Badfic ahoy! (Martha bashing, again)

[ghost2]

One viewer (a Ten/Rose fan; big surprise) was positing that folks who don't like Rose are jealous Doctor/Martha shippers. Seeing that I don't especially like Martha and do not ship Doctor/Martha (though I have nothing against those who do, unless they are batshit), I fail to fit into this horribly generalized category.

Yeah, I'm kind of neutral. Overall I don't much like Rose but OTOH, I think Martha is only just okay. So I don't have any strong pro-Martha bias when pointing out badfic. I haven't seen any Rose-bashing fic lately or I'd bitch about that too. Bad writing is bad writing, regardless of how I feel about a particular character.

I'd hope that any sensible Rose (or Ten/Rose) fan would despise the following story about as much as I do. It's yet another reunionfic, creatively titled Reunited.

The author gives "first fic" as an excuse for possible suckiness. That said, she thinks the horrific anti-Martha ending of the story is actually good so I'm not inclined to be very sympathetic.


Quotes from the story are in italics; my comments are in regular type.

The Doctor has left the TARDIS through a purple door that appeared out of nowhere. Martha can't follow him. Concerned, she asks the TARDIS what to do.

‘Ass-hole’ typed the computer, then spat a colourful, pocketsize booklet out of a small hole she had never noticed before. The front cover read ‘So the Doctor has left you’

A new self-help line penned by the TARDIS, specifically intended for all post-Rose companions!

Where is the Doctor? Why, he's reunited with Saint Rose, of course. Because that's really his only goal in life.

When he finally took his tongue out of her mouth, Rose asked him how he got back into her universe.

“Well,” he said, then explained all about the mysterious purple door. “I don’t know why it appeared, the TARDIS must like you as much as I do…” he finished dreamily, and they kissed again.

Read: The author is lazy and couldn't think of a reasonable explanation, so she pulled one out of her ass.

The Doctor returns to the TARDIS with Rose.

“Oh, Lord, are you still here?” he asked Martha, who’s jaw dropped at the sight of his hand clamped round the blonde girl’s arse. “Err, well… Martha, this is Rose; Rose this is Martha. As you can see, Martha was grossly disfigured in an explosion on a nearby planet when I was trying to make a gateway between the two universes-”

"And she's now too ugly to look at, so she must leave," he gleefully concluded.

Rose stared at him and smiled uncertainly. She was very glad to see him again but she wasn't accustomed to the Doctor making such cruel jokes.

“I said get out!” he growled. Martha took one last pitiful look at him, then shuffled over to the door like a child not wanting to go to bed.

“GOODBYE, CRUEL WORLD” she bellowed, as she threw open the doors and leapt into space.

There was a moment’s silence.

“Wow,” said the Doctor. “I didn’t really think she would do it.” He wandered over and shut the doors, taking one last look at the floating blob that was Martha Jones. “Now, where were we?” he asked Rose, and grinned.

Rose, properly horrified at this completely OOC behavior, quickly pulled out a gun and shot the impostor Doctor in mid-grin.

This time around, I left a signed review telling the author what I thought about her story. The first review she got was from some nitwit who wrote, "Whoa I know we all wish for that to happen in the show." Speak for yourself, fanbrat.

Comments

[fearlessfirefly.livejournal.com]

D:

I just . . . wow. Just wow. And how. And WHY?

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I know! There's no good reason to do that to Martha.

[cersia5.livejournal.com]

Uh...really bad bad. Martha commiting suicide because of...what? Issues these people have issues. But so do I but NOT that bad!

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that story was just way over the top. Sad.

[ventruechick.livejournal.com]

That was..... brain-breaking. Not just the Martha-bashing, but the overall lack of... cohesiveness? Intelligence? Gah, I don't know the word I'm looking for.

This didn't feel like reading a story. It felt like peeking into someone's therapy journal. And if the contents are anything to go by, I'd say the monthly sessions aren't going so well. Aieee. I'm almost certain the sequel would involve vodka and coathangers.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

Right, aside from the anti-Martha sentiment, the story was stupid. The Doctor just magically reunites with Rose? Please, that's extremely lazy writing. :(

[madelf.livejournal.com]

Wow. I just have no words. I think that's up there with the throwing Romana out an airlock fic.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I read that particular horror at Teaspoon a while back, I think, only I blocked the title and author from my memory.

[madelf.livejournal.com]

I have done the same. It's better that way.

The weird thing is, I can't even be angry or annoyed by people who write fic like these. They so plainly don't get it that it doesn't seem worth the bother.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

“GOODBYE, CRUEL WORLD”

I call shit-stirring troll. Surely not even the lowest of FFN's low could use that phrase without irony? please don't prove me wrong

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I don't know; I've seen some pretty low stuff at ff.net. Hard to say.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

You know, there's a very similar story where Romana comes back, and is incredibly bitchy to Rose (who is comforted by the TARDIS), until she realises that she cannot come between the Doctor and his human girlfriend and throws herself out of the TARDIS. Is this a trope, maybe?

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I'd kind of like to compare the stories, only I don't remember the other one's title.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Me neither. It was on the Teaspoon, and I remember wondering if maybe it had been written by committee to provoke Romanafen, because the punctuation and grammar varied wildly from one sentence to the next. (Of course, having seen the Teaspoon queue, I no longer consider this strange.)

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

So, I just did a quick keyword search at Teaspoon and turned up a story called Romana (http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=12765). No points for creativity there. Is that the story you were thinking of, or does another such badfic exist?

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Yes, it must be, although it doesn't have the shifting quality issues. Unless there are two stories with that plot ... but no, that way lies madness.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Icon says it all !

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I need to get my own WTF icon for occasions like this one. It's too handy.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

padawanpooh kindly made that personalised one for me !

[magicallaw.livejournal.com]

I read fic where the Doctor abandons Martha on a alien planet so he could have some alone time with Rose. But this? This takes the biscuit.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

Maybe the author will try to post it at Teaspoon? *imagines the reaction*

[yuxonomei.livejournal.com]

I wish these lunatics would go diaf.

I'd love to know how they function in the real world.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

You know, I never knew what diaf meant before. I just looked it up. May have to use that one myself in some of these cases.

[finmagik.livejournal.com]

that was just awful.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

Heartily agreed.

[lilas.livejournal.com]

GAAH. So let's see. Observing the floating Martha blob in space, the Doctor has a flashback about Katarina, and the revisited guilt is compounded by what just happened. He becomes catatonic, and Rose spends the rest of her life spoon-feeding him and changing his diapers. WTF indeed. D:

That fic should be airlocked!

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

Maybe the author will feel some shame and delete the thing, never to be heard from again.

[lady-rani.livejournal.com]

Eugh.

I want to go wash out my brain. How utterly horrible in every sense of the word. There is some real weirdness going on in fandom.

You know, I really, REALLY do not like Rose Tyler, but I'd feel just as unimpressed if I had read a fic like that about her.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I did just find a Rose-hating Martha fan who's posting on ff.net. I'll be making a new post about it within a couple days.

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[(Anonymous)]

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