By the end of her third episode in S4 I knew this was what I felt but I'd felt it much earlier, and I'd definitely felt it during her time on TORCHWOOD (where again, her *introduction* was about her but once this obligation was fulfilled it swiftly became Owen, who curiously is dispensed with by the end of the series - I suspect temporarily - but if not this means they have invested significant development not in Martha but in a character that they *knew* they were going ultimately terminate) but what wasn't so clear was exactly why it felt rather redundant at this point.
As said above, I discovered later by watching how they treated the Doctor/Donna relationship that Martha's entire formulation had (and no doubt will continue to be) a matter of playing off the Doctor's reactions to either Donna or Rose, so that she literally became space-filler rather than character. It's how they wrote her.
That she was so marvellous and compelling is largely down to Freema's performance, which brought Martha to life so brilliantly *despite* the confines writers find it necessary to maintain her in.
As said above, I discovered later by watching how they treated the Doctor/Donna relationship that Martha's entire formulation had (and no doubt will continue to be) a matter of playing off the Doctor's reactions to either Donna or Rose, so that she literally became space-filler rather than character. It's how they wrote her.
That she was so marvellous and compelling is largely down to Freema's performance, which brought Martha to life so brilliantly *despite* the confines writers find it necessary to maintain her in.
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