Your fave is problematic: Russell T Davies

rj-anderson:

clarabosswald:

ON THE ONE HAND: Gave us Martha Jones, the first black female companion in Doctor Who’s history, an amazingly smart, brave, kind and loyal young doctor who went on an incredible journey of transformation and had to deal with things like racism and PTSD, who loved, lost, suffered and saved the world before eventually emerging from it all stronger and better than she was before.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Spent much of Martha’s season comparing her to a white woman, made it clear the Doctor thought of her as inferior and constantly referenced Rose throughout S3, and contributed to the fanbase’s shitty backlash against her by never giving us a proper chance to move on from Rose and warm up to her. And then he even made the fact that she walked the earth FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR to save the world AND the Doctor AND her imprisoned family about ‘coming out of Rose’s shadow’ by having the Master WHO HAD NEVER EVEN MET ROSE say, just before her hour of triumph, “Such a disappointment. In days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the time vortex. This one’s useless" – a line which makes no fucking sense, I mean, if he was going to reference one of the Doctor’s old companions, why not Jo or Nyssa or, I don’t know, ONE OF THEM HE ACTUALLY MET, I mean, was it really fucking necessary to have the Master say in that moment “Hey Doctor, your companion’s shit, Rose was so much better, lol.” Did Russell T really have to make that moment about proving she’s just as good as Rose? For that matter, why is absorbing the time vortex something to live up to? Rose looked at the heart of the TARDIS, became superpowered and nearly died, all in the space of about five minutes. But Martha walks the earth for a year – A YEAR – all while a remaining a small, insignificant, vulnerable human, lived in fear, starved, slept in ditches, watched people die and worried about her family being tortured or killed, yet somehow that’s still not good enough? She PERSONALLY eludes the Master’s clutches for A YEAR and his response is ‘yeah, but you ain’t Rose.’ What the fuck? Why was so much of Martha’s triumph about proving she’s just as good as Rose? Why did Russell T make the Doctor treat her like shit for the crime of not being Rose? I mean, leaving aside the awful racial implications, the Doctor has NEVER consistently treated a new companion unfairly because he missed his old ones. I get that Ten would miss Rose, his first companion since he lost his people, but Russell T could easily have shown the Doctor being sad and emotionally distant without having him say “MARTHA YOU’RE SHIT WHY AREN’T YOU ROSE, ROSE WOULD KNOW, ROSE WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOU.” And on top of that, The Runaway Bride showed Ten dealing with Rose’s loss. At the end of the episode he asked Donna to come with him which proved he was ready for a new companion. The issue had been dealt with but Russell T CHOSE to go back on it just so he could make ‘Rose vs Martha’ a thing. Why? Season 3 was MARTHA’S season. It was the first to feature a non-white female companion. It was the first to feature a black female companion. And he chose to diminish her character just for the sake of making his personal favourite, Rose Tyler, (who already had two seasons of her own!) look better.

More swearing than I usually reblog but I feel this whole commentary ON A VISCERAL LEVEL and I will NEVER BE OVER IT.

I don’t hate Rose in the least, but wow do I ever dislike what RTD did to the Doctor and all his subsequent companions, ESPECIALLY Martha, because of her.