It’s time to continue my 60th anniversary celebration of Doctor Who by doing an in-depth review of the third series and its Blu-ray steelbook, following on from my posts about Series 1 & 2.
Russell T Davies continues in his role as showrunner here, overseeing David Tennant in his second series as the Doctor. But here the Time Lord is accompanied by the fun-loving, strong-minded, logical and brave medical student Martha Jones (played by Freema Agyeman).
Unlike Rose, who was looking for excitement and an escape from her everyday existence, Martha is actually quite happy and busy with her family, career and social life. But the temptation to travel with the Doctor wins out, naturally. The one similarity that Martha has with Rose is that she soon falls in love with him, but the Doctor is still hurting from Rose’s departure and views Martha as a good friend rather than anything more. He simply needs a caring companion to support him and stop him feeling too lonely, which he knows only too well, but he’s reluctant to admit that to himself, and initially insists that Martha won’t be a full-time passenger. But he changes his mind when Martha proves her worth in various ways, and she ends up saving his life, and the lives of others, on several occasions.
So there’s a different dynamic in the Doctor’s relationship with Martha compared to Rose, and she’s a different character to her predecessor – all of which is a good thing, otherwise it would have felt repetitive. Actors David and Freema have a great chemistry together, evident from the behind the scenes material as well as in their performances, which makes them enjoyable to watch. It’s also worth celebrating the fact that she’s his first full-time black companion (whereas Mickey Smith didn’t travel with the Doctor very much), and therefore Martha does encounter occasional racism when they travel back in time (as did Freema in real life from a small sector of the fanbase, sadly). So it’s good that the show acknowledges those attitudes in small ways, rather than pretending they don’t exist.
Ultimately, although Martha is sadly only in the show for one series, she does make a very big impact on the stories and the Doctor himself, and likewise it all has a huge effect on her, as she goes through quite the journey of development. She also makes a few guest appearances in the show later on (and could still do so), as well as appearing in the Torchwood spin-off and a more recent Big Finish audiobook, plus the character featured in the Tenth Doctor audiobook adaptations by the BBC, some of which Freema narrated. So this isn’t the last we see or hear of her.
Before we meet Martha, we’re also introduced to Donna Noble in the Christmas special, for what at the time was intended to be a one-off guest appearance by Catherine Tate, though that changed in Series 4. And in the finale Martha gets to meet Captain Jack Harkness when John Barrowman returns in the role, as well as John Simm in his first appearance as the Master. Plus there are some other great stars who appear throughout the series.
So it’s another fantastic collection of episodes, I hope you enjoy my look through them all, as well as the extensive playlist of clips I’ve put together on Youtube.
[Note: This post was edited in November 2023 to mention the new Whoniverse collection on iPlayer and the Series 1-4 & Specials box set.]
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