Martha Jones
Martha Jones is a fictional character played by Freema Agyeman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. The show's first female black companion, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who, after Rose Tyler but before Donna Noble. According to the character's creator Russell T Davies in his non-fiction book Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, Martha was developed from the beginning with the intention of appearing for the whole of the 2007 series, and to make guest appearances in subsequent series and crossover appearances in the show's two spin-offs; Martha subsequently made guest appearances in Torchwood series two and in Doctor Who series four in 2008 and special episode "The End of Time" in 2010. Martha was also intended to make guest appearances in the 2009 series of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, but could not due to the actress's other work commitments.
Within the series' narrative, Martha begins as a medical student who becomes the Doctor's time travelling companion after an incident at the hospital where she works. After more than a year of travelling with the Doctor, Martha parts from the Doctor's company as she recognises how unhealthy their relationship has become. After returning to life on Earth, becoming engaged and finishing her medical degree, Martha finds a newfound level of independence when she is recruited into the paranormal military organisations UNIT and, briefly, Torchwood. Having faced the end of the world single-handedly during her time with the Doctor, Martha is recognised for her skills both in the field and in medicine.
Appearances
Television
Freema Agyeman's first appearance in Doctor Who was in the second series episode, "Army of Ghosts", where she played Adeola Oshodi, Martha's cousin.Martha Jones is introduced in the third series of Doctor Who, first appearing in the episode "Smith and Jones". When the hospital she works at is teleported to the Moon, medical student Martha helps save the day alongside an alien time traveller known only as the Doctor. To thank her for her help, the Doctor invites her to join him for a supposed single trip in his time machine the TARDIS, but later accepts her as his full-time "companion", admitting that she was "never just a passenger", and he even gives her the key to the TARDIS in the episode, "42". Martha becomes frustrated because the Doctor is oblivious to her feelings for him, and she expresses concern that she is simply a rebound after the Doctor's painful loss of his previous companion, Rose Tyler. When the amnesiac Doctor falls in love in the two-part story "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood", a pained Martha laments "You had to go and fall in love with a human... and it wasn't me". In the series finale, "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords", in which the Doctor's nemesis the Master takes over planet Earth, capturing both the Doctor and fellow companion Captain Jack Harkness, Martha manages to escape by teleporting away but is left alone to save the world. On the run from the Master, she spends a year travelling the world in a plan which restores the incapacitated Doctor and reverses time, undoing the Master's actions. Able to remember the events during the Master's reign, Martha then leaves the TARDIS of her own accord, telling the Doctor that she cannot waste her life pining for someone when the relationship cannot happen, but promises that she will see him again. Martha, as voiced by Freema Agyeman, also appears in the 2007 animated serial The Infinite Quest, which aired in twelve weekly segments during the run of the 2007 series.
Martha reappears in the second series of the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, which focuses on Captain Jack Harkness. First appearing in the episode "Reset" as part of a three-episode story arc, Martha has been temporarily drafted to the Torchwood organisation of alien-hunters by Jack, requiring a medical expert on alien life. Through exposition, it is revealed that Martha has become a "medical officer" for the international paranormal investigations agency UNIT since qualifying as a Doctor of Medicine. Martha briefly joins the Cardiff-based Torchwood Three as its medical officer following the death of Owen Harper but later leaves the organisation in the episode "A Day in the Death" once she is satisfied that Owen is fit to return to duty following his resurrection. Later in the fourth series of Doctor Who, Martha returns for a three-episode arc beginning with the two-part story, "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky", and ending with "The Doctor's Daughter", in which she meets the Doctor's new companion Donna Noble ; in the first episode, a more assertive and engaged Martha summons the Doctor to Earth to help uncover a plot by the Sontarans. Martha returns again for the final two episodes of the series, "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End", where she has been promoted to a U.S. division of UNIT and is working on a top-secret teleportation project based on Sontaran technology. She rallies alongside fellow companions Jack and Sarah Jane Smith in an effort to face the threat of Davros' plot to destroy reality. In facing Davros, Martha threatens to set off nuclear warheads which will destroy the Earth in order to spare human suffering and curtail his plans, but is stopped by the Doctor. In the episode's dénouement, Martha leaves with Jack and former companion Mickey Smith, with Jack saying to her, "I'm not sure about UNIT these days... maybe there's something else you could be doing."
Despite the set-up at the end of Doctor Who series four, Martha does not appear in Torchwood: Children of Earth. Martha's absence is explained when the characters interact with UNIT officers in Children of Earth; she is on her honeymoon. In lieu of Martha, the character of Lois Habiba was created. A scene in "The End of Time" shows Martha, apparently having left UNIT, fighting aliens with Mickey and marrying him rather than her previous fiancé. The Doctor appears to the pair shortly before his pending regeneration to save them from a Sontaran sniper. Agyeman is credited as portraying Martha Smith-Jones.
Literature
Aside from television appearances, the character of Martha also appears in Doctor Who novels and comic books, some of which are ambiguous in terms of their canonicity in relationship to the television series. In books, Martha appears in the "New Series Adventures" series of Doctor Who novels, published by BBC Books. The first book published was a "Quick Reads" novel, Made of Steel by Terrance Dicks, and the character subsequently appeared in all novels in the series, starting with Sting of the Zygons by Stephen Cole and most recently in The Many Hands by Dale Smith. Freema Agyeman physically represents the character on the cover of every novel. In late 2008 The Story of Martha, a collection of stories focusing on Martha's adventures between "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords" was published.In terms of comic book appearances, Martha has appeared in the Doctor Who Magazine strips from #381 onwards and the Doctor Who Adventures comics from #28 onwards. The character also periodically appears in the Battles in Time series of comic books. In 2007, American comic book publisher IDW Publishing announced their plans to do a devoted series of Tenth Doctor and Martha comics for an American audience. When asked about canonicity, IDW executive editor Chris Ryall dodged the issue by saying all the comics are "blessed" by Russell T Davies but it is up to the individual how canonical each story is.
Audio drama
Martha also appears in a BBC Radio 4 Torchwood drama, "Lost Souls", which aired in Summer 2008 as an Afternoon Play featuring the voices of the Torchwood cast and Freema Agyeman. Set between the events of the 2008 series of Torchwood but prior to the Doctor Who finale that year, Martha recruits Jack, Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper on Torchwood's first international adventure, as part of Radio 4's special celebration of the Large Hadron Collider being switched on at CERN in Geneva. The special radio episode's plot focuses on the Large Hadron Collider's activation and the doomsday scenario some predicted it might incite, as well as the Torchwood team's mourning of Toshiko Sato and Owen's recent deaths in the Torchwood second series finale.Martha made her Big Finish Productions debut in the Torchwood audio drama "Dissected", released in February 2020. In July 2021, Big Finish announced a new series starring Agyeman - The Year of Martha Jones - depicting Martha during her year travelling an Earth ruled by the Master, co-starring Adjoa Andoh as Martha's mother Francine, which was released in December.
Characterisation
Conception
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. The character is a 23-year-old medical student from 2008, although earlier in the conception process, she had been meant to come from the year 1914. 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, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as her sister Tish, and Reggie Yates as her brother Leo. Nevertheless, Agyeman notes that Martha is "very independent"; living alone and having almost completed her medical qualifications. She does not have an ex-boyfriend, but writer Russell T Davies has stated that she is not a lesbian, as had been rumoured in some quarters. An article in The Times speculated that, since Agyeman has martial arts skills, she may have "a more physical approach" to the role. As with her predecessor Rose, Martha is from London; Brett Mills from the University of East Anglia presumes this is because characters from the capital of the country are "therefore relatable to all British people" because they are seen as "neutral".Freema Agyeman told the school publication The Newspaper that Martha is older and more secure than Rose. Agyeman speculated that Martha, by contrast, travels with the Doctor for the adventure, rather than because of a need for guidance or education. In addition, Martha's family appears to be of a higher social class than Rose's; whereas Rose's family was fairly typically working class, Martha's family appears to be wealthier, probably middle to upper middle class.
Drawing from her creator's pool of recurring names, Martha and her family share the last name "Jones" with many other Russell T Davies-penned characters. Foremost among them are Harriet Jones in Doctor Who, Ianto Jones and Eugene Jones in Torchwood, Ianto Jones in Mine All Mine and Stuart Allen Jones in Queer as Folk. Davies states that reusing names allows him to get a grip of the character on the blank page. In casting Martha, the actress Freema Agyeman was reused from her minor role as Adeola Oshodi, in the Series 2 episode "Army of Ghosts". Acknowledging this, the resemblance of the two characters was touched upon in "Smith and Jones" when Martha refers to her deceased cousin, also serving to connect Martha to the larger Doctor Who universe.