I'm over from the Torchwood side of the house...am working on a TW/DW crossover fic and was looking for help with better characterization of the Doctor. I'm glad that my impression of Ten--that, at the end of the day, he isn't a nice guy--isn't the only one.
This response is GREAT. I've always seen Martha as being rather unfairly compared to Rose, with the added caveat of the Doctor putting Rose up on a pedestal. Rose, for all her kindness and willingness to help a broken soul fix himself, honestly wasn't all that bright (IMO), fell apart when she needed to be with it the most (Christmas Invasion), and generally was shabby to her friends and relatives when push came to shove. Martha, right from the beginning, was intelligent and curious and managed to *get things done* when she had to (Blink being a prime examply)...and still, she was always second best. Ouch. That has to hurt like hell, and it hurts worse for us the viewers because we know that Rose had feet (and legs) of clay. It's hard to be the rebound chick. He's similarly awful to Jack, FWIW. I'd actually say what happened to Jack was much worse than what happened to Martha, and after all that, the Doctor still disabled his vortex manipulator like Jack was a criminal or errant child. Patronizing, much?
I don't see the "undercharacterization" of Martha as the writers or RTD not liking her character...instead, I see it as extended character development of the Doctor. It's too bad she had to put up with such crap for us to see it, but it's definitely been a look at how absolutely power corrupts absolutely.
I'm over from the Torchwood side of the house...am working on a TW/DW crossover fic and was looking for help with better characterization of the Doctor. I'm glad that my impression of Ten--that, at the end of the day, he isn't a nice guy--isn't the only one.
This response is GREAT. I've always seen Martha as being rather unfairly compared to Rose, with the added caveat of the Doctor putting Rose up on a pedestal. Rose, for all her kindness and willingness to help a broken soul fix himself, honestly wasn't all that bright (IMO), fell apart when she needed to be with it the most (Christmas Invasion), and generally was shabby to her friends and relatives when push came to shove. Martha, right from the beginning, was intelligent and curious and managed to *get things done* when she had to (Blink being a prime examply)...and still, she was always second best. Ouch. That has to hurt like hell, and it hurts worse for us the viewers because we know that Rose had feet (and legs) of clay. It's hard to be the rebound chick. He's similarly awful to Jack, FWIW. I'd actually say what happened to Jack was much worse than what happened to Martha, and after all that, the Doctor still disabled his vortex manipulator like Jack was a criminal or errant child. Patronizing, much?
I don't see the "undercharacterization" of Martha as the writers or RTD not liking her character...instead, I see it as extended character development of the Doctor. It's too bad she had to put up with such crap for us to see it, but it's definitely been a look at how absolutely power corrupts absolutely.
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