Aahana Swrup
Showrunner Liz Tuccillo’s small-town comedy series ‘Best Medicine’ invites viewers into the pleasant town of Port Wenn, where a new doctor has taken up the local practice. Dr. Martin Best, equipped with a sharp mind and poor people skills, has recently found himself in a deficit of prospects after he develops a phobia of blood. Naturally, this limits the Boston-based heart surgeon’s job opportunities to the point where he eventually ends up landing in Port Wenn, the small coastal town in Maine, where his Aunt Sarah lives. Fortunately for him, the town is hiring. Unfortunately, along with the onslaught of patients and medical emergencies, he’s also expected to become a part of the tight-knit community, populated with eccentric, interconnected individuals. The story employs a familiar socially inept outsider in a small town framework for its narrative. However, it’s the show’s origins more than anything that lend it its intriguing sense of familiarity.
Best Medicine is an American Remake of Doc Martin, the British Show
‘Best Medicine’ does not possess any roots in real life. Instead, its origins are entangled in another medical drama show, ‘Doc Martin,’ created by Dominic Minghella, Mark Crowdy, and Craig Ferguson. The 2004 ITV series is a beloved comedy-drama show that ran for ten seasons, all the way until 2022. The show itself was a follow-up to the 2002 comedy film ‘Saving Grace,’ which initially introduced the character of Dr. Martin Bamford, who goes on to be reworked as the title’s protagonist, Martin Ellingham. Over the years, Martin Ellingham and his story have garnered many remakes across different languages. Some of these include ‘Doktor Martin,’ the German version, the Greek show ‘Kliniki Periptosi,’ Spain’s ‘Doctor Mateo,’ and many more.
With ‘Best Medicine,’ ‘Doc Martin’ finally receives an American twist on the well-loved and well-known narrative. Liz Tuccillo, the showrunner who also came up with the pitch for the show, didn’t go into the project with any intentions of shaking things up. Instead, she wanted to keep the overall energy of the series similar to its source material, only with added stakes. In a conversation with Trib Live, Tuccillo spoke about her and her team’s approach and said, “The tone is very similar (to ‘Doc Martin’) in that it is both a comedy and a drama, but for us, what’s different is that we really focus a lot on the quirky characters of the town and we bring in a lot of people every week to drive (Martin Best) crazy. The tone is a little different in the vast ensemble we have of our townspeople.”
As a result, the show ends up inheriting and drawing parallels to parts of the original British series. For instance, the central town Port Wenn is an American counterpart to the Cornish fishing village that featured in ‘Doc Martin.’ However, save for the similar premise and foundational narrative, Tuccillo’s show carves out its own distinct identity. For the most part, the actual episodic storylines share no direct resemblance to the ITV series. In this aspect, the show strives to create plotlines and medical emergencies that resonate better with contemporary audiences. Similarly, the relationship Martin Best forms in the town with Port Wenn residents also remains distinct, instilling a unique identity in the show.
Dr. Martin Best is a Fictional Character Distinct From His Predecessor
Much like the overarching show, the central character in ‘Best Medicine,’ Dr. Martin Best, is also a fictional element created in service of the narrative. The character is a modern American counterpart of Dr. Martin Ellingham, the protagonist of ‘Doc Martin.’ In fact, the Fox show even features an in-universe reference to the legacy character by including actor Martin Clunes in the story as Dr. Robert Best, the protagonist’s father. Best and Ellingham share a very similar backstory where their move to the idyllic, if overbearing, small town of Port Wenn is fueled by complications in their previously more dazzling careers.
Likewise, Best’s aversion toward blood, a source of tragic irony in his confession, is another characteristic borrowed from the original character. Lastly, both doctors’ trademark gumpiness and lack of social skills, which make them stand out like a sore thumb in their tight-knit communities, are another point of similarity between them. This particular archetype of socially inept genius is a well-loved trope that has been traversed many times before in pop culture. Some of the most notable additions are Dr. Gregory House from the show ‘House,’ Dr. John Becker from ‘Becker,’ and Sherlock Holmes from the BBC’s ‘Sherlock.’ Nonetheless, while the two fictional characters remain recognizably similar, Best also charts his own past, distinguishing his narrative from his predecessor.
