Lessons on Black Women in Sci-fi: Nyota Uhura and the Disappointment of Martha Jones

[bcbgrl33]

~x-posted to various communities of color~

I don’t know how many of you out there are Doctor Who fans but I see huge and disheartening parallels between Martha Jones and Uhura in regards to fandom reactions. If you don’t know the mess that was Martha Jones, you’re about to be educated.

Comments

[pandarus]

Thus fandom became infatuated with this pairing, bashing anyone who was not for Ten/Rose.

...yeah, actually? Not so much. Oh, yeah - there were and are heaps of frantically obsessive 'shippers among the New Who fans, and they have a vocal online presence, but the show was on TV pretty much nonstop from 1963 to 1989, during which time we had a grand total THREE television channels to choose from; which results in a situation where pretty much every human being in Great Britain older than their twenties grew up watching this show. And NOT 'shipping the Doctor.

So although, sure, all the shrieking Rose/Ten fangirls shipped the hell out of the pairing, a very large contingent of the Who fen are used to the fact that the Doctor's companions come and go (and they aren't actually an endless string of nubile chicks - he's had plenty of guys aboard the TARDIS).

Fair play to Piper - for having been regarded as a horrifying casting choice, she really demonstrated that she was a perfectly capable and charming actress. Lots of people - most especially those who were new to the show - shipped the hell out of the Doctor and Rose. Others found the whole BFF!!!!! &hearts &hearts &hearts dynamic eye-rolling, and appreciated canon acknowledging this by giving us the splendid Sarah Jane Smith and K9, underlining the fact that the Doctor may sweep people off their feet, but he always ends up dumping them.

No one could replace their Rose; thus, Martha was made by fandom to feel unwelcomed and unworthy of any of her accomplishments in the season, especially in comparison to Rose, the epitome of femininity and pureness.

Well, I'm sure there were plenty of people who felt this way about Rose, and that they were vocal online, because that does tend to happen when shippers get obsessive about an OTP - man, I remember how vile fandom was to Riley, when he was introduced as a potential new love interest on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' after the OTP of Buffy/Angel was broken up. Vile, vile, vile. So, sure, I've no doubt people were shitty about Martha. But Rose as "the epitome of femininity and pureness [sic]"? Rose was the epitome of gleeful, bubbly, irresponsible, warm-hearted chavdom. Or, in USAian terminology, she was poor white trash. And purity? I mean, I liked her relationship with Micky well enough in its underlying friendliness, but she was clearly shagging around with him whilst being WAY more into the Doctor (and Captain Jack) - I mean, one got the impression that she was probably great fun in bed, but pure? Not so much.

[pandarus]

Martha was middle class, well educated, competent, kick-ass and responsible. I do wish they'd given her the kind of dynamic with The Doctor that they gave Donna - possibly it wouldn't have worked, because there was always going to be a poisonous fannish backlash towards any female companion brought in after Rose's departure, so presenting her as somewhat pitiable, with the whole hopeless unrequited crush, was one strategy for disarming critics. I don't think it did much for Martha's dignity, and I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it - I hated the Doctor's woobieish pining for Rose rather more, actually.

afaic, Doctor/Rose kind of misses the point of who The Doctor is; I understand why new fen read it as a romance, but I like it a lot more as BFFs, with an intensity that's the direct result of the fact that when they meet, he's profoundly fucked up because of the Time War, and she helps him get over that. But as for shipping...eh, really, Doctor/Romana, Doctor/Master and Doctor/River Song are where it's at, imho. And Doctor/Captain Jack. But Doctor/Regular Human Companion? Not so much.

Eh, I'm in danger of being deraily here, and I don't mean to - because I agree that having a black woman in a prominent role in one's Biggest Scifi Show is something of genuine significance. And I can understand the frustration of having Martha presented as second best to the white girl, because, yes, that sucked like hell; nevertheless, I do think that if they'd cast a white actress in the role, it would have gone down exactly the same way in terms of fannish hatred and writers being careful not to seem to threaten the whole Doctor/Rose thing. I don't think they'd have written any of it any differently.

On the whole I was fairly happy with how inclusive 'Doctor Who' and 'Torchwood' were in terms of race and gender (and queerness) but I know I'm speaking from a position of power as a white chick, and it's entirely possible that I'm kind of blinkered here. I thought Martha's family were awesome; I liked the fact that the educated, upper middle class Britons were black, contrasting with the good natured tackiness and ignorance of Rose's tenement background.

wrt New Trek & the Uhura/Spock thing, though - hell yeah. I ship them like burning, and had absolutely no problems with Uhura being portrayed in a relationship; I can understand why some women might feel this was reductive, given that she was almost the only female character, but I disagree quite emphatically. Uhura/Spock is made of pure, unbridled awesome, and it is my urgent hope that the writers won't do any cheap bullshit of breaking them up for the next movie. (I'm also hoping we'll see more women of colour with natural hair - I think we did get at least 2 extras with natural hair in the reboot movie - and a few shots of guys in the tunicdress outfits, like we occasionally saw on ST:TNG.) But Zoe rocks my socks, and I want to see more of competent, kickass, empowered Uhura being awesome and GETTING Spock, and Spock appreciating the hell out of how awesome she is, and being smitten.

[lady_ganesh]

I don't think it did much for Martha's dignity, and I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it - I hated the Doctor's woobieish pining for Rose rather more, actually.

My favorite moment was when Jack said something about her being a blond, and Martha wend "OOOOOH, BLONDE OF COURSE." Because the Doctor/Rose thing felt like such a damn cliche-- and of course she was blond.

And I think, unfortunately, you can't escape the racial implications of it-- any more than you can take the racism out of our society. Even with the best of intentions, the Unfortunate Implications creep in.