Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants (41 page)

For a while the Doctor remains oblivious to her attraction, even when she makes snide comments about Rose while visiting 1599 London in
The Shakespeare Code
. She is initially a bit wary about stepping into the past, frightened she might alter her own future and wonders if her dark skin might cause a problem. She soon finds out otherwise, indeed William Shakespeare finds her quite attractive and attempts to woo her calling her ‘a queen of Africa’ and a ‘Blackamoor lady’, which only succeeds in causing Martha some mild offence. Her knowledge of
Harry Potter
helps Shakespeare repel the Carrionites, and he tells her that the Doctor will never be interested in her, although we know that Shakespeare is. Martha is less than impressed with Shakespeare’s bad breath.

After the trip into the past the Doctor suggests another journey into the future. He asks Martha where she would like to go. She suggests the planet of the Time Lords, but he refuses and instead takes her to New Earth (
Gridlock
). She can tell that he is hiding something but doesn’t push the issue. However when she realises he is taking her to places he once took Rose, she realises she is now the ‘rebound’ girl. She is kidnapped by Milo and Cheen and threatens them with a gun she finds in their car. She is disgusted to learn that Cheen is using drugs while pregnant. She gets caught up in the pure emotion of the moment and joins the multitude of drivers trapped beneath New New York, singing
The Old Rugged Cross
, which brings her to tears. She comes to the realisation that she has followed the Doctor blindly. She could die a long way from home and her family would never know. She is with the Doctor when the Face of Boe dies. When it is time to leave New Earth, she refuses to go. She asks the Doctor what the Face of Boe told him? He doesn’t want to talk about it. Martha makes him tell her about the Time War and all that he has lost.

Perhaps as a thank you for understanding, the Doctor extends their time together with another trip, this time to the New York of 1930 in
Daleks in Manhattan
. There she meets a showgirl, Tallulah, who spots Martha’s attraction to the Doctor immediately and says it is obvious, to which Martha responds ‘not to him’. She is repulsed by the pig slaves at first, until she realises they were once human before the Daleks altered them. She is horrified by the Daleks’ callous killing of Solomon, especially after his speech about them all being outcast and working together. She wants to go with the Doctor when he offers himself up in place of the inhabitants of Hooverville, but he doesn’t want her to get injured. However when he slips her his psychic paper she realises he wants her to do something else; she can use it to enter the Empire State Building, and find a way to interfere with the Daleks’ plans. While the Doctor tries to remove the dalekanium from the mast at the top of the building, Martha works out a way to channel the lightning to defend them against the pig slaves. She is saddened by their death. After reuniting Tallulah with Laszlo, Martha comments there is someone for everyone, and when the Doctor says ‘maybe’ she knows that he may be looking at her, but he is seeing Rose.

He finally returns Martha home in
The Lazarus Experiment
, and this time (unlike
Aliens of London
) it really has only been twelve hours, much to her disappointment. She truly believes he is simply going to leave her and when the TARDIS dematerialises from her flat she is clearly crushed. However, the TARDIS reappears seconds later and the Doctor pops his head out, his attention having been caught by something he heard. She beams!

Martha is not known for having a social life, as fits a medical student and her sister, Tish, is surprised to learn Martha has had two nights out in a row. Despite it only being twelve hours since they last saw her – for Martha it has been somewhat longer – and she hugs her family in a way that confuses them. Martha is surprised by her mother’s frosty meeting with the Doctor. Her mother is not impressed by this man, especially since Martha has never mentioned him before. Leo and Tish take to the Doctor well, and are both rather chuffed to see that Martha has a man in her life.

When confronted with Tish’s interest in Lazarus – an old man who has managed to rejuvenate his body – Martha warns her of the danger. Tish is annoyed with Martha, saying that she always finds fault with her boyfriends. In this instance Martha is right, since Lazarus’ DNA is breaking down and turning him into a nightmarish creature. Martha’s family do not understand why she would rush into a dangerous situation to help the Doctor. Francine, in particular, fears for her daughter (a weakness that Mr Saxon’s people are keen to exploit). This fear is so strong that when Francine confronts the Doctor, she slaps him, making Martha angry and confused. Nevertheless, this does not stop Martha from following the Doctor to Southwark Cathedral for a final confrontation with the Lazarus creature. Inspired by Martha’s loyalty, Tish also comes along.

The Doctor asks Martha to travel with him again, but she refuses, telling him that it is unfair for him to take her on ‘one more trip’. She won’t be a passenger. The Doctor tells her ‘If that’s what you want’, and she takes it to mean that he is going to leave on his own, until he says she is welcome to join him on her terms. As they leave together he goes on further, ‘You were never really just a passenger’.

It comes as no surprise to learn in
The Infinite Quest
that Martha’s heart’s desire is the Doctor. When the Infinite grants her this, she is somewhat embarrassed when the Doctor appears.

While trapped in an escape pod with Riley Vashtee and crashing into a living sun (
42
) Martha holds on to the belief that the Doctor will save her. The Doctor risks his life to do so and dons a spacesuit.‘I’m not going to lose her,’ he says, having lost more than enough already. As hope slips away Martha phones her mother, trying to keep things light and to let Francine know that she loves her, but this only serves to worry Francine more. Unable to deal with the pain and her mother bad-mouthing the Doctor again, Martha hangs up, unaware that the call is being recorded by Mr Saxon’s people. When the Doctor is consumed by a fragment of the living sun, Martha doesn’t trust anyone else to work on him. He wants to tell her something important, but doesn’t get the chance. Martha has no idea how close she is to learning about regeneration.

Having discovered that the only way to save them is to dump the
SS Pentallian’s
fuel, Martha takes command and demands they dump it. As things unfold Martha works out that Riley has fallen for her, but all she can say is ‘It was nice. Not dying with you’.

The Doctor gives her a TARDIS key. Martha calls her mother again, and agrees to come for tea on Election Day. Naturally they do not get there straight away, but instead, after a dangerous encounter with the Family of Blood, the Doctor realises he needs to hide for three months – the remainder of the Family’s lifespan – until they die. To do this he puts his life in Martha’s hands by transferring his essence into a fob watch via something called a Chameleon Arch, which can turn a Time Lord into a human. Together they hide out in a small village called Farringham in 1913 (
Human Nature
). Under the guise of a maid, working for school teacher John Smith, Martha protects and watches over the Doctor, and also finds herself having to deal with the prejudices of the time. She finds it hard to remember her ‘place’, often speaking out when she should neither be seen nor heard. She builds up a good friendship with another maid, Jenny, who thinks that Martha says the strangest things at times. She watches John Smith’s budding romance with Joan Redfern, the school nurse, and feels slightly rejected that there is ‘always someone else’. She goes to the TARDIS, which is hidden away and powered down, and finds herself saying hello to it like it is an old friend, then bemoans that she is ‘talking to a machine’. She runs through the list of instructions the Doctor left her, but typically the Doctor had not considered that John Smith might fall in love. It is a situation Martha doesn’t know how to handle.

When she discovers that the Family have managed to track them down, she knows it is time to bring the Doctor back, but the fob watch has gone missing. To get John Smith’s attention she slaps him, and he dismisses her instantly, leaving her feeling like she alone has to somehow keep the Family at bay. She thinks the Doctor is ‘rubbish’ as a human and finds herself having to push him into action. He uses the children of the school as soldiers in its defence which horrifies her – the Doctor would never condone such an action. Although she feels sorry for Joan, and the effect it will have on her, Martha has no choice but to explain things to her – and uses her medical training to try and convince Joan that she is telling the truth.

John Smith refuses to accept the truth despite both Martha and Joan telling him he needs to. Smith wonders what the Doctor needs Martha for, and she tells him it is because the Doctor is lonely, and that she ‘loves him to bits’. Eventually the Doctor returns, and after a very sad farewell to Joan, who cannot even look at the Doctor, he returns to Martha who tries to palm off her revelation of love as an attempt to shake him up. The Doctor accepts this, much to Martha’s relief, and he thanks her for looking after him.

After an attack by the Weeping Angels in
Blink
, the Doctor and Martha find themselves stranded in 1969, where she has to get a job in a shop to support the Doctor.

The TARDIS returns to Cardiff 2008, in
Utopia
, to refuel at the Rift, and Martha mentions that she remembers hearing about the earthquake in 2006. She is oblivious to the reason behind their sudden departure from Cardiff, and can only hold tight to the console as the TARDIS is propelled through the time vortex to the end of the universe. She is a little spooked by the idea that the Doctor doesn’t know what is out there – even the Time Lords have a limit to their knowledge – and excitedly follows him onto the surface of Malcassairo. There she spots a body lying in the dust – a man in a World War II uniform.

The Doctor tells her not to worry about him. She is surprised to learn that the Doctor knows him, and sad to announce that the man is dead, that is until he miraculously comes to life before her. She is receptive to the flirtatious ways of Jack and watches the slightly off-key reunion between him and the Doctor. She is bitter when Jack celebrates the fact that Rose survived the Battle of Canary Wharf, and is unsurprised to learn that Rose is a blonde. After learning what happened to Jack, Martha wonders if the Doctor dumps them all eventually. She is surprised that Jack is carrying a hand in a jar, and learning that it is the Doctor’s does not help. She builds a quick friendship with Chantho, the assistant of Professor Yana, and is fascinated by the way Chantho speaks, having to play ‘chan’ and ‘tho’ at the start and end of every sentence. To do otherwise would be akin to swearing, which Martha gently bullies Chantho into doing. She also relates to Chantho’s unrequited love for Yana – going unnoticed by the object of one’s affection is not a new thing for Martha. Indeed, she discovers that it is not only her that the Doctor fails to see, but Jack too, in
The Sound of Drums
. She sees Jack killed by electrocution, and is shocked once more by his revival – the man who cannot die. She listens as Jack and the Doctor talk about how Rose resurrected Jack, and she is somewhat sad by the affectionate way both men talk about Rose. She is the first to espy Yana’s fob watch, and to work out what it means. The possibility scares her, although she is not sure why, but she rushes off to tell the Doctor that Yana is another Time Lord made human by a Chameleon Arch. She does not understand the Doctor’s refusal to believe it – the Doctor is not alone – just as the Face of Boe said. After Yana is revealed to be the Master, who regenerates inside the TARDIS, having locked the Doctor, Martha and Jack out, she finds she recognises his voice but cannot quite place it.

They return to Earth via Jack’s vortex manipulator only to discover that they missed the general election and the Master, calling himself Harold Saxon, has become Prime Minister. The Master sets a trap in Martha’s flat, and blows it up. She contacts her mother, fearing for their safety, and is surprised to learn that Francine and Clive are getting back together – this alerts Martha to another trap; her parents wouldn’t get back together ‘in a million years’. Nonetheless she insists on going to see them, against both Jack and the Doctor’s warnings. After seeing her parents carted away in a police van, and her car being shot at, she blames the Doctor and will not listen to a word he says – it is only Jack who can reach her and commands her to dump the car. Fearing for her siblings’ safety, she rings back Tish and Leo – Tish is taken into custody while on the phone, and Leo is holidaying. At least one of them is safe.

She is made public enemy #3 by the Master, and goes on the run. She cannot believe she is hiding out. When the Doctor explains the story of the Master, and their centuries-long conflict, she expects the Doctor to say that the Master is his brother. Seeing the Master humiliate her family, she expresses that she wants to kill him. Unable to do anything but watch the Master age the Doctor, she accepts Jack’s vortex manipulator and agrees to go on a mission for the Doctor, escaping
Valiant
(a UNIT aircraft carrier designed by the Master), and leaving them behind. But she promises to return.

She circumnavigates the world for a year, crossing the Atlantic on her own, and travels from the ruins of New York to the Fusion Mills of China, witnessing the devastation caused by the Master’s domination of Earth. While she does so, she spreads two stories; a rumour that she is collecting a weapon capable of destroying the Master (built by UNIT and Torchwood), and the truth of the Doctor – the story of the man who will save the Earth when everything is in place. Upon returning to Britain, she meets Tom Milligan, a medic who is allowed free travel across the UK, and is immediately attracted to him. She comments wistfully that once again she is travelling with a doctor. When the Master learns that Martha has returned he tracks her down, and Tom sacrifices himself for Martha. The Master takes Martha to
Valiant
where he intends to kill her before the Doctor and her family. But she laughs at him, and confesses the truth of her mission. The year is reversed, and Martha and her family, caught in the eye of the temporal storm are among the very few who remember the Year That Never Was – the emotional fallout is incredible. Martha can only watch as her mother threatens to shoot the Master, the death she has seen is too much for her. They watched millions burn. This convinces Martha that she needs to remain on Earth, to help her family heal. She also realises that she cannot be second place in the Doctor’s affections anymore, and so gets ‘out’ while she can. But she leaves her phone with the Doctor, promising that she will be in touch and when she does he better come running. The Doctor is sad to see her go, but he understands her reasons.