Video – Page 108 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.

Transcript:

After we have Patrick Troughton, we have Jon Pertwee, who’s quite a wonderful Doctor in his own right. I know, some of us watched him first. (inaudible) and Jon, very elegant gentleman. I love the capes he wore. Very cool. His very first companion of the female kind is Liz Shaw, herself, not only a scientist, but she works at Cambridge. We are now cream of the crop scientists. This is very cool. Yes he meets her though working at UNIT. She comes from Cambridge to work at UNIT and UNIT is the military group you may or may not have seen. So, she has a military affiliation again at this period. Liz Shaw is a really great character. Now look, she’s older, so she has the ability again to match him intellectually. Makes for a very good pair, the two of them. Note that she’s such a scientist that we have to have the test tubes — and this is the Brigader — he works at UNIT, so we have the military thing going on. Notice, when chicks get smart they put their hair up. High hair means your smart. Low hair, I don’t know what that means. But, you know, we get some very looks here. Now, sadly. this character chose to leave UNIT. She got tired of working for the military and in real life, the actress said she got tired of being the one who just played with the test tubes and he always saved the day. She was a little upset that her character didn’t get more empowering moments. And that’s, actresses have to make that choice. Actors of color make that choice. What kind of character do I want to be seen portraying all the time? Right? What am I putting out into the world? In this case, she’s “OK, I’m done being the second banana. I’m going to go do something else. She went and did a lot of theatrical work — which is good for her.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

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Video: Zoe Heriot from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

The next companion though — so notice the how we’re growing — she, herself, Zoe, is a computer scientist. That’s cool. We’ve allowed the woman to have the skill that can be helpful. So we’re moving. I know, I’m very happy with that. This is kind of cool. Now, She was also considered someone who brought the 60’s coolness to the show, because you’ve got that sort of 60’s haircut and she wore little Mod boots and little miniskirts. So, clothing-wise, she wasn’t all that professional looking, but she had a cool job. So, we had this balance that we’re always doing. And she fought the Cybermen and won a couple of times. So she gets points for that. So, Zoe, is moving through the Patrick Troughton period. There’s a lot of Doctor’s to get through.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

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Video: Introduction to The Monkees from “Why Monkees Matter” with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A Clip from this longer presentation: Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers

Dr. Rosanne Welch presents Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers at the 2014 Cal Poly Pomona Provost’s Symposium on Faculty Scholarship (http://www.cpp.edu/~research/)

Transcript:

Welcome everybody! We’re talking today about “Why Monkees matter?” Please notice the spelling. I am not talking about this kind of monkey — that’s in a different class. I’m talking about these Monkees. In case you don’t know who they are, Davie Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith who, in 1967, their albums outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined. They had more albums sales due to their exposure on television. So, what I talk about — I’m doing a book right now on them — and so I am talking about what we learned from them. Particularly, I focus on the writers of television programs and authorship. That’s my thing, because we focus on directors as auteurs of film and we don’t realize — or we forget — that writers, are just like the writers of books. A director can’t direct 20 empty pages. Somebody put these thoughts down and what are these thoughts. So, “How the writing staff of The Monkees brought the 1960’s counter-culture to mainstream pre-teen viewers.” These are the children whose older brothers and sisters already love The Beatles and they’re learning about hippy culture from The Beatles, but these kids don’t have access to buying their own albums yet, but they have access to television, because it’s free and they can watch it all the time.

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Description:

Based on a chapter in my upcoming book The Metatextual Menagerie that was The Monkees, which includes a series of interviews conducted with surviving writers and performers of the 1960s television program, The Monkees I will discuss how the writers and actors used the show as a platform for their own emerging counter culture/anti-war messages.

Worth studying for its craft and place in television history (the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy Of 1967) the program’s true importance may come from its impact on the politics and culture of the era. Considered innocuous by the network, thepress and the parents of the era, the storylines and jokes created by the writers and the actor’s ad-libs brought the emerging counter-culture to the attention of young teens whose parents might not have appreciated the message. Cultural icons such as Timothy Leary recognized the subversive nature of the program, seen through the writing and in choices made about costuming, hair length, musical guests (Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Charlie Smalls) and songs performed by the band brought issues of Vietnam, voting and civil rights to the ‘young generation’ for whom the show clearly had ‘somethin’to say.

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About the Symposium:

The 2014 Provost’s Symposium is a forum to learn about each other’s scholarly work, make new friends, renew old acquaintances, and enhance our appreciation of the rich and diverse array of professional endeavors pursued by the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona.

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Video: Victoria from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

Then we move — again notice how we’re going to define women by the men in their life in this stage. Victoria — very cool character in many ways — she is the daughter of a Victorian scientist. She’s not the scientist. The daddy is. (Hems and Haws) So she knows some science because she’s heard it growing up. You know, if your Dad whatever he does, you learn how to fix a car, you learn how to do math, or whatever your Dad does. So, the knowledge has worn off on her, but she hasn’t obtained it for herself, because that is not really something they are thinking about. But she’s kind of fun..

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Video: Polly from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A clip from this longer presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

Now, when Hartnell left the program, as we all know, through the lovely act of regeneration, we move over to Patrick Troughton and in his world his first, new, female, companion is Polly, who gee, has a Cockney accent, so we’re building in the later characters, but also they define her as “kooky”, even though — and here’s the funny thing. She can’t herself be a computer genius. She can be the assistant to one. So, a woman, you know, that’s as close as she gets to being in a cool job. You get the coffee for the guy who’s the computer genius.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Video: Companion Sara Kingdom from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A clip from this longer presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

Sara Kingdom. So now we’re thinking, what are the jobs of the women he is going to meet? They’re not all housewives. They’re not girlfriends. They can’t all be his granddaughter. So, who are these women? In this case, Sara Kingdom is a double-agent. So, we have a spy. Remember, now we’re in the late 60’s. The Cold War is going on. We think spies are very cool. We have The Avengers on English television. So, ooo, spies. A lot of chicks are spies. Really, in the real world, not that many were, but TV and the movies are our place to fantasize what we would like to be. So, Sara is a cool character. if you notice here, this is Jean Marsh as an actress and a writer she is a very important person. She is going to invent a program called Upstairs, Downstairs. Which was the Downton Abbey of its day. It’s going to be a huge success. She’s going to star in it and write the entire set of segments. So, she’s a very important performer and writer as well as she is a pretty interesting character that we meet along the way. Now, we’ve got to get into the question, though, what makes chicks tougher is putting them into pictures with guns. I’m not a fan of that, but frankly our culture and at this point English culture to an extent, had the idea that that makes them cool. l.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Video: Katerina from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A clip from this longer presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

After her, we come up with Katerina, who is a really interesting woman. She’s only in a short segment with The Doctor — a short few episodes, but she risks her life — sacrifices her life — to save The Doctor, because he is more important to the world. She has made that decision. Now part of that is a little “Oooo, I don’t know” but then I went, she made the decision and that’s the important thing about being a feminist person — a humanist person. She decided that he had something to give the world that needed to be allowed to continue and she was going to sacrifice. So, it’s a very much like a nice military story where one guy has to throw himself on the grenade and that sort of thing. So Katerina is pretty cool.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Video: Vicki as Companion from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A clip from this longer presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

Once she leaves, and Susan leaves, we end up with Vicki — who is quite a lovely girl, but she does a lot of screaming and she doesn’t necessarily balance that out with much else. So, we do a little dip here, where we’re not being very empowered. And she left to marry a Trojan man — because she travelled to ancient Troy…. All right, so she left to marry a guy. She didn’t go an heal the world, fix anything, she just like fell in love with a cute guy wearing a little sword and short skirt thing and that’s it. So, I’m not too excited about Vicki, but you know, we have to pay attention to her.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Video: Barbara and The Doctor from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A clip from this longer presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

The Aztec episode, exactly. I love the cover with Barbara in the lovely Aztec headdress. And here, she had to learn a lesson from The Doctor about the fact that she had to allow human sacrifice to continue because that was the culture in which he had travelled and it wasn’t his business to decide that their religious practices were wrong. Because that’s not his business. It’s their business to decide how they feel about it. so, that’s a good example of what she brought to him and to the debates on the show.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Video: Barbara Wright from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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Transcript:

Now the other, early, first partner with the Doctor is Barbara. This is a backstage scene and she is also here with the actress playing Susan. Barbara was a history teacher. Isn’t that perfect? It’s a show about… (inaudible) They’re the coolest people I know.Heavens to Betsys. Just like Clara. So, we’re seeing exactly, there’s a circle we’re going to watch happen here which is very interesting. So, Barbara — and that was the idea, that you’d need a history teacher to interpret the things that The Doctor was seeing, for the audience, but that also meant that a mature woman was traveling with him. She is a little bit of a mother figure for Susan. So she can have conversations about things with her and likewise, Barbara has the intellect to challenge The Doctor. “You can’t behave like that! I won’t allow it. I have some power here. I know where this culture is going in history and you cannot doa thing that will mess them up.” So, she’s a very interesting balance for the Doctor. In the very beginning, we have some very — I would say — feminist females hanging out with The Doctor.

Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Category: Video

Video: Liz Shaw from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Zoe Heriot from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Introduction to The Monkees from “Why Monkees Matter” with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Victoria from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Polly from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Companion Sara Kingdom from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Katerina from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Vicki as Companion from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Barbara and The Doctor from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Video: Barbara Wright from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch