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Portwenn Online
A Magical Cornish Village
Doc Martin is IN
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Storylines
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S1E1
Going Bodmin
 Martin and Louisa have an unfortunate first meeting on a flight to Cornwall.
Martin appears before the hiring panel for a GP to replace the late Dr Sim in Portwenn, but Louisa, the lay member,
is not impressed.
Martin finds the surgery lacking in modern equipment and the inherited practice receptionist, Elaine, less than
capable.
Martin's first patient (days before official opening), Gilbert Spencer, is suffering from gynecomastia from an
unknown source.
Martin visits his Aunt Joan who lives on a local farm - a farm he apparently visited as a lad, but hasn't returned
since.
Local handymen, Bert Large and his son Al, are brought in to fix the plumbing in the surgery but end up flooding
the building.
Martin gives patient Susan Brading a refill for her HRT cream but then discovers that she has been receiving refills
for an excessive amount.
Another patient, a surfer named Ross, shows up at the surgery also suffering from gynecomastia.
At the village fair, Louisa seems to be warming up to Martin but she is annoyed when he leaves in the middle of
their conversation to talk to Gilbert.
Martin and Gilbert step into the Lifeboat Station to discuss his diagnosis and discover Susan and Ross in a
compromising position.
Martin receives misleading directions from a group of surfers and is run off the road on the moor and forced to
spend the night in his car.
After his rough start in Portwenn and then returning to a flooded surgery, Martin tells Chris Parsons that he will try
to set things right but he is moving on.
Martin tries to get Susan, Gilbert and Ross to meeet in the pub to sort out their problems, but when he tries to stop
the men from fighting he takes a punch to the nose.
Bert tries to guilt Martin into seeing some patients before leaving town and gives him some food for thought.
As Martin is packing his belongings, a combination of Bert's words and the view of the school across the harbour
(where Louisa is a teacher) seem to change his mind.
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S1E2
Gentlemen Prefer
 Martin is trying to get rid of the dog who won't leave him alone.  He eventually tries to re-home him on Aunt Joan's
farm.
Elaine is not very good at her job - would rather be running a café.
The patients seem to like visiting the surgery even though they have no medical issues.  They are only interested in
conversation, tea and biscuits.
Roger Fenn comes to the surgery with a hoarse throat, but Martin senses that he has a serious issue.  He
eventually agrees to have further tests and they find that he has cancer and will need surgery.
Elaine messes up a message about a very ill child and Martin fires her.  The entire village is upset about it and he is
shunned everywhere he goes.  All of his patients cancel their appointments.
Elaine's dad is getting married and Elaine is not happy about it.  Martin tries to convince her that she should attend
the wedding.
Louisa helps Martin figure out who the sick child is but when he visits him in his home he discovers that it's just
tonsillitis.
Roger was let go by the school recently and Louisa was given his job.  He feels betrayed by the school and by
Louisa.
Louisa thinks Martin has not been taking good care of Roger, but finds out otherwise after she confronts him at
Elaine's Dad's wedding.
We discover the reason for Martin's move to Portwenn.  He suddenly developed panic attacks at the sight and smell
of blood and cauterized flesh and had to abandon surgery to become a GP.
Elaine ends up attending her dad's wedding and Martin agrees to allow her to return to the surgery - but with
ground rules.  But Elaine has ground rules of her own.
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S1E3
Sh*t Happens
 Elaine has been fending off patients with bellyache and diarrhea, but when Martin realizes how many there have
been, he suspects a problem.  He is first convinced that its from the pool at the leisure centre, then decides it's
Portwenn's drinking water (which puts him in hot water with the villagers), but eventually discovers it is Bert's bottled
water from his field during lambing season.
Al wants to get away from plumbing and start his own career in computers, but Bert doesn't want to let him go.  
Martin convinces him to relent and hires him to maintain the computers in the surgery.
Martin meets Mrs Tishell for the first time.  He starts by treating her professionally, but by the end of the first visit he
realizes that she is a bit of a scatterbrain.
Louisa proposes a music program to provide Roger with a job.  He declines at first because he is trying to get his
pension, but relents because it seems he loves it too much.
Martin invites Louisa to have a drink in the pub.  They walk into the pub in an amiable mood, but Martin is waylaid
by Mark who needs advice and that seems to end the "date".
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S1E4
The Portwenn
Effect
 The Portwenn Players' Dance is happening and Louisa invites Martin but he declines.  She gives her extra ticket to
Mark, but he gets the idea that it's a date.
Mark is worried that this "date" with Louisa might uncover his feelings of inadequacy in the "size" department.  He
goes to Martin with his concerns  and Martin seems melancholy over the idea of Louisa and Mark dating.
Louisa mistakenly thinks Peter has destroyed a birdfeeder in the village.  He runs away because no one believes
him, but later they discover that the Park Ranger, Stewart, is responsible.
Martin makes a trip out to call on Stewart, the Park Ranger, because Stewart is not able to come into town.  Martin
at first finds him personable and intelligent, but quickly discovers that he has some serious emotional problems.  
When Stewart almost shoots Martin by firing at squirrels and then insists that they sit down to dinner with Anthony,
his six-foot imaginary squirrel, Martin decides that he needs to have Stewart sectioned.
Martin goes to the dance to talk to Mark about Stewart and jumps to an incorrect conclusion when he sees Louisa
and Mark dancing and laughing together.  Louisa is alarmed that Mark has misread her feelings and is about to set
him straight when she sees Martin glaring at them across the room
Martin, Al, Mark, Louisa, and a number of villagers gather to watch Stewart destroying birdhouses and ranting
about squirrels.  It becomes apparent to Martin that his time in the army has affected him emotionally and he then
asks Mark to go out to Stewart's house with him the next morning.
Martin travels back out with Mark the next morning to section Stewart, but changes his mind, partly based on Mark's
suggestion that he find a creative solution.  Martin decides to treat Stewart the way old Doc Sim did - with vitamins
that Stewart thinks are tranquilizers.  
On the way back to Portwenn, Mark tells Martin that he had a breakthrough the previous evening and that he has
no feelings for Louisa.
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S1E5
Of All the Harbours
in All the Towns
 Martin runs into Louisa in the village as she is juggling a surfboard, a wetsuit and her teacher's supplies.  She is on
her way to surfing club with her students.
Martin sees a man crash his dingy onto the beach.  He and Bert help him up to the surgery.
John Slater is visiting from Hong Kong, but has a medical emergency.  He recognizes Martin and tells him that he
used to live around there and was a friend of Aunt Joan's.  Martin later finds out that John and Aunt Joan had an
affair while she was married to Phil.
Melanie and her brother were fighting over the remote and he Kung Fu-ed her which dislocated her shoulder.  
Martin relocates the shoulder, Melanie develops a crush on him, and he spends the rest of the episode trying to
dissuade her, including having a conversation with her father.
Elaine is fighting with Greg and tells Al that she has finished with him.  Al impresses her with his computer skills and
their shared interest in music and she decides to give him a chance. After sharing a kiss, she gives him permission
to call her, but he later overhears her making up with Greg on the phone.
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S1E6
Haemophobia
 The entire village finds out about Martin's haemophobia, and several of the villagers taunt him and pull a prank.   
His blood issue is even broadcast on Radio Portwenn.   He first suspects that Roger Fenn spilled the beans, but
eventually discovers that Adrian Pitts, former medical student of his, told the villagers when he was in town at the
pub.
Peter Cronk doesn't want to participate in PE - especially the team games - because he doesn't fit in with the rest of
the students.  He ends up falling and hurting himself.  Louisa takes him to the hospital but they diagnose an
intercostal sprain.  That night he becomes extremely ill with a punctured spleen and Martin & Louisa rush him to the
hospital.  Martin saves his life in the ambulance.
Peter has noticed Louisa's interest in the Doc.  Early in the episode when she tells him that he is her "project", he
asks if that means she's given up on the Doc?  Later, when she is taking Peter to the hospital, he asks, "Do you
love him?"  Louisa immediately says,"No.  Who?"  Peter gives her a look and Louisa tells him to mind his own
business.  Louisa confronts Martin over the fact that he did not reveal his blood issue during his job interview, and
the conversation becomes quote contentious.  In the middle of the night, when Louisa realizes Peter is in trouble
and calls Martin, he hears her voice on the answering machine, but it turns into a dream that he is kissing Louisa.  
He wakes up kissing the dog.  As they arrive at the hospital, Louisa grabs Martin's hand as Peter is wheeled into
surgery and Martin is a little sheepish when he notices.  While sitting in the hospital waiting for word on Peter's
condition, Louisa sleeps with her head on Martin's shoulder and he seems disappointed when she wakes up.  In the
taxi home, his hand edges toward hers on the seat between them, he pulls it back, but then finds the courage to
touch her hand and Louisa grabs him for a passionate kiss.  Martin spoils it all by suggesting that she either has
bad breath or some type of medical issue.  Louisa throws him out of the taxi on a rural road.