Doctor Who name meanings
Martha Jones
The thing that makes Martha Jones shine so much compared to other NewWho companions, to me at least, is how she was the only one to deal with her end-of-season menace without superpowers.
Rose took the power of the TARDIS, became a literal deus ex machina and solved everything in five minutes flat.
Donna accidentally took on the brainpower of the Doctor and solved everything in five minutes flat.
Amy had the power to reboot the universe and solved the problem of the Doctor not existing in five minutes flat.
Jack was a highly-trained Time Agent, even before he became immortal.
Rory also dies a lot, was an Auton and retains the memories of 2,000+ years experience.
River Song is a highly-trained child-soldier Time Baby.
Unlike most other companions, Martha had no extra-special powers beyond her own awesomeness. Her achievement was IMHO greater than the ones above because she did it solely on her own merit. It may have still only been five minutes flat onscreen, but unlike Rose, Donna and Amy all basically snapping their fingers and saying “because I say so, that’s why!” her part in the Master’s downfall was an entire year in the making. While her task was made easier (and by ‘easier’, I mean ‘slightly less impossible’) by the perception filter and Jack’s vortex manipulator, she still spent a year telling stories in a hellish, decimated dystopia of a world. She had to give her entire species hope and faith and never lose her own, while never knowing if her family and the Doctor were even ALIVE, let alone how they were. FOR A YEAR. And this was after two months of racist, classist, misogynist humiliations at Farringham AND supporting the Doctor’s arse in 1969 as well. And she does it all in style, then leaves the Doctor wanting more (finally). This is why Martha Jones is Made Of Win And Awesome.
(Also, it’s notable that the only other New-Who companion who gets no super-upgrades and must be content with being a Badass Normal is Mickey Smith, the other black companion.)
Very seconded.
(Although, does Wilf count as a Badass Normal? If so, that makes me feel better about that bit of subtext.)
Whovengers
Fury = The Doctor: Both look after their bands of misfits, and defend the Earth.
Tony = Jack: International/intergalactic playboys willing to die for the greater good. Many times over in Jack’s case.
Steve = Martha: Underdogs who became heroes, fighting tyrants for freedom and justice.
Bruce = Donna: Both forced to embrace a personality they didn’t want. The only difference is, Donna no longer remembers what it was like to be fully her.
Natasha = Amy: Both badass redheads with pasts they tend to run from.
Clint = Rory: Soldier types who always come as a package deal with their badass redhead.
Phil = Mickey: Both The Man In Havana, both eventually drawn to Big Fucking Guns.
Maria = River: The capable second-in-command.
Thor = Rose: Both channel godlike powers (that they had to prove themselves worthy of.) Also, both blonde.
Loki = The Master: These two would get on like a house on fire…no survivors.
After that vague hint Moffat dropped in DWM, I REALLY WANT Martha back for an episode of S7 now. Is Freema doing anything at the moment? Is she still filming that Sex And The City thing? Someone get her on the phone, stat.
Mother is the name for God…
Row 1: Nancy (The Empty Child), Mickey’s grandma Rita-Ann (Rise Of The Cybermen), Elton’s mother (Love And Monsters), Trish (Fear Her), Roseanna (Vampires Of Venice), Ambrose (The Hungry Earth)
Row 2: Jackie, Amy & baby Melody, Madge, Francine, Sylvia
Row 3: Rose, River, Lily & Cyril, Martha, Donna
Row 4: Sarah Jane & Luke, Tabitha (Amy’s mother), Adelaide, the Doctor’s mother (Yep, turns out that was supposed to be her.)
Doctor Who AU: Apocalypse-
A gang of survivors make their way across an devastated world. All of them- Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Mickey Smith, River Song, and newlyweds Amy and Rory Pond- are slowly running out of hope. Until they meet a stranger called The Doctor.
Gif 1- Donna and Rose observe events
Gif 2- The fire takes Manhattan
Gif 3- Amy and Rory take to the road
Gif 4- The Doctor walks on
Gif 5- The survivors; Martha and Mickey share a look
Gif 6- The Doctor notices Amy’s wedding ring; River runs to an injured (dead?) Doctor
Gif 7- Martha and Amy run
Gif 8- Rory walks through the water; River watches him sadly
I am incredibly delighted and humbled that my Companions as literary characters set got so many notes. Seriously. And I figured I might elaborate on it a bit!
Rose as Little Red Riding Hood: Obviously, the Bad Wolf connection. Plus, Rose wears a red hoodie sometimes. BUT! The original story has an awful lot of interpretations that you cankind ofapply to Rose’s story as well. Like the idea that the whole thing is a parable about sexual maturity. Or the idea that Red is ‘reborn’ from a girl into a woman after her encounter. But I love the idea that, in Doctor Who, Rose starts off as Little Red Riding Hood, with the Doctor as the Wolf (there was even a brief ‘what big ears you have’ scene between the Doctor and Nancy in The Empty Chld) but then she becomes the Wolf- Bad Wolf. In other words, she becomes what would have devoured her. Which, by taking on the TARDIS energy, she literally does…
Martha as Dorothy:This one, I was surprised it worked so well. But The Wizard Of Oz is basically a story about needing something and then finding it, and that’s what Martha does. Like Dorothy, her home life isn’t completely happy- her family all sort of take advantage of her good nature, and maybe control her a little. So Martha ends up with the Doctor (the Wizard!) and travels into another world. There she makes new friends and brings an end to a tyrant’s rule- but she also realises that there’s no place like home, that she wants to be with her family instead. And then the Wizard turns out to be not what she expected, either- she sees the dark side of him, and the human side (which treats her badly). He’s not all-powerful, he’s just an old man who’s been trying to get home. He lets her down- so she says goodbye to her friends, and goes home. And she’s learned a lesson: she’s no longer willing to let her loved ones rule her life. She comes out of her quest a more mature person (not that she wasn’t one to start with, but yeah. She had a journey.)
Donna as Alice: This might be the weakest one, sorry. But Donna, like Alice, refused to be taken in by all the nonsense thrown at her- she was totally defiant to the Queen. And even though it was all a dream (well, probably) Alice started off bored and, after she woke, was inspired. And her sister, in the closing passage of the novel, thinks about how ‘this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.’ So I like to think that was Donna’s ending: an old woman talking about Ood and Pyroviles to delighted children, inspiring loads of people with stories she didn’t know she was the hero of.
Amy as Wendy: Actually, a deleted scene makes this one pretty much explicit- from The Beast Below: ‘My aunt says your wedding day’s the day you grow up’. Amy ran away with her imaginary friend the night before adulthood came- meeting terrible monsters and villains and lost children- and gradually came to realise she’d have to grow up. I think Amy as Wendy was done deliberately- actually, we probably should’ve guessed, she’d have a daughter. Who took her place as companion to the boy who never grew up.
The book Peter Pan describes Peter’s fate- to never grow up- as ‘a tragedy’. Which could be applied to the Doctor, too. And if Amy never grows up, that tragedy will be hers, too. Remember that exchange- ‘Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just because you could?’ ‘Once, a long time ago’ ‘What happened?’ ‘Hello!’ If Amy sticks around, she’ll become the Doctor. I like to think her moment of entering adulthood was the wedding- she saved the Doctor by rejecting what her parents had told her and trusting in her own self. And she got Rory as a reward. And then she got a daughter she was always destined to only half have…
