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Martha Jones is a 23-year-old medical student. Like Rose, Martha has family members who are seen in the programme: Adjoa Andoh plays her mother Francine, with Trevor Laird as her father Clive (divorced from Francine), Gugu Mbatha-Raw as her sister Tish and Reggie Yates as her brother, Leo.[15] Her cousin, Adeola Oshodi, is deceased, as Martha revealed to the Doctor in "Smith and Jones". Nevertheless, Agyeman notes that Martha is "very independent"; living alone and having almost completed her medical qualifications.[16] She does not have an ex-boyfriend, but writer Russell T Davies has stated that she is not a lesbian, as had been rumoured in some quarters.[14] An article in The Times speculated that, since Agyeman has martial arts skills, she may have "a more physical approach" to the role.[17]

Freema Agyeman told the school publication The Newspaper that Martha is older and more secure than Rose.[18] Martha, by contrast, travels with the Doctor for the adventure, rather than because of a need for guidance or education (Agyeman also told The Newspaper that Martha hopes to eventually go back to Earth and finish her medical education).[18] In addition, Martha's family appears to be of a higher social class than Rose; whereas Rose's family was fairly typically working class, Martha's family appears to be wealthier (her father owns what appears to be a late model Mercedes-Benz convertible, and the clothes worn by her family are substantially more in line with fashion), probably middle to upper middle class.

Drawing from her creator's pool of recurring names, Martha and her family share the last name "Jones" with many other Russell T Davies-penned characters. Foremost among them are Harriet Jones in Doctor Who, Ianto Jones and Eugene Jones in Torchwood, Yanto Jones in Mine All Mine and Stuart Allen Jones in Queer as Folk. Davies states that reusing names (such as Tyler, Smith, Harper, Harkness and Jones) allows him to get a grip of the character on the blank page.[19] In casting Martha, the actress Freema Aygeman was reused from her minor role as Adeola Oshodi, in the Series 2 episode "Army of Ghosts". Acknowledging this, the resemblance of the two characters was touched upon in "Smith and Jones" when Martha makes reference to her deceased cousin, also serving to connect Martha to the larger Doctor Who universe.

[edit] Character development

Throughout Doctor Who series three, Martha pined for the Doctor's affection. In its final story — "Last of the Time Lords", Martha was separated from the Doctor for a year, and after saving the world she decided to return to Earth to allow herself to qualify as an MD and get over her crush on the Doctor. Following the airdate of "Last of the Time Lords", the BBC announced that the character would return to screens in three episodes of Torchwood Series 2, before rejoining David Tennant's Tenth Doctor alongside new companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) for five episodes half-way into the fourth series of Doctor Who.[20][21] Appearing in Torchwood, it is explained through exposition that Martha is a medical specialist for the United Nations' (fictional) organisation U.N.I.T.,[22] a qualified doctor and bona fide expert on alien life.[22] First appearing on the spin-off series in Torchwood episode "Reset", fellow companion Jack Harkness establishes Martha's credibility to her new peers, slyly commenting upon her vast experience. In the same episode, Martha notes that an "impeccable source" recommended her employment to U.N.I.T., implying the Doctor holds the highest level of faith in Martha's capability.

[edit] Social issues

Martha has been described in newspaper reports as the "first ethnic-minority companion in the 43-year television history of Doctor Who"[17] or the Doctor's "first black assistant"[23] (Agyeman herself was born to Ghanaian and Iranian parents). These comments were erroneous, with Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) becoming the Doctor's first black companion the year before (although Martha was the first in the role of "primary companion", the position previously held by Rose). As a black time traveller, the series' writers often used the character's presence as a means of injecting social commentary, tackling social issues such as racism in both bygone eras as well as the present day.

In the episode "The Shakespeare Code", Martha wonders if she is safe in an era before emancipation, but the Doctor is blasé, pointing out that he's not even human – when she prompts: "[I'm] not exactly white, if you hadn't noticed", he is nonplussed, ethnicity being irrelevant to him. Martha soon reacts with surprise and possible offence to Shakespeare's use of Elizabethan terms for black people such as "blackamoor" and "ethiop". For a moment, she thinks these terms could be racist (the Doctor quips that it is "political correctness gone mad"), but realises Shakespeare is actually enamoured of her. The episode also demonstrates, in line with current academic thinking, that the England of 1599 was more ethnically diverse than might be expected. At the end of the episode, he refers to her as his "Dark Lady" – to whom the real Shakespeare dedicated a number of his sonnets. Other episodes such as "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood", set in 1913, depict the racism that Martha encounters in different eras – here, public school boys exhibit casual bigotry, which she is forced to rise above, and even decent people are seen to be products of their time.

When the TARDIS crew are nationally branded as terrorists in "The Sound of Drums", the Master says that the Doctor's current companions "tick every demographic box" – referring to Martha's ethnicity and Jack's sexual orientation. He later refers to Jack and Martha as "the girlie and the freak", adding to the insult by claiming he is not sure which is which

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