bbc – Page 5 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

12 Martha Jones 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.

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Transcript:

Now we come to Martha who belongs on this show but the actress had other ideas. Totally fine. You run your own career. You’re gonna go do that but again in terms of representation the idea all along was that she would have learned from her travels with The Doctor. Where are you gonna use skills like that? Where else? In Torchwood. So totally useful for her. So to have a woman and when I wrote about torchwood I realized i can’t call her African-American. They were like wait wait. I said what do you do they said she’s an English woman of African descent. So there you go or whatever descent a person happens to be in England. So think about how great and I think this would have been so cool if she was a regular on the show but okay she chose not to be but that was the plan and they did try to use her as a guest whenever they could and I think that’s a big deal. Again making sure that there was a person of color in the lead of that show.

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20 The Costume 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:

So of course we have to talk about the costume a little bit. Of course, he decided on that hello. I know there was a lot of chit-chat about what is that? That’s not a great outfit. Here I am wearing it. I did like the one she was introduced in but all black is not good for lighting guys. It’s not exciting to look at on-screen for too long but see this is where I think he was smart. I’ve never noticed earlier doctors changing as much and I think whether he took cosplaying into consideration or whether he just wanted to make sure she had more things to do I really appreciate it because I’ve seen the welding cosplay at a couple of cons. I love the tuxedo and that she’s wearing the pants. I mean come on she’s not gonna wear a dress. She can’t run around and do important things and like save the world in a dress. So I think that they did some really interesting stuff and I like the way that he homages different people. Again Peter’s in here and you know Tom is in here. Every time you got to think about how’s this person going to look? What are they going to wear on a regular basis? So you know I think he did the best he could right there. Could I have designed something else? I don’t know.

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11 Equal Relationships 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:

If you think about it but he’s an equal partner. Again in children of earth this marvelous bit. They’re carrying these children away together. They’re saving them. He’s just as much a hero. He doesn’t have to have a job that defines him as a hero. He’s one in his heart right and so I think he’s a marvelous character that we don’t necessarily see again on American television. Still, when there are women who achieve a lot they aren’t partnered. We’re not seeing this kind of balanced marriage and I see it much more in UK shows and actually shows in Canada. We watch a lot of Canadian tv. One is the number one detective show in Canada is called Murdoch Mysteries and she’s a coroner and he’s a cop. It’s in like 1910 Toronto and they dated for a series of years and then they got married and in an American show like on Bones – I got married shows over. Show’s done. Nobody cares anymore right? Here they’ve been married for the last four or five seasons and they still both do their cool work and they have this equal relationship.

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19 More On Diverse Characters…from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

We even had a female Jadoon right? That’s like okay I forget – I mean they’re ugly elephant rhino characters right but there are females in there somewhere. No one ever mentioned that before. So he’s really thinking about it all the way and I’ve never forgot how cool it was – I had never heard of Noor Inayat Khan, right? I had never heard the story and now I know right? I know that there were women who were doing radio operations and all this stuff in World War II. I wouldn’t have known that except he decided to include her as an example of a female hero. So I think he’s really going wide to give us these stories and that impresses me.

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10 Gwen & Rhys 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:

What’s beautiful about Gwen right is that she’s beautiful but she’s powerful. She’s smart. We eventually get around the fact that she has a baby and she’s still gonna be as empowered and smart as she is and she’s gonna keep her job and because she has a family that will help that happen right? So we have actually not just that she’s powerful but she’s in a balanced marriage. She’s in a marriage with someone who’s her partner, not someone above her or below her right? They’re equals and they’re sharing in their business and finally, I’ve got a couple of friends like this. One’s a lawyer at a big law firm and she got partner and her husband didn’t at his firm so when they decided to have a baby it was like well who’s going to stay home? The lady who’s making all kinds of money or the guy who’s not. I think it’s the guy and he was totally cool with that because they’re making tons of money and he gets to be with the baby but we’re still looking at that like it’s an oddity when it needn’t be. It’s what’s best for this family right and this balanced family came to us in Torchwood. This idea that a man would be okay with his wife having this more exciting life.

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

Transcript:

Again he promised that all the stories would be more gendered in terms of more female-focused and so think about the people we met along the way all right. Obviously, they decided to do the Rosa story which I find interesting from an American perspective because here’s a large piece of American history we’re going to see how it is envisioned by another country right? I loved when they asked Ryan what do you know about her –– like she was a bus driver. Why should he –– like he doesn’t have to know that. We know that because we teach it to our kids more often in the same way that if we asked about certain kings I’m not sure which one did what/ Who signed the Magna Carta again? I don’t know. Do we teach that in the states as much as they you know… So it was a lovely moment to go the whole world isn’t America focused right? There’s a bigger world out there but again a great choice to do her as a character.

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09 Gwen Cooper 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:

Of course, one of the reasons that I love Torchwood is Gwen Cooper, right, and this comes directly, again, from Russell. One of the quotes he gave me was your know, I never see good gay representation. I never see good African-American representation, but what really stinks is how badly women are represented on television and that’s an amazing thing for a guy to recognize, but that is, of course, who he is. He’s a writer. He’s an artist. He’s thinking about people as whole beings and it’s true, right? I mean that’s why there’s a show on American TV now called “Kevin Can Go F*** Himself.” They’ve taken – because, for years, as I’ve watched comedies, you know, sitcoms, when I was a kid you were always like why is that really useless man married to that really excellent woman? I don’t believe for 3 seconds that he’s forgotten their anniversary for 12 years in a row and she still puts up with it. Like why am learning that’s how I’m supposed to accept my mate. This is nonsense and that’s what that show is about now. She actually – you get two versions. You see the sitcom scenes and then see her alone in a scene where she’s planning to murder him because he deserves it. And you’re like Wow, Ok. So Russell recognized he wanted to bring forth a real;y interesting woman and you can’t necessarily see a million of those yet on TV. We still don’t see as many empowered women – in this case, Gwen Cooper.

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17 Diverse Writers…from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

Transcript:

This comes from the writer’s room and they do those a little bit differently in the UK as well. They don’t necessarily have everyone on staff meeting every day the way we do in the states but he hired a group of people to write certain freelance episodes expecting to get this variety of stories that we had not yet seen before and so he was looking to hire more women of course and more people of color which was not you know a record that Doctor Who had going well for it even moving into the Steven Moffat years. So he made a commitment and he followed through. What’s interesting about a lot of these writers is they came out of theater where there’s a little bit more chance sometimes because you can do smaller plays in smaller locations around the country and then someone can sample your writing. It’s hard to break into television even in the UK. It’s even a smaller business than here. So he was looking into other places to find new writers for these shows and I think again I think he succeeded there.

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08 Ianto Jones 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:

Now we know that eventually, they build into him being with Ianto which is so interesting because we start with Ianto has a girlfriend and she’s the cyber woman that he saved right which was – they – I in one of the things Russell said when he first offered the job the actor said Nah sounds like a boring character and they said in the third or fourth episode we’re going to find out you’ve been hiding your girlfriend and she’s a cyber woman and he was like oh I’ll do that show. I’m in for that right? So I think that’s so fun but of course so again Ianto, we find out is bisexual right? He starts with a girlfriend. That doesn’t work. Eventually, he and Jack come together. One of the things I learned on this trip to Cardiff for this event was – he is such a beloved character there is a monument to him and it there and it’s still there. It just – about six months ago John Barrowman visited it and was seen there and you just on his Instagram page but it literally and it was not – this is a later edition. This actual formalization of it. It started by individuals – people just putting up poetry in Ianto’s name. In honor of him right because he died in the universe. Amazing. This is the tv character, right? This is not a real human being but the story moved people so much that they just started coming here and dropping these things off and that’s why then the city has made it permanent and this is actually Roald Dahl Place. So that’s interesting too because it ties into all of the English you know the culture that we have fallen in love with if you will but I just think that’s amazing. I can’t name necessarily an American tv character that has had a permanent monument in their name. So that’s an amazing thing.

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

Transcript:

…Then he had to think about the guest actors – the people who would come and go in different episodes and I think again look at what he gave us in terms of powerful female characters right? I love Yaz’s Nan, right? I adore that episode. We’ll talk about that in a couple minutes. Yes, I know Grace? Now and we’re going to talk about that tomorrow because that’s a little bit of how Torchwood changed television in a smart way because he’s using the same trick he used on Susie right? We all thought she was a regular and then she wasn’t and that’s how else you get the modern world who reads everything out of Deadline and Variety and all online – how do you get them and you gotta have that gut-punch moment but he did a good job of keeping the character alive both in the dialogue right and then Graham saw her a few times and Ryan was always talking about her. So that’s pretty cool and then of course the two women in Witchfinders are strong powerful women on different sides of the debate of what was going on in terms of witches. So all these again strong females that he’s bringing forward.

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