RTD clearly envisioned a strong, stalwart woman who didn't live by emotions (the opposite of Rose actually)
But...how could Martha not live by her emotions when in 3x02, they show her crushing on the Doctor? Maybe she didn't live by them, but she didn't make much of an effort to hide them.
No, I wasn't clear. I meant ... BEFORE she met the Doctor. I got the impression that Martha had never really fell for someone before, but she DID fall for him. THAT was her arc, being overwhelmed by her emotions, before learning to use them for strength (as she did in the series finale -- there's no way a Martha who didn't love the Doctor would have been able to deal and do with what he asked of her).
I could buy it was FA's fault if the scripts seem to have Martha attempting to hide her crush or sublimate it or deny it. But they didn't. They had her waxing on about it in public -- practically to the Doctor himself.
Yeah, this continues with what I hadn't made clear. She wasn't used to her emotions on the surface like that, and so didn't know how to deal with them.
And there was no way, even if you had Catherine Tate herself playing Martha, that Martha wasn't going to come across as pathetic and sad -- especially given that we knew how the Doctor felt about Rose.
Ah, but remember, Martha didn't really get it. She only found out in "Utopia" what happened to Rose. She thought they had a bad break-up, Rose broke his heart and left him, and the logical side of Martha couldn't get why the Doctor would not just get over it. It was after "Utopia" that we saw Martha become stronger with the mind and heart working in unison.
I just think the crush itself was a mistake to begin with. Could a better actress have given it more layers? Maybe. But the material doomed it to failure, IMHO. I still don't know what point it served, other than to either create sympathy or irritation (or both) towards Martha.
I don't. At all. I think it was to show (a) the Doctor's love for Rose, (b) a different arc than Rose had and (c) show how a person who is all brains, could kinda become silly and stupid and lose it over an unexpected romantic affliction ... like the Doctor. And we saw Martha comes to term with it, which probably helped the Doctor comes to terms with his own issues, thus the lighter, happier Doctor after Martha.
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Re: I've mention I ramble, yes? Sigh, part 2 ...
Date: 2008-08-20 11:53 pm (UTC)But...how could Martha not live by her emotions when in 3x02, they show her crushing on the Doctor? Maybe she didn't live by them, but she didn't make much of an effort to hide them.
No, I wasn't clear. I meant ... BEFORE she met the Doctor. I got the impression that Martha had never really fell for someone before, but she DID fall for him. THAT was her arc, being overwhelmed by her emotions, before learning to use them for strength (as she did in the series finale -- there's no way a Martha who didn't love the Doctor would have been able to deal and do with what he asked of her).
I could buy it was FA's fault if the scripts seem to have Martha attempting to hide her crush or sublimate it or deny it. But they didn't. They had her waxing on about it in public -- practically to the Doctor himself.
Yeah, this continues with what I hadn't made clear. She wasn't used to her emotions on the surface like that, and so didn't know how to deal with them.
And there was no way, even if you had Catherine Tate herself playing Martha, that Martha wasn't going to come across as pathetic and sad -- especially given that we knew how the Doctor felt about Rose.
Ah, but remember, Martha didn't really get it. She only found out in "Utopia" what happened to Rose. She thought they had a bad break-up, Rose broke his heart and left him, and the logical side of Martha couldn't get why the Doctor would not just get over it. It was after "Utopia" that we saw Martha become stronger with the mind and heart working in unison.
I just think the crush itself was a mistake to begin with. Could a better actress have given it more layers? Maybe. But the material doomed it to failure, IMHO. I still don't know what point it served, other than to either create sympathy or irritation (or both) towards Martha.
I don't. At all. I think it was to show (a) the Doctor's love for Rose, (b) a different arc than Rose had and (c) show how a person who is all brains, could kinda become silly and stupid and lose it over an unexpected romantic affliction ... like the Doctor. And we saw Martha comes to term with it, which probably helped the Doctor comes to terms with his own issues, thus the lighter, happier Doctor after Martha.