Thanks to another invite from Kris Zoleta and the wonderful staff at the CPP Library I presented another lunchtime lecture yesterday.
This talk was on famous female writers of science fiction both in books (from Mary Shelley to Octavia Butler) and on television with a side tangent on important and influential female characters of science fiction (from Lt. Nyota Uhura to Dana Scully).
The audience responded well, many asking me for recommendations for summer reading) and the nicest compliment I received came from an engineering student who came up to me afterward to say she was either going to do homework or come to my talk during her lunch break and she was ever so happy she had chosen to come to the talk.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library
Read more essays from Rosanne on Doctor Who in these books
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
“Today I want to focus on the concept of the women who’ve travelled with The Doctor and what they tell us about feminism across the years that this program has been on the air.”
Read more essays from Rosanne on Doctor Who in these books
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
“When people talk about television I get them to try and look at what were your favorite episodes of a program. Now, go to IMDB and find out who wrote those episodes and look at the rest of their career. What else have they written that you might enjoy, because clearly they speak to you. Their voice speaks to you.”
Watch this entire presentation – Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Read more essays from Rosanne on Doctor Who in these books
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
Watch this entire presentation – Doctor Who and Culture with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Read more essays from Rosanne on Doctor Who in these books
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
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:
I love this quote because this is pretty much my summation of what we learned from Doctor Who is that men and women should be free to be both sensitive and strong. That’s what makes us human. To deny those things or to try to claim those things only belong to one sex. It’s a waste of everybody’s time because that’s not the kind of human being you want to have in your life is it? You want someone who blends it all so yay for back to Hermione it’s all about Harry Potter and Doctor Who. Again, we come back to Jodie Whittaker. This was the quote I mentioned before and this has been chosen as the costume for this character and there’s already some controversy about that because people don’t think it’s quite right. Well that’s what the people have come up with so we’re gonna have to see how they create this character and how this is carried off. My only complaint is where little girl’s gonna find teal culottes for Halloween next year. You know the colors are fun but yeah it’s not I mean hello I could find a tweed jacket anywhere and instantly you’re Matt Smith right? So a little more difficult I think but in the long run I think we’ll be fine. But this was a posted the other day and people had some issues with it. People had issues with everything. Everyone wants to critique the writers but look what a good job they did paving the way for this new character and I think that that proves writers are sensitive and strong and cool. So basically that’s what I have to say about gender diversity. It’s always been there in Doctor Who if we’re able to interpret it and when we’re watching it when we’re seeing it and have those conversations. Art opens conversations for people to think about their world and how they like it and what they want to change about it and I think a show obviously that’s been this influential and lasted this long has had so much more power than even we can imagine. Thank you for coming. If anybody questions? chatting?
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.
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 have James Corden. Who doesn’t love James Corden right? When you’re bored some time you have to look at his Broadway his Tony Award Show opening. He’s wonderful and he’s all about inspiration and his character here is this goofy nutty dad who is just kind of a loser in many ways. He’s… he’s Stormageddons dad. Is that not just too cute for you, cuz cuz of course babies can talk to The Doctor and his name is Alfie but he tells The Doctor his name is Stormageddon and The Doctor tells his dad that. He as well kidnapped…. these Cybermen ruin everything don’t they. They just show up all the time but in this case he’s he’s about to be transformed into a Cyberman and hearing the baby cry draws the sensitivity in him to fight the Cyberman influence and break free. His dad-hood is what saves him. Not any other masculineness… Here’s my big gun. No I got all these big… The fact that he loves his child is the thing that saves his life. I think that’s so cool. I like that.
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.
Learn more about Doctor Who with these books and videos!
††
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
Learn more about Doctor Who with these books and videos!
††
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
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:
So I think that’s pretty cool. Then we had Danny Pink, a guy who’d been in the wars who’s now a math teacher right? He’s Clara’s boyfriend. So we have him as a soldier but we really see him as a man who protects children because he worked with middle school children. We don’t have a lot of middle school teachers who are male right? Because we don’t pay them enough and that’s bad because young men need to see that teaching is an excellent career — that caregiving and that nurturing the younger generation is a valuable thing to do with your life. So Danny Pink is really important in that respect and of course in the same way sadly Danny becomes a Cyberman and he makes this ultimate choice. The Doctor has one chance that you can come back alive from that and it gives it to Danny and instead of taking it for himself so he can come back and be with his girlfriend, he gives it to the little Afghan child that he accidentally shot when he was in the wars. He gives away his chance to live to a boy that was you know accidentally shot by him and I’m like what a powerful thing for a male character to choose to do. I think that makes Danny super super sensitive right and super strong!
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.