Martha Jones is back! And she’s going to be miserable! And, of course, we can’t wait.
Big Finish has announced that Freema Agyeman will reprise her role as Doctor Who companion Martha Jones in a new standalone series that will also see Adjoa Andoh return as Martha’s doting mother, Francine. This isn’t the first time Agyeman has revisited the character on audio, having appeared in the Torchwood story “Dissected” in 2019. But it’s the first time she’s returned to playing Martha for Doctor Who, and she’s returning as a very specific incarnation of the character.
The Year of Martha Jones — spread across three stories, The Last Diner by James Goss, Silver Medal by Tim Foley, and Deceived by Matt Fitton — takes place between Martha’s original swan-song episodes at the climax of Doctor Who’s third season in 2007: “The Sound of Drums” and “The Last of the Time Lords.”
After the Master unleashed a daring plan to usurp control of the Earth by disguising himself as the charming British politician (and eventual Prime Minister) Harold Saxon, Martha — without help from her captured family, the imprisoned and tortured Tenth Doctor, or John Barrowman’s Captain Jack — travelled the Earth on the run for a year, evading capture by the Master’s forces and spreading the word of hope for the Doctor, laying the groundwork for the act of faith that revived the Time Lord and let him undo the Master’s plans, undoing the year of trauma Martha endured… but not her memories of it, leading to her departing from the TARDIS.
“We really didn’t know what Martha was going through during that year on Earth — we see her embark on it, and we see the conclusion of it, but it’s so interesting to really see her as an ordinary person, trying to do extraordinary things,” Agyeman said of the story fans will hear Martha go on in The Year of Martha Jones. “She has incredible independence and strength so I think she can rely on that, but it’s been great to see how she does ebb and flow throughout that journey.”
The Year of Martha Jones is currently set to release in December 2021, and is available to pre-order directly from Big Finish.