Series 3 was David Tennant's second season as the Doctor. Having established himself the year before, this year was the testing ground for whether his Doctor was sustainable without the already established companion of Rose. Tennant went on to become undeniably one of the most popular Doctors in history. Series 3 could have been a disaster though had Rose's replacement been a failure. We didn't get a failure though - we got Martha Jones, one of the smartest, most capable, all round badass companions yet.
In her first episode, Martha is established as a kind and resourceful character, training to be a doctor, who - in her FIRST episode - saves the Doctor's life. Smith and Jones is a great season opener, packed with cool ideas, a great setting, a funky new alien that made an impact, and amazing performances from David Tennant and Freema Agyeman. Martha immediately left an impression and by the end of the episode, she was a fully established character and clearly companion material. Still mourning Rose, the Doctor was hesitant to commit to her as a companion fully, reflecting the audience, but he liked her and soon came to realise what was really obvious from the start if you paid attention - she was "never just a passenger."
Anyone would have had a tough job following Rose. Billie Piper had been the constant since the revival in 2005 and to many this was a show about Rose as much as about the Doctor. Martha gets overshadowed and unappreciated, and sometimes even hated, by a surprising number of people largely because of this. In my opinion though, Freema Agyeman rose to the occasion and deftly inserted a new character into the mythos who was immediately her own, giving Tennant the space to shine in his moments, and stealing the screen in hers.
Martha was smart - her medical training often on show, and able to solve and unpick many situations herself without even needing the Doctor. She was funny - lines like "then I could get sectioned" in the Shakespeare Code never fail to make me laugh. She was incredibly loyal, sticking by the Doctor even when she had to go through hell for him, like the time she spent looking after him as a servant suffering from constant racism and condescension, or the year that never was where she spent an entire year on her own, travelling the whole world, because he needed her to. Above all though, she was human.
Martha's exit always gets me as the most real. In real life, people rarely just fall out of your life in one dramatic event like a mindwipe, being trapped in a parallel universe, being turned into a cyberman, being sent back in time, etc. They move on because your lives are going in different directions. You often still see each other a few times after someone's moved away or moved on, like Martha's returns in series 4 but you drift apart and it's never the same again. It's not a closed door, it's a slowly closing door that you've both realised you don't want to hold open anymore. For me, Martha's exit - just moving on - is the most human ending and the one that hits the closest to home and therefore the hardest.
Why does she need to move on? Two reasons.
Firstly, because Martha's journey is a cautionary tale. She fell in love with the Doctor but he couldn't love her back. Because he's a time travelling ancient alien who I don't think can really grasp the concept of romantic love anymore. Even with Rose, he still couldn't bring himself to say I love you by the Series 4 finale because he knew it was impossible and could never last - "that's the curse or the time lord." Instead Martha gave everything to him, she was the best companion she could be, and he "ruined her life." As Martha went on to warn Donna: "stand too close and you get burnt." (Gives the Doctor's cries of "burn with me Martha!" in 42 a whole new meaning)
But also, she left because she was ready to move on. When she met him she was training to be a doctor, when she left him she'd become a Doctor in her own right. She'd saved the world without a single weapon, just words. She wasn't ending their friendship when she left, she was just done being a companion. She was ready to be a hero in her own right, helping the Doctor, UNIT, Torchwood, or anyone who needed it. It makes it even more heartbreaking when the Doctor sees the completed mirror image of himself in Series 4 when Donna remarks "you turned her into a soldier."
Martha was the only companion of the RTD era to move beyond the Doctor. Rose was cut off from him then given her own Doctor, while Donna had it all stripped away. Martha's story, while a hard and painful journey, is a satisfying character arc that she gets to bring to a close on her own terms, making her a rare delight in that respect.
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