A clip from this longer presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Watch this entire presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
Tegan comes alone and Tegan is pretty tough, pretty bossy, so they have to soften that. She can’t regenerate, because she’s not a Time Lord, so we’re going to add a second companion in this period, the lovely Nyssa. Nyssa of Traken. She’s an alien. Another chance to have an alien character coming with us. She’s actually a really cool character. She looks like she’s not real tough, because she’s got the fluffy hair thing going on, but in fact, not only is she equally intellectual to The Doctor, being an alien, she can match him culturally. He can’t think he’s better, right? “Humans are so much less than a Time Lord.” Well, her people are just as good as a Time Lord. They have a nice balance going on there and when you put them together, she’s a soft person to look at, but she’s a very tough character. She pulls him into place often and she’s younger than he is. So being younger she still has that mantle of wisdom that she brings to the story. Even to the point that, when it’s time for her character to leave the show, she doesn’t leave for a dude alone — she does meet a guy on a planet, but he’s a doctor and their planet is kind of like a leper colony and there’s been this disease affecting people fro many years and she wants to stay and help find a cure so the people on this planet can be healed. so, she has a social justice cause in her life. She gives up traveling, having a good time in the Tardis, to go do something of value in the world.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
- Doctor Who and Culture
- Doctor Who Regenerated
- “How the Growing Popularity of the English Who-niverse Effected American TV” with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel
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