Watch this entire presentation: Gender Diversity in the Who-niverse: Paving the Way for a Lady Doctor with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (36:58)
![24 Nyssa from Gender Diversity in the Who-nivers [Video] (0:42)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/gender-dw-24-nyssa.jpeg)
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 we had Nyssa who I really enjoyed. Nyssa came in with the Peter Davison era with Teegan — who’s alright. Teegan has her moments. But Nyssa is an alien, super intelligent from her alien race and at the end of her time with The Doctor — thy end up on a planet where there’s a leper colony and nobody is taking care of these people and rather than — again — continuing to travel with The Doctor she chooses to stay and be a caregiver to these people. She’s a doctor so she can take care of them and imagines that she will find a cure for this if she stays behind and he’s like “well maybe this will never be cured” and she’s like “it won’t ever be cured if no one tries.” So she’s willing to give it that time which I think is a beautiful strength being evidenced by a female character. Not that hard.
Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter and Instagram
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.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS