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Apr. 5th, 2008 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynneSo, watching Partners in Crime made me want to watch The Runaway Bride again, just to see how Donna's changed. This led to me wanting to watch season three again, first because I've only seen it once, and second, because I want to see if a rewatch makes Martha more interesting. (I liked her just fine, the first time I watched, but it was definitely a passive like. She just never grabbed me the way Rose did--and now the way Donna has, so it's not exclusive to Rose.)
Partners in Crime ended with the Doctor being very explicit about not wanting a romantic relationship. He blamed himself for Martha getting infatuated, and wanted to make sure it didn't happen again.
But rewatching Smith and Jones...he was pretty damn explicit there, too, that he didn't want Martha looking at him like that. Before he kisses her, he tells her that it "means nothing", and later in the TARDIS, he says emphatically that it was just a genetic transfer. He talks about Rose, saying "We were together", which I would definitely have taken in a romantic context, if I'd been a character who had just met the Doctor and didn't know anything about him or his history with Rose. When Martha flirts with him, talking about his tight suit and how he traveled across the universe to ask her on a date, he says, still emphatically, "Don't" and "Stop it". When she says she only goes for humans, he says, "Good".
Honestly, how much clearer could he have gotten?
I don't think the Doctor is blameless in the Unrequited Love Arc of Doom. By Family of Blood, at least, he knows that Martha's infatuated with him, and he ignores it rather than tell Martha (again) that it's not going to happen.
I'm going to keep watching the season and refreshing my memory about what happens in terms of the Martha/Doctor arc, but just rewatching Smith and Jones, the Doctor seems far more discouraging about the prospect of romance than he is encouraging, and I don't think he deserves all the blame for the infatuation.
(Especially since he was seriously manic and crazy in this episode. Talking about getting electrocuted with Ben Franklin, the blue suit and the crazy hair, his radiation dance? I would have respected him for saving everyone, but probably would have thought him way too weird. XD)
Then again, his claiming all the blame is another aspect of his "world revolving around him" thing, which we got way back in Rose. It's in character for him to blame himself. But I've seen several people in fandom seem to blame him for what was wrong with his relationship with Martha, and I will always disagree with that.
Otherwise, I don't have that many thoughts on Smith and Jones. I don't really like how pretty much everyone but Martha panicked when they realized they were on the moon, and I didn't like how, when the Doctor gave his name, Martha said he had to earn that title (seriously, how does she know he hasn't?). I thought the plot was pretty cool, and the plasmavore had a very good actress.
I'm going to watch The Shakespeare Code now. I might edit this post later with some thoughts on that before I go to bed.
The Doctor was sorta rude about Martha's questions--wouldn't he like that she's interested in the mechanics? Though on the other hand, it's not like she (or anyone else from this century) has the background to understand any explanations, so he'd probably think there's no point in trying. And his rudeness is a character trait we're well familiar with by now.
In the bedroom scene, he was oblivious and insensitive...which is also not out of character. Especially given what he was talking about--the mystery. The Big Picture. It's like back in Rose, when the Doctor's thinking about tracking the Nestene Consciousness and Rose is thinking about Mickey. Often the small details just don't occur to him, which is why he thought nothing of him and Martha in the same bed. She assured him just a few hours ago that she wasn't interested, and he took her at her word, so the implications of sharing a bed that Martha sees, he just doesn't. But still, the Doctor knows very well that Rose saw things he missed. She gave him another perspective, and by the end of season two, he was relying on that perspective. He tells Martha that "Rose would know", which Martha's not that happy about, but from his point of view, he has no reason not to mention Rose. Again, just a few hours ago, he told Martha that she wasn't replacing Rose, and Martha agreed. And yeah, he was rather insensitive when he told her that she couldn't be blamed, that she was just a novice and he'd take her home tomorrow, but he was also upfront about giving her one trip, not to mention that he's always been insensitive. Look at how he was with Donna in The Runaway Bride, the times that led to her slapping him. His insensitivity is not restricted to Martha.
Still, I'm not sure how she started loving him. He's oblivious to her attractiveness as a woman, explicitly uninterested in a romantic relationship with her, talks about another woman, is brusk and dismissive about her questions, and dismissive again about her possible contribution because "she's just a novice". Yeah, he's intelligent, sexy, and heroic, but I don't understand how she could ignore everything else to convince herself she's in love with him.
This is not to say that he treated her horribly. He brought her along in the first place, and we know from The Long Game that he only takes the best. He was verbally appreciative of her cleverness when she linked the tetradecahedron (er, is that the right term? *is bad at math*) to the fourteen lines of a sonnet. He trusted her to come with him to confront the witches, and to help him restart his heart. He looked to her for inspiration at the end, and she lived up to it by thinking of the right word to banish the Carrionites. Basically, though the Doctor is sometimes insensitive and oblivious, he also likes, trusts, and respects Martha Jones.
More episodes tomorrow!
Partners in Crime ended with the Doctor being very explicit about not wanting a romantic relationship. He blamed himself for Martha getting infatuated, and wanted to make sure it didn't happen again.
But rewatching Smith and Jones...he was pretty damn explicit there, too, that he didn't want Martha looking at him like that. Before he kisses her, he tells her that it "means nothing", and later in the TARDIS, he says emphatically that it was just a genetic transfer. He talks about Rose, saying "We were together", which I would definitely have taken in a romantic context, if I'd been a character who had just met the Doctor and didn't know anything about him or his history with Rose. When Martha flirts with him, talking about his tight suit and how he traveled across the universe to ask her on a date, he says, still emphatically, "Don't" and "Stop it". When she says she only goes for humans, he says, "Good".
Honestly, how much clearer could he have gotten?
I don't think the Doctor is blameless in the Unrequited Love Arc of Doom. By Family of Blood, at least, he knows that Martha's infatuated with him, and he ignores it rather than tell Martha (again) that it's not going to happen.
I'm going to keep watching the season and refreshing my memory about what happens in terms of the Martha/Doctor arc, but just rewatching Smith and Jones, the Doctor seems far more discouraging about the prospect of romance than he is encouraging, and I don't think he deserves all the blame for the infatuation.
(Especially since he was seriously manic and crazy in this episode. Talking about getting electrocuted with Ben Franklin, the blue suit and the crazy hair, his radiation dance? I would have respected him for saving everyone, but probably would have thought him way too weird. XD)
Then again, his claiming all the blame is another aspect of his "world revolving around him" thing, which we got way back in Rose. It's in character for him to blame himself. But I've seen several people in fandom seem to blame him for what was wrong with his relationship with Martha, and I will always disagree with that.
Otherwise, I don't have that many thoughts on Smith and Jones. I don't really like how pretty much everyone but Martha panicked when they realized they were on the moon, and I didn't like how, when the Doctor gave his name, Martha said he had to earn that title (seriously, how does she know he hasn't?). I thought the plot was pretty cool, and the plasmavore had a very good actress.
I'm going to watch The Shakespeare Code now. I might edit this post later with some thoughts on that before I go to bed.
The Doctor was sorta rude about Martha's questions--wouldn't he like that she's interested in the mechanics? Though on the other hand, it's not like she (or anyone else from this century) has the background to understand any explanations, so he'd probably think there's no point in trying. And his rudeness is a character trait we're well familiar with by now.
In the bedroom scene, he was oblivious and insensitive...which is also not out of character. Especially given what he was talking about--the mystery. The Big Picture. It's like back in Rose, when the Doctor's thinking about tracking the Nestene Consciousness and Rose is thinking about Mickey. Often the small details just don't occur to him, which is why he thought nothing of him and Martha in the same bed. She assured him just a few hours ago that she wasn't interested, and he took her at her word, so the implications of sharing a bed that Martha sees, he just doesn't. But still, the Doctor knows very well that Rose saw things he missed. She gave him another perspective, and by the end of season two, he was relying on that perspective. He tells Martha that "Rose would know", which Martha's not that happy about, but from his point of view, he has no reason not to mention Rose. Again, just a few hours ago, he told Martha that she wasn't replacing Rose, and Martha agreed. And yeah, he was rather insensitive when he told her that she couldn't be blamed, that she was just a novice and he'd take her home tomorrow, but he was also upfront about giving her one trip, not to mention that he's always been insensitive. Look at how he was with Donna in The Runaway Bride, the times that led to her slapping him. His insensitivity is not restricted to Martha.
Still, I'm not sure how she started loving him. He's oblivious to her attractiveness as a woman, explicitly uninterested in a romantic relationship with her, talks about another woman, is brusk and dismissive about her questions, and dismissive again about her possible contribution because "she's just a novice". Yeah, he's intelligent, sexy, and heroic, but I don't understand how she could ignore everything else to convince herself she's in love with him.
This is not to say that he treated her horribly. He brought her along in the first place, and we know from The Long Game that he only takes the best. He was verbally appreciative of her cleverness when she linked the tetradecahedron (er, is that the right term? *is bad at math*) to the fourteen lines of a sonnet. He trusted her to come with him to confront the witches, and to help him restart his heart. He looked to her for inspiration at the end, and she lived up to it by thinking of the right word to banish the Carrionites. Basically, though the Doctor is sometimes insensitive and oblivious, he also likes, trusts, and respects Martha Jones.
More episodes tomorrow!
