Watch this entire presentation: Gender Diversity in the Who-niverse: Paving the Way for a Lady Doctor with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (36:58)
For her 5th Doctor Who lecture to the CPP community, Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses how society – and the show’s writing staff – prepared the audience for a major change in this 50-year franchise – the creation of the first Lady Doctor!
Transcript:
Then he wrote this lovely short piece called “Night of the Doctor” which blended the movie — that was not very good, back in the day — with the modern story and again gave us the concept that regeneration could change your gender. So they’ve been laying the groundwork. They had to warm us up to get us ready for this and it’s all the writers that did that work. Then, Chris Chibnall took over as I said as Moffat retired and I love what David Tennant said. He really thinks Chris is going to do a good job and I tend to agree because I love the work that Chris Chibnall has done in the past, soi am looking forward to what he might do with this character and he’s the guy who had the guts to say “I’m going to be the one who changes. I’m going to make the full change.” So that’s a big deal. When Jody was chosen, she knew there was some controversy — people back and forth on the idea — turns out it’s about 80 Pro/20% against it so the against people always get the bigger voices. So we have to be louder than them and make sure the show gets really good ratings to prove its a good idea to have switched it into a girl. So we have to have viewing parties on opening night, right. Write about it on your blogs and Twitter and all that.
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https://twitter.com/rosannewelch – http://instagram.com/drrosannewelch
Rosanne Welch, PhD
Rosanne Welch PhD teaches the History of Screenwriting and One-Hour Drama for the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting.
Writing/producing credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences, ABCNEWS: Nightline and Touched by an Angel. In 2016 she published the book Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop; co-edited Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia; and placed “Transmitting Culture Transnationally Via the Characterization of Parents in Police Procedurals” in the New Review of Film and Television Studies. Essays appear in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television and Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology. Welch serves as Book Reviews editor for Journal of Screenwriting and on the Editorial Advisory Board for Written By magazine, the magazine of the Writers Guild.
Watch Dr. Welch’s talk “The Importance of Having a Female Voice in the Room” at the 2016 TEDxCPP.
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