Big Finish – The Year of Martha Jones Review

Big Finish released a few months ago the first trio of adventures featuring the 10th Doctor’s companion Martha Jones. Set in the time between the 2007 TV episodes The Sound of Drums and The Last of the Time Lords they explore Martha travelling to different parts of the world spreading hope with tales of her friend, the Doctor.

Martha Jones I’ll admit isn’t a character I’ve revisited a huge amount in the revived tv series. Part of the reason is her journey as a character felt marred by the decision to write her as falling in love with the 10^th Doctor. Series 3 had some really interesting concepts such as Martha just leaving her career for adventure, how her family are manipulated by Mr Saxon to distrust the Doctor, issues of treatment of her colour in history, the Doctor grieving for Rose so not wanting someone to become of the Tardis again.

As a smarter, far more independent woman than Rose ever was adding the burden of unrequited love felt undeserved.  So I welcomed this boxset which saw her on the run, from the Master and having to survive on her own.

1.1 The Last Diner by James Goss

The trilogy gets off to a quiet start with this story which serves to establish how Martha has created a daily routine from travelling the world as the Doctor instructed. The story opens with an expectation in an American outpost diner as two people Karen ( played by Marina “ Star Trek TNG Sirtis – I’m so excited to see what she will do with this part  ) and Tucker ( played by Ewart James Walters ) await a visitor Martha. The impression that’s given that it’s Martha’s reputation precedes her like some evangelist preacher.

What I did wonder about and is not explained was how Martha gained her reputation and that people are in awe of “the great Martha Jones” given the power the Master has over communications and the psychic network. At one point Karen tries to cook noodles over an electric burner which takes a long time as the gas isn’t working so normal life has been disrupted to a large extent. Perhaps the network doesn’t function effectively everywhere and in The Sound of Drums Martha, the Doctor and Jack’s faces appeared on TV as terrorist suspects

Having the story set primarily in one location, the diner allows us to see Martha’s routine on a day-to-day basis. She is outside of the camps where people are interned to work and sneak out when they can to see her. Martha travels the world and tells stories, that is her routine but she is still very much down to Earth.  “It’s just me” as she greets people. There is a sense of how clear her mission is to her but also how difficult Martha is shown still learning how to tell her stories.

The number of stories Martha tells to the group left me a little bored, to be honest. On the one hand, I understand we all have stories to tell, every one of us. But in terms of moving this story along it does make it feel a bit static at times. Essentially The Last Diner is a character piece if you can ignore any impatience. What is interesting is how Martha’s audience absorbs the stories about the Doctor.

Karen, a typical “soccer mom” questions some of the Doctor’s actions and believes some of the more grander invasions of aliens such as the siege of Canary Wharf by Cybermen” the ghosts” are CIA plots. Tucker, an older gentleman however takes real pleasure in believing the goodness of the Doctor. There is a lovely scene where Tucker and Martha share a cup of coffee, from a  discarded coffee filter Tucker rescued from a bin. You get a sense of the normal world that has been lost and these are the most successful scenes for me.

Although I didn’t get a sense of how much time has passed since Martha left the Valiant I’m guessing it’s a  few months as there seems to be an acceptance or is it hopelessness of the new reality from the people she meets. We get a few very short scenes featuring the mocking cruelness of the Toclafane against their human prisoners, and the horror of new arrivals shipped to the camps but that blackness and bleakness feel outside of the intimate safeness of the diner.

The initial meeting where an old friend of Martha’s from school, Holly appears and the surprise arrival of  Francine, Martha’s mother (played by a marvellously snippy Adjoa Andoh) adds tension to the situation about how far she can trust them. Francine serves to casts doubt on Martha’s peaceful mission. Is that all there is to it she questions?  But it’s a needed element as there is an interesting idea here about whether giving hope is enough for these people when the Earth is in essence subjugated.

The sparkiness between Martha and Francine feels natural considering how bitter Francine can be and Adjoa revisits her character with some relish. Her mother’s pithy sarcasm brings legitimate doubt on the Doctor from a protectiveness that Martha has to counteract. Francine can’t help herself from puncturing Martha’s stories with reality only a mother knows and it forces Martha to think about her relationship with her mother.

1.2 Silver Medal by Tim Foley

So, Martha, Hollie and Francine arrive at Hope and this story extends out from the cosiness of the diner in the first story where people are coming together but in far tougher regime in the “biggest and best” resistance camp in North America.

One of the characters Dustin, the second in command to leader Jessie, likens it to the American dream to strive. There isn’t any equality here however as the members of the camp who work hardest will eat. The stakes are high as Martha sees the unfairness of the system and there is nervousness within the camp when Jessie is around. There aren’t any standout characters that capture my imagination. Even finding out about Jessie’s personal losses doesn’t make me warm to her and I honestly felt more for Karen and Tucker as characters from the previous story. A new alien race the Sovari is mentioned which  Jessie reveals is an ally to the camp and it is intriguing for a while to wonder how they fit in with the Toclafane.

I would say the element that is the most successful is the story Martha tells of her and the Doctor’s visit to the nearby Providence mine 100 years in the past.  There is only one story which works more successfully to convey the parable of coming together and a kinder world. The descriptions of the Argans creatures with silver tentacles and of Baby Lizzie by Martha are detailed enough to create vivid images and be memorable in the mind. I like how the story Martha tells also weaves into the direction that the current occupants of the resistance will go at the end of the story.

1.3 Deceived by Matt Fitton

This story wraps up the trilogy and brings together strands from the previous stories. There isn’t a captive audience to hear more stories as Hollie, Martha and Francine hide out but I like how time is spent with just Martha and her mum talking and hopefully understanding each other. Adjoa Andoh and Freema Agyeman work so well together and understand their character so well.

Contrary to what the trio may imagine  Martha’s journeys haven’t gone unnoticed as agents Miss Beecham and Strand are on Martha’s trail and have been for a while. I must admit the psychotic nature of the Toclafane gives me shivers.  Getting a flashback to how Miss Beecham ( played by an excellent Julie Graham) an accountant chasing late payment volunteered and was recruited to the Master’s army was interesting as it gave some depth to her ruthless relish. As Martha comments about what she has seen on her travels, some people have found their bravery, and others have given up their humanity to survive in this bleak world.

The final story does bring some surprises (I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t listened to it) but I rather enjoyed the deceptions played on Martha. Francine and Martha escaping to the top of the building are rather tense as it doesn’t allow an easy escape. The Toclafane sensing  Francine feels like an end and Adjoa Andoh gives Francine guts and grit to protect her child.

Miss Beecham has played a long game to find Martha and wants to know what she is doing really besides all the stories. Miss Beecham wants to find the secret to killing the Master. The doctor doesn’t crack under her interrogation but she admits she is building a weapon of sorts. I like how the mission the Doctor passes to Martha gives her a phenomenal strength to just keep going on her travels.

I can’t quite believe it’s 15 years since the transmission of The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords but Freema Agyeman and Adjoa Andoh slip effortlessly back into the Jones family dynamic. The idea of covering the year that Martha was away is an excellent one. The Master’s world that she inhabits is a bleak one and the stories Martha tells are about the Doctor. The actions of the Doctor usually go unnoticed by the everyday populace of Earth. He’s the unsung hero who saves the world so imply her stories do impart something rather magical about the Doctor. They become also morality tales casting a mirror to her audience of their situation so they do work on that level.

I’m not sure I would want another boxset listening to Martha to tell too many stories though as it takes away from developing the characters she meets.  It would have been nice to have had one of the stories set outside of the USA to show the breadth of Martha’s travels but given the interconnectivity between these stories as one long adventure, there may just have to be a volume 2.

The Year of Martha Jones is available now from Big Finish for £19.99