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

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

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

 

Dr. Rosanne Welch (http://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.

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

Video: More on the importance of children from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Video: More on the importance of children from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

 

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

Now the other thing I think Steven does a really interesting job of is looking at the world through children’s eyes and treating children as very important creatures. Now, especially in a show originally geared for children. he’s now using the children a major, major characters. Obviously, when we meet Amy Pond, we meet her at the age of 7. We don’t meet her as a grownup. He does that marvelous time travel hopping that no other writer did before. I do believe  Steven plays with the concept of the show much better. He allows this — if you could time travel wouldn’t you go back and tell yourself not to date that jerk? Why would you not use the…really? So he allows his characters to do this, but it’s significant in the very first episode that Matt Smith is introduced to us, he meets Amy as a child and he promises the child that he will take her on a trip around the world and to see the universe. Then, it’s his own miscalculation that he shows back up and she’s already 24 years old, but he plays with the necessary considerations that should be made to children. And I think that is a very interesting aspect of his writing.

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: Moffat and the Importance of Children from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Moffat and the Importance of Children from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

Now the other thing I think Steven does a really interesting job of is looking at the world through children’s eyes and treating children as very important creatures. Now, especially in a show originally geared for children. he’s now using the children a major, major characters. Obviously, when we meet Amy Pond, we meet her at the age of 7. We don’t meet her as a grownup. He does that marvelous time travel hopping that no other writer did before. I do believe  Steven plays with the concept of the show much better. He allows this — if you could time travel wouldn’t you go back and tell yourself not to date that jerk? Why would you not use the…really? So he allows his characters to do this, but it’s significant in the very first episode that Matt Smith is introduced to us, he meets Amy as a child and he promises the child that he will take her on a trip around the world and to see the universe. Then, it’s his own miscalculation that he shows back up and she’s already 24 years old, but he plays with the necessary considerations that should be made to children. And I think that is a very interesting aspect of his writing.

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: A Fairytale Marriage from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Video: A Fairytale Marriage from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

The other fable that Steven plays with, rather interestingly, is the concept of the fairytale marriage — the fairytale wedding. First of all, he gives us the first married couple to travel in the TARDIS, which was a really, really, really, really cool thing to provide and it’s a really interesting marriage. We’re going to have Amy. We’re going to have Rory. First of all, what does he call Rory? What’s Rory’s name? Rory Pond. But that’s Amy’s last name. That’s not his last name, but once they get married the Doctor continuously refers to him as Rory Pond and when Rory argues about that he says “Give it up. That’s true. That’s who you are.” And Rory accepts it. You’re right. As a matter of facet it really doesn’t matter who changes their name and why does she have to change her name. It’s a ridiculous old habit. So, that’s one. So Steven has been hit with the idea that he is a misogynist and I see some evidence of that, but then I see this other argument against it and so I find it a very interesting dance that he seems to be playing. But by giving us Rory and Amy, he’s showing us a working marriage where the woman happens to be more dominant than the man. She’s more adventurous. She’s more — they’re of equal intelligence, but really Rory should be smarter than her because he’s trained to be a nurse. She really has no formal training. She didn’t go to college. She had all the crazy stuff happen because she saw the Doctor when she was a little girl. So I think its very interesting the balance that he strikes here and also the fact that Rory is always strong emotionally for Amy and that’s the power that he has in that relationship and that’s Steven Moffat’s of what a real mariage should be. Interestingly enough, he and Sue Vertue, who helped produce these episodes and produces Sherlock with him — that’s his wife. So, they are of equal importance in their particular professional worlds. She has the power to greenlight his work and to make it come to fruition — to protect his work from the network. So he gets the vision he wants. They’re a very important team. So, I tend to see that there is more — oddly enough — feminism in Steven Moffat than is necessarily always recognized. Mostly because of them. 

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: More on Moffat and Fairytales from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

More on Moffat and Fairytales from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

Stephen Fry. What does he have to do with Doctor Who? He’s never guested on the program. He’s never done anything like that. However, I disagree with him, which is why his picture’s there.

He said, when he described Doctor Who in the media — and he was talking about Doctor Who and Merlin actually — “They’re very good children’s programs — don’t get me wrong — they’re wonderfully written, but they are not for adults.”

And I disagree. I think that Steven (Moffat) disagrees. I think that he believes fairytales and fables have things to teach grownups and so he treats his characters in that fashion. So, as much as I love Stephen (Fry) and all the many things he has done, I disagree. Now, Steven (Moffat) says this to us in almost every one of his episodes. This is when they are discussing “We’ll see you again…”, this is the second appearance of the Weeping Angels. “I’ll see you again when the Pandorica opens.” And the answer from the Doctor is, “That’s a fairytale.” And according to River Song, “Aren’t we all?” That’s a lovely little Ohhhhhh. That’s how I see the world. All of us are part of a story and we have the power to make the story that we want to make. Which I think is Steven’s message. So, we see that often in his work.

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: Stephan Moffat and Fables from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Stephan Moffat and Fables from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

When we get around to thinking about Stephen Moffat, I think that one of Stephan Moffat’s major themes is he sees the world as a fable — as a story being told in which we are portraying characters that may or may not have control over where our story goes. I have Dickens up here because his quote was “In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected. Everyone who has considered the subject knows full well that a nation without fancy, without some romance, never did, never can, never will hold a great place under the sun.” So, fairy tales and stories have been very important to civilization across time. And in Moffat’s reign, I believe he shows that. He gives that to us often, often, often.

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: Russell T Davies and Feminism from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Video: Russell T Davies and Feminism from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

Now the other thing that we talk about, and we are going to show a few more examples, Davies is very big on feminism. Again, whether that was because as a gay man he didn’t feel that he was included. He certainly knew from his female friends that they didn’t feel that their strengths were being portrayed on television. When he invented Torchwood, he invented Gwen for us and I mentioned this before, Gwen and her husbands, Rhys, Rhys is the guy who stays home and waits for his cop wife to come back from work and worries about whether she’ll end up dead. That is supposed to go the other way around, right? The girl stays home and wonders about her cop husband. That’s not what’s going to happen in Torchwood and it makes Gwen a very powerful character, but this again wasn’t a one time deal for Russell. All through the course of Doctor Who he gave us female starship captains. Much better ones than Star Trek gave us. Star Trek gave us Captain Janeway with her flopping hair. Every time she had something to do she took that ponytail off and did a little flippy thing. That’s not what a — Captain Kirk never flipped his hair. So, even though they made her a female captain, she had these ridiculous attributes. Here, the women we are going to meet Kathleen McConnell is fro “43” the episode “42” and my my particular favorite Adelaide Brooks who is the captain in “Waters of Mars”. Very, very important women. Very powerful women. women in charge of making decisions and saving people’s lives and sacrificing their own sometime in order to do that. These are captains the way we expected to see captains as men and Russell wrote them as female  characters. I think that is so feminism is a huge theme that wanders through Russell Davies work and again, I think that draws a newer, younger audience to him, because we are ready for that. We’re ready to understand that with women in the military all around the world, we don’t need to see, “Oh I’m so worried — please save me!”

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: Interracial relationships on Doctor Who from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Video: Interracial relationship on Doctor Who from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

The other thing that Russell T Davies is known for that has bled into American television better and makes everybody happy is colorblind casting. This business, again of inclusion. In America as I said, sadly, when you have a black and a shote person together in a relationship, the problem in their life is that one of them us white and one of them is black, but, after a while, that’s not your problem anymore or the relationship wouldn’t work. So, in his case, he gave us Mickey and Rose in the very first episode and through that first couple of seasons, we’re going to watch their relationship. Sadly, she eventually falls out of love with Mickey and in love with The Doctor. All right, well, it’s David Tennant. Who wouldn’t fall in love with him. What can I tell you? But, he gives us not one time. It’s recurring thing in Davies’ work. We get to the Next Doctor episode and we see Jackson Lake and his “partner” who, once the episode is over we understand they’re falling in love and are probably going to get marred even though they live in Victorian England and that is going to be taken in a particular way. Although, Belle, that new movie coming out now, is dealing with a multi-racial, a bi-racial woman, in this era. And its based on a true story. So I am very excited to see how that’s going to work out. But he also did this in little moments in episodes. Again, I’m back to Blink, which was written by Steven Moffat, but under the executive producer-ship of Russell T Davies, who made sure that Detective Inspector Billy Shipton, who gets to say the really great line, “Life is short and you are hot!” He’s hot! But they put him together with Cary Mulligan. That’s who he gets to be in love with and she in love with him in a tortuously sad romance that happens way to fast. It’s a gorgeous, gorgeous episode and that is a beautiful moment for that actor. His name is Michael Obiora. He’s an English actor. Again, the English are doing things better than us. It is part of the BBC’s policy, but writers have to remember to do it and in America it is really Grey’s Anatomy where you have to go to to see that happen. So, I think that’s a pretty important thing. Now at the end of Blink, she doesn’t end up with Billy Shipton. She ends up with this dude. Larry. He’s a perfectly nice dude. All right. Whatever. But Billy Shipton was much hotter.

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: Russell T Davies Anti-War Themes from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Video: Russell T Davies Anti-War Themes from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

I think the deepest theme you find in Russell T Davies work is his anti-war theme. I think that if you look at the first episodes, especially with Eccleston, and as they are later repeated with David Tennant, and we are going to see a little clip from each of those, you find an amazingly deep anti-war strain, because of what war does to human beings — what it turns them into. And that is something that an artist, a writer, dislikes. Because an artist wants to see someone succeed through their creativity and through bringing something important and positive into the world. One of the things I said last time was that I do believe the reason I do believe Who succeeds now at such a level is because its a positive view of our future. As much as y’all like to see zombies eating people and getting shot in barns and all that sort of thing, those are very depressing looks at our potential future. In Doctor Who, the Doctor generally wins and his goal is generally to save humanity. I like that. I would rather live in a future where I get saved than where I turn into a zombie.

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”

Video: Moffat’s Fear of Everyday Things from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A short clip from the longer presentation, “Doctor Who Regenerated”

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal Poly Pomona Faculty from the Department of Interdisciplinary General Education is back by popular demand with a new lecture on Doctor Who and Television!

This time, the Doctor will focus on a deeper look of the themes of the writers behind “Doctor Who.” Above and beyond race and gender, they include social justice and the power of childhood.

View the entire presentation

Moffat's Fear of Everyday Things from Doctor Who Regenerated with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

 

Transcript:

What’s interesting to me is Steven we most know from Blink, which is an episode he created won his first BAFTA for and it’s quite the scary thing. What Steven likes to do, if you think about recurring themes, is Steven likes to find the fearful things in everyday life. He doesn’t want to invent cheesy fish monsters. He’s not worried about Godzilla — who I hope isn’t so bad in this current creation, but we can’t be sure. We can’t say anything until we see it. He wants to invent fear in everyday life. So, this was a perfect example of it, because, of course, what’s the rule of Blink? Don’t Blink. Blink and you die! Oh my god, how do you not blink. so, that’s right away makes you crazy. That tension and that really makes you scared of something so normal. It’s fascinating. So, Steven is quite and interesting writer when it comes to that.

“Natalie Lopez at the CalPoly University Library invited me to do a presentation for National Libraries Week on Doctor Who and Culture so that’s why a group of Whovians from both CalPoly and CSUF gathered in the Special Events room on April 16th.  It was wonderful to look out over a sea of t-shirts and other Doctor paraphernalia present among the crowd as I pontificated about what makes Who great – mostly giving me a chance to present a case for the fact that writers make Doctor Who and therefore writers make culture.”