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[retro_eidas]

Ok, this won't be much of a spec unless I find that passage in Hero with a Thousand Faces I'm looking for and I've been nosing through it for the past 10 min and can't find what I'm looking for. In any case, there has been plenty of spec around OG and elsewhere that the explosion we see in the midseason and "The Sound of Drums" promos....

....Is Martha's flat getting blown up.


An explosion in an apartment with a bay window and orange curtains. Considering the danger likely in store for the Doctor and Martha in the finale? I'd probably say it is a fairly safe bet that is indeed Martha's flat going boom.

Why am I bringing up Campbellian metaphor attached to that? In many stories that follow the Hero's Journey, a catalyst is sometimes needed to push the Hero into his/her Departure (usually when the call is rejected or possibly about to be if the Hero is facing a choice) and stepping through the First Threshold. Sometimes painful or symbolic and often in the literal destruction of the home. Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle were murdered and his home was burned down. In Full Metal Alchemist, the Elric brothers burn down their home before they set off to find the Philosopher's Stone. Harry Potter's parents are murdered and his home demolished. Arthur Dent's home and planet are demolished before he heads off with Ford. Of course, the difference seemingly being between these Heroes and Martha Jones, instead of the destruction of her home happening at the beginning, it's seemingly in the finale of this season, or as some speculate, the end of her travels with the Doctor. However, if Martha's story does follow along the Campbellian archetypes, the destruction of her flat would make me think Martha's journey has only just begun (also tied to what I'm going to assume is an imminent catharsis for the Doctor and his issues, namely with Bad Wolf). Symbolized by the destruction of her flat. That she has yet to actually step through the Threshold and something has been holding her (and possibly the Doctor as well) back.

Now this might mean Martha may go on - due to being forever altered by her time with the Doctor - setting off on a new, perhaps drastically different path in life but not one that necessarily ties directly with the Doctor. However, Martha is something of a late bloomer where her companionship has been concerned. She didn't become "official" companion until "The Lazarus Experiment" and since then she's still often been undermined by the Doctor via the shadow of the companion that came before her. It's like she hasn't yet been able to completely become a proper companion with the Doctor unable to move on from his various issues. Kind of like Martha being Jonah and the Doctor is (or his issues are) the whale or perhaps for Who, Martha is Red Ridinghood and the Doctor is the [bad?] wolf. The Doctor himself consumed by memories of the companion (aka, "Bad Wolf") who came before Martha and thus keeping Martha unintentionally at arm's length. IOW, the Doctor also as Red Ridinghood trapped in the belly of the [Bad] Wolf.

The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the
unknown, and would appear to have died.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, pg90 (The Belly of the Whale), Joseph Campbell

Allegorically, then, the passage into a temple and the hero-dive through the jaws of the whale are identical adventures, both denoting, in picture language, the life-centering, life-renewing act.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, pg92 (The Belly of the Whale), Joseph Campbell

That although the Doctor gave her a key and says she was never really just a passenger, at the same time she has been made to feel not entirely full-fledged either. Like this whole season has basically been the Doctor and Martha at the cusp of the Threshold, while Martha has desperately been trying to push him through... but he's been (again, unknowingly) extremely stubborn and resistant. Like he's terrified to take that final step, but until he does, the journey and their lives (and relationship) remain stagnant. They're both trapped in the belly of the beast. One way or another, the Doctor is going to have to breach that Threshold and most likely with Martha's direct assistance/guidance. It's interesting to note that in that same chapter of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it mentions the Osiris myth (being trapped in a sarcophagus by his brother Set = belly of the whale). Upon return - rescued by Isis - his brother Set tears him into fourteen pieces. We're reminded of the Doctor's loss of his hand in "Utopia" from all the way back in "The Christmas Invasion". Of course, if there is any similar symbolism being used here via the Osiris myth, this would seem to indicate the Doctor possibly not being quite right - "torn to pieces" - all the way back in "The Christmas Invasion" (possibly indicative of the regeneration going not very smoothly at all). Since having the vortex within him in "The Parting of the Ways"? He has - perhaps literally - been consumed by Bad Wolf and he's been in it's belly for almost two whole seasons. A(n emotional and physical) sarcophagus - literal in the case of "The Last of the Time Lords" (as according to the press release he's being held prisoner by Saxon) - from where he's waiting to be released. Who holds the key in releasing him? Probably the one the Doctor gave the TARDIS key to back in "42". Also the one who liberated him from the Sun possession. Who brought him back to life not once (restarted his hearts), but several times. Not unlike how Isis brought Osiris back to life from being sealed in the sarcophagus and put him back together after being torn to pieces by Set.

It does make me think Martha kind of must still be in season 4 and the Doctor's companion and her real Hero's Journey (as his companion) won't start until either "The Last of the Time Lords" or the season 4 premiere. After the Doctor can be liberated of those issues holding him - and his relationship with Martha - back. Then the relationship, the Hero's Journey, can truly start for the both of them.

Comments

[juanitadark.livejournal.com]

The most recent myspace entry on Martha's journal says she's gone back and read all the previous entries and this helps. So I went back and read them all last night. There is a lot to suggest that her time travel has changed her and that she's started to feel separate from her family (even before meeting the Doctor).

I'm sure this season there was a line spoken by the Doctor that was something like: "The ability to face death is part of being human."

All through the season Martha's been on the cusp of that point. There's even a blog entry where she mentions seeing a patient die in front of her and that was the first time she'd experienced death in a big way outside of her cousin dying - because the patient died right in front of her.

All through the season Martha's nearly died and it's been hinted at but she hasn't been ready to die - the choice either hasn't been hers to make or she's been whipped out of harms way at the last minute (again, outside of her own choosing even though the intervention is welcome). Crossing the Threshold would be the choice to die to save everyone. Or to make a drastic choice that equals death for the life she once lead - because she'll never be that same person again after making that choice.

You are right about this being the start, but it's also an end in a way.

Only thing I think you're missing is that the Doctor being immersed in his Rose issues is part of his journey too - and that his and Martha's journey's are now interwined in a way that her call to adventure is what resolves his being ironically, for it's what he referred to Jack as, stuck in a fixed point in time.

I do sense a rebirth for Martha and by proxy that it might drive the Doctor to a new threshold (maybe one explored in the Christmas episode). I do think she will appear to have died but won't have.

I think something was amiss since the Doctor regenerated and the loss of Rose was a hint and that's what tore him to pieces. Then Donna came and gave him another hint. And then Joan, and then Jack, and then The Master, and finally now Martha. He's had hints all along but it hasn't stopped him. I think what happens in the finale with Martha will finally throw it in his face and he'll have no choice but to pay attention.

However, I think that Martha might initiate her own path away from her family and the Doctor, and that when he is without her he'll realise that he needs her less as a Companion but more as an equal. So when they do come together it'll be a totally different kind of relationship that both of them are open to learning from.

[eido.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this season there was a line spoken by the Doctor that was something like: "The ability to face death is part of being human."

"Facing death is part of being human" in TLE. That whole scene with Lazarus at the end really goes into that.

I do sense a rebirth for Martha and by proxy that it might drive the Doctor to a new threshold (maybe one explored in the Christmas episode). I do think she will appear to have died but won't have.

Then we have a human like Jack, who faced death and conquered it (by way of 'Bad Wolf' who couldn't control the time vortex inside her). The Doctor seems to have made some kind of peace with Jack's state (partly due to Jack being a good sort of man even if he may not trust him completely but also the immortality resulting in something he had no control over). Considering this confrontation and resolve seems to have come in the first part of the 3-part finale? I have wondered if this may be leading to something specifically regarding how Martha may choose to die to save the world. How - erm, barring this choice not being a permanent one - it may (physically) change her and also how the Doctor responds to that.

However, I think that Martha might initiate her own path away from her family and the Doctor, and that when he is without her he'll realise that he needs her less as a Companion but more as an equal.

"There's someone for everyone." I have often wondered if they made Martha a doctor-in-training in the beginning (inevitably leading to her becoming a doctor herself, either in the finale or early S4), tying synonymously with her eventual role in the Doctor's life. Symbolically and literally Becoming A (or The) Doctor, an equal. Now it's apparently on Martha Jones shoulders to save the world? Certainly fitting, isn't it?

Although let's hope she doesn't end up with a (metaphoric) pigface.

So when they do come together it'll be a totally different kind of relationship that both of them are open to learning from.

Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Isn't that what the end of The Waste Land is about? That after so much bleakness and despair, the capacity to look at something from a different perspective can give a sense of hope?

[juanitadark.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I have felt ever since he casually said 'no, I don't think so' to Martha, being that they didn't really need to have her say that and have him reply like that (unless they really just want him to come across as casually cruel to her at every occasion when they could actually bond) that it would come back as a case in point.

I still have a strong feeling that he was wrong on both counts.

As she says in her journal:

We all get scared. We all get upset. We all need comforting. And, sometimes, you have to be the grown-up. Sometimes, you have to be the Doctor.

And she's wearing his colours (red, blue) in the finale it seems. The only thing I'm curious about is her appearing to be working with UNIT. UNIT must not trust Saxon and his extraterrestrial friends. Interesting.

[eido.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I have felt ever since he casually said 'no, I don't think so' to Martha, being that they didn't really need to have her say that and have him reply like that (unless they really just want him to come across as casually cruel to her at every occasion when they could actually bond) that it would come back as a case in point.

Really, it just seemed a little too casually cruel, didn't it? Granted, it functioned as catalyst to get her annoyed thus push him into a much needed talk about Gallifrey and those issues. However... it just struck me as a bit much. That tends to automatically set that placemark of Remember This For Later in my head.

I still have a strong feeling that he was wrong on both counts.

Then of course you got them both trapped in the Lazarus blender in TLE. I can't imagine I was the only one that thought - apart from white TARDIS - of "The Fly" when looking at that thing. We all know what happened in that story. Then there's the none-too-subtle Frankenstein connotations in DIM/EOTD (the horrible experiments, lightning giving life, the metal beds with the inanimate husks on them covered in white sheets... it was practically straight from James Whale spliced with Kenneth Branagh). Martha as Bride of Frankenstein The Doctor? Ironic that would be considering one of the points being made this season seems to be the Doctor is the Doctor, but he's also the Monster. The one who saves and the one who destroys.

And she's wearing his colours (red, blue) in the finale it seems.

Any bets on the Doctor back in the blue suit / red tie & Chucks by the finale?

The only thing I'm curious about is her appearing to be working with UNIT. UNIT must not trust Saxon and his extraterrestrial friends.

By the looks of things, UNIT seems to have been taken over by the Americans, even if it's a UN thing (I could imagine the UK gov't might have sekritly pushed UNIT out in favor of TW). Of course if the president / UNIT commanders are amongst those Saxon gases in TSofD? Yeah, I can't imagine that would make UNIT too happy. Martha + UNIT could be aligning against a common enemy (also gives her opportunity to flirt a bit with some hot SAS/Special Ops boys, I'm calling a new Riley somewhere in TSofD or TLotTL). It's also possible the Doctor orders Martha to stay with UNIT (who he trusts as opposed to Torchwood, even if Jack is at the helm), while he gallivants off muy macho like the Lone Ranger and confronts Saxon doing manly Doctor stuff. If that's the case, Martha probably will stick with being babysat by UNIT early on TLotTL, but then the Doctor / her family gets in trouble and she says frak it all then goes off alone to the rescue. With or without UNIT support. Heroes, after all, always come to that point they must stand alone.

[eido.livejournal.com]

An addendum to the extent or nature of Martha's "change", it's something I've been kicking around since the end of "Gridlock". Ok, we knew at the time that the Doctor was most likely wrong (or half-wrong) in denying what the Face of Boe told him as having to do with living Time Lords (proven wrong - and specifically how - in "Utopia"). However, I just can't shake the notion that if the Doctor was wrong about that, if he may have also been wrong in negating (allbeit, understandably) Martha's thinking "You are not alone" might have to do with her. With the whole Chameleon Arch thing and the vague possibility of that "Something close that I can't see" (TSC) line maybe meaning more than just the Doctor's inability to see how he's hurting Martha / keeping her involuntarily at arm's length as companion? Totally could just be me being cracky and paranoid (per usual), but... it's been niggling at me for nine eps now.

[juanitadark.livejournal.com]

You know I wanted to sum the critical Martha plot up in two words, I'd be inclined to say: dark phoenix. But I'm sure what actually happens onscreen will go another way entirely.

Still, how cool is it that one show has all these great possiblities? I'll be glad when s3 is over and yet there will be a sucking void where it once lived on Saturdays.

[eido.livejournal.com]

You know I wanted to sum the critical Martha plot up in two words, I'd be inclined to say: dark phoenix. But I'm sure what actually happens onscreen will go another way entirely.

Yikes, Dark Phoenix, really? Of course, that could tie into the "burn with me" thing (in a frightening way). But like Phoenix (and the mythological connection), who dies - burned out by the power - and rises from the ashes. Although Martha seems more set-up as the one to release that terrible power (probably being held by the Master and/or the Doctor - crazy, vengeful Time Lords), not embrace it. Then again, I remember her roar in "42" so I'm not ready to take it out of the realm of possibilities just yet.

[juanitadark.livejournal.com]

She probably is just set up to release it. But it would be shame that it would end that way (to me anyway). Although given RTDs Rose-fetish that's probably exactly what we'll get :(

However, I'm still curious to see how the Adeola reveal ties in with all this.

[eido.livejournal.com]

Although here's a disturbing scenario for you (which I brought up to parrotfish in the other thread), but what if Martha (or the Doctor or the Master) does in fact go Dark Phoenix (possibly due to genetically manipulation by Saxon)... and they don't end up saving the Earth? The finale ends with the Earth exploding, everyone dying (maybe except the Master, Jack and the Doctor staring out in horror at it all) and a "To Be Continued"?

Martha's true goddess moment may come from sending the Doctor (perhaps not before some Goddess!Martha/Doctor talk in a big white room or something... akin to Morpheus explaining the Matrix to Neo or the Architect/Neo's confrontation) or his essence/whatever back in time to when things changed (for the worse) for humanity leading to that apocalyptic end? When Ten deposed Harriet Jones - killing her Golden Age - and thus leaving it open for Saxon to take power. Of course, if the timeline is so dramatically changed, that could mean everything that happened in S2 and S3 doesn't happen or they happen anyway, just in different ways they did the first time around. Torchwood is still created, thus Harriet Jones uses the weapon to destroy the Sycorax, Cybermen/Daleks invade, Adeola dies, Rose ends up in another dimension... and eventually the Doctor meets Martha again (but as he still has the memories of that other timeline, he's not overwhelmed by his emo and she can be a real companion not held away at arm's length by him). Although she may or may not still be available to him (Martha had no personal attachments that held her back being his companion... she may have them the next they meet). It would be interesting Ten - finally - displaying jealousy for once if Martha had a boyfriend/fiance/husband Ten had to compete with for her companionship.