Martha Jones

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Doctor Who character
Image:Martha.JPG
Martha Jones
Affiliated with	Tenth Doctor
Race	Human
Home planet	Earth
Home era	Early 21st century
First appearance	Smith and Jones
Last appearance	Ongoing
Portrayed by	Freema Agyeman

Martha Jones is a fictional character played by Freema Agyeman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She is the third companion of the Tenth Doctor (after Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith) and made her debut in Series 3's Smith and Jones, broadcast in the UK on 31 March 2007.

Contents 1 Character history 2 First ethnic minority companion? 3 Episodes 4 Notes and Trivia 5 References 6 External links

Character history

The introduction of Martha as the next companion after Billie Piper's Rose Tyler was announced by the BBC in a 5 July 2006 press release.^[1][2] The character is a 23-year-old medical student.^[3][4] Like Rose, Martha has family members who are seen in the programme: Adjoa Andoh plays her mother Francine, with Trevor Laird as her father Clive (divorced from Francine), Gugu Mbatha-Raw as her sister Tish and Reggie Yates as her brother, Leo.^[5] Nevertheless, Agyeman notes that Martha is "very independent"; living alone and having almost completed her medical qualifications.^[6] She does not have an ex-boyfriend, but writer Russell T. Davies notes that she is not a lesbian, as had been rumoured in some quarters.^[4] Martha meets the Doctor in the Royal Hope Hospital, where he is investigating strange anomalies, seen in the episode "Smith and Jones".

An article in The Times speculated that, since Agyeman has martial arts skills, she may have "a more physical approach" to the role.^[7] Freema Agyeman told the school publication The Newspaper that Martha is older and more secure than Rose^[8] (whose paternal issues made the bulk of the subtext of her relationship with the Doctor, particularly in his ninth incarnation). Martha, by contrast, travels with the Doctor for the adventure rather than because of a need for guidance or education; Agyeman also told The Newspaper that Martha hopes to eventually go back to Earth and finish her medical education.^[8]

Agyeman previously played Adeola Oshodi, a minor character who was killed in the Series 2 episode Army of Ghosts. The resemblance of the two characters was acknowledged in Smith and Jones when Martha makes reference to her deceased cousin. According to the "Quick Reads" novel Made of Steel, written by Terrance Dicks, which was released on 1 March 2007, Adeola was Martha's cousin, and this relationship was confirmed on-screen in her debut appearance. ^[9][8]

First ethnic minority companion?

Martha has been described in newspaper reports as the "first ethnic minority companion in the 43-year television history of Doctor Who"^[7] or "first black assistant" ^[10] (Agyeman herself was born to Ghanaian and Iranian parents.) However, the recurring character of Mickey Smith (played by Noel Clarke), who travelled in the TARDIS with the Tenth Doctor and Rose from School Reunion to The Age of Steel in Series 2, is also from an ethnic minority background and is referred to as a Doctor Who companion in Doctor Who Magazine.^[11]

Doctor Who stories in other media have previously included ethnic minority companions, beginning with Sharon in the Doctor Who Weekly comic strips in 1980, followed by Roz Forrester in the Virgin New Adventures novels starting 1995. More recent companions under this category include Anji Kapoor in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels in 2001 and Alison Cheney in the 2003 webcast animation Scream of the Shalka (played by Sophie Okonedo). Like all spin-off media, their canonicity in relation to the television series is unclear.

Additionally, the Chinese-American character Chang Lee in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie is occasionally treated as a companion. However, this does not reflect the generally understood usage of the term, and in the context of the film Chang Lee is more like a companion of the Master.

Episodes

2007 series

• Smith and Jones
• The Shakespeare Code
• Gridlock
• Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
• The Lazarus Experiment
• 42
• Human Nature/The Family of Blood
• Blink
• Utopia
• The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords

Notes and Trivia

• Similarly to Rose's red/grey hoody and jeans combo at the beginning of the first new series, Martha adorns the same red leather jacket, patterened pink top and pair of jeans for the first 5 episodes of the third series, from the end of Smith and Jones when she and her family are out celebrating Leo's 21st birthday through to the end of Evolution of the Daleks - this is as a result of her boarding the TARDIS at the end of the former episode with none of her own belongings, for the Doctor to treat her to a trip (or three) in space in time. When the TARDIS returns to modern day Earth in The Lazarus Experiment, Martha reunites with her family and gets the oppurtunity to do herself up in a neat black dress for the family's visit, along with the Doctor, to see Professor Lazarus' experiment go tragically wrong...

References

Wikipedia information about Martha Jones This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Martha Jones". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.