Temporal Dysphoria: Race and the Time Traveler

In Kindred, a black woman named Dana falls through time to the antebellum south, repeatedly saving the life of a plantation heir named Rufus, who later turns out to father Dana's direct ancestor. In the midst of her adventures, Dana feels a constant and anxiety, a desire to return to her own time coupled with the need to find at least temporary safety and stability in the past as well as keeping Rufus alive. Dana's experiences are traumatic, and linger with her and create a sense of unease and displacement even when she is in her own time. Dana's primary means of protecting herself in the past is making herself indispensable to Rufus. Reading Kindred got me wondering, how does speculative fiction, particularly time-traveling speculative fiction operate in terms of recognizing the advances made, and the progress that has yet to be made in terms of race and labor? I decided to look at a recent piece of media that concerns a black time-traveling woman.

This is Martha Jones. Second companion to the Tenth Doctor in the long-running  British sci-fi series, Doctor Who. Martha is a brilliant and driven young medical student. With the Doctor, she travels through time and space. The writers of Doctor Who have briefly explored the social implications of Martha's role as a black time traveler in regards to some episodes where she and the Doctor traveled to London in 1599 and Edwardian England, though it arguably downplays and perhaps even downright ignores the implications and violence of English colonialism. While Martha's role as a time traveling black woman doesn't highlight the traumas of racism and colonialism like Dana's narrative does, the role she inhabits in the narrative does have a dysphoria that also leads to Martha's great discomfort and eventual split from the doctor.
To make a very very very long Doctor Who narrative short, the Doctor was in love with his previous companion, Rose, but due to some events he can never see Rose again. Eventually Martha joins up with him but their relationship, (While still bearing a great deal of affection, whimsy, and adventure as is the general tone maintained for Tennant's Doctor Who) has several strained undertones. The Doctor is clearly not over Rose, Martha unfortunately develops feelings for an already emotionally-unavailable Doctor and raises concerns that she might be a rebound for the Doctor, which the Doctor never actually fully addresses. In the season finale, Martha ends up saving the world by going all over the earth over the course of a year while the Doctor is captured and incapacitated. Martha risks life and limb when everything seems lost to keep hope alive and save everyone, though she acknowledges how unhealthy her relationship with the doctor has become and leaves. Martha is the first official black companion to the Doctor (if you don't count Mickey Smith, who was a secondary companion when Rose was the "main" companion), but Martha is essentially stuck inhabiting a narrative where the Doctor is by and large ignorant of her feelings and concerns unless it's along the lines of, "Doctor, aliens are attacking and we're in immediate physical danger!" While her time-traveling narrative doesn't acknowledge the dysphoria of historicized racial violence, Martha is still stuck with a dysphoric narrative in being stuck with a Doctor who (in most circumstances is totally elated to share the universe with his companions and forge deep friendships with those companions) is still totally wrapped up in his previous (white) companion. Martha does go on to become a very strong character, but a lot of this development happens offscreen, only having Martha turn up at various specials and in the spin-off Torchwood on occasion. In short, Martha was a great companion who was stuck with the Doctor at the wrong time.
I'd like to further discuss race and labor in regards to science fiction and fantasy (And to be honest I'm no expert on Doctor Who----so if anyone who has more experience watching the show would like to discuss this further I'm up for it! But I still feel like Martha got the narrative short end of the stick) and I'l probably explore illegality in science and fantasy fiction next. If you guys have any suggestions for anything I should discuss in my next blog post or other questions or discussion points, feel free to comment!