Martha Jones

[Peri-Peri]

Dr. Martha Jones (later Martha Smith-Jones after marrying Mickey Smith) was a British freelance alien hunter who began her career as a medical student before becoming a companion to the Tenth Doctor and later a medical officer with UNIT. She was also attached briefly to Torchwood 3.

In 2008, Martha was working at the Royal Hope Hospital when it was transported to the Moon by the Judoon. Calm while those around her panicked, Martha worked with the Tenth Doctor, posing as a patient named John Smith, to track down the Plasmavore, "Florence Finnegan", the Judoon were searching for.

As the oxygen in the hospital ran out, Martha gave her last breaths to resuscitate the unconscious Doctor, who had thwarted Florence's plan. The Judoon returned the hospital to Earth. That evening, a recovered Martha was approached by the Doctor, who revealed that he was a Time Lord and invited her to join him on a trip through time and space in the TARDIS.

Martha was a friendly, intelligent, brave and good-spirited woman. When she was a prisoner of the Daleks, one of them confirmed that she possessed high intelligence. The Doctor was impressed with her theory about having air on the Moon, and he asked her to join him in the hospital balcony to see if they could breathe.  Although the Doctor asked more of her than any other companion (watching after him while he was human, walking the world for a year), she rose to every challenge.

Martha quickly developed a crush on the Doctor and always wondered if he even noticed her. Martha was envious of Joan Redfern when the Doctor made himself human and fell in love with her, and said he "had to go and fall in love with a human, and it wasn't me".

In The Year That Never Was, Martha admitted that she loved the Doctor, but after the Master's defeat, she decided that holding on to the hope that he would return her feelings was not good for her. She was later engaged to Tom, and for unexplained reasons married Mickey Smith instead.

Although she had cause to be jealous of Rose Tyler, Martha seemed genuinely happy for the Doctor when he and Rose were reunited. She got along very well with Donna Noble. Martha also had a good relationship with Captain Jack Harkness and did not mind when he flirted with her.

[Kovarians-Eye-Patch]

After treating the character so poorly, this story finally did good by Martha. She had lots of chances to shine throughout her run and was great in many stories, but with the whole unrequited love angle and the Doctor seemingly barely wanting her around, it was a nice touch to give her the strength to choose to leave for something and someone better.

[Blazin Goliath]

I generally like the companions that choose to leave on their own. To me, it shows a strength of will to something I know I could never do- leave the Doctor. Martha is no exception.

I liked her throughout the series, although I dislike how she has to prove herself to the Doctor at the beginning. She's a very strong companion. I wish they could have left the romantic stuff with the Doctor out, though. It ruined the episodes with her a bit.

[hannahcole93]

Agreed she was a strong companion- and maybe less "clingy" than some of them, but I have to say I was glad to see her go. Right from the start she irritated me, but it was nice to see her little adventure around the world to spread the word, but like BG I didn't like the kind of romance side she appeared to try and have with the doctor, but all in all an irritating character through the series and especially in these episodes!

[Saber]

Martha was treated abysmally throughout her run, which I think is part of the reason she was given extra episodes in S4 and those 3 eps of Torchwood to make up for it. I always thought the character was great but she wasn't always written well or fairly. A lot of the time it seemed like she was written as 'not Rose' by the writing team. The reasoning behind her leaving the TARDIS though was good and I think finally went a way to making up for earlier treatment.

[Tardis-Console]

Martha Jones is awesome. I don't have much else to say beyond that. Great character, excellent in this.

[TheDoctorDonna]

I like Martha. She was a decent companion and was lucky enough to appear in some fantastic stories. She was acted well and when the writing was on her side she was a great character but I didn't feel a huge loss when she left. I was however pleased when she returned. I didn't know about it so it was a nice surprise.

[Roranicus]

I like Martha. She was a decent companion and was lucky enough to appear in some fantastic stories. She was acted well and when the writing was on her side she was a great character but I didn't feel a huge loss when she left. I was however pleased when she returned.

I think this sums up my feelings exactly.

[Peri-Peri]

I think Martha is a great character and I pretty much instantly liked her over Rose (who I think overstayed her welcome). She was great in this story but hadn't always been written so well in her earlier stories. As Saber said, it seemed that she was just treated as 'not Rose', which wasn't fair to the character.

[Twisted-Sister]

I think Martha was an excellent companion and deserves a lot more credit than she gets. My thoughts on why she had a hard time during her run was that the bulk of people watching hadn't watched the classic series and so wasn't used to the high companion turnover and as a result became overly attatched to Rose and didn't like the new girl stepping into her place. I could be totally wrong, but that's what I've always assumed.

[Scott]

I think Martha is great. She was excellent in this story and did pretty much all the hard work. As for the reaction to her, I think Twisted Sister has it spot on in the post above.

[Nyki]

I always liked Martha.  I wasn't keen on either the whole unrequited love theme, or on her family's involvement, which seemed a lot more token than with Rose, but I thought she was a great character and well acted.

[Aneurin]

My biggest criticism of Martha, if you can call it that really, is her absolutely dreadful family. None of them were the least bit likable.

The fact that she loved the Doctor was annoying but it was a lot more subtle than what happened with Rose and a lot less annoying because the Doctor didn't love her back. I always hated that about Rose's story.

[Nyki]

The fact that she loved the Doctor was annoying but it was a lot more subtle than what happened with Rose and a lot less annoying because the Doctor didn't love her back. I always hated that about Rose's story.

I think my problem wasn't so much the love thing in isolation, but because it came after two years of Rose being in love with the Doctor.  They needed something different at that stage.