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frelling_tralk) wrote2007-07-05 03:48 pm
frelling_tralk) wrote2007-07-05 03:48 pm
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Regarding the accusations of racism in Doctor Who
It's not DW's fault that Martha had to disguise herself as a maid in HN/FOB. DW's a show about time travel, of course the racism in history will come up occasionally, when a black actor or actress is cast as companion! It was a two-parter set in 1913 England, why blame DW for accurately portraying history? The episodes even showed John Smith and Joan being the ones to look like fools for underestimating Martha (who resolved the cliffhanger of HN, and had the knowledge of the bones in the hand moment).
And Rose was complaining in series two about the Doctor always sticking her in the serving position. Rose was dinner lady in SR, she was the waitress in the Cyberman episode. Martha's experiences in HN/FOB were not out of the norm for a companion, and I'm sure that Rose would have been the maid as well, if she was around for that episode. And Martha having to work in a shop in Blink to support the Doctor, only reflected badly on him! She was hardly the happy and "faithful servant" seeing as she suddenly burst out with how she has to support him now, and seemed pretty pissed off at his uselessness
And it's seen as humiliating for Martha to be loyal to the Doctor, but Rose was just as clingy in her time. The companions are supposed to be swept away by the Doctor. I mean what about Jack throwing dignity to the wind, and quite literally throwing himself on top of the Tardis? Freaking out over losing the Doctor's hand in the jar. Not to mention Jack emphasizing with Martha over being overlooked romantically by the Doctor in favour of Rose. Even Rose had to watch him flirting with the upper-class Madame De Pompadour in GITF. Martha wasn't supposed to come across as a loyal servant at all. What about her ordering the Doctor to tell her about Gallifrey in Gridlock. Saying "I'll do what I like" in TSOD. Slapping him in HN.
And there's upset over the Doctor not loving Martha romantically. But then wouldn't it have made the Doctor look incredibly shallow to love the next companion that crosses his path in the exact same way that he had loved Rose? So it seems the solution is either to have cast a white female for the role of next companion, or to have just completely messed up the Doctor's emotional arc. Plenty of people did fall for Martha. Martha got a snog in 42. Tom got killed by the Master in trying to protect Martha. Shakespeare flirted with Martha. The Doctor overlooked Martha because of his own issues, because of still being hung up on Rose. Are the casual audience really going to be sat at home thinking that the difference is that Rose was white, and Martha black? The Doctor would have been the same with any companion that wasn't Rose, which is backed up by the emphasis the word Rose is given throughout the season.
Yes the Master did make Martha's family his servants in TLOTT. And I was uncomfortable with that. We were supposed to be! There's also Jack in chains. There's the Doctor with a dog bowl, and being trained to respond to a bell. There's the massaging women (what would they be called?), Lucy rushing to get the Master's coat. Martha was actually the one character who escaped being humiliated by the Master, and returns to laugh in his face. I believe her brother would also have been involved in that, except the actor got double-booked by mistake?
And the Doctor did say that he would never ask Martha not to carry a gun. (He definitely said "ask" not "tell"). And again that's Martha being treated like everyone else. In Bad Wolf, the Doctor throws the gun aside, "like I was ever gonna use it". Last season he makes the comment that Torchwood can shoot him, but the moral high ground is his. And, in Utopia, the Doctor tells Jack "don't you dare" when Jack had a gun. It so wasn't a comment on "I can't believe you ever thought that Martha would do something I hadn't ordered her to do", it was a comment along the lines of, "as if I would promote the use of guns and killing".
It's not DW's fault that Martha had to disguise herself as a maid in HN/FOB. DW's a show about time travel, of course the racism in history will come up occasionally, when a black actor or actress is cast as companion! It was a two-parter set in 1913 England, why blame DW for accurately portraying history? The episodes even showed John Smith and Joan being the ones to look like fools for underestimating Martha (who resolved the cliffhanger of HN, and had the knowledge of the bones in the hand moment).
And Rose was complaining in series two about the Doctor always sticking her in the serving position. Rose was dinner lady in SR, she was the waitress in the Cyberman episode. Martha's experiences in HN/FOB were not out of the norm for a companion, and I'm sure that Rose would have been the maid as well, if she was around for that episode. And Martha having to work in a shop in Blink to support the Doctor, only reflected badly on him! She was hardly the happy and "faithful servant" seeing as she suddenly burst out with how she has to support him now, and seemed pretty pissed off at his uselessness
And it's seen as humiliating for Martha to be loyal to the Doctor, but Rose was just as clingy in her time. The companions are supposed to be swept away by the Doctor. I mean what about Jack throwing dignity to the wind, and quite literally throwing himself on top of the Tardis? Freaking out over losing the Doctor's hand in the jar. Not to mention Jack emphasizing with Martha over being overlooked romantically by the Doctor in favour of Rose. Even Rose had to watch him flirting with the upper-class Madame De Pompadour in GITF. Martha wasn't supposed to come across as a loyal servant at all. What about her ordering the Doctor to tell her about Gallifrey in Gridlock. Saying "I'll do what I like" in TSOD. Slapping him in HN.
And there's upset over the Doctor not loving Martha romantically. But then wouldn't it have made the Doctor look incredibly shallow to love the next companion that crosses his path in the exact same way that he had loved Rose? So it seems the solution is either to have cast a white female for the role of next companion, or to have just completely messed up the Doctor's emotional arc. Plenty of people did fall for Martha. Martha got a snog in 42. Tom got killed by the Master in trying to protect Martha. Shakespeare flirted with Martha. The Doctor overlooked Martha because of his own issues, because of still being hung up on Rose. Are the casual audience really going to be sat at home thinking that the difference is that Rose was white, and Martha black? The Doctor would have been the same with any companion that wasn't Rose, which is backed up by the emphasis the word Rose is given throughout the season.
Yes the Master did make Martha's family his servants in TLOTT. And I was uncomfortable with that. We were supposed to be! There's also Jack in chains. There's the Doctor with a dog bowl, and being trained to respond to a bell. There's the massaging women (what would they be called?), Lucy rushing to get the Master's coat. Martha was actually the one character who escaped being humiliated by the Master, and returns to laugh in his face. I believe her brother would also have been involved in that, except the actor got double-booked by mistake?
And the Doctor did say that he would never ask Martha not to carry a gun. (He definitely said "ask" not "tell"). And again that's Martha being treated like everyone else. In Bad Wolf, the Doctor throws the gun aside, "like I was ever gonna use it". Last season he makes the comment that Torchwood can shoot him, but the moral high ground is his. And, in Utopia, the Doctor tells Jack "don't you dare" when Jack had a gun. It so wasn't a comment on "I can't believe you ever thought that Martha would do something I hadn't ordered her to do", it was a comment along the lines of, "as if I would promote the use of guns and killing".
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And the sad thing is that, of all the shows I watch (I mostly watch American Sci Fi), Martha is one of the few important regulars who is black. And yet people are now hating DW so much that they're saying they will no longer let their kids watch it/ever rec it again. And it's like, maybe there were some areas for improvement, but come on!
Martha did kick ass all season, over and over again. The original companion, Rose, dropped out of school, lived on a council estate, and worked in retail. Martha was introduced as being from a far classier family, is an intelligent medical student, and has been way less clingy than Rose was. I really am boggling at people saying that Martha didn't have any exciting adventures, but spend the season in servitude to the Doctor, because that is so not what I saw (Aside from the two-parter from 1913 England, which was based on a novel that had already been written, and involved the Doctor and Martha needing to go into hiding. The sad fact is Martha kind of had to become maid in that time, because she had no other option. And Rose had also previously complained about situations where she ends up serving again, that the Doctor tended to land them in as well. It's just a Doctor/companion thing).
The major differences between the two companions, was that the Doctor fell in love with Rose, and he liked Martha a lot, but didn't love her as he did Rose. But he didn't treat Martha half as badly as her more er committed fans will make out. You'd think he was making rude comparisons all season from the way people go on about it, when in fact he mentioned something along the lines of "Rose would know what to do, but you're too new" in one episode just after he had met Martha. And that was it. Martha herself when leaving admitted the Doctor did like her, but he just didn't like her romantically in the way that she wanted him too.
Torchwood is the spin-off, and that come in for criticism from an American in the past, because there's only one Asian regular in a case of five regulars. Umm yeah, because it's set in Wales *sighs*