UK – Page 4 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

11 Casting Supporting Characters…from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

It was great to be able to attend this year’s SD WhoCon in San Diego and present this lecture on “The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years” in which I discuss how successful I think showrunner Christopher Chibnall was in making that transition.

It gave me a chance to talk about the creative work of a showrunner/screenwriter while also reconnecting to some friends we had met at this same convention some 3 years ago – and to talk about one of my favorite subjects – Doctor Who!

Transcript:

The other important thing is casting who would be around her. So, as the showrunner, he is casting all of these new characters and he’s inventing them from scratch and so we looked at this group of people and thought OK, who does he surround the first female Doctor with and it was important to him, I also think he promised and mostly came through on diversity and diversity is one of those words that gets tossed around a lot. Some people are saying let’s get rid of that word. Let’s go with inclusion. It just means let’s tell more stories. Let’s tell a wider range of stories that we haven’t had a chance to see before. So he committed to that and by virtue of who he chose to follow her obviously, we are going to get some different stories that had not yet – I mean it’s 50+ years of a TV show. What new things can you possibly write? And, of course, for The Doctor that comes from the people who follow him. So I think that these were very good choices.

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02 My Interest In Torchwood from Why Torchwood Still Matters with Dr. Rosanne Welch, San Diego Who Con 2021 [Video]

I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

Transcript:

So we’ll get into Torchwood which is what we’re here to talk about. This whole – my interest in Torchwood bled into another academic friend of mine – a guy named Martin Griffin he was on my Ph.D. committee and he knew I liked both Doctor Who and Torchwood. He was actually from Scotland and he would talk about the show. He knew it as a child and so he was – thought it was interesting there was an American who knew it as well as he did. So we got along really well even though my dissertation had nothing to do with Doctor Who. It should have now that I think about it, but when the show aired – when Children of Earth aired – I had an argument with the ending and he and I had this long watercooler conversation about it and about – I don’t know – six months later he called me and he said you know I just saw a call for papers, which you get in academia a lot is people are putting together book collections about different things and they want people to write a chapter on whatever the topic is. So for instance what I did yesterday was a chapter on the new female Doctor and how it was to write her and that was a chapter in one book. Well, he called me and said this book called Torchwood Declassified was being put together and he thought the two of us could write a chapter based on my argument with the ending of Children of Earth and I was like really? We could write something? They said well there’s going to be a symposium in Cardiff but since I live in the UK, I will go and present the paper. You don’t have to be there but you’ll get credit. You’re supposed to get that you know credit on your resume and when you go to conferences. So I was like okay I’ll write the thing because that’ll be fun and then when they accepted it and they invited him to the event I was like well why shouldn’t we go to Cardiff? Why am I not taking a vacation to Cardiff If I can? I can write it a little bit off my taxes because it’s business. So in fact, we went – we presented at the thing. So this whole thing all started with a conversation.

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10 Previous Hints At A Female Doctor …from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

Even Steven toyed with it between Matt and Peter, And I love Peter Capaldi. He’s an excellent actor, but there was a moment there and he just kind of went no…not yet, right? So I think that Chris had the guts so we have to give him credit for that. And it’s important that Jody recognized it was going to be a little shocking to people and, again, love Peter but Peter was like well, I think boys are losing a role model and then somebody said, Dude, women can be role models to men. It’s ok. Right? And boys can see strong women in the world. That’s actually going to be good for them later in life. So, it was a little delicate and he took the shot.

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01 Introduction from Why Torchwood Still Matters with Dr. Rosanne Welch, San Diego Who Con 2021 [Video]

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

Transcript:

All Right. Welcome, everybody. It’s so interesting to me because I mean, hello, Doctor Who is gorgeous and I also really love Torchwood. I mean who thought you could get a spin-off off this show and then gee that was a great idea. There was a great character and then it’s really lovely how they sort of seeded it in right and we’re gonna talk a little bit about Martha cause you know Martha belonged in this show except then she got the other gig on Law and Order which was like okay good for the actress but you belong in this world. I know you can’t really like me too. Me too. You can’t cosplay Law & Order. It’s really not that interesting. It’s just not the same exactly. So we are gonna chat about Why Torchwood Still Matters to me. This is me. You’ve seen me. It’s just a fun picture my college took of me. I did this – I’ll do this really fast. I did this yesterday. I work for a college called Stephens College. We teach an MFA in Screenwriting and I believe representation is just so important. This gets us back to Martha right. The fact that Doctor Who was thinking about representation and how well they’ve been doing that over the years. I was a TV writer before I got into academia. So these are all shows that I worked on. So I’m very interested in things from the writing standpoint not really directing or anything else. Written By Magazine – this magazine the Writer’s Guild – got a sample over there because I was able to interview Russell when he came to town to be doing Miracle Day because I knew I was the only person on the editorial board who knew the show. They’re like would you like to go talk to him and he was great because like other journalists don’t always know his work as well. I’m gonna go talk to this guy and they were discussing little details and it was very fun. Of course, I wanted to go can I write on the show but he’d already hired really cool people who we will talk about in a little bit. This is the article that was so fun to do and just to be sitting in the same room and thinking about what it was like to throw ideas around with him was very cool and there’s a bunch of books that I’ve done.

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09 In TV, The Showrunner is in Charge…from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

So I think Chibnall was set up to do this. So when I think about the job of a head writer in the states we call that a showrunner and they’re using that term a little bit in England not so much but a little they’re sort of getting into that. So the showrunner’s job is everything. You’re really truly in television the writer is in charge. You’re producing the whole thing. In film, a director comes in after a script has been bought. They can hire other writers. They can make changes. By the time it’s done sometimes you don’t even recognize it as your own work. In tv – you know if you know about Shonda Rhimes and the other big showrunners – they’re in charge all the way through and it’s the directors who come and go episode to episode. So, in this case, I’m looking at him as a showrunner and what he provided to the show. In the very beginning of course he’s the first guy that had the guts to change the character into a female. It had been hinted at, chatted about since Tom Baker’s day. We knew that it could happen. We heard about other Time Lords who changed genders. Nobody quite had the guts to do it.

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08 More On Chibnall’s Earlier Writing…from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

I tend to teach Broadchurch. I think it’s one of the best mini-series that I’ve ever seen. I always think something’s really good if I can’t guess the ending because yeah then you’re like okay you got me because I’m really looking at every single moment and if I don’t know then you have done some very good writing and I really love that. I think of course looking at the fact that Olivia Coleman before she won her Oscar and now her Emmy for The Crown recognizing a powerful actress a little bit earlier than other people did and bringing her forth and of course because of Broadchurch, we get to Jody right and I just — she — in the midst of this terrible tragedy was as strong a person as she could be. She wasn’t just in a corner weeping and crying and all that. So I think he’s always treated women intelligently and respectfully.

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07 Chibnall’s Earlier Writing…from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

I think we have to look at his early work to see that he was capable of doing this right? When I think about the early episodes that he wrote obviously before he became the Executive Producer almost every episode had an important leader who was a female and that just sort of glosses over you when you’re looking at it but when you put it all together like every single time he was trying to find a way to show us a woman in charge. So he was really building up to be the guy, the showrunner, who would be able to do a full female character but if you think about this right Hungry Earth we’ve got Dr. Chaudry. That’s a really cool thing. Could have been a boy doctor. Was a girl doctor right? Writers make those choices all the time. Captain Kath in 42 right has to go through that terrible experience. She could have been a male captain of the ship right. It wouldn’t have hurt and then I just adore Kate Lethbridge Stewart. I think she’s marvelous. There’s actually another tv show in the UK called Grantchester. It’s about a vicar. Now his mother is played by the actress who played Kate. So it’s kind of fun to see her in different roles but so he did this — so Chibnalll did this in his early work and now both outside of Doctor Who, I’m really impressed with some of the stuff he’s done again involving strong female characters.

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06 More On “She is wise and unafraid…” from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

…but this line I really like. I also think it’s an example of how he promised to sort of give the show a bit of a female gaze right and I love all the dudes who’ve ever been on Doctor Who — well maybe not Colin Baker so much — but you know in general do love them all but he made a promise and I think he kept it. I think he didn’t just sort of gloss over and pretend and I think we’ll see that in the choice of guest characters, the choice of people we get to meet, right down to the fact that we met Ada Lovelace, who we’ve kind of heard about but I’ll still mention her in some classes and people don’t know who she is. So the fact that he’s giving a moment here for people to go oh oh that’s an interesting woman I need to know some more about and I think he scattered the show with those types of characters — those types of historical people we would not have met had he not kept in mind, I’ve promised to give this a kind of a different spin right? So that really impresses me.

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05 “She is wise and unafraid…” from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

Because I do know — I have two very favorite — yeah my very favorite fandoms are Doctor Who and The Monkees and somebody did this lovely piece of fan art which I just fell in love with so I love how fandom blends together and you know the whole community that you create with other people who love what you love but today we’re going to talk about the writing of this new female Doctor right? I used to actually have a Matt outfit I like to wear and I had a Peter outfit that I like to wear but now I’m going to have to kind of have to go with the fact that hello I bought this two years ago here at WhoCon, so it’s really fun. Anyway, this was actually the title and this is a line right from the first episode. What I loved is this business right? “She’s wise and unafraid and I believe in her.” One of the things I noticed about what Chibnall had to do right away and I know that we all have some gripes about some of the stuff he’s done but I think that he made some very good choices in the beginning and a lot of that has to do with writing and hiring some other very good writers who brought in some aspects of the show we hadn’t had before.

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04 My Writing from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

So Written By Magazine. Journal of Screenwriting again obviously coming from that standpoint and California History. I do some pop culture for them so I’m trying to figure out how to get some Doctor Who in there right? A little — I’m a little behind on Matt having actually been in the West but maybe I’ll get something on there. This is the piece that I did for Written By and as I said it’s a sample over there. It was really fun to sort of sit in the room with him. I do think he’s one of my favorite writers and that made me very happy and then these are a bunch of other books and things that I’ve written so you kind of know where I’m coming from and where these opinions come from.

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