Doctor in training, heart in pieces, dignity (mostly) intact.
Character Overview
Martha Jones is many things: intelligent, capable, a medical student with a knack for staying calm when the world is ending (which, let’s be honest, happens a lot around the Doctor). What she isn’t, unfortunately, is appreciated. Poor Martha spent most of her TARDIS career pining after Ten, who was far too busy brooding about Rose Tyler to notice the brilliant woman literally saving his life every other episode.
Her first outing (Smith and Jones) set the tone perfectly: she meets the Doctor when the hospital she’s working in gets yoinked to the moon. Instead of panicking, Martha pulls out her stethoscope, starts diagnosing the problem, and ends up helping take down a plasma-sucking space granny. If that’s not companion material, nothing is.
Martha is pragmatic, fiercely loyal, and arguably one of the most competent companions in the show’s history. She sticks with the Doctor through some of his darkest days — like when he spends an entire year disguised as a grumpy old human in Human Nature/The Family of Blood. (She’s essentially his nanny, bodyguard, and therapist while he’s too busy playing Edwardian teacher. No, really. She deserved hazard pay.)
And let’s not forget The Year That Never Was in Last of the Time Lords. Martha literally walks the Earth for a year, spreading the gospel of the Doctor, dodging the Master’s death squads, and inspiring humanity to resist. That’s right: while the Doctor’s trapped in a birdcage looking like Dobby the House Elf, Martha is actually saving the world.
But alas, Martha’s story is bittersweet. The unrequited love angle got old fast, and eventually she did what no one expected: she walked away. She told the Doctor, essentially, “Thanks, but I deserve better.” And she was right. Later appearances (with UNIT, Torchwood, and Mickey of all people) showed her thriving without him.
Martha Jones may not always get the fandom hype she deserves, but she’s one of the most resilient, practical, and flat-out human companions in Who history. Basically: Rose was the Doctor’s heart, Donna was his best mate, but Martha? Martha was the one who didn’t need him.