Changes: Martha M. Masters

Revision as of 03:17, 19 April 2011

Martha M. Masters, Ph.D., M.D., is a third year medical student, and later an intern played by Amber Tamblyn. She fills in for Thirteen for a time while she is on leave from the hospital.

Masters' father is a classics professor at Columbia University who met her mother, who is nineteen years his junior, when she was his student. Her parents have been happily married for thirty-two years. Masters describes her mother as "gorgeous" in the episode Small Sacrifices. Masters graduated high school at the age of 15. Before entering medical school, she obtained doctorates in both applied math and art history. Masters has told her colleagues that she lives alone, but has refused to tell them whether or not she's in a relationship.

Lisa Cuddy picks Masters to be the woman on House's team when House delays in hiring Thirteen's replacement. Although Masters is very bright and principled (House refers to her as "the love child of Einstein and Mary Poppins", and "The Internet with breasts") , she does not appear to be ready for the type of medical education she can expect to receive from House.

In Office Politics, Masters tells Cuddy that she spent so much of her life in academic study that she has not developed socially and is not good at working with people.

During her initial case, Masters refuses to join the other members of the team in breaking into the patient's home and insists on presenting all possible options to the patient and telling him the truth, even though House argues that this will harm the patient. House fires her, rehires her to use her as a sounding board, then fires and rehires her again. He challenges her that she will lie to a patient and violate her principles in other ways by the time she's finished her training with him. She tells him he's wrong.

Chris Taub interviewed her for an hour when she applied at Johns Hopkins, but she does not appear to remember him when she encounters him again in House's office. This infuriates Taub, who snipes at her throughout her first case. Later she tells him that she did remember him but felt too awkward in bringing it up. Eric Foreman thinks she will make a good addition to the team because she is unspoiled and hasn't picked up any bad habits. Robert Chase is entertained by watching House needle her and thinks it is like watching a bunny rabbit walking into a chain saw multiple times. Cuddy thinks she is a rising star and wants Masters at her hospital. She refuses to let Masters quit when she becomes discouraged and gives her advice about how to get along with House.

Character Traits

Tamblyn said in interviews that her character has an unusual dress sense, is prone to blurting out anything that comes into her head, and will not be afraid of saying no to House. Her intellect rivals that of House and some reviews have speculated that she might seem like a young version of the doctor; however it has also been said that Martha has an I.Q. that is twenty points lower than House. Tamblyn said Masters likely has Asperger's syndrome and said House probably does too.

Tamblyn said Masters will be like the little sister of the men on the team and they will not find her intellect sexually appealing. Tamblyn describes the character as an outcast and a "cute little nerd."

Masters' favorite mathematical constant is Euler's number.

Performance on the Team

Masters has lived up to Cuddy's expectations, providing insights in all three cases she has worked on. In her first case, it was her idea to give a patient with Hepatitis C Hepatitis A in order to build up antibodies. She came up with the correct diagnosis in the second case, and on the third she realized before the rest of the team that House was talking about a rare form of multiple sclerosis.

Masters' unfailing honesty has also not turned out to be a liability. She has never failed to obtain results when she has been honest, and often points out that House's habit of dishonesty doesn't always work.

Character background

Tamblyn indicated in interviews that the character is based upon one of her own friends, a medical student named Martha Meredith Masters. Tamblyn describes the character as an exaggerated version of her friend, who signed a legal document promising not to sue the network due to its use of the character.So far, Fox also revealed Masters will only be temporarily replacing Olivia Wilde as Thirteen until Wilde finishes filming Cowboys and Aliens, an upcoming film scheduled to be released on July 2011

Video

thumb|300px|left|Introducing Martha Masters

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Character
 |name = Martha M. Masters
 |image = Images-3.jpg
 |age = 25
 |marital status = Single, never married
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 |actor = [[Amber Tamblyn]]
 |firstappearance = [[Office Politics]]
+||lastappearance = [[Last Temptation]]}}
-}}
-'''Martha M. Masters, Ph.D., '''is a third year medical student played by Amber Tamblyn. She fills in for [[Thirteen]] for a time while she is on leave from the hospital.
+'''Martha M. Masters, Ph.D., M.D., '''is a third year medical student, and later an [[intern]] played by Amber Tamblyn. She fills in for [[Thirteen]] for a time while she is on leave from the hospital.
 Masters' father is a classics professor at [[Columbia University]] who met her mother, who is nineteen years his junior, when she was his student. Her parents have been happily married for thirty-two years. Masters describes her mother as "gorgeous" in the episode [[Small Sacrifices]]. Masters graduated high school at the age of 15. Before entering medical school, she obtained doctorates in both applied math and art history. Masters has told her colleagues that she lives alone, but has refused to tell them whether or not she's in a relationship.