about modern hygiene. Shame about the TARDIS being destroyed in the process…

3. In the anthology piece The Company of Friends, three of the Eighth Doctor’s dearest friends got their audio debut: Fitz Kreiner, Izzy from the comic strip, and the previously-namedropped Mary Shelley, while Bernice Summerfield was reunited with him for the first time since the 1998 New Adventures novel The Dying Days. These short adventures are funny and entertaining, but Mary’s Story is a truly beautiful and haunting stand-alone piece of work which reimagines the Doctor as Frankenstein’s monster.

4. Meanwhile, Charley Pollard’s travels with the Sixth Doctor came to an end in Blue Forgotten Planet, finally resolving the second major paradox of her TARDIS days – how on earth was it that that Eighth Doctor had never remembered or mentioned that she was once companion to his Sixth incarnation?

5. The year’s main range was rounded off by a trilogy of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in different versions of the sleepy town of Stockbridge that they keep coming back to – having to fight Rutans in Castle of Fear, the Plague of the Daleks, and even time itself in The Eternal Summer. There’s something very compelling about Nyssa’s relationship with this town (as seen in other plays as well), and these three are some of the best stories of the many, many plays now inserted between Time Flight and Arc of Infinity developing the history of and relationship between the Doctor and Nyssa.

6. By 2009, the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller (played by the brilliant Sheridan Smith) were up to Season 3 of their Eighth Doctor Adventures, which played on BBC Radio as well as being sold through the Big Finish website, and bridged the two distinct eras of Doctor Who: Lucie’s snappy and sarcastic Northern lass gave these adventures a contemporary, fresh voice (her character is comparable to Donna in the TV series, but with her own unique charms), the format was 40 minute stand-alone or two-parters instead of reflecting the traditional 4 x 30 minutes format still mostly standard at Big Finish, but they also threw in a lot more nostalgia from the classic era of Doctor Who (especially the 1970’s) so that it would really FEEL like Doctor Who to radio listeners who remembered the Doctor as Worzel Gummidge or that chap with the long scarf.

Lucie and Eight battled Krynoids, Giant Spiders and the Wirrn in 2009, as well as creepy robots, sinister medieval types, and a whole planet of adorable jellyfish.

7. In the popular Companion Chronicle series, (one or two hander plays featuring the Doctor’s former travelling companions recalling a ‘lost’ adventure) Ace met time-tracer Zara in The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Sara Kingdom continued her extraordinary trilogy in The Drowned World, and other characters including Ian, Polly, Yates, Romana I & II, Jamie, Turlough and King Peladon all got their moment in the sun.

In the highlight of the Companion Chronicle range for the year, the incomparable Jago and Litefoot from The Talons of Weng-Chiang finally got the beginnings of a spin off series that had been mooted since the 1970’s with The Mahogany Murderers. This brilliant Victorian mystery recreated the splendid chemistry between the theatrical impresario and the gentleman pathologist, and a regular series was indeed on the horizon.

8. Iris Wildthyme, Time Lady Extraordinaire and the Doctor’s unofficial stalker, crashed drunkenly into a second series of her own spin off show, this one focusing more completely on her slightly toxic and co-dependent relationship with a gruff and cynical giant Panda. It included a Christmas Special, The Claws of Santa.

9. In a month where audiences were gearing up to say farewell to David Tennant’s Doctor (with added reindeer hats and tinsel), Big Finish actually provided several Christmas presents.

An Earthly Child was the 2009 subscriber-special (a freebie given in December every year to those who subscribe annually to the main range). Here, the Doctor finally reunites with Susan, the granddaughter he left on a recovering post-Dalek-invasion Earth so many centuries before. (Yes he saw her in the Five Doctors, but no one would say that provided anything of an emotional payoff). Susan is now a widow and something of a political figure, with a teenage son Alex who is showing rebellious tendencies. The Doctor breezes into their lives just in time to help prevent Earth from further disaster… but is he just shopping for a new companion?

10. Meanwhile, Death in Blackpool was the story NO ONE really wanted to see, in which Lucie Miller takes the Doctor home for Christmas at the beginning of the 4th season of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, and a series of events leads to the revelation of the horrible secret he had been keeping from her, for her own good, for most of the time they were travelling together. You know how a lot of people’s Christmases are all about heartbreak, drinking too much, unpleasant family revelations, breaking things and crying alone in rooms? Yeah, that. THANKS, BIG FINISH.

Damn good stuff, though, and Big Finish would at least try to repair some of the damage a year later, in Relative Dimensions, a sequel to both of the 2009 Christmas stories – in which the Doctor tries to mend all his fences at once, with Susan and Alex and Lucie, and a turkey dinner cooked in the TARDIS.

ELSEWHERE ON 2009

The Matt Smith Announcement [Two Minute Time Lord]

Planet of the Dead: Yes, I Do Wake Up at 6 in the Morning Thinking of Ways for Fix Year-Old Doctor Who Stories [TansyRR.com]



Watching New Who: The Specials [TansyRR.com]

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Waters of Mars [Radio Free Skaro]

K9 – the Australian spin off series [nwhyte.com]

Watching New Who: The End of Time [TansyRR.com]

PREVIOUSLY:

Friday Links Returns From the Dead

It’s been a long week. I’ve been besieged at home with feverish children (my own, not a random assortment) and didn’t realise quite how stir crazy I was until I got a chance to run away for 15 minutes to the supermarket at lunch time. BLISSFUL FREEDOM!

But between my Melbourne trip and then being behind on everything because of the Melbourne trip thing, I haven’t managed to do one of these for a long time! Here we go…

This lovely guest post by Rainbow Rowell at Tor.com talks about how hard it was to be a teenage geek (and especially a geek girl) before the internet made it easy to find like-minded communities. I’m definitely going to be checking out Rainbow’s new novel Fangirl which looks like a lot of fun!

Thoraiya Dyer writes wonderfully about the inspiration she found in Mara of the Acoma and how this led her to search for Japanese-influenced fantasy and fiction. (I remember being so confused about the depiction of Mara on the cover of Daughter of the Empire – why on earth was she blonde? The whole white-washing issue never occurred to me)

Aliette De Bodard shares A Few Thoughts on Other Cultures and Diversity in SFF.

Gina Torres isn’t Wonder Woman, and doesn’t think she’s ever likely to get the part, but she kinda loves how many people on the internet want it to be a thing.

Fablecroft have announced a new ebook coming out in a few months: Focus 2012, which aims to reprint all of the award winning Australian spec fic of last year. A brilliant idea!

A fascinating look at how cities are designed differently when you listen to what women need from their living spaces.

This one’s a little out of date now, but another classy rant from Foz Meadows pointing out someone saying something dumb about gender and science fiction on the internet. This is a good one.

Speaking of gender, Kate Elliott had some thoughtful tweets about “the gender problem” in SF.

See how quickly one bad school experience can undo years of good work as a parent in encouraging your daughters towards programming as a career with “To my daughter’s high school programming teacher.”

Spartacus and Spartacus Forever [WHO-50 2008]

The Doctor is a best friend floozy. We all know it. The Fourth Doctor in particular had a habit of passing the title ‘best friend’ around as lightly as jelly babies. (Charmingly, Lis Sladen’s autobiography reveals that the first time the Doctor bestowed this title on Sarah, it was an ad lib by Tom Baker)

Whenever the Doctor used the phrase, though, you never doubted that he meant it. He’s a fickle pal, our Doctor, but he’s genuine. If he says you are his best friend, then right in that moment you absolutely are, even if two episodes later he’s forgotten all about you and has moved on to the next best friend.

It’s basically like kindergarten, without consequences.

Not every Doctor-companion combination fit the ‘best friends’ mould. You wouldn’t call Ian or Steven or Dodo the First Doctor’s best friend (though, maybe Vicki). Likewise, you know that the Second Doctor would be far too polite to admit it, but however nice Victoria and Zoe are, Jamie is his favourite. The Third Doctor had colleagues, assistants and even a ‘best enemy’ in the Master, but you never got the sense that any Earthling could be considered close to an equal. Even if she had really cute go-go boots and a wicked set of skeleton keys.

But from the Fourth Doctor onwards, many of the most iconic companions really were the Doctor’s best friend, for as long as they were within hailing distance. I’d certainly argue that Four and Sarah, Four and Leela, Four and Romana II and even briefly Four and Adric (we all know K9 was his second best friend, and Romana I was less a friend than a business acquaintance), Five and Turlough, Six and Peri (and later Mel) and Seven and Ace were BFFs.

When Nine took Rose’s hand and said ‘Run,’ that old dynamic returned. The Doctor, more than anything, needed a friend, and he got that in Rose. Regardless of your opinions on shipping, flirting, and how much romance you want to read into their story, the most explicit relationship we saw depicted on screen between Rose/Nine and later Rose/Ten was that of a friendship – a friendship so important to them both that no one else, not Mickey or her Mum or Jack or Adam could make a dent in them.

Hey, I’m not saying it was a *healthy* friendship.

In The Runaway Bride, Donna was everything Rose wasn’t – abrasive, insulting, and not taking him seriously. Even then, the Doctor saw potential in her, and made her the offer to travel with him. Because the truth is, anyone has the potential to be the Doctor’s best friend.

All you have to do is say yes.

After Martha, and the Doctor’s colossal failure to be a good (or even frankly, adequate) friend to her; after Jack came back and the Doctor admitted what an appalling excuse for a friend he had been to him; after Astrid died… after all that, once again, the Doctor needed a friend, a best friend, someone to come along on his adventures and make it fun again.

He got Donna back, and for a while there it was the best thing that could have happened to him.

“I want a mate.”

“Well you’re not mating with me, sunshine!”

We watched The Fires of Pompeii the other week. I think, given the recent announcement about Peter Capaldi, the entirety of Doctor Who fandom did the same.

[Peter Capaldi’s role is essential but not particularly showy - it’s not surprising that many fans don’t remember him at all from this. It’s a gentle role for him, and he does what he needs to in order to serve the story - though I do like the way that the role of the paterfamilias is subverted here through comedy and occasional moments of angst. He feels very much out of time, a modern day Dad flung back to an era where men simply weren’t assumed to be all that sensitive.]

I’ve always liked this story, which I feel is seriously underrated. Too often, when celebrating the generally excellent Doctor-Donna season, special attention falls on the stories that come near the end – the marvellous Midnight and Turn Left, the ambitious but cheesy and flawtastic The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End, and even the rather divisive The Unicorn and the Wasp.

But the early Donna stories are great too, and The Fires of Pompeii is the first time we really see the strength of her character, as she faces off against the Doctor and his questionable morality when it comes to ‘fixed points in time.’

One of the aspects I love about this story is that it gets the comedy/drama balance absolutely right, something that writer James Moran would go on to perfect in his episodes of Torchwood: Children of Earth. There’s a darkness here, plenty of sinister action and death all around, but there’s also the splendid banter of the Doctor and Donna, AKA Spartacus and Spartacus.

The lack of romantic chemistry between the characters (as performed and as scripted) feels as much of a breath of fresh air as was the flirtatious vibe between Rose, Jack and Nine all the way back in 2005. The Doctor and Donna feel at times like they are in a screwball comedy, only without the promise of kissing and marriage after the credits roll.

Seriously, they do everything other than chase an unexpected black panther around the streets of Rome. It’s a romantic comedy without the romance – a platomance, plus time travel.

So not only do Catherine Tate and David Tennant have the comfortable, banterific chemistry down straight away, but in The Fires of Pompeii they also have a great script which plays off some clever and iconic elements of Ancient Roman culture, a whole bunch of linguistic jokes and wordplay (Veni Vidi Vici – sounds a bit Celtic!), a family straight out of Plautus (by way of Up Pompeii), and some suspicious Sybilline priestesses.

Oh, and a giant volcano monster. And awesome sets, borrowed from HBO.

It’s one of those Doctor Who stories where everything just works terribly well – enough tensions between the different perspectives of the Doctor and Donna to raise the temperature a bit, but ultimately they work together to save the world.

And, of course, to save one family. Just one, and it’s only through Donna’s pleading to challenge the “rules” that the Doctor is willing to make that change to the timeline, cementing his role as the future household god of a family.

He really needs Donna, or someone like her, to be his best friend and remind him about the value of the ordinary and the unassuming, of the little treasures you can save even on Volcano Day.

It wouldn’t last forever, but while it did, their partnership was magic.

ELSEWHERE ON 2008:



Why I Love Donna Noble [Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist]

If You Love Doctor Who’s Donna Noble You’ll Love This Video [The Mary Sue]

Watching New Who: Partners in Crime [TansyRR.com]

The Sontaran Stratagem [Mark Watches]

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (Radio Free Skaro)

Silence in the Library/The Forest of the Dead (The Angriest)

Watching New Who: Turn Left (TansyRR.com]

Season 4 Report Cards: Tansy, Tehani, David

Those Doctor Who Wrap Party Vids. [TansyRR.com]



Best Temp in Chiswick [Verity! Pinterest]

The Brilliant Donna Noble [Two Minute Time Lord Podcast]



PREVIOUSLY:

Watching New Who: The Time Of Angels/Flesh & Stone

Tansy and Tehani love this season so much we’re making David do more work – we’re changing up our usual plan and reviewing each episode, in sets of two.

TEHANI:

I find myself really struggling with what to say about this two-parter. So much of what is to come in the future of the show has roots here!

TANSY:

Spoilers, sweetie!

TEHANI:

But River! When I first watched these, of course I had no idea about the events of “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead”, so River was this brand new character who apparently had a huge history with the Doctor and I was just learning about it. In light of later events (of which we shall not speak), the relationship between Amy and River in this story is FASCINATING, and her easy manner with the Doctor, the TARDIS, the past and future, well, it’s just marvellous, particularly this time around. That said, River Song’s timeline completely bewilders me. The first bit with the diary seems to imply River and the Doctor have had some intervening adventures offscreen. But then that’s later debunked! So confusing!

TANSY:

Best not to think about it, really. I think it’s great that you came in with this as your first River story – after all, we were told only in the previous story that the Doctor has also been friends with Churchill for ages. You don’t always have to have seen those adventures. One of the best things about Doctor Who (and something new people often don’t believe or understand) is that the massive weight of 50 years of continuity actually hardly matters. It’s always about new adventures, new self-contained stories – and we’re never going to see absolutely everything the Doctor gets up to.

TEHANI:

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I often assume that anytime we meet characters it seems the Doctor has a history with, I just assume there have actually BEEN adventures with them in Classic Who – works really well for newbies!

DAVID:

There have been lots of characters introduced in the show’s history who are meant to have extensive histories with the Doctor, even a companion IIRC! So, the idea of off screen adventures doesn’t faze me at all. And, with River Song there is the advantage that they don’t even have to have happened yet.

TANSY:

One of the things I like best about Amy and River in this story is that they are in no way jealous of each other’s relationship with the Doctor – Amy has given the impression that she fancies the Doctor a bit (and of course by the end of this story that has been ratcheted up to ‘quite a bit) but she’s fascinated by this other woman and what she might represent. The fact that she “might” be the Doctor’s wife (first time that thought has been vocalised on the show) is something she is amused by.

DAVID:

I much preferred the dynamic between River Song and Amy than some of the others we’ve seen. I think a big part of this is the fact that Amy looks at River and sees something she wants for herself, a life filled with adventure and travel, and someone who is very capable and good at what she does. I did get the impression that Amy didn’t feel particularly challenged by her career path. And, perhaps most importantly, she sees someone whose life hasn’t ended the day she got married.

So, perhaps it is that when she looks at River she doesn’t see a competitor, but a role model.

TANSY:

That’s a wonderful interpretation, I like it a lot. You’re absolutely right that Amy hasn’t figured out yet what she wants from life – travelling with the Doctor is about searching for that. And while Rose got caught up in the Doctor himself, I do feel that Amy’s attachment at this point is as much about where he can take her as it is to her “raggedy man” himself.

TEHANI:

So, Moffat just makes up “canon” to suit himself when the story requires it, right? ‘Cos there’s stuff happens here that seems to conflict with other stuff in other stories? Or is that just me showing my newbie status?

TANSY:

Show me your ‘broken canon’ and I will explain it!

But yes, of course he just makes it up as he goes along, he’s a writer. That’s what we do. It’s why I have no time for people fussing about the whole ‘the Doctor only has 12 regenerations and then he’s toast’ malarkey. What will happen is, we’ll get to that point, and then a writer will MAKE SOMETHING UP TO FIX IT.

Sadly of course that didn’t work for Donna. But there’s still time. I have a theory about how that’s more possible for Doctor 12’s era than Doctor 11’s but will save that until David is caught up.

TEHANI:

That totally works for Donna if you read the wonderful fanfics! Like this one, which I still adore

DAVID:

There is no way that the 12 regenerations limit is going to stop the BBC from continuing, and I can think of several ways to get around it – and, if I can, someone like Moffat or Cornell can definitely manage!

TEHANI:

Personally, I thought they had already done that in … um, but not yet, sorry David!

*changes subject quickly* I sincerely love the cave of statues set – it’s brilliant!

TANSY:

Gorgeous, as is the forest-on-a-spaceship concept as realised, and the beach shots as well. Add to that the very stylised opening sequence for River Song and the clever museum scene and this is honestly one of the best looking Doctor Who stories of all time.

DAVID:

This season really has taken the visuals up a notch, and this episode is no exception. There is so much eye candy, from the waterfall to the caverns full of angels, it looks amazing.

TEHANI:

Have to say it: Father Octavian = Ser Jorah Mormont! #geekcrossover

TANSY:

I KNOW RIGHT? It was the other way around for me because I came to Game of Thrones late, but I have a disturbing feeling that I like the character of Jorah way more than I should, simply because he is Father Octavian. Who is a really excellent supporting character in this. But of course that’s all mixed up with how I always get him confused with the comedian Bob Franklin…

DAVID:

Haha yes, I may have squeed a little.

Father Octavian was my favourite character in this. I thought that he could have very easily been a caricature, but instead was a complex and nuanced character. I liked how uncompromising he was, and how he refused to be overawed by the Doctor. But, he wasn’t one of those unthinking, bull headed military types that seem to crop in so many TV shows, who are unable to listen to or consider other viewpoints. But Iain Glen could bring dignity and gravitas to any role – what a voice.

TEHANI:

Some really great guests already this season, that’s for sure.

DAVID:

The militant Church of the future was a fascinating concept and I would love to see them again. I’ve found it interesting that Christianity has featured a few times in New Who’s portrayal of the future, though I am not sure the writers have really thought about the ramifications of that, other than that it makes a fun plot device. And the line when we learn that Bob is a Sacred Name – hilarious!

TANSY:

It’s interesting, isn’t it, considering how often Christianity (or religion generally) is just quietly “forgotten” about in so much futuristic science fiction, as if it could have disappeared completely from history despite being so integral to humanity’s recent past – in this case it certainly adds another dimension to what could otherwise be just random troops, Aliens style.

TEHANI:

I had not forgotten how bloody terrifying Amy alone in the forest was – I think I was more scared this viewing, and for goodness sake, I know what happens! The Weeping Angels really are the scariest darn monsters, especially in this episode, when they’re actually killing people, not just stealing their time.

TANSY: I like that this story isn’t just “Blink 2: the Revenge”; they are doing something quite different with the Angels. And on such a larger scale. The scene in which Amy watches the video of the angel is a fantastic piece in its own right, and the fact that the story revolves around her having to keep her eyes closed (rather than not blinking) is quite devastating.

(there’s a thing in this that I desperately want to talk about and I won’t but you know the thing right, Tehani? The thing in the forest? It does make this one an especially good rewatching episode)

TEHANI:

Yes, the thing! (sorry David…)

I’m using this rewatch to take much more notice of the resolution of episodes, and to look for pointers to overall arcs. I’m really rubbish at seeing this stuff normally, getting all caught up in the viewing, so trying to put my “critical viewer” hat on. Not sure it will be maintained, in the face of Matt Smith awesome, though…

DAVID:

While I really enjoyed “Blink”, I actually thought this two parter was superior. It’s already been mentioned, but the scene where Amy is trapped with the TV screens is as good as anything I have seen in any horror movie for years, while my flesh was creeping when the Doctor was talking with Dead Bob.

Bringing back something as popular as the Angels could have been a terrible mistake, it is hard to recapture the same magic, but by inverting their threat and ramping up the stakes Moffatt has taken them to the next level in this story.

TEHANI:

I love them both for different reasons, I think. “Blink” is something a bit special, and stands out as a Doctor-lite episode, but this is packed with all sorts of other good things…

And I’m back to River – I just love her, and the interaction with the Doctor, but I still can’t fathom the timeline. Is there a gif for that?

TANSY:

There’s a map somewhere.

TEHANI:

Oh, there’s this! (David, DON’T CLICK THAT!) – it’s out of date now though…

TANSY:

At this point, from David’s point of view, it’s easy – this is before the Library for her, and after the Library for him. She’s still technically imprisoned in the Stormcage at this point, but is obviously earning her freedom one good deed at a time. Note what she’s wearing, though, you will see it again…

TEHANI:

More zingy Moffat dialogue in this one – I’m starting to think the dialogue might be my very favouritest thing about this season…

 

Amy: Explain. Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?

The Doctor: It’s a long story and I don’t know most of it. Off we go.

***

The Doctor: I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me.

***

The Doctor: Didn’t anyone ever tell you? There’s one thing you never put in a trap—if you’re smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow—there’s one thing you never ever put in a trap … Me.

***

River: There’s a plan?

The Doctor: I don’t know yet. I haven’t finished talking.

 

TANSY

Moffat’s dialogue is the best thing about all Moffat’s writing ever. Which is why it’s quite good he went into telly, I suppose. Remind me to lend you my Press Gang DVDs some time … and I’d love to see a fanvid which compares the various Mighty Speeches we get from Matt Smith’s Doctor with the Mighty Rants Jack Davenport gets to utter in Coupling. His are mostly about things like pillows, girls being stupid, and putting the toilet seat down, but I’m sure there’s some sort of crossover potential there…

Speaking of the ‘one thing you don’t put in a trap’ line – the cliffhanger and resolution of this two parter is one of the best of all New Who even if you have to be paying very close attention to the screen to figure out what has happened. It’s certainly up there with ‘Go To Your Room’ in “The Doctor Dances”, another Moffat script. I do feel he handles two parters (especially the second part) much better than RTD did.

TEHANI:

Yes, especially the second part, completely agree.

TANSY:

Before we finish we should totally look at the final sequence, in which Amy and the Doctor return to her room and she comes on to him. Thoughts?

(I will admit right now that my original response to this scene was to burst out laughing – but I’ve given its ramifications a lot of more serious thought since then).

TEHANI:

Laughter here too, yes, but then as you say, further consideration leading to different conclusions. And again, in light of what comes later, it changes the perspective again, I think.

 

DAVID:

As I think everybody is aware, I was a bit uncomfortable with some of the romantic elements we have seen, especially with Nine, and found some of the Doctor’s moral choices … questionable at best. So, I was actually a bit relieved by his reaction here. It’s another example of the growth we have seen in the Doctor since we first encountered the guilt ridden, traumatised survivor of the Time War. Here, he seems more startled than anything else.

 

It’s hard to decide what to think about Amy’s actions here, she is obviously have a terrible case of wedding jitters and being swept off your feet by your childhood hero, travelling around the universe and nearly being possessed by one of the most dangerous creatures in cosmos wouldn’t make for an uncluttered mind. So, it is unsurprising that all those things add up and express themselves in throwing herself at the Doctor. But, I can’t help but think of poor, devoted Rory waiting back at home.

 

TANSY:

Oh yes, poor old Rory. Amy gets a lot of stick for her Doctorlust in this season, but I think the important thing to note is – SHE’S TWENTY ONE. People make dumb decisions at this age, and she’s someone who has more confusion and trust issues in her background than most.

 

The more you learn about Amy, the more understandable it is that she does not in fact entirely believe that anyone would love her the way Rory does. What is happening right now is classic ‘testing’ how far she can go before he gives up and leaves her. It’s not nice or pretty but it is quite realistic, as is the long fallout from what she has done – and of course, running away into space the night before her wedding is part of that too.

 

I find Amy’s flaws quite refreshing, especially as she does have to deal with the relationship fallout that comes from her choices.

 

DAVID:

Upon reflection, I think that her actions are far more about a physical reaction to the events of the story than born of any real romantic feelings for the Doctor. At the risk of sounding crass, it seems far more of a “let’s get it on” than a “let’s settle down forever”. Not that I think it makes it okay, but that they are two *very* different motivations.

 

TANSY:

Another concern that many have raised (which made me uncomfortable about how funny I personally found this scene) is that Amy is ignoring some pretty serious consent issues – physically accosting the Doctor multiple times despite him clearly saying ‘no’ and not being interested. It is not something we would EVER see a male character do to a female character without the writer being aware they were doing something wrong – in television these days, anyway. It’s a slapstick scene that takes its comedy, like many Moffat scenes which raise feminist hackles, from a very old fashioned premise which is that a hot woman throwing herself at a bloke who isn’t interested is inherently funny.

 

(My excuse for finding it hilarious the first time is simply that I was raised on Carry On… movies, you can’t always shake that stuff off)

 

DAVID:

Now that is a very interesting point indeed. Shows how much we are conditioned to view things a certain way. I would have been very unhappy, angry even,had the roles had been reversed, but I have to confess I didn’t even blink an eye at that. I will have to think about why that would be the case.

 

TEHANI:

And like you, Tansy, it’s not something that crossed my mind at first. Our friend Mondy often talks about how he is always having his eyes opened to things by his podcast co-host Kirstyn, and by other media like Galactic Suburbia, and I’m a bit the same – a few years ago, I would have been oblivious as well. Growing up means things aren’t always as easy as they used to be, but I hope it makes me a more aware person!

 

DAVID:

There is not a “like” button on this, so I’ll just say I’ll second that!

 

TANSY:

Having the DVD I now always watch the version of this episode with the extra scene in the TARDIS after the kiss, which I highly recommend – it’s a fun, friendly scene which shows Amy challenging the Doctor’s supposed lack of interest in having sexy female companions around and also shows that she wasn’t actually all that invested in having sex with him. The next adventure is just as enticing…

 

TEHANI:

Darn it Tansy, WHY IS THERE ALL THIS CONTENT I HAVEN’T SEEN?!

 

TANSY:

DVD box sets, this is all I am saying…

PREVIOUS “New Who In Conversations”

“Rose”, S01E01

“Dalek”, S01E06

“Father’s Day, S01E08

“The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”, S01E09/10

“Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways”, S01E12/13

Series One Report Card – David, Tansy, Tehani

“The Christmas Invasion,” 2005 Christmas special

“New Earth”, S02E01

“School Reunion,” S02E03

“The Girl in the Fireplace”, S02E04

“Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel”, S02E05/06

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, S02E12/13

Series Two Report Cards: David, Tehani, Tansy

“The Runaway Bride”, 2006 Christmas Special

“Smith and Jones”, S03E01

The Shakespeare Code & Gridlock, S0302-03

Human Nature/The Family of Blood S0308-09

Blink S0310

Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Timelords S0311-13

“Voyage of the Damned,” 2007 Christmas Special

Series 3 Report Cards: David, Tehani, Tansy

Partners in Crime, S0401

The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, S0405 S0406

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, S0408 S0409

Turn Left, S0411

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End, SO412-13

Series 4 Report Cards: Tansy, Tehani, David

The Specials

The End of Time

The Eleventh Hour, S0501

The Beast Below/Victory of the Daleks, S0502-3

Galactic Suburbia 89

New Episode Available for Download!

In which we recommend books to buy as presents, books we love, books we made, and basically BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS.

Alisa’s picks: 2012; Trucksong; A Trifle Dead; Rosaleen Love’s Twelve Planets collection; the entire Twelve Planets suite (get them while they look the same! especially Love & Romanpunk)

Alex’s picks: Temeraire by Naomi Novik; Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman; Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal; Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin; House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds



Tansy’s picks: Glitter and Mayhem; Chicks Unravel Time; The Wife in Space; The Worst Witch books by Jill Murphy; Creature Court trilogy (Power and Majesty)

Culture Consumed:

Alex: Reap the Wild Wind, Julie Czerneda; Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman

Tansy: Flying Higher eds by Michael Damian Thomas & Shira Lipkin [download free from Smashwords], Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time 1-4, Supurbia by Grace Randolph, Elizabeth Sladen the Autobiography, The She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta



Alisa: Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal

BLATANT PLUG: Songs For Europe, two short plays about Eurovision & war by John Richards of Splendid Chaps & Lee Zachariah of the Bazura Project on this week only as part of the Melbourne Fringe.

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Watching New Who: The Beast Below/Victory of the Daleks

Tansy and Tehani love this season so much we’re making David do more work – we’re changing up our usual plan and reviewing each episode, in sets of two.

The Beast Below

TANSY:

This is one of those favourite stories of mine that I tend to forget because of so many other favourites in this season – one of the things I especially love is the set up. The whole concept of a Starship UK, and the way a whole culture tries to recreate its past on a moving ship is fascinating to me, and all the little details of it make the place feel real – even if it is based on a lie.

DAVID:

The fact that there is something not quite right with Starship UK is evident right from the start, I love the way that it is the children who are aware of it and have built their own little rules to navigate it safely. The Smilers are delightfully creepy, too.

TANSY:

The Smilers are the reason Raeli can’t rewatch this episode! It has a real Stephen King vibe at the beginning, all sinister fairground motifs and children being aware of dangers while adults are blithely oblivious (or pretending to be so – not sure which is scarier)

DAVID:

What a fibber the Doctor is!

“An important thing. In fact, Thing One. We are observers only. That’s the one rule I’ve always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets.”

How he said that with a straight face, I have no idea.

TANSY:

I love that they set up through the narrative both that he is lying but also perhaps that he genuinely is fooling himself? The Doctor needs a certain degree of pomposity and it’s good that Amy is being shown this early on that it’s her job to question his grandiose statements about the universe.

(Thing One of course maps beautifully on to River Song’s Rule One but we’re not quite there yet)

DAVID:

One of the things we have seen over and over in Doctor Who is a very British future. While many other science fiction shows have a US slant, or even a sort of homogenised United Nations feel, we have seen lots of British influences and I for one love it!

TANSY:

I hope we run into Starship Scotland someday. But I agree, the gratuitous BRITISHNESS of the future is almost parodic here but it also is a lovely nod towards the history of Doctor Who and the various futures we have been shown since 1963.

TEHANI:

The parallels between the Star Whale and the Doctor are made overt in this – I suppose if we consider Eleven as a jumping on point for people, reiterating some of the things long-time watchers know (last of his race, alone, kind) are important. I remember them being so for me. And isn’t it interesting to see the differences in reactions between Nine, Ten and Eleven when asked about the Time Lords?

TANSY:

It’s less raw for him now, perhaps? And of course, this time around he’s had a chance to see what would happen if they came back…

DAVID:

It’s a good point that you make about the Doctor’s differing reactions when asked about the Time Lords, Tehani. I wouldn’t say he is at peace, but there is an air of quiet resignation, almost acceptance, when he talks about them that is in stark contrast to Nine especially. We’ve been on a journey with the Doctor, and there is no doubt that he is in a different place than we started.

There is also a nice little tease here when Amy asks him if he is a parent. Tansy is probably better placed to comment on this, but we’ve never really clarified all that much about the Doctor’s family, though there has been all sorts of conjecture. But, if Susan is his granddaughter (and that is a big if), then it stands to reason that the Doctor is also a father. Interesting.

TANSY:

As was pointed out to me recently on the Verity podcast, of course back in the 60’s no one would have questioned this at all – why would the Doctor NOT be Susan’s grandfather if he said he was? I think it was only later fandom in 80s, so secure in the Doctor’s identity as someone who was in no way sexual, who decided otherwise.

New Who, along with making the Doctor more aware of human notions of sexuality, has also already identified him as a dad back in “Fear Her” – though like being a grandfather, that could be an honorary title.

TEHANI:

Has the Doctor always been so angry at humanity for the terrible things they do? Amy cops the brunt of his anger, even though Liz 10 is really a more appropriate target! Listening to Splendid Chaps the other day and they mention it in relation to the Seventh Doctor, which is interesting to me (I’ve seen so little Classic Who I remember, and almost none outside of the Tom Baker era). Nine and Ten both showed this at various times – how far back does it go?

TANSY:

He’s quite mean to Amy in this one, which is an element I really don’t like – very harsh on her in a way reminiscent of Eccleston with Mickey or Adam. The Doctor is hot and cold about humans, honestly. Sometimes he’s supremely scathing and other times he loves them to bits. It’s an unhealthy relationship really! Hartnell despised most people but not humanity specifically – Pertwee had some definite anti-human moments, notably when the Brigadier was blowing things up as with the Silurians. Tom Baker praised humans for being ‘indomitable’ in one story and yet sneered at them in others. Like the Doctor being ‘non-violent’ there’s so many exceptions that it’s practically a rule.

DAVID:

It’s interesting that the thing that he gets angriest about (other than the imprisonment of the Star Whale, of course) is something he does to his companions, and those around him, all the time! There have been plenty of times that the Doctor has decided what others need to know, with varying results. Ace in “The Curse of Fenric” is an extreme example, but there are plenty of others.

I do think he was overly harsh, but he did have a point. For all Amy knew, the Star Whale might have simply shrugged off the whole city before even realising it!

TANSY:

Ha yes, she gets away with her random behaviour purely because she is lucky. But then the Doctor does that all the time – gets (mostly) good results from random life choices.

TEHANI:

This episode is as much about establishing Amy’s character (impulsive, observant, curious, caring) as it is about new viewers learning about the Doctor. She seems to have an almost instinctive understanding of how the Doctor works – she’s been travelling with him approximately five minutes, but she already knows him well enough to know that he will not be happy about the Star Whale situation…

TANSY:

I love that she solves it by seeing an option that he doesn’t – and saves him from doing something terrible. And the scene of them being swallowed by the whale is quite funny and entertaining – possibly one of the grossest Doctor-companion bonding moments of all time.

DAVID:

That’s spot on, Tehani. Straight away we discover the sort of companion Amy is going to be, that she is filled with a sense of wonder, but refuses to be overawed by anything, including the Doctor. I don’t think the multiple mentions of her Scottish heritage are coincidental, she is being deliberately painted as independent minded, and unwilling simply to take answers at face value.

TANSY:

It’s interesting that we are now seeing a tradition where companions are pretty much auditioned for the role over their first few stories, as if there’s some kind of probationary period – or an exam they might (like Adam) fail terribly. There’s always the possibility that the Doctor might fail them and dump them home at any minute – and while it is more realistic to show the companion developing the skills needed to travel with the Doctor over a number of stories, there is a power dynamic to it that is a bit uncomfortable. More so here than in “The End of the World”, say, or “Gridlock”, but I do think it’s an element they could back away from.

I especially don’t like the Doctor’s quickness to condemn Amy in this story because frankly, after the events of “The Eleventh Hour”, why can’t we see him failing to live up to HER expectations which must be massively over-inflated after all these years?

TEHANI:

Yes, considering how much he has to live up to in Amy’s eyes, and how much she’s already been let down by him, it’s a bit rich!

TANSY:

Something I found fascinating about this season (because of course having kids who love the merch) is that the toy manufacturers picked out elements that they thought would be important and iconic ahead of time, and made the toys accordingly with some very mixed results. The Smilers in this one were evidently supposed to catch on, because they turned up in the Character Options not-Lego and I think got an action figure too. The priesty bloke in this also turned up on some of the merchandise – and yet the toy people didn’t realise that Liz10 was the OBVIOUSLY most visually interesting character in the episode?

TEHANI:

Oh, I didn’t know that! I’m not much into the merch (the bits I have so far are TOTALLY PRACTICAL!) so it’s not something I’d notice. But that’s what happens when they don’t let people like us make such decisions

TANSY:

Liz10 springs off the page, a fascinating character, so complex and flawed with a hell of a backstory. I love how she starts out like a Cockney space mercenary like Han Solo, and yet reverts to her more refined Queen persona – and that she has been working out the mystery all along, just as the Doctor does, only she’s done it dozens of times over.

Fun fact, Sophie Okonedo (Liz10) was the companion in “The Scream of the Shalka”, a webcast audio/animation written by Paul Cornell which was intended to relaunch Doctor Who in 2003 before the actual show was recommissioned and buried the project. Richard E Grant played the Ninth Doctor in it, and Derek Jacobi was the Master. It’s coming out on DVD imminently!

TEHANI:

That IS a fun fact! And I think that might have just come out – sounds cool!

DAVID:

Liz10 is the standout character in this for me. You may not agree with her moral choices, but there is something tragically regal about the way she has taken on the burden of responsibility for her subjects, in a way parallelling how the Star Whale carries the city.

While I absolutely loathe the Elizabeth I running gag, I do like the way that the Doctor and the Royal Family have a history, and the the idea that they are very aware of who he is and what he does.

TEHANI:

The one liners zing in this episode! Some of my favourites:

“Help us, Doctor, you’re our only hope.”

–Liz 10.

How very Star Wars!

“It’s always a big day tomorrow. We’ve got a time machine. I skip the little ones.”

–The Doctor

TANSY:

I can’t go past “I’m the bloody queen.”

Oh and if like David and Tehani you didn’t watch these episodes via DVD, do go hunting for the extra scenes from this season–- one of them is a prelude to Amy floating in space and it’s wonderful, adding more warmth to the Eleven-Amy friendship. The other comes immediately after “Flesh and Stone” so don’t watch it quite yet…

Victory of the Daleks

TEHANI:

The Nazi = Dalek parallel is once again at the forefront of this episode. And oh look! Yet more Daleks (they’re never really gone…). It’s a Gatiss-penned episode, and I am starting to think that he is big on spectacle, but not so much on the plot/making of sense thing – just me?

TANSY:

This is one that desperately needed another 5-10 minutes, I think, there are so many good scenes in it, but it doesn’t quite hang together. New Who is *so* fast-paced these days, and Moffat Who seems to be even faster and snappier and more packed with words than RTD Who – there are times when it just tries to push too much in.

Having said that there is a lot to like about this episode that I think often gets forgotten in a sea of fannish loathing. I like all the Churchill-in-the-bunker stuff, especially the odd friendship between Churchill and the Doctor which has obviously been going on for some time (he calls him dear!), and I will forgive a lot for that jammy dodger scene.

DAVID:

I am starting to think that I am too easily pleased! I rather liked this episode, I thought it provided a nice little twist on the whole Nazi/Dalek comparisons, and oh boy did it have a nice bit of spectacle! It doesn’t get much more exciting that Spitfires in space attacking a Dalek spaceship. If this had been a movie that alone would have been worth the price of admission.

TEHANI:

Is this the first time we see Moffat use the Doctor (and Amy) to defeat evil with the power of love?

TANSY:

Yes, yes it is. If you don’t count “The Beast Below” which is more the ability to defeat evil with the power of spotting that a monster is capable of love and kindness…

DAVID:

While it was a bit of stretch to have the bomb disarmed by Bracewell’s belief in his humanity, I found that sequence quite moving and a perfect contrast to the inhumanity of the Daleks.

TANSY:

I really like Bracewell, and how much humanity is packed into his few scenes. We haven’t had enough of the Doctor playing with mad scientists in recent years and I love the way that Bracewell is so very certain that he created the “Ironsides.”

TEHANI:

I’m not sure what “conventional fan wisdom” says, but I’m not a fan of the new Dalek design – they just don’t seem scary in those bright colours!

TANSY:

Ohhh sweetie, fandom hated those Daleks with a fiery vengeance. I didn’t mind the colours myself, but detested the new shape. Even the OPERATORS hated them – you’d think that they would give them more room, but instead they just provided more bulk to move around, so they were less useful.

Moffat said afterwards that the whole ‘new paradigm’ was the pitch he used to get the BBC to let them build more Dalek models, because they had hardly any left by the time he took over. A reboot meant lots of publicity, lots of merchandise (see how often the new Daleks are placed so you can’t see the fact that they have the wrong silhouette from side on) and the kids mostly liked them.

However, and I am TOTALLY going to spoil David here, because I don’t want him to suffer as we did, the new Daleks never looked as bad again as they did in this one. And the old Daleks never went away – from now on we’ll always get a fun cocktail of both.

DAVID:

They were a bit garish! I can’t say I was a big fan of them, either.

TANSY:

I do, however, like the whole concept of the Ironside Daleks, and of Churchill inadvertently signing up the Daleks to help him fight Nazis. The plot is actually really clever, and leads to the brilliant scene of Matt Smith’s Doctor trying to get the humble tea-serving Ironside to admit it’s an evil war machine. Unfortunately, and this is where the story lets it down, he succeeds. A longer and more involved plot would have allowed this tension to be drawn out a bit, especially with the benefit of a companion who can’t corroborate the Doctor’s insistence that the Daleks are not to be trusted.

However, having said that, I just described the plot of “The Power of the Daleks”, the very first Patrick Troughton story. And, well, “Dalek” a bit, too.

You have to admit, though, there is not much in the world that is more awesome than a Dalek carrying a teatray.

DAVID

I liked how they weaved in some real quotes from Churchill to give some credence to the idea that he would have seized upon any weapon to defeat the Nazis. It is easy to forget how desperate Britain’s position was at that point in the war, and there is no doubt Churchill would have felt an incredible temptation to use the Dalek technology, and it makes the Doctor’s decision to destroy it all completely justified.

This is where the whole Dalek/Nazi thing can get a little dicey though. The writers need to communicate that in the Doctor Who universe the Daleks are in fact worse than the Nazis, as hard as that is to get the mind around. But, how do you do that without minimising an unspeakably terrible part of our real history and using that suffering as a plot device? I can definitely understand why some people are quite uncomfortable with the Nazi/Dalek parallels.

TANSY:

That’s a really good point, and I think it’s too complex an idea to deal with sensitively in this story – we don’t actually see Daleks do much that’s bad, so it’s all Doctorly rhetoric as far as Amy and the other humans are concerned, and very easy to come off as trite. I suspect Daleks are best kept away from humanity for a while and given the huge drawcard of them as characters it would be nice to see them saved for some massive futuristic space battles instead of serving to remind us yet again of what used to be a subtle and discreet metaphor for the ultimate evil.

Having said that, an important detail we could easily miss: Amy does not know what a Dalek is. Despite the fact that humans from her era would have seen them semi-regularly on the evening news (and indeed Blue Peter). What could this mean?

DAVID:

I can already see them building towards a season finale, throwing around clues like we saw with all the Bad Wolf foreshadowing. This is going to be fun!

PREVIOUS “New Who In Conversations”

“Rose”, S01E01

“Dalek”, S01E06

“Father’s Day, S01E08

“The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”, S01E09/10

“Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways”, S01E12/13

Series One Report Card – David, Tansy, Tehani

“The Christmas Invasion,” 2005 Christmas special

“New Earth”, S02E01

“School Reunion,” S02E03

“The Girl in the Fireplace”, S02E04

“Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel”, S02E05/06

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, S02E12/13

Series Two Report Cards: David, Tehani, Tansy

“The Runaway Bride”, 2006 Christmas Special

“Smith and Jones”, S03E01

The Shakespeare Code & Gridlock, S0302-03

Human Nature/The Family of Blood S0308-09

Blink S0310

Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Timelords S0311-13

“Voyage of the Damned,” 2007 Christmas Special

Series 3 Report Cards: David, Tehani, Tansy

Partners in Crime, S0401

The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, S0405 S0406

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, S0408 S0409

Turn Left, S0411

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End, SO412-13

Series 4 Report Cards: Tansy, Tehani, David

The Specials

The End of Time

The Eleventh Hour, S0501

Writers in Conversation: Lian Tanner & Tansy Rayner Roberts

Back from Melbourne & will update on that soon (still catching my breath) but in the mean time I wanted to put this up – if you’re interested in coming along to hear me & Lian Tanner talking about the life of a professional author, and ask us questions (the more the better!) and Hobart is reasonably close to wherever you are, please do come along and join us for a fun evening!

Date & Time: Wednesday October 2nd 2013 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Venue: The Founders Room, Salamanca Arts Centre, 77 Salamanca Place, Hobart TASMANIA

In partnership with the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre, the Australian Society of Authors presents Lian Tanner and Tansy Rayner Roberts in conversation.

Lian Tanner is a multi award-winning children’s author and playwright whose fantasy trilogy, The Keepers, is published in Australia, the USA and India, as well as being translated into seven languages. Tansy Rayner Roberts is a multi award-winning fantasy novelist whose books include Splashdance Silver, Love and Romanpunk and the Creature Court trilogy (Power & Majesty, The Shattered City, Reign of Beasts).

Lian and Tansy will discuss writing and the professional life of an author with an opportunity for questions from the audience.

Cost: ASA & TWC members $10; Non-members $15

Bookings: essential – book online or call the office on 1800 257 121 or (02) 9211 1004

13 Fabulous Martha Moments that have nothing to do with unrequited love [WHO-50—2007]

You know what? It’s absolutely true that Martha’s unrequited love for the Doctor, his shabby treatment of her for not being Rose, his general mopery, and her flashes of jealousy for the unseen blonde, were all big missteps for Doctor Who in general and Martha’s character in particular.

What makes me sad is that this aspect now seems to represent almost everything I hear about Martha. It’s a disappointing legacy for a companion who was not only the first woman of colour to travel in the TARDIS on a long-term basis, but was also New Who’s first (and to date only) take on one of the most critically acclaimed companion archetypes.

That is: the brainy, intellectual/professional female companion who stands up for herself. Previous examples being Zoe, Dr Liz Shaw, Romana, and Dr Grace Holloway.

I am especially disappointed that Martha’s leaving story, in which she became the only long-term female companion of New Who to date who left the TARDIS properly of her own accord, is remembered as being a symptom of her unrequited love when in fact that entire scene is about her choosing her family’s needs over the Doctor. She only confesses her feelings for him as a supporting (not central) reason for her decision NO MATTER WHAT THE FREAKING WIKIPEDIA PAGE SAYS.

If Martha learned one thing from travelling in the TARDIS, it was that the only way to win an argument with the Doctor was to talk about squishy feelings.

So here, in the attempt to restore Martha’s legacy as an excellent companion, are 13 Fabulous Martha Moments from Series 3 that have nothing to do with unrequited love.

1. Bravery in the Face of Judoon

DOCTOR: We might die.

MARTHA: We might not.

The whole of “Smith and Jones” is about Martha auditioning for the role of companion without realising it – by being smart and useful and brave in the right place at the right time. Also it’s pretty awesome that she calls the Doctor on whether or not he has actually earned his title – because she knows how much work it takes to pass the exams!

2. Bringing the Snark To The Shakespeare Code

Martha’s interactions with the Bard are beautifully scripted and performed as she regularly punctures his attempts at pomposity, boastfulness or pomposity. She would have been aces with the Sixth Doctor.

MARTHA: I don’t know how to tell you this, oh great genius, but… your breath doesn’t half stink.

Even better, her cheerful sarcasm is applied to the Doctor too – already she can tell that he needs to be brought down a peg or three. When he tells her with genuine cheerfulness that when she gets back she can tell everyone she has seen Shakespeare, she replies in an ironic reflection of his tone of voice: “Yeah! And then I could get sectioned!”

Basically, she spends the majority of the story being pragmatic, useful (again) and asking the right questions (including a few the Doctor hasn’t thought of, like whether being “not exactly white” is going to be a hardship in the past) as well as fending off Shakespeare’s flirtatious advances with quite a few elegant barbs of her own. Not bad for a first time travel outing.

3. Demanding the Truth in Gridlock

MARTHA: You don’t talk! You never say. Why not?

It actually takes only three episodes for Martha to get sick of the Doctor’s deliberate mysteriousness about his history, which leads to a lovely speech about what his home planet looked like, and what he has lost.



4. Shouts At the Daleks in Manhattan

MARTHA: You can’t experiment on people, it’s insane. It’s in…human!

Compassionate and angry – and again, we are never encouraged to forget that her calling is that of a medical doctor. (that came later)

5. Refuses to Run Away in Evolution of the Daleks.

DOCTOR: Martha, that’s an order.

MARTHA: Who are you then, some sort of Dalek?

Sure, she’s not the first New Who companion to compare the Doctor to a Dalek, but she’s a lot more direct about it than Rose was.

6. Negotiates Boundaries & Demands to be More Than a Passenger in the Lazarus Experiment

MARTHA: But I can’t go on like this, “one more trip.” It’s not fair.

This is the story where the Doctor drops Martha back home as if he hasn’t turned her whole view of the universe upside down. Is he genuinely that unfeeling, or trying to get more of a commitment out of her?

In any case, Martha proves herself useful and valiant yet again, including the theft of a DNA sample as they battle her sister’s new boss Dr Lazarus and his anti-ageing machine. By the end of the story she is confident enough to refuse to travel with the Doctor again on an ad hoc basis – she wants all or nothing, and he gives in so easily that it’s clear she has earned her place.

“You were never just a passenger,” he admits as she flings herself back into adventure and the unknown.

But it’s important that she says no to him here – she says no to him a lot, in fact. If the role of the companion during the Tenth Doctor years (as Donna suggested a few months earlier in “The Runaway Bride”) is to make him stop when he gets carried away, then Martha is the perfect fit.

Much like Liz Shaw before her, though, she’s somewhat overqualified for the job, which suggests she isn’t likely to be around for the long term.



7. Rules the Intergalactic Pub Quiz in 42



MARTHA: Anytime you want to unnerve me, feel free.

Chris Chibnall may have been uneven in his writing of female characters in Torchwood, but I really like his take on Martha, especially the emphasis on snark and the de-emphasis on her romantic interest in the Doctor.

The ridiculous security system on the spaceship that requires Martha and Riley answer questions to get through every door, with the clock ticking, something creepy haunting the ship, and risks at maximum, brings out the best in our hero. Nothing like a cocktail of adrenalin and wit while running for your life with a cute boy.

When Riley kisses her at the end, she responds by complimenting him on his technique – casual and cool. It’s never going to be more than a brief encounter, and she’s fine with that.

Also, I think Martha’s phone call with her mother provides Francine Jones with just about her only likeable moment in the season as she chides Martha for using a phone to solve a pub quiz. That’s cheating!

8. Befriends Jenny in “Human Nature”

Martha rises beautifully to the challenges of “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”, protecting the Doctor in his vulnerable state and putting up with the menial job of a maid (which means being mocked for her status and skin colour by the horrible posh boys at the school where they are hiding). And of course, she never loses that snarky sense of humour.

MARTHA: He’s just kind to me, that’s all. And not everyone’s that considerate, what with me being a…

JENNY: …Londoner?

MARTHA: Exactly! Good old London Town!

My favourite scenes for her in this episode are those which show the friendship she has forged with her fellow maid Jenny, sharing a laugh and the occasional illicit drink out the back of the pub. Martha’s loss when Jenny is taken over by the Family isn’t given a tenth of the weight of John Smith’s storyline, which is a shame.

9. Saves John and Joan in “The Family of Blood”

MARTHA: Don’t just stand there, move! God, you’re rubbish as a human!

Martha gets to be the hero in this story because frankly the Doctor in his John Smith state isn’t up to the task. She saves both John and Joan Redfern, keeping them protected and even trying to deal with some of their emotional fallout from the relationship that was never supposed to happen.

She’s marking time until she can get the Doctor back to save the day, and until then she has to BE the Doctor. And she doesn’t do too bad a job of it, considering.

Bonus points for the scene in which Martha proves (with a recitation of bone classifications) to Matron Redfern that she is a doctor, despite the fact that the other woman’s cultural (and racial) biases deem this is impossible.

10. Makes the Most of Minimal Screen Time in “Blink”



MARTHA: Oh, the moon landing’s brilliant! We went four times. (dirty look at the Doctor) Back when we had transport.

“Blink” is not about Martha, and indeed is only tangentially (which is to say, thematically) about the Doctor. But what I love about her brief apperances here is how much she is MARTHA with those lines – sarcastic, witty and yet still supportive both of the Doctor himself and of anyone who has the misfortune to have to deal with him.

MARTHA: All of space and time he promised me and now I’ve got a job in a shop, I’ve gotta support him!

She might, as she admitted in the previous episode, love him to bits, but she’s still calling him on his bullshit every step of the way, and providing a quick translation service/instruction manual for everyone else.

MARTHA: Trust me. Just nod when he stops for breath.

11. Sees the Future of the Human Race in “Utopia”

MARTHA: Is that what happens though, seriously? You just get bored of us one day and disappear.

Speaking of calling the Doctor on his bullshit! “Utopia” is where we finally find out why he ditched one of his best friends in the far future and Martha is understandably not happy to hear about it.

I really love the combination of Ten – Martha – Jack, and the two humans gang up beautifully on the Doctor, bonding through adversity and their shared methods of dealing with the most frustrating person in the universe. They make an excellent team, and as with Shakespeare the Jack-Martha vibe is made up of a combination of casual flirting, sizing each other up, and sharing an adventure.

More importantly, Martha’s the one who puts it all together about Professor Yana and who he is, before the Doctor does, when she spots a certain fob watch. Oh, and thanks to her habit of being genuinely interested in the people she meets, she provides the most emotional connection for the audience with two doomed characters: the kid who thinks the sky of Utopia is made of diamonds, and the sweet but modest Chan-Tho, whom Martha encourages to be a teeny bit naughty.

12. Carries the weight of the world in “The Sound of Drums”

MARTHA: I mean, who’d call themselves the Master?

This is the story where Martha loses everything – her flat, her family, and the world she always expected to come back to. Understandably, most people talking about this episode tend to focus on John Simm’s extraordinary performance as the Master, and his relationship with the Doctor, but nearly every other emotional beat in this story is about Martha, and how her life has been wrecked just because she is the Doctor’s companion.

At the end of the story, she is given a quest by the Doctor, something hugely important – and for once it’s him who stays in captivity while the companion goes out to do the active, necessary legwork to save the day.

MARTHA: I’m coming back.

13. Becomes a Legend in “Last of the Time Lords”

MARTHA: What does the legend say?

TOM: That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America. That you were the only person to get out of Japan alive. “Martha Jones,” they say, “she’s gonna save the world.” Bit late for that.

It’s an ongoing theme of the first four series of New Who that the Doctor not only inspires humans to save themselves and to become better than they are, but that his nearest and dearest tend to ‘level up’ once they are out of his sight. We’ve already seen elements of this with Martha, where some of her strongest scenes (apart from those involving sarcastic banter) are when she is away from the Doctor, carrying her half of the story.

This last story with Martha as one of the regular cast takes her role one step further by turning her into a folk hero. Her job here is to make the world believe in the myth of the Doctor as the one who will fix everything, but in doing this she has become a legend in her own right.

Along the way she has lived through a harsh twelve months of war and suffering, and learned a hell of a lot about weapons and resistance movements. When the reset button is hit, Martha doesn’t lose this experience – and it’s clear from her future reappearances that the memories of this year have forever changed her into a harder, more ruthless woman with military tendencies and a talent for survival.

Too often, I see this storyline (and much of Martha’s involvement in this season) dismissed because of the unrequited love angle, but Martha isn’t walking the world to tell them all that David Tennant is kinda hot. Her job is to make as many people as possible believe and trust in the mythological figure of the Doctor as the man who can save them – and her own belief, trust and even love for the Doctor is essential to that.

I do wish that the romantic angle hadn’t been harped on (and in many cases, tacked on) as often as it was in the scripts, because it’s pretty clear that a great deal of Martha’s esteem and respect for the Doctor is not just about wanting to knock boots with him – it’s about everything they have seen and done together as friends and travel companions.

MARTHA: I told a story, that’s all. No weapons, just words. I did just what The Doctor said. I went across the continents, all on my own. And everywhere I went I found the people and I told them my story. I told them about The Doctor.

While the Doctor is hiding out in the Master’s kennel, Martha sets up the world’s most elaborate red herring (a gun in four parts, scattered across the world? I mean, come on!), inspires an entire world to think the same thing at the same time, defeats the Master’s most elaborate scheme since that time he blew up a quarter of the universe, and figures out the secret of his cruel and powerful “alien” allies.

She does all this in response to a single whispered sentence from the Doctor, a year previously.

She’s Martha Fucking Jones.

She deserves to be remembered for more than that bloke she fancied for a while, once upon a time.



ELSEWHERE on 2007:



Blink or They Might Miss It: Why Blink Works As a Doctor Who Starter Story [Fangirl Knits Scarf]

Blink – Fear – Gender [Doctor Her]



Domesticating the Doctor: Human Nature [Doctor Her]

Utopia [The Angriest]

Watching New Who: Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords [TansyRR.com]

Watching New Who: Voyage of the Damned [TansyRR.com]

The Sarah Jane Adventures Season 1 [nwhyte.com]

PREVIOUSLY:

13 Fabulous Martha Moments that have nothing to do with unrequited lov [WHO-50—2007]

You know what? It’s absolutely true that Martha’s unrequited love for the Doctor, his shabby treatment of her for not being Rose, his general mopery, and her flashes of jealousy for the unseen blonde, were all big missteps for Doctor Who in general and Martha’s character in particular.

What makes me sad is that this aspect now seems to represent almost everything I hear about Martha. It’s a disappointing legacy for a companion who was not only the first woman of colour to travel in the TARDIS on a long-term basis, but was also New Who’s first (and to date only) take on one of the most critically acclaimed companion archetypes.

That is: the brainy, intellectual/professional female companion who stands up for herself. Previous examples being Zoe, Dr Liz Shaw, Romana, and Dr Grace Holloway.

I am especially disappointed that Martha’s leaving story, in which she became the only long-term female companion of New Who to date who left the TARDIS properly of her own accord, is remembered as being a symptom of her unrequited love when in fact that entire scene is about her choosing her family’s needs over the Doctor. She only confesses her feelings for him as a supporting (not central) reason for her decision NO MATTER WHAT THE FREAKING WIKIPEDIA PAGE SAYS.

If Martha learned one thing from travelling in the TARDIS, it was that the only way to win an argument with the Doctor was to talk about squishy feelings.

So here, in the attempt to restore Martha’s legacy as an excellent companion, are 13 Fabulous Martha Moments from Series 3 that have nothing to do with unrequited love.

1. Bravery in the Face of Judoon

DOCTOR: We might die.

MARTHA: We might not.

The whole of “Smith and Jones” is about Martha auditioning for the role of companion without realising it – by being smart and useful and brave in the right place at the right time. Also it’s pretty awesome that she calls the Doctor on whether or not he has actually earned his title – because she knows how much work it takes to pass the exams!

2. Bringing the Snark To The Shakespeare Code

Martha’s interactions with the Bard are beautifully scripted and performed as she regularly punctures his attempts at pomposity, boastfulness or pomposity. She would have been aces with the Sixth Doctor.

MARTHA: I don’t know how to tell you this, oh great genius, but… your breath doesn’t half stink.

Even better, her cheerful sarcasm is applied to the Doctor too – already she can tell that he needs to be brought down a peg or three. When he tells her with genuine cheerfulness that when she gets back she can tell everyone she has seen Shakespeare, she replies in an ironic reflection of his tone of voice: “Yeah! And then I could get sectioned!”

Basically, she spends the majority of the story being pragmatic, useful (again) and asking the right questions (including a few the Doctor hasn’t thought of, like whether being “not exactly white” is going to be a hardship in the past) as well as fending off Shakespeare’s flirtatious advances with quite a few elegant barbs of her own. Not bad for a first time travel outing.

3. Demanding the Truth in Gridlock

MARTHA: You don’t talk! You never say. Why not?

It actually takes only three episodes for Martha to get sick of the Doctor’s deliberate mysteriousness about his history, which leads to a lovely speech about what his home planet looked like, and what he has lost.



4. Shouts At the Daleks in Manhattan

MARTHA: You can’t experiment on people, it’s insane. It’s in…human!

Compassionate and angry – and again, we are never encouraged to forget that her calling is that of a medical doctor. (that came later)

5. Refuses to Run Away in Evolution of the Daleks.

DOCTOR: Martha, that’s an order.

MARTHA: Who are you then, some sort of Dalek?

Sure, she’s not the first New Who companion to compare the Doctor to a Dalek, but she’s a lot more direct about it than Rose was.

6. Negotiates Boundaries & Demands to be More Than a Passenger in the Lazarus Experiment

MARTHA: But I can’t go on like this, “one more trip.” It’s not fair.

This is the story where the Doctor drops Martha back home as if he hasn’t turned her whole view of the universe upside down. Is he genuinely that unfeeling, or trying to get more of a commitment out of her?

In any case, Martha proves herself useful and valiant yet again, including the theft of a DNA sample as they battle her sister’s new boss Dr Lazarus and his anti-ageing machine. By the end of the story she is confident enough to refuse to travel with the Doctor again on an ad hoc basis – she wants all or nothing, and he gives in so easily that it’s clear she has earned her place.

“You were never just a passenger,” he admits as she flings herself back into adventure and the unknown.

But it’s important that she says no to him here – she says no to him a lot, in fact. If the role of the companion during the Tenth Doctor years (as Donna suggested a few months earlier in “The Runaway Bride”) is to make him stop when he gets carried away, then Martha is the perfect fit.

Much like Liz Shaw before her, though, she’s somewhat overqualified for the job, which suggests she isn’t likely to be around for the long term.



7. Rules the Intergalactic Pub Quiz in 42



MARTHA: Anytime you want to unnerve me, feel free.

Chris Chibnall may have been uneven in his writing of female characters in Torchwood, but I really like his take on Martha, especially the emphasis on snark and the de-emphasis on her romantic interest in the Doctor.

The ridiculous security system on the spaceship that requires Martha and Riley answer questions to get through every door, with the clock ticking, something creepy haunting the ship, and risks at maximum, brings out the best in our hero. Nothing like a cocktail of adrenalin and wit while running for your life with a cute boy.

When Riley kisses her at the end, she responds by complimenting him on his technique – casual and cool. It’s never going to be more than a brief encounter, and she’s fine with that.

Also, I think Martha’s phone call with her mother provides Francine Jones with just about her only likeable moment in the season as she chides Martha for using a phone to solve a pub quiz. That’s cheating!

8. Befriends Jenny in “Human Nature”

Martha rises beautifully to the challenges of “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”, protecting the Doctor in his vulnerable state and putting up with the menial job of a maid (which means being mocked for her status and skin colour by the horrible posh boys at the school where they are hiding). And of course, she never loses that snarky sense of humour.

MARTHA: He’s just kind to me, that’s all. And not everyone’s that considerate, what with me being a…

JENNY: …Londoner?

MARTHA: Exactly! Good old London Town!

My favourite scenes for her in this episode are those which show the friendship she has forged with her fellow maid Jenny, sharing a laugh and the occasional illicit drink out the back of the pub. Martha’s loss when Jenny is taken over by the Family isn’t given a tenth of the weight of John Smith’s storyline, which is a shame.

9. Saves John and Joan in “The Family of Blood”

MARTHA: Don’t just stand there, move! God, you’re rubbish as a human!

Martha gets to be the hero in this story because frankly the Doctor in his John Smith state isn’t up to the task. She saves both John and Joan Redfern, keeping them protected and even trying to deal with some of their emotional fallout from the relationship that was never supposed to happen.

She’s marking time until she can get the Doctor back to save the day, and until then she has to BE the Doctor. And she doesn’t do too bad a job of it, considering.

Bonus points for the scene in which Martha proves (with a recitation of bone classifications) to Matron Redfern that she is a doctor, despite the fact that the other woman’s cultural (and racial) biases deem this is impossible.

10. Makes the Most of Minimal Screen Time in “Blink”



MARTHA: Oh, the moon landing’s brilliant! We went four times. (dirty look at the Doctor) Back when we had transport.

“Blink” is not about Martha, and indeed is only tangentially (which is to say, thematically) about the Doctor. But what I love about her brief apperances here is how much she is MARTHA with those lines – sarcastic, witty and yet still supportive both of the Doctor himself and of anyone who has the misfortune to have to deal with him.

MARTHA: All of space and time he promised me and now I’ve got a job in a shop, I’ve gotta support him!

She might, as she admitted in the previous episode, love him to bits, but she’s still calling him on his bullshit every step of the way, and providing a quick translation service/instruction manual for everyone else.

MARTHA: Trust me. Just nod when he stops for breath.

11. Sees the Future of the Human Race in “Utopia”

MARTHA: Is that what happens though, seriously? You just get bored of us one day and disappear.

Speaking of calling the Doctor on his bullshit! “Utopia” is where we finally find out why he ditched one of his best friends in the far future and Martha is understandably not happy to hear about it.

I really love the combination of Ten – Martha – Jack, and the two humans gang up beautifully on the Doctor, bonding through adversity and their shared methods of dealing with the most frustrating person in the universe. They make an excellent team, and as with Shakespeare the Jack-Martha vibe is made up of a combination of casual flirting, sizing each other up, and sharing an adventure.

More importantly, Martha’s the one who puts it all together about Professor Yana and who he is, before the Doctor does, when she spots a certain fob watch. Oh, and thanks to her habit of being genuinely interested in the people she meets, she provides the most emotional connection for the audience with two doomed characters: the kid who thinks the sky of Utopia is made of diamonds, and the sweet but modest Chan-Tho, whom Martha encourages to be a teeny bit naughty.

12. Carries the weight of the world in “The Sound of Drums”

MARTHA: I mean, who’d call themselves the Master?

This is the story where Martha loses everything – her flat, her family, and the world she always expected to come back to. Understandably, most people talking about this episode tend to focus on John Simm’s extraordinary performance as the Master, and his relationship with the Doctor, but nearly every other emotional beat in this story is about Martha, and how her life has been wrecked just because she is the Doctor’s companion.

At the end of the story, she is given a quest by the Doctor, something hugely important – and for once it’s him who stays in captivity while the companion goes out to do the active, necessary legwork to save the day.

MARTHA: I’m coming back.

13. Becomes a Legend in “Last of the Time Lords”

MARTHA: What does the legend say?

TOM: That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America. That you were the only person to get out of Japan alive. “Martha Jones,” they say, “she’s gonna save the world.” Bit late for that.

It’s an ongoing theme of the first four series of New Who that the Doctor not only inspires humans to save themselves and to become better than they are, but that his nearest and dearest tend to ‘level up’ once they are out of his sight. We’ve already seen elements of this with Martha, where some of her strongest scenes (apart from those involving sarcastic banter) are when she is away from the Doctor, carrying her half of the story.

This last story with Martha as one of the regular cast takes her role one step further by turning her into a folk hero. Her job here is to make the world believe in the myth of the Doctor as the one who will fix everything, but in doing this she has become a legend in her own right.

Along the way she has lived through a harsh twelve months of war and suffering, and learned a hell of a lot about weapons and resistance movements. When the reset button is hit, Martha doesn’t lose this experience – and it’s clear from her future reappearances that the memories of this year have forever changed her into a harder, more ruthless woman with military tendencies and a talent for survival.

Too often, I see this storyline (and much of Martha’s involvement in this season) dismissed because of the unrequited love angle, but Martha isn’t walking the world to tell them all that David Tennant is kinda hot. Her job is to make as many people as possible believe and trust in the mythological figure of the Doctor as the man who can save them – and her own belief, trust and even love for the Doctor is essential to that.

I do wish that the romantic angle hadn’t been harped on (and in many cases, tacked on) as often as it was in the scripts, because it’s pretty clear that a great deal of Martha’s esteem and respect for the Doctor is not just about wanting to knock boots with him – it’s about everything they have seen and done together as friends and travel companions.

MARTHA: I told a story, that’s all. No weapons, just words. I did just what The Doctor said. I went across the continents, all on my own. And everywhere I went I found the people and I told them my story. I told them about The Doctor.

While the Doctor is hiding out in the Master’s kennel, Martha sets up the world’s most elaborate red herring (a gun in four parts, scattered across the world? I mean, come on!), inspires an entire world to think the same thing at the same time, defeats the Master’s most elaborate scheme since that time he blew up a quarter of the universe, and figures out the secret of his cruel and powerful “alien” allies.

She does all this in response to a single whispered sentence from the Doctor, a year previously.

She’s Martha Fucking Jones.

She deserves to be remembered for more than that bloke she fancied for a while, once upon a time.



ELSEWHERE on 2007:



Blink or They Might Miss It: Why Blink Works As a Doctor Who Starter Story [Fangirl Knits Scarf]

Blink – Fear – Gender [Doctor Her]



Domesticating the Doctor: Human Nature [Doctor Her]

Utopia [The Angriest]

Watching New Who: Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords [TansyRR.com]

Watching New Who: Voyage of the Damned [TansyRR.com]

The Sarah Jane Adventures Season 1 [nwhyte.com]

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