The Two Doctors
coverage of series 3, 2007
- Welcome aboard Miss Jones... (31 March)
- Labour of love (7 April)
- Cat and Doc (14 April)
- The Thinking Man's Dalek (21 April)
- Enemy of the States (28 April)
- Who's scariest monster yet? (5 May)
- Burn, baby, burn (19 May)
- We're coming to get you! (26 May)
- Loving the Alien (2 June)
- Hell's Angels (9 June)
- And then there were three (16 June)
- Master mind (23 June)
- On set with... Freema Agyeman (30 June)
- Who's on board? (22 December)
S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | Specials | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S9 | S10
- Publication: Radio Times
- Date: 2007-03-31
- Author: Nick Griffiths
- Page: 12
- Language: English
Well, almost two. Martha Jones is about to qualify as a doctor when she bumps into our hero. But is actress Freema Agyeman keeping her feet on the ground?
Freema Agyeman made her Doctor Who debut last year as Adeola (below), who died in the Cyberman episode Army of Ghosts. Watch episode one of the new series carefully to discover Martha's link with Adeola
FREEMA ON ... MARTHA
"Martha is very different from Rose [Billie Piper's character]. She's academic and very independent. She has her own flat and she's almost qualified to be a doctor, whereas Rose was living at home with her mum, and there was that feeling of slight disgruntlement with her life. She was searching for something when the Doctor came along and helped her find herself.
"With Martha, it's more a sense of interruption. She seems very grounded and happy with where she's at, then the Doctor comes along and kind of blows everything out of the water for her. She goes with him more out of curiosity than need.
"She comes from this bustling family, and when we first see her, they're all turning to her for advice. Even though she's not the eldest, she seems to be the boss. Martha has an old head on young shoulders and that's what makes her more challenging of the Doctor. She wants answers.
"We're all slightly different around different people, so Martha brings out different facets of the Doctor that maybe the audience hasn't seen before. There's a freshness and an openness and a directness to Martha. She's quite tough."
FREEMA ON ...
MARTHA'S LOVE LIFE
"Martha doesn't have a boyfriend. I think she went headfirst into her medical studies and that's as much as she's had time for.
"Is there a frisson with the Doctor? Yes, there's definitely an attraction on her part. When she meets him, he's heartbroken in the wake of Rose. Rose loved the Doctor and he loved her. They had an amazing relationship. Martha does see that he's been very touched, and very early on she thinks that she can do something to woo that broken heart. But later on, she realises it's probably one-way traffic."
Do you have a favourite scene?
One that was really exhilarating was in the first episode when the hospital we're in is yanked up to the Moon. Vineeta Rishi and I (above) were told to move around in the room, and we were thinking "Is this going to look eggy?" Are we going to go 'Arrgh!' and fall into stuff?" Silly question — this is Doctor Who. Everything in the room was rigged to pistons, so it was shuddering. The floor wasn't moving, but with things rattling and cups flying all over the place, all we had to do was fall around. The noise was so loud as well. We were genuinely screaming and disoriented. Completely out of breath, we went round and looked at the monitor — the footage looked so believable.
FREEMA ON ... FREEMA
You started filming last August. Did you hit the ground running?
Yes, it's been crazy. Every time I think I've got it under control, something else comes up — so I'm not taking anything for granted!
What took the most getting used to?
The really, really early starts. I can be up at 5.30am and then I do an 11-hour day, but that doesn't include travel or hair and make-up, so by the time I get home, it can be 7.30-8.30pm, then I'm looking at my lines, having a shower. I'm not a morning person. I'm happy to stay up till one, two and sleep till nine, ten. And it didn't get any easier; even near the end of filming, I still found, when the alarm went off, I'd go, "Owwwwww!"
The Martha costume — the red leather look — is that the sort of thing you'd wear normally?
It's not. I wore this [red leather jacket] for so long that I started to get very used to it, even though it's not the sort of thing I'd normally wear. In general, I'm more hoodies, jeans and comfy clothes, so this is a bit dressy for me. It's really a sort of armour and it's quite tight, so everything snaps up and you kind of feel the part.
Have you had an influence over Martha's look?
Louise [Page, costume designer] has visions of what's practical and looks good, but I get a lot of say as well. We go on shopping trips and if I don't think something's right for Martha, or I don't feel comfortable, then I say so. The funny thing is, the first trip we did took ages. It was a blazing hot day and I was in one changing room after another. In one place we pulled on about ten pairs of black trousers and I felt sweat going down my nose. We'd get to some shops and Lou would say "What about this?" I'd say, "I don't know. What do you think?" And neither of us really knew, because we didn't know Martha. We did another trip some episodes later; in two hours we did tops, trousers, shoes and a jacket, because we'd started to get it. It becomes a lot easier.
[At this point Freema is shown a prototype of her character's doll ...]
Oh my God! Isn't that great?! Look at little Martha! That's amazing! So freaky! I love the Martha doll.
How weird is it, studying a doll of yourself? Completely. It's like looking at yourself, but as it's static, it's really surreal. It's not like looking at yourself on the telly... It's like nothing I've experienced. It's that whole situation of thinking you're getting it under control — then
someone brings in a doll of you!
How was your first Dalek sighting?
Incredible. Actually, the very first time, they rolled one in without its head, so I saw half a Dalek. And it got more comical because later two collided, and you heard this "Oooh, sorry!" That was so not scary! But in the first scenes, there was some genuine shaking going on, which will be perceived as fear — but it was because I was thinking, "This is my first scene with the Daleks. This is huge for me!"
Although you're obviously acting, do the monsters ever feel scary?
Early on, yes. In episode one, there are monsters called the Judoon (see page 16): there's a bit where they come charging down a corridor. So I was pursued at full pace and I wasn't supposed to be making any noise, but I was screaming because I looked over my shoulder and they were that close! It depends how much you get into it — but I'm an old hand now.
What's it like being recognised? I've only been recognised twice, both times by children. Once when we were filming, a boy ran up and went, "I don't believe it! You're Angelina Freeman!" I knew what he was trying to say.
You'll become a role model.
I hadn't even thought about that. The thing is, everything's there in the show. It's focusing on morality and education and tolerance — all that — so I feel like a mouthpiece for it without doing anything. I just have to speak the wonderful lines and do what I'm told and I become part of that.
What have you learnt most during these months filming?
Hard graft. Something like this looks incredible, but there's a lot of work that goes into it. What comes out looks absolutely incredible, but it's by no means a walk in the park. There are so many people. At our Christmas party, I didn't know who 60 per cent of the people were. There are so many people behind the scenes, doing amazing work.
Do the cast play tricks on one another between scenes?
David [Tennant] played one on me. Once, I went in to do some photocopying and he said, "You need to get tokens, so you can tot up how many photocopies you've made, and it can come out of your wages." I was like, "OK, where do I get the tokens?" And he's, "Pffffffffft!"
Presumably you still think "I'm in Doctor Who!" every now and again?
Yes, it comes back in waves. You think "Yeah, I'm coming to work" then you start laughing: "I'm in Doctor Who!" It's incredible. An amazing feeling.
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