Daily Dose of Embarassment, and some Doctor Who ponderings

[intrikate88]

I. This thing of me saying things that cause everyone else to blush and look away while in British Lit is becoming tradition. But I'm not too worried, apparently Dr. Craton says she does the same thing! So we are in a club. 

But seriously, we were talking about "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning tonight. I can't help it if my interpretation of that poem is "they're having a bit of bondage-y fun". Forget class uprisings, forget gender power plays- it's really about bondage. I mean, read it. Porphyria was HAPPY and grinning over getting strangled. And then there seemed to be post-coital cuddling. Um, no wonder it doesn't add up to a good murder?

II. I think I know why Martha is such a badly-written character. (Cut for "Utopia" spoilers")

So we've all been wondering why the writing for Martha is so damn BAD, since this is a show that is generally brilliant on characterisation; we fell in love with so many characters ten minutes into their solitary episodes, just this season: Joan Redfern, Sally Sparrow, and Whatshisname from "42". Surely it can't be that hard to write Martha! After all, she's been around eleven episodes already, and is signed on for all of series four. 

But... this unrequited love, this infatuation, keeps getting in the way. And why do we have it? It adds so little to the plot, it demeans Martha in every way, and it keeps us from getting to know her; and, most of all, since we are still smarting over Rose's departure, it very strongly keeps us from sympathising with her at all, despite her inherent sympathise-ability, being a hardworking med student who has to deal with a crazy family and paying rent, just like the rest of us.

Now on "Utopia", we have the obvious parallel between Martha and Chantho. Both have an absolute adoration for a Doctor that barely notices their existence, that only notices they are around by the positive reactions they give. Both Companions are intelligent, strong women that provide no challenge to their Doctors. Both would do anything for their Doctor... except for be killed by him when he turns.

Dr. Yana, when he regenerates into Mr. Saxon/The Master, is not entirely unlike the Doctor. When laying on the floor post-regeneration, they look eerily alike, and Mr. Saxon leaps around in a similar manner. Mr. Saxon now even has a TARDIS.

Back to Chantho. When the object of her affections turned on her, and rejected her utterly: rejected her brilliance, her friendship, and demanded to know why she never questioned him, why she stood by as he lived and suffered and never challenged him at all; she shot him and killed him. He became her enemy and she could not let him be.

Now, we know that the Doctor will not keep Martha with him forever. He can't, and that's not what he does with Companions. He leaves them and doesn't talk about them anymore; he's never a static point, he's always moving. One day he will leave Martha, and since she adores him so much, maybe the only way to leave her will to be completely reject her. Maybe in a moment of anger, of desperation, he might tell her how worthless she's been: how, though she was smart and independant, she never challenged him or told him no, and thus demean everything she ever offered to him.

So if Martha is Chantho's parallel, what will she do? Like Chantho, will she try to kill him? Try to destroy everything he is like he tried to destroy her? Handily, there is someone else who wouldn't mind destroying the Doctor: the Master. A handy person for Martha to sympathise with, and he has a TARDIS, so she can still travel in style.

I'm wondering if maybe the reason we haven't been able to get close to Martha this season is because the writers don't want us sympathising too closely with someone who will be a villain next season.

Comments

[goldy-dollar.livejournal.com]

Ha! I read this RIGHT before I got your email telling me to go read it. :D

I probably don't have to tell you how GREAT I think this would be. You're so right about how good Doctor Who is at creating characters. Because they ARE. Almost every episode this season has had a sympathetic one-off character - Shakespeare, Cat Guy in Gridlock, Frank, people from 42, Joan, SALLY SPARROW.

I keep feeling that they've just really, really screwed it up. And I don't have to tell you how pissed I'll be if we're heading towards some sort of "realization" by the Doctor. He doesn't "owe" her anything, no matter what some fans claim. GAH.

BUT IF SHE WAS EVIL. OMGAH. *hyperventilates* It would make for really, really good storytelling, definitely. I really love this theory. I'll think about it further. :D

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

It just feels so ODD, y'know? The way Martha's character is written, the way the Doctor is hanging onto a former companion- it just seems so totally out of character. I mean, plenty of shows have badly written bits, and when it comes to stuff like the fourth seasons of Angel or Alias we just figure the writers were passing around the bag of cocaine and we move on and laugh at their suckiness. But THIS seems genuinely... odd.

So maybe I'm just being hopeful about Martha turning evil but I think that would really fit the story and would rectify the current writing. Because the only other options for Martha is she fades away to nothing, which would be sad, or they happily resolve this unrequited love crap, which would be totally OOC for the Doctor. And neither really works well.

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

WHY THANK YOU FOR LINKING ME TO THIS. :D

(And can I just say that Ten in that scene is like the most amazingly hot thing Ten has ever been? "Do you want to die?" "This one's a little stuck." "JAAAACKKKK." Jesus.)

Anyway, Kate, you are PROBABLY a genius. I would LOVE it if they turned Martha into a villain. Because then she could ACTUALLY come into her own and be awesome and I could love her because she wouldn't be all trying-to-replace-Rose!

If the people at Who Headquarters were smart and insightful enough to do this, I would personally give them all bear hugs.

[danakm.livejournal.com]

HUGE thanks for the link!!! :D

**huggles**

[danakm.livejournal.com]

That quite an interesting and most unusual theory. Me approves **nods**

:D

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm very glad you like. I felt quite excited about the idea, anyway. DOESN'T IT MAKE SO MUCH SENSE?

[danakm.livejournal.com]

It makes complete sense! :D


Mind if I add you?

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

I do not mind at all! I just took a look at your profile- you like Alias too! Awesome. But yes, by all means add me, if you so desire! I'm trying to make a habit of making more fandom posts so as to be more interesting to a larger amount of people. :P
Very nice to meet you, danakm

[danakm.livejournal.com]

YAY! **friends**

Welcome to the flist! :D

[miladyhawke.livejournal.com]

Here via goldy_dollar :)

I love this theory too and think it makes a remarkable lot of sense, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. BUT... I've heard directly contradictory spoilers about her finally having her big pround Rose moment to shine & save everybody. *sigh*

And has she really signed on for S4? There was the BBC rebuttal to the story of her being fired for not being able to act, but they refused to comment about whether she'd be returning. The only 'confirmation' I saw was in The Star tabloid, where it claimed that her agent told them that she'd be returning. That seems to have been leaped upon by the fandom as confirmation. I'm hoping she's not returning, unless, as you say, they can turn her character into something fun like a villain. I've had enough of her that I can't stand anymore unless they used her that way.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Welcome! I'm glad of any traffic sent my way.

Really, a shiny heroic moment? I hope not. It's bad enough that half the eps this season were directly contrasting Martha with Rose, we don't need another PotW-glowy moment. That would cheapen Martha far too much, and I really do like her; she needs to have her storyline and be valued for herself, and I think she's not getting that from the Doctor or the writers and thus she can't get it from the fans, so poor Martha is screwed.

I have no idea as to the veracity of the rumors. I can't see any reason why Freema wouldn't have been signed on, in terms of a new character being written in. So I figure she's probably coming back.

[eyliena.livejournal.com]

oooh. that was a fun idea. wish they had of done that. and it is so true about martha. she has the potential to be a great companion, but she got screwed with a love story and being compared to Rose.
i some ways, i think it may have been better if Rose had never been mentioned this season (although i would have died and complained - or complained and died, because that is the more logical progression)

i desperately hope that she will be herself in season 4. i think Freema is a great actress, and it is somewhat evidenced by how a lot of people love her either: in spite of her crappy lovesickness or because of how she was portrayed in this season (crazy nuts)

now i want martha to be evil. damn

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

I posted a little bit of fic about it... a couple of posts back. Or forward. Or whatever, it's titled "Scenes of a Half-Hearted Betrayal" or something but I probably won't continue with it because RTD didn't comply with my wishes and now I'm bored. Whatever. I think my scheme was so much better.

[(Anonymous)]

i did read it. twas why i went back and read this in the first place. i liked the reactions of the workers

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

LOL, yes, the workers. For some reason I could just see them so strongly in my head. I'm glad you got a kick out of it, though, I had to hide in a corner at work to write it.