Doctor Who fans remember the departure of the Doctor's companion Rose as pretty hard to take. After Billie Piper left the show, the tenth Doctor's next companion had some Bad Wolf-sized shoes to fill. As we know, the Doctor does not like to travel alone and David Tennant's Doctor was no exception — he met medical student Martha Jones when Doctor Who 's third season began. As played by Freema Agyeman, Martha not only loved traveling with the Doctor, she loved the Doctor. She knew he would never return his affections though and moved on with her life, and Agyeman off of the show.
Martha had some fabulous storylines (including some flirtation with Andrew Garfield!), but I always felt bad for her. She was so obviously in love with the Doctor that he was always a bit standoffish with her. She was terribly jealous of Rose and she even had to see the Doctor fall in love with a woman when he was human John Smith in the episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood." Regardless of her heartbreak, Martha was still a brave, kind, and devoted companion.
Since Doctor Who, Agyeman has kept busy, maintaining a successful TV career. She played junior crown prosecutor (lawyer to us Yanks) Alesha Phillips on Law & Order: UK, the British version of Dick Wolf's hit American TV show.
In almost every version of Law & Order, strong women are featured so I'm sure Agyeman's turn in Doctor Who proved she'd be great for the role. And in an awesome Who connection, fifth Doctor Peter Davison played Alesha's boss in the third season.
More recently, Agyeman came across the Atlantic and starred on The Carrie Diaries as the vivacious Larissa Loughlin, editor at Interview magazine. She introduced Carrie Bradshaw to the fashion world of NYC, so we've got to be thankful to her for helping Carrie out as a young woman so that she could end up as the fabulous Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City .
Unfortunately, the CW canceled The Carrie Diaries this year, so we won't be seeing Larissa return next season. But Agyeman looked fantastic rocking the '80s fashion. And she's looking much more glamorous than Martha ever did offscreen as well.
But don't fret, Martha fans. Agyeman has already started filming a new series, Sense8. The sci-fi thriller will be available to stream on Netflix either late 2014 or early 2015 and the cast includes an actor from one of my other favorite supernatural shows — Naveen Andrews from Lost. Sayid and Martha together?? Amazing.
Before she ever became a companion, Agyeman played the part of Adeola (Adi) on Doctor Who. She worked for Torchwood One during a Cybermen attack in the episode "Army of Ghosts."
Although it's typically odd for an actor to portray different characters on the same TV show, it's not rare for Doctor Who. The twelfth Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi, first appeared as a marble merchant in the episode "Fires of Pompeii." Karen Gillam (companion Amy Pond) was also in that episode as a soothsayer.
For Agyeman, they covered the fact that Adi and Martha were played by the same actress by making the two characters cousins. (Hey, my cousin and I got mistaken for each other once, so uh, identical cousins makes sense?) Although it was a bit of a stretch, I think it was a good move since her turn as Adi was only two episodes before she premiered as Martha. Also in the Whoniverse, she portrayed Martha on Torchwood after being finished as a regular companion.
When interviewed last year about her time on Doctor Who, Agyeman said:
The companions today are there to challenge the Doctor, to contribute. They are intelligent, gutsy, strong, positive role models. Do I think there is room to change further? Yes. I'd love to see the Doctor be a woman one day, or a different ethnicity. It's one of the major strengths of the show. The Doctor can be anything.
We always knew you were smart, Martha. And it was wonderful to see that after traveling with the Doctor, Martha Jones got a happy ending. Not only does she still work on saving the world, she married a man who could truly be there for her and appreciated her — Mickey Smith (Rose's ex).
And based on what's ahead for Agyeman, it seems she got a happy ending too.
Images: Adrian Rogers/BBC America; Getty Images; Time Lord Gifs/Tumblr
