Tenmartha - Tumblr Posts
why is he staring at her like that chill out
it’s wild how martha was maybe the one the doctor opened up to fastest. we never even see the doctor mention the name ‘gallifrey’ to rose. and maybe that’s why he treated martha so dismally — she knew so much about him. by the second date he was telling her all about his home world. in 42, he admits to her i’m scared, i’m so scared. in family of blood he literally entrusts her with his entire life while he’s an amnesiac. so much of his power over other companions relies on him being mysterious, untouchable, inhuman. normally he lets the others in gradually, but he basically just trauma dumped all over martha immediately, and i think he knows it. i think he realised he was dangerously comfortable with her, and it ruined his whole facade. it made him seem fallible and maybe even human. in his post-rose grief, he found someone he could pour out his soul to, and then panicked and shut her out whenever she in turn tried to get close to him.
as annoying as it is to see the doctor be rude to martha in series 3, it is kind of funny when you remember how it's because he's trying not to get attatched.
it's almost paradoxical, his meanness is a testament to just how much he likes her. he's trying so hard because he's already fallen hook line and sinker. and i don't mean in that sexist trope of 'if a boy is unkind it means he likes you" as a means of attention seeking, im talking about the doctor was actively trying not to get attatched to her, almost incapable of finding a middle ground.
he tries so very hard at the end of 'smith and jones' to be like 'one trip only' 😡 but right after this 'one trip only' he's like "can we extend it" 🤓.
but then when martha brings up gallifrey he's like uh oh lie lie lie lie abort abort abort! he then loses her, gets her kidnapped and is pretty much forced to acknowledge that he does like her and is attatched and doesn't want the doctor/martha duo to be over before it started. this specifically is fact, not my own interpretation, as it is said both on the dvd commentary and confidential. 'gridlock' is the episode where he realises just how much he cares about martha. it's the episode where he is acknowledging it, and not trying his hardest to act like he doesn't care for her at all because it's only one trip. i mean come on look at his face!
why else does the function of the episode act as the doctor quote literally running after her, shouting her name, and seeking her, jumping from car to car in an effort to find her. he is pursuing her.
this is why he says stuff like "never waste time on a hug" he's like noooop no get attahced me nooooo.
why at the end of the manhattan two parter when martha's like "i guess love isn't dead" he's all like yes it IS martha!
he's as stubborn as an ox but does. not. want. to. leave. her. which is why he hilariously goes through with the whole dumping her back home thing only to pop back seconds later. i counted. he made it a grand total of 30 seconds before he came right back and used lazarus as an excuse.
then at the end he's like "whaddya say, fancy another trip? 😏"
a deeply unserious man.
who try as he might, cannot stay away from her. why do you think at the end of the series she leaves him and not the other way around?
Certainly, the Doctor is eyeing Martha up for the first time and he’s beginning to think there’s something – well, there’s something remarkable about this one. — David Tennant on the DVD commentary for Smith and Jones.
You going to be all right? Always. Yeah. Right then. Bye.
Martha’s eyes prickled with tears, but she forced them away, taking charge. "OK then," she said, "I’ll make some sparks for you!" On a wild impulse, Martha pulled the Doctor towards her – and she kissed him.
And suddenly there was a light in the darkness of his mind, a blazing bolt of honey-gold colour. Strong and powerful, glittering like a tiny sun. He felt a shudder of fear ripple through the Clade web, and the Doctor grinned.
"You know who that is?" he demanded, new strength returning to his thoughts. "That’s Martha Jones. You tried to destroy her and you failed. You tried to use her against me and you failed."
THE DOCTOR & MARTHA JONES in DOCTOR WHO (SERIES 3).
#is this not smith and jones in a nutshell
And it's all up-and-down-and-up-and-downhill from here
Ten, Martha, and incorrect text pt.2
(pt.1)
#when they hug and the doctor picks martha up #you agree
Are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?
Doctor, will you listen?! They're too far away. It's too late. I'm not going to lose her.
42 / lost brilliance, rita dove
wow i Cannot let go of the idea of tenmartha as a love that severs rather than mends
i know 42 isn't one of the most beloved doctor who episodes, but i personally loved it—mostly because i think it's incredibly important when it comes to the dynamic between the doctor and martha (along with the lazarus experiment, which i'll agree isn't a wonder of cinematography but it's the episode where—finally!—the doctor acknowledges how martha was never “just a passenger” to him).
and so, what's their dynamic, then? smith and jones, of course—the doctor and his doctor. not that it wasn't apparent already, from the very first moment martha is on screen she saves the doctor's life and plays a fundamental part in solving whatever situation they end up in, but in those episodes specifically—and more than ever in 42—the doctor relies on her and her alone, and he shows just how much he trusts her. because he does trust her, he does believe in her, he's seen such potential in her and i can see it, i see how he sees her and i wish the writing in season three wasn't so terribly inconsistent and that ten wasn't so terribly hot-and-cold, because when they're good they're really good.
i can't stop thinking about how scared the doctor was when he got infected with the virus, how vulnerable. the doctor is never vulnerable. scared yes, confused of course, sad for sure, even desperate, he often doesn't know what to do up until the very last second, but his job is to act as a crutch for others to lean on, to solve problems, to keep hope alive. all of this, during the second half of 42, was martha's job. because he was terrified. and this very primal sense of fear he was feeling came from the fact that the virus threatened to make him do the one thing he can't bear to do—killing without a reason to. he would've killed martha, he would've killed the rest of the crew, and everything would have been completely out of his control. so yes. he was terrified. so terrified, in fact, that at one point he had to physically reach out for her and call her name (“martha, where are you?”) when she let go of him for a few seconds because he couldn't open his eyes to look at her but he didn't feel her touch anymore and he didn't want to be alone—no, scratch that, he didn't want to be without her. for once, specifically, he didn't want to be without martha. and so she ran to him and she held him up and reassured him and he told her “i'm scared, i'm so scared” and tried to warn her about the regeneration process and all she asked of him was to believe in her. and it absolutely kills me how martha doesn't know the doctor has believed in her from the very first moment he's laid eyes on her. because he's being so stubborn, he's in his ‘can't-let-anyone-too-close’ era and he thinks that's what's best for everyone but he also can't stay away, can he? he can't let her go. and he ends up hurting her and himself a lot, but then some times he doesn't. some times he tears the walls down, some times he tells her about gallifrey, and he admits to her that he is scared, and tells her she was never just a passenger, and looks at her like he wishes the expression ‘right person wrong time’ wouldn't apply to a time lord.
and some times he trusts her completely, wholeheartedly, to save everyone for him. and of course she does, because she's his doctor, she's martha jones, she is ‘a star’. and he thanks her. sincerely. no humour, no banter, no nothing, he just thanks her—for saving them, for keeping herself safe while he couldn't, but also just because. just because she's there, and she was there when no one else was or could be, and she got him to share memories and sides of himself he'd previously never shared with anybody.
so yeah. to me, 42 will always be famous. just as martha jones will, and just as whatever the doctor and her shared will.
Doctor, will you listen?! They're too far away. It's too late. I'm not going to lose her.
𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭; 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠