jedi_of_urth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_of_urth) wrote2007-07-05 02:26 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote2007-07-05 02:26 pm
Entry tags:
Believing in the Doctor
It began with butterfly’s post regarding the myth of the Doctor and continued with some other discussions, but I wanted to collect my thoughts on the story of believing in the Doctor, particularly Martha’s belief in the Doctor.
I like timelines, so I’m going to try and construct one for how this came to be through her story.
‘Smith and Jones’ through ‘Gridlock’ steadily tore down the “Mr. Smith” image Martha started out with. She didn’t immediately start seeing him as more godly and less human when he revealed he was “the Doctor,” or when he saved the world, or when she saw the inside of the TARDIS, in fact she seemed to see him a fair bit as “Mr. Smith” at the end of S&J, but she had also been exposed to the myth then. Throughout S&J, TSC, and ‘Gridlock’, Martha steadily sees more and more of the Doctor’s powers, his more than human qualities; but the moments when he is very “human” she either isn’t present for (the babbling at the woman in S&J, the “That name keeps me fighting” moment), she doesn’t understand (his reaction to the “You are not alone” message, the early episode time he gets withdrawn talking about Gallifrey), or they piss her off (any time Rose comes up).
We see early on in ‘Gridlock’ that the power of belief effects Martha, that the idea of having something larger to believe in is important to her, and I think her real turning point in her growing “belief” in the Doctor is in ‘Gridlock.’ When he becomes like God and sets the people free, when she learns that he is the last of his kind, when the hymn acts as the soundtrack for his story. (This only makes sense to me in retrospect, like a lot of things in Doctor Who have proven to be.)
It sets him as something remote to her, something to believe in, and the story that put him there did not include her so she sees him on a level above her. And from then on the season puts him on a higher and higher pedestal. Neither of them sees each other, the Doctor because he’s looking past her at a memory, and Marta because she’s looking past him at what she thinks he is.
By ‘42’ she believes in him wholeheartedly, without reason if like me you were thinking she meant it the way the Doctor did in TSP. There was no way she could at that point believe in him the way he did in Rose by that point in their relationship, but it is quite possible to believe in him as a god like way by that point. And in the end she receives her TARDIS key as if from the hand of god, even at the time the only word I could use to describe it was “reverent.”
It’s fairly clear that she doesn’t care about the “John Smith” personality in HN/FoB, she doesn’t see the Doctor qualities in him because he’s useless as a human. Yes there are a lot of things different about him, and given the way he treats her in these episodes I would believe she chose to focus on the differences so that those things were part of the whole being different rather than having to wonder how much might be real (I don’t think it is, but I would think she’d wonder). But she doesn’t think of John’s fear of being just a story or his desire to have that life as anything related to the Doctor. When Tim describes the Doctor is such mythic, grand terms, Martha agrees, because that’s how she see him and in so doing it *doesn’t* matter to her if he sees her, he’s a god and she loves him completely.
We don’t really know much of what happened during the time they were stuck in 1969, but it’s clear it wasn’t a “stuck with you, that’s not so bad” situation in the couple of scenes we have to go on (I could include Martha’s blog but I refuse admit it’s cannon for my own sanity at making Martha even halfway intelligent). The Doctor didn’t get the flights wrong with Martha the way he did with Rose and for the first time she had to deal with her “god” not being infallible, that space travel isn’t all whizzing about and moon landings, sometimes it’s rough and real even if he doesn’t become John Smith first. And yet he still got to come out looking like he had all the information, because he was able to put the puzzle together, she could still believe in him if she didn’t think about the fact that the man with all the answers was also the man she’d been stuck with.
The final solution in the finale is to get people to believe in the myth of the Doctor, and that’s what Martha can lead them to, it’s what she’s been believing in the whole season. That he’s like a god, powerful but distant, and believing in him is enough; not in the ‘knowing people believe in him gives him the strength to keep fighting’ way it was in PotW and ‘Doomsday’ but belief equated to prayer, religious faith where the Doctor is God.
And that…makes me uncomfortable. And I think it has a lot to do with why I never connected with Martha, I truly could not see through her eyes when it came to the Doctor, I can’t un-see the man that I know him to be. This is an exploration in what happens when you see the myth rather than the man, but I can only see that that seems to be the story they were telling in the end. I still don’t *connect* with Martha’s way of seeing the Doctor even though I understand her character better and respect her more after she grew into her own in the finale.
I connected with Rose’s view of a man to love and comfort, I connected with Jack’s view of a man that is his hero, I understood and felt for Mickey’s friendship with the man who stole his girlfriend. When I try (for something like this) to understand Martha view I can, but I don’t feel it and I don’t share it, she’s looking at him from an angle that I find flat having spent so long looking at the fully developed person that he is.
And a final thought, not on Martha but Rose: between the Bad Wolf and “I believe in her” I felt the message was clear, someone that started out so “ordinary”, someone “so human”, so like anyone, was the equal of the Doctor, equally deserving of belief, equally a “god”. That if there are gods then we are all gods, or at least capable of being gods. The Doctor is no more a god than anyone save for he’s been doing this saving the universe thing longer and has more gadgets. He’s a hero, but so are so many others who took a stand and said no; see him as a hero, believe in him as a hero, but he’s not God, a god, or like a god, anymore than anyone else can be.
And with that I take a break from ranting.
I like timelines, so I’m going to try and construct one for how this came to be through her story.
‘Smith and Jones’ through ‘Gridlock’ steadily tore down the “Mr. Smith” image Martha started out with. She didn’t immediately start seeing him as more godly and less human when he revealed he was “the Doctor,” or when he saved the world, or when she saw the inside of the TARDIS, in fact she seemed to see him a fair bit as “Mr. Smith” at the end of S&J, but she had also been exposed to the myth then. Throughout S&J, TSC, and ‘Gridlock’, Martha steadily sees more and more of the Doctor’s powers, his more than human qualities; but the moments when he is very “human” she either isn’t present for (the babbling at the woman in S&J, the “That name keeps me fighting” moment), she doesn’t understand (his reaction to the “You are not alone” message, the early episode time he gets withdrawn talking about Gallifrey), or they piss her off (any time Rose comes up).
We see early on in ‘Gridlock’ that the power of belief effects Martha, that the idea of having something larger to believe in is important to her, and I think her real turning point in her growing “belief” in the Doctor is in ‘Gridlock.’ When he becomes like God and sets the people free, when she learns that he is the last of his kind, when the hymn acts as the soundtrack for his story. (This only makes sense to me in retrospect, like a lot of things in Doctor Who have proven to be.)
It sets him as something remote to her, something to believe in, and the story that put him there did not include her so she sees him on a level above her. And from then on the season puts him on a higher and higher pedestal. Neither of them sees each other, the Doctor because he’s looking past her at a memory, and Marta because she’s looking past him at what she thinks he is.
By ‘42’ she believes in him wholeheartedly, without reason if like me you were thinking she meant it the way the Doctor did in TSP. There was no way she could at that point believe in him the way he did in Rose by that point in their relationship, but it is quite possible to believe in him as a god like way by that point. And in the end she receives her TARDIS key as if from the hand of god, even at the time the only word I could use to describe it was “reverent.”
It’s fairly clear that she doesn’t care about the “John Smith” personality in HN/FoB, she doesn’t see the Doctor qualities in him because he’s useless as a human. Yes there are a lot of things different about him, and given the way he treats her in these episodes I would believe she chose to focus on the differences so that those things were part of the whole being different rather than having to wonder how much might be real (I don’t think it is, but I would think she’d wonder). But she doesn’t think of John’s fear of being just a story or his desire to have that life as anything related to the Doctor. When Tim describes the Doctor is such mythic, grand terms, Martha agrees, because that’s how she see him and in so doing it *doesn’t* matter to her if he sees her, he’s a god and she loves him completely.
We don’t really know much of what happened during the time they were stuck in 1969, but it’s clear it wasn’t a “stuck with you, that’s not so bad” situation in the couple of scenes we have to go on (I could include Martha’s blog but I refuse admit it’s cannon for my own sanity at making Martha even halfway intelligent). The Doctor didn’t get the flights wrong with Martha the way he did with Rose and for the first time she had to deal with her “god” not being infallible, that space travel isn’t all whizzing about and moon landings, sometimes it’s rough and real even if he doesn’t become John Smith first. And yet he still got to come out looking like he had all the information, because he was able to put the puzzle together, she could still believe in him if she didn’t think about the fact that the man with all the answers was also the man she’d been stuck with.
The final solution in the finale is to get people to believe in the myth of the Doctor, and that’s what Martha can lead them to, it’s what she’s been believing in the whole season. That he’s like a god, powerful but distant, and believing in him is enough; not in the ‘knowing people believe in him gives him the strength to keep fighting’ way it was in PotW and ‘Doomsday’ but belief equated to prayer, religious faith where the Doctor is God.
And that…makes me uncomfortable. And I think it has a lot to do with why I never connected with Martha, I truly could not see through her eyes when it came to the Doctor, I can’t un-see the man that I know him to be. This is an exploration in what happens when you see the myth rather than the man, but I can only see that that seems to be the story they were telling in the end. I still don’t *connect* with Martha’s way of seeing the Doctor even though I understand her character better and respect her more after she grew into her own in the finale.
I connected with Rose’s view of a man to love and comfort, I connected with Jack’s view of a man that is his hero, I understood and felt for Mickey’s friendship with the man who stole his girlfriend. When I try (for something like this) to understand Martha view I can, but I don’t feel it and I don’t share it, she’s looking at him from an angle that I find flat having spent so long looking at the fully developed person that he is.
And a final thought, not on Martha but Rose: between the Bad Wolf and “I believe in her” I felt the message was clear, someone that started out so “ordinary”, someone “so human”, so like anyone, was the equal of the Doctor, equally deserving of belief, equally a “god”. That if there are gods then we are all gods, or at least capable of being gods. The Doctor is no more a god than anyone save for he’s been doing this saving the universe thing longer and has more gadgets. He’s a hero, but so are so many others who took a stand and said no; see him as a hero, believe in him as a hero, but he’s not God, a god, or like a god, anymore than anyone else can be.
And with that I take a break from ranting.
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Adding this to memories though.
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That's a very good point. Although I read meta today about how Martha was hard to connect to because she wasn't as flawed as Rose and didn't have much of a character arc, I think it's more for the reasons you stated. She did have a growth curve, but it's a less sympathetic one. So many things we knew about the Doctor from the last two seasons-that he's lonely, that he lost someone he loved very much-she didn't quite get. She knew about Gallifrey and the Time War, but it seemed to only enforce her mythic view of him.
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Well, that's got a lot to do with it too. That contributed a lot to not knowing how to see her, but the way she saw the Doctor also didn't help me see through her eyes. He was the *much* more fleshed out character, and she didn't see the fleshed out character I knew him to be. The position she was working from wasn't clear and the viewpoint she had of him was too askew for me to sympathize with her, or use it as a point of reference for why she acted like she did.
And it's been repeatedly said, and it does have a fair bit of truth to it, that the companion is supposed to be the audience's window into the Doctor's world, but Martha could never be that for me because she was looking up at him rather than in his eyes where I was looking.
I wanted to smack her in 42 and tell her to wake up, wipe the reverence off her face and see that he was just *a guy*, yes he has a magic box that can take you across the universe and have you home for tea, but he's the designated driver, not your lord in any sense of the word. I've come to the conclusion that I hate Tim's speech in FoB (even if I can't call it untrue) because no one comes in after to say the he also likes greasy chips and cakes with edible ball bearings and those are the details that make him real, and that would have made it so much easier for John to relate and accept what was happening.
But then, I also had to think during LotTL that Rose would have found a way to tell the Master to go f*ck himself even if it was a kid's show and never knelt before him. That's not really connected to the point here, but since I can't bring myself to do a recap of the episode I wanted to say it somewhere because Rose would have bitch slapped the Master up one side and down the other and called him tiny because this girl doesn't run from the Dalek Emperor or the Devil himself, she'd stare down the Master too. Martha's word of power was "believe", Rose's was "No."
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Oh, I hated that speech, especially when they ran it over the season trailer. Fans were all asquee about how goshdarn COOL it was and...no. He's not a god. He's a man, even if a very powerful one and it's dangerous for him to be treated like he is. It's why I think Rose *was* good for him, because he was so human with her. It's why Martha couldn't convince John to open the watch and Joan could. All she could say is that he was everything to her, even if he didn't see her.
But then, I also had to think during LotTL that Rose would have found a way to tell the Master to go f*ck himself even if it was a kid's show and never knelt before him.
Yeah, I get that in-story the explanation was that she did it in order to fool the Master for the necessary time. And the Doctor and Jack and all of the Joneses-all of earth, in fact-were humbled by the Master, so why not Martha? Still, I didn't like it. Rose had a defiant kind of bravery that made her so sympathetic. I can't believe she doesn't get more props for the way she backtalked the Daleks in Doomsday.
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Tell me about it. She didn't even have phenomenal cosmic Time Vortex powers to back her up, then. Just her, Mickey, and the Doctor.
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Honestly, I thought when it showed up in the trailer it was part of the misleading warning Francine was being fed. Not untrue necessarily, but definitely a dark spin on the truth, because the Doctor is dangerous and he dances with/in the fire, we've known that since 'Rose' but...that's not *who* he is. I would never have imagined then that we were supposed to *agree* with the speech, I wish we knew whether the Doctor does.
that in-story the explanation was that she did it in order to fool the Master for the necessary time.
Yes but Rose spent her time sassing Daleks and being the usually impossible combination of bad-ass and adorable. And after Jack's no doubt multiple escape attempts and the Jones' help and plots to kill the Master, which granted Martha doesn't know about, they're hardly defeated. I get that Martha was probably playing a part stalling for time, but I just can't escape the idea that Rose would have looked at him as if he smelled bad and said "I'd rather die on my feet thank you," because what he wants is to see them defeated so bringing defiance to the table is a better distraction. And I wanted Martha to show that kind of defiance, after a year of being a commando walking the world, I'd have believed it if she showed it, but she didn't. Playing dead can be an option, but I wanted Rose and her adorable bad ass self ("Sure I'll open the arc for you but, well, don't you want to hear about how I killed the Emperor? It's a really good story. Ha.")
And until it becomes "Beg for *his* life" Rose could keep it up too, because Rose and the Doctor would beg for each other's lives long before they'd beg for their own.
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Oh, me too. I was terrified for her there(remember when we all thought she was going to die?), and yet I was cheering her on at the same time. She was made of awesome and I am occasionally bereft at the thought that we may never see her again.
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I don't remember reading this interview, but... yeah. But then, watching the Confidentials (save for maybe the last one) it always seemed like Freema was on a totally different page with regards to characterization than David or Rusty were.
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So if I recall my reaction to Freema's statement, I...got kind of pissed off about it because the only way it made sense was that maybe Martha's intellect was going to make her more the Doctor's equal and they meant to overlook how Rose was awesome but not book smart. After this season though, that quote just makes no sense.
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That's right. I know there's such a thing as picking your battles and playing dead, but I still prefer Rose's bravery and defiance.