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Books and Martha Jones
Oct. 17th, 2008 06:31 amI'm going to have to give up my reviewing job because ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mistful is way, Way, waaaaaayyyy more entertaining at it than I am. (Do I have to keep reccing her, or have y'all saved time and friended her directly?)
ELIZABETH EYRE: Where are the kids now?
FAKE ROCHESTER: Oh, totally gone. Yeah, their aunt and uncle totally made up with me. So they're off.
ELIZABETH EYRE: As soon as their purpose as plot devices was fulfilled?
FAKE ROCHESTER: ... Do you fancy cucumber sandwiches for lunch? Because I think I do.
I can't link back to the "I love RTD for the character traits he gave Martha Jones" post because it's flocked (and frankly, if you can't read it, you'd never believe who's saying that.) However, I will take a moment to make my part of the conversation public, because it's worth saying again:
Two reasons that I loved Martha Jones were because she 1) was willing to admit the things she doesn't know and 2) is the only companion we see applying what she's read/seen to what she's doing onscreen. We saw Rose apply things she'd learned from the Doctor (sometimes a bit sideways, as in her mashed-up speech in Christmas Invasion) and we saw Donna applying her varied work experience to the adventure at hand, and these are very cool things. But I'm a technical writer IRL and I love someone who actually whips out the manual before operating machinery like pie.
Reading the manual (and the time she called her Mum in 42) - I think it's a really healthy sign to freely admit "I don't know x" and equally openly go find out what she needs. Beyond the tech writer's "yay!" moment, that's the sign of someone with a lot of confidence (and, I think, also a sign that at the time she was a companion, she was still a student, and *expected* to be openly learning.)
But more than that, we see her apply her entertainment to the adventures, and that's just flat-out cool. In part because she's obviously an SF geek, having alluded to Harry Potter and Ray Bradbury, and thus there's the "one of us!" recognition. In part, because when she applies them to the adventure du jour, it means that she not only retains what she's seen, but can apply it logically to the situation at hand.
She's the only companion to pepper the Doctor with a series of time travel questions (Shakespeare Code). Although he blew her off, it was proof that she has read a fair number of time-travel-based stories. (I suddenly realize that the Doctor may have blown her off in part because he was irritated that time travel wasn't a new and shiny concept to Martha; Ray Bradbury obviously got there first.)
She discussed Harry Potter with the Doctor (Shakespeare Code - which, in retrospect, is one of my favorite episodes for her characterization) and she fitted one of JKR's words into the works of the Bard.
And in Gridlock, she used what I'm pretty sure is a Hunt for Red October/Silent Running maneuver (she may well have seen both) to save everyone's lives among the macra.
Rose got to live out her dream of an exciting life off the council estate; Donna got to live out her dream of being important and wanted - and Martha, methinks, got to live out her dream of actually *living* in one of the books/movies she'd seen.
mistful is way, Way, waaaaaayyyy more entertaining at it than I am. (Do I have to keep reccing her, or have y'all saved time and friended her directly?) ELIZABETH EYRE: Where are the kids now?
FAKE ROCHESTER: Oh, totally gone. Yeah, their aunt and uncle totally made up with me. So they're off.
ELIZABETH EYRE: As soon as their purpose as plot devices was fulfilled?
FAKE ROCHESTER: ... Do you fancy cucumber sandwiches for lunch? Because I think I do.
I can't link back to the "I love RTD for the character traits he gave Martha Jones" post because it's flocked (and frankly, if you can't read it, you'd never believe who's saying that.) However, I will take a moment to make my part of the conversation public, because it's worth saying again:
Two reasons that I loved Martha Jones were because she 1) was willing to admit the things she doesn't know and 2) is the only companion we see applying what she's read/seen to what she's doing onscreen. We saw Rose apply things she'd learned from the Doctor (sometimes a bit sideways, as in her mashed-up speech in Christmas Invasion) and we saw Donna applying her varied work experience to the adventure at hand, and these are very cool things. But I'm a technical writer IRL and I love someone who actually whips out the manual before operating machinery like pie.
Reading the manual (and the time she called her Mum in 42) - I think it's a really healthy sign to freely admit "I don't know x" and equally openly go find out what she needs. Beyond the tech writer's "yay!" moment, that's the sign of someone with a lot of confidence (and, I think, also a sign that at the time she was a companion, she was still a student, and *expected* to be openly learning.)
But more than that, we see her apply her entertainment to the adventures, and that's just flat-out cool. In part because she's obviously an SF geek, having alluded to Harry Potter and Ray Bradbury, and thus there's the "one of us!" recognition. In part, because when she applies them to the adventure du jour, it means that she not only retains what she's seen, but can apply it logically to the situation at hand.
She's the only companion to pepper the Doctor with a series of time travel questions (Shakespeare Code). Although he blew her off, it was proof that she has read a fair number of time-travel-based stories. (I suddenly realize that the Doctor may have blown her off in part because he was irritated that time travel wasn't a new and shiny concept to Martha; Ray Bradbury obviously got there first.)
She discussed Harry Potter with the Doctor (Shakespeare Code - which, in retrospect, is one of my favorite episodes for her characterization) and she fitted one of JKR's words into the works of the Bard.
And in Gridlock, she used what I'm pretty sure is a Hunt for Red October/Silent Running maneuver (she may well have seen both) to save everyone's lives among the macra.
Rose got to live out her dream of an exciting life off the council estate; Donna got to live out her dream of being important and wanted - and Martha, methinks, got to live out her dream of actually *living* in one of the books/movies she'd seen.
