Talk:Martha Jones

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Freema Agyeman

The actress who played Martha on TV was also in the Army of Ghosts, as the office worker who would sneak out and rendezvous with her co-worker. She had those ear things in and died when the doctor soniced them. – The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.72.109.136 (talk).

Yup. It was explained in Smith and Jones that she was her cousin. --SOTO ☎ 01:26, February 16, 2013 (UTC)

Updating

This article needs information from the many works of prose featuring Martha Jones. It only mentions a a few at the beginning and then one toward the end about the year that never was.– The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.27.85.77 (talk).

Feel free to add that info. Shambala108 ☎ 15:26, February 6, 2014 (UTC)

Infobox

Why does Martha have a much different info box than other characters? Skywalker2255 ☎ 21:48, September 30, 2015 (UTC)

They are fiddling with new infoboxes, and therefore the page has been locked too temporarily. --DCLM ☎ 21:54, September 30, 2015 (UTC)

OKay thanks. I was wondering. Skywalker2255 ☎ 21:56, September 30, 2015 (UTC)

Jacob Dudman

Jacob Dudman provided the narration for one audio story featuring Martha Jones. Does this make him a credible voice actor for Martha?

Thus far, the wiki has no official policy on the matter, the general response being that audios that are fully casted recasting the role and that portrayer being listed as a voice actor. In contrast, audios that are not fully casted use a narrator who reads in for absent actors as the character, the sole exception being if the character swap bodies, as the character narrating then is playing the other characters, as is the case for Damian Lynch in Ghost in the Machine, when his character, Benjamin Chikoto, switches bodies with Jo Grant and the Third Doctor.BananaClownMan ☎ 19:55, April 27, 2018 (UTC)

I actually think it is good there is no policy on the matter because the production company (admittedly, mostly Big Finish) keeps evolving. I would propose to judge each particular story on its merits, that is to say, to use the available scripts/behind-the-scenes featurettes/interviews to determine the status. Here are some examples where Big Finish deviated from their seemingly well-established practices.

1. Exhibit A. Short trip The Turn of the Screw. Short trips are supposed to be the simplest case in that there is only one actor who "performs" or "narrates" or "reads" (all terms used by Big Finish) the story. (There was an exception with two actors performing a two-part short trip, but it only confirmed the rule.) And yet at the end of The Turn of the Screw one clearly hears a voice of another actor, another actor of the opposite gender no less. On the page, this is recorded as the character of Ruth Matheson being present, but the actor, Daphne Ashbrook, is not on the page. Should she be? If she voiced Ruth, obviously yes. Unfortunately, no source for her participation has been found yet.
2. Exhibit B. Companion chronicle The Anachronauts. It is commonly believed that companion chronicles are two-handers, with one actor doing the narration as a companion and the other voicing one other main role. Quite soon it turned out that several actors can do great impersonations of the Doctor (e.g., William Russell and Peter Purves of the First Doctor or Frazer Hines of the Second Doctor). The cast lists do not typically mention this, but this has been discussed extensively in CD Extras. We can hear the Doctor being voiced rather than his words narrated, we know who does it, so it gets recorded. It is recorded as uncredited cast on the story page and it is recorded as other voice actor on the Doctor's page in the infobox. Note, in addition, that, just like in full-cast audios, actors sometimes voice several characters. If this is clearly stated in CD extras (or elsewhere), it is also recorded by the wiki.

The point I am making is that it is always a choice for the actor/writer whether the words of other characters are narrated or voiced. I agree that in most cases actors for these secondary characters are not recorded by the wiki. But the main reason for it is that in most cases there is no information available. The policy prohibits to identify an actor by voice only. So even when the actor makes an effort to use a different voice, we often have no source for it. The more important the character, the more likely this voicing is to be mentioned. And when it is, it is recorded.

And thus we come to the case at hand: The Ninth Doctor Chronicles and The Tenth Doctor Chronicles. Indeed, these are not full-cast audios. The name suggests that they are close to companion chronicles. Are they identical though? And anyway companion chronicle pages chronicle who voices main characters such as the Doctor. Well, let us look at the description at Big Finish. Note the phrase at the end of cast lists: "Other parts played by members of the cast." This does not really fit a definition of a two-hander akin to a companion chronicle. Now we still cannot record anyone just based on this. But this clearly stipulates that there are voiced roles as opposed to narrated ones. Of course, each role needs to be sourced. Fortunately, Jacob Dudman says on BFX: Last Chance: "I enjoyed voicing the companions". I see little reason to disregard the evidence from both the production company and the voicing actor that these two roles, Rose Tyler and Martha Jones were voiced. (I remember a similar statement from Briggs regarding voicing Rose for The Ninth Doctor Chronicles but do not have it written down.)

But, as you can see, my reasons for considering him to be a voice actor for Rose and Martha are very much coincidental. Where evidence exists for this box set, there may be none for another release. Which is why I do not see how a policy would be useful. Amorkuz ☎ 20:49, April 27, 2018 (UTC)