29 Bill Potts and Women Saving The Doctor from Gender Diversity in the Who-niverse [Video] (0:42)

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 finally we ended with the Peter Capaldi era — we ended with Bil Potts, who had the strength — probably spoilers. If you don’t watch the show — you have to watch the show. She ends up being converted into a Cyberman, but she doesn’t — she’s the only person to have that happen to her who doesn’t lose her own humanity. She knows who she is and that isn’t supposed to happen when you’re converted right? Then you/re just a talking robot and nobody cares. So that’s how strong she is. She maintains her humanity in the face of that. So, we’ve had a ton of strong women. A ton of strong women across the years. Busting that gender stereotype that women need to be saved. On Doctor Who mostly women are helping save the day and save him.

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter and Instagram
https://twitter.com/rosannewelch – http://instagram.com/drrosannewelch

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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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