Doctor Who: Series One Statistics

Check back tonight for “The Christmas Invasion.”

I don't know yet how these end of season/series analyses are going to work, so feel free to leave me any suggestions.

DOCTOR WHO SERIES ONE STATISTICS

The series started out great, but ended on a bit of a sour note for women.

Series One/Ninth Doctor Tenure Averages:

First Half of Series (1x01-1x06)

Average Number of Named Women Per Episode: 3.5

Average Rating Per Episode:  2.25

Average Number of Qualifying Conversations Per Episode: 1.125

Second Half of Series (1x01-1x13)

Average Number of Named Women Per Episode: 3 (eliminating Bad Wolf as an outlier for this half of the season we get 2.7)

Average Rating Per Episode: 0.43

Average Number of Qualifying Conversations Per Episode: 0.22

Total For Series One/Ninth Doctor Tenure:

Average Number of Named Women Per Episode: 3.25

Average Rating Per Episode: 1.34

Average Number of Qualifying Conversations Per Episode: 0.67

Rose and Other Women:

In Series 1, Rose had 16 conversations with 6 different women, which equals to about 1.23 conversations per episode and spread across 13 episodes that leaves only 0.46 unique women (excluding Rose) per episode.

Doctor Who: 1x12 "Bad Wolf" & 1x13 "The Parting of Ways"

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DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE TWELVE: “BAD WOLF”

It all led up to this.

Doctor Who: 1x12: “Bad Wolf” Written by Russell T. Davies

The Summary:

The Doctor wakes up in a closet, not knowing how he got there, and a young woman named Lynda helps him by explaining that he’s been transmatted to a Big Brother house in the distant future (200,100 to be precise) in which house-mates who are voted out are disintegrated.  Rose is also transmatted into a game – The Weakest Link and Anne Robinson is now the Anne-Droid.  At first, she thinks it’s just a silly game until the Anne-Droid disintegrates the first contestant deemed The Weakest Link.  Jack, too, wakes up in a game show – this time a makeover type show, which he loves since he keeps getting to be naked on television.  The Doctor figures out that if he gets evicted from the Big Brother House, he will not be disintegrated because something or someone very powerful got through the TARDIS defenses to get him there; meanwhile, Rose is getting more and more terrified that she’ll be disintegrated next and Jack stops having fun when the androids doing him makeover decide he would look better without a head.  The Doctor escapes, bringing Lynda with him, and he realizes he’s on Satellite 5, where he, Rose, and Adam had been hundred years before.  Lynda explains that after the Doctor ditched clean-up duty, all the news shut down and caused total chaos until the game shows took the news’ place and everyone became complacent.  Kinda an awesome commentary on how television makes us complacent, but a bit unrealistic, since social media had to have grown exponentially in 198,000 years (of course, Facebook had just been developed at this point and Tweeting/Tumblring the Revolution was not yet a thing).  Oh yeah, and the whole thing is being run by… The Bad Wolf Corporation!  Dun dun daaaa!  Jack, with a couple guns, finds the Doctor and Lynda, and together they all go find Rose, who is about to be disintegrated.  They seem to arrive just in time, but as Rose and the Doctor are running to each other, Rose is disintegrated.  The Doctor gets a teensy bit upset, and the three go up to Level 500 to take over the Game Station.  There, thanks to well-timed solar flare interference, the Controller (a woman whose been hooked into the computer since she was 5 years old) explains that her masters are trying to destroy the human race and she called him there for help.  Her “masters” then disintegrate her.  And surprise!  It’s the Daleks!  And they’re not disintegrating people, they’re transmatting them to their ships to convert them into Daleks.  They open communications with the Doctor and reveal that they are holding Rose Tyler hostage so the Doctor will not intervene.  Instead, the Doctor tells Rose he’s coming to get her.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Lynda Moss, Crosbie, Fitch, Colleen

The Conversations:

Five named women and no conversations?!

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

Oh, bother

The Tally:

Episode 1x12 Total: 0

Series 1 Total: 16.5

9^th Doctor Total: 16.5

Rose as Companion Total: 16.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 16.5

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE THIRTEEN: “THE PARTING OF WAYS”

In which Rose becomes a goddess then has her power stripped away in a non-literal women-in-refrigerators way.

Doctor Who: 1x13: “The Parting of Ways” Written by Russell T. Davies

Due to how long this review is, I'm cutting it here.  No spoilers for anything beyond Series 1.

Doctor Who: 1x11 "Boom Town"

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE ELEVEN: “BOOM TOWN”

The Slitheen wearing Margaret Blaine is back in action.  And someone finally mentions that the phrase "Bad Wolf" has now been in seven episodes.

Doctor Who: 1x11: “Boom Town” Written by Russell T. Davies

The Summary:

Rose, Jack, and the Doctor land in present day Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS using radiation leaks from the closed rift; Mickey arrives to give Rose her passport and visit with her.  Meanwhile Margaret Blaine, one of the Slitheen from Aliens of London/World War III, survived Mickey’s attack on 10 Downing Street.  She has become Lord Mayor of Cardiff, and apparently no one noticed that she was the MI-5 agent-person in Downing Street at the time of the missile attack, but from what I know of Cardiff exclusively from BBC shows, this is not all that surprising.  So, Margaret Blaine, whose name is actually Blon Fel-Fotch  Passameer-Day Slitheen (from here referred to as Blon), has initiated a project to build a nuclear power station in the heart of Cardiff and is killing off everyone who recognizes that the plans for the station are faulty and will result in a meltdown worse than Chernobyl (with the exception of reporter Cathy Salt, who Blon spares after hearing her talk about her fiancée and unborn child and who did not see Blon’s true form).  The Doctor finds out while having lunch with Jack, Rose, and Mickey; the four go to confront her, and after a few minutes of hijinks, they capture her. She reveals her plans for the project, called Blaidd Drwg, which is Welsh for “bad wolf” and the Bad Wolf meme is finally commented on by the Doctor and Rose.  Blon had been planning on imploding the Earth or some such and riding the shockwave out of the solar system on an extrapolator, which Jack thinks they can wire into the TARDIS to boost its refueling.  They take Blon as a prisoner onto the TARDIS with the intention of bringing her to Raxacoricofallapatorius to be dealt with by her own people, who Blon claims will execute her.  While Mickey and Rose go on a date and plan to get a hotel room and while Jack wires the extrapolator into the TARDIS, the Doctor takes Blon to have her last meal, where there is much pleading, sass, and attempted murder.  Mickey reveals that he’s dating someone else, an old coworker of Rose’s.  But something goes wrong with the extrapolator and the TARDIS and the rift begins to open, interrupting everyone’s dates.  Rose runs off, leaving Mickey, and the Doctor and Blon run to the TARDIS as well.  Once everyone’s there, Blon reveals that she had a back-up plan that the extrapolator carried out on the TARDIS.  Defending itself, the TARDIS opened up and showed Blon the Heart of the TARDIS, which turned her back into an egg, thus saving the word.  Rose runs back to find Mickey, but he has left and she seems resigned to the end of their relationship.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Margaret Blaine/Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, Cathy Salt

The Conversations:

Cathy and Blon: Cathy Salt questions Blon, disguised as Margaret Blaine, about the nuclear power station project and the apparent danger the workers have faced and the apparent danger everyone will face if the station is built.  They end up discussing much more personal things like Cathy’s fiancée and pregnancy and Blon’s lost family.  The rating: 1

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“I’m all on my own.  I had quite a sizable family once upon a time – wonderful brothers.  Oh, they were bold!  But all of them gone now.” – Blon Slitheen as Margaret Blaine (to Cathy Salt)

Blon spends most of the episode trying to convince the Doctor that she change, but the Doctor doesn’t believe her and since the Doctor knows best (in most cases), we’re generally inclined to agree with him.  But the exchange between Blon and Cathy is sincere – and I love when women are open with each other in media, since we’re usually depicted as hating each other – and gives a nice set up to Blon’s redemption in the end.

The Tally:

Episode 1x11 Total: 1

Series 1 Total: 16.5

9^th Doctor Total: 16.5

Rose as Companion Total: 16.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 16.5

Doctor Who: 1x09 "The Empty Child" & 1x10 "The Doctor Dances"

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE NINE: “THE EMPTY CHILD”

The creepiest monster of the week in New Who to date – and surprise, surprise it’s a child.  Plus the introduction of everyone’s favorite über-suave time-traveler Captain Jack Harkness.

Doctor Who: 1x09: “The Empty Child” Written by Steven Moffat

The Summary:

The Doctor and Rose follow an alien object with a mauve alert (the universal version of the red alert) to London in 1941.  They quickly become separated, without realizing they’re in the middle of the Blitz because apparently the Doctor forgot to check that they weren’t landing in the middle of a war before getting off the TARDIS.  Rose goes to follow a small child calling for his mother from a rooftop, where she climbs the cable to a barrage balloon and accidentally sets it loose, while she still hanging onto it.  Meanwhile, the Doctor gets mistaken for a comedian when asking an underground cabaret whether anyone had noticed something large falling from the sky into the middle of London.  While Rose is flying above London, wearing a Union Jack t-shirt, in the middle of an air-raid, the Doctor receives a phone call on a phone in the TARDIS that is not actually a phone.  A young woman tells him not to answer, but the Doctor does anyway.  The little boy on the other line asks for his mother.  The woman has disappeared, but the Doctor decides to find her and ask for more information.  Rose is still hanging off a barrage balloon, but is spotted by an (apparently) American officer called Jack looking at her through binoculars.  After making it clear he’s involved with another male officer, he runs off “to meet a girl.”  Said girl turns out to be Rose, who he saves with his invisible spaceship that he had parked next to Big Ben.  Rose is reduced to her hormones upon setting eyes on Jack.  The Doctor crashes a dinner stolen from a family in a bomb shelter and being hosted by the mysterious young woman, Nancy, for a bunch of orphans.  The Doctor says he approves of her tactics, then asks the children for information on the cylinder.  Before he can get any information, the little boy shows up (and is clearly wearing a gas mask), and all the other children run away.  Nancy claims the boy is empty and that the Doctor should not touch him.  She leaves, and the Doctor opens the door for the little boy, but he’s already gone.  Jack introduces himself as Captain Jack Harkness, and he and Rose flirt.  Jack is a time-traveler and knows Rose is too, though he mistakes her for a professional Time Agent.  The Doctor tracks Nancy down again, and she explains that the bomb “that was not a bomb” crashed near Limehouse Green Station, and that he should talk to “the doctor.”  Jack and Rose flirt some more and dance and Jack uses the obviously compromised Rose to get her to purchase the cylinder (a Chula warship); she has him find the Doctor first.  The Doctor goes to Albion Hospital to talk to Dr. Constantine, who tells him that the child was the first of many and the entire hospital is full of gas-mask people and the little boy is in fact Nancy’s little brother.  Dr. Constantine then grows a gas mask out of his face.  Rose and Jack meet up with the Doctor and they’re attacked by the gas mask people.  The episode ends on a cliff-hanger.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Nancy

The Conversations:

Nope

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

L’sigh

The Tally:

Episode 1x09 Total: 0

Series 1 Total: 13.5

9^th Doctor Total: 13.5

Rose as Companion Total: 13.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 13.5

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE TEN: “THE DOCTOR DANCES”

In which everyone is reduced to their sex organs.

Doctor Who: 1x10: “The Doctor Dances” Written by Steven Moffat

The Summary:

The Doctor saves the trio of time-travelers by commanding the gas-mask people (who are all asking for their mothers) to go to their room.  Nancy is also being cornered by the little boy, her brother Jamie in the house she was previously stealing from.  All the gas-mask people, including Jamie, go back to their beds after the Doctor’s command.  But it’s too late for Nancy, as she gets caught by the owner of the house.  Meanwhile, Jack explains that he’s just a conman and that the Chula warship is just a junk ambulance.  He and the Doctor argue about whether Jack is responsible for everything.  Nancy meanwhile is being a badass, blackmailing the owner, Mr. Lloyd, with his blackmarket food (and also possibly that he’s in a sexual relationship with the butcher, which is not as cool) into giving her more food and wire cutters.  The Doctor, Rose, and Jack explore the child’s room and discover that he’s inhumanly strong; then they remember that the Doctor sent the child to his room, and Jamie is there, asking for his mother.  They get out using Jack’s sonic blaster, which disappears the wall and reconstructs it once they’re out of the room.  This doesn’t really slow the child down and the gas-mask people are back.  The Doctor and Jack then get into a family-friendly, sci-fi dick measuring contest by comparing their respective sonic instruments until Rose remembers that she’s clever and can figure shit out and disappears the floor beneath them then reconstructs it above them once they’ve fallen through. (Sorry for the run-on.)  They hide in a storeroom, and before they can figure out how to get out of the situation, Jack teleports.  Meanwhile, Nancy brings the food to her “charges” in the rail yard and explains that the child is coming for her, so as long as she’s with them, they’re in danger.  She leaves.  Back in the store room, Jack explains over the radio, because his ship can hack into anything with a speaker grille (just like the child can), that he went to his ship and is working on getting them teleported there as well.  The child’s voice comes on and Jack blocks it by playing Moonlight Serenade.  Rose explains that she and Jack danced to the song, and the Doctor becomes jealous, explaining that he too dances, an obvious metaphor for sex.  The Doctor then tries to dance with Rose, but is cock-blocked by Jack teleporting them onto his ship.  Rose and Jack comment on the sexual tension between Rose and the Doctor, and Jack gets some backstory.  Back to Nancy, who’s broken into the site where the Chula warship is being guarded, she is quickly caught by the guards and handcuffed to a table right next to a guard who is about to turn into a gas-mask person.  The Doctor, Rose, and Jack arrive on the scene and Jack goes to flirt with the guard Algy.  The Doctor reduces the wide-world of human sexuality and sexual orientation to “dancing” with as many beings as possible.  But Algy and all the other guards are turning into gas-mask people, and the Doctor, Rose, and Jack run into the site to escape them.  The Doctor finds Nancy singing a lullaby to the gas-mask guard she was caged with to keep him asleep; the Doctor sonics her handcuffs and gets her out.  Jack tries to break into the Chula ambulance to prove his innocence but ends up setting of the alarm that brings all the gas-mask people to it.  Rose and Nancy go to fix the fence where Nancy broke in, and they have an awesome moment of woman to woman bonding.  The Doctor finally figures out that the Chula ambulance is equipped with nano-genes, which heal anything but don’t know what humans are supposed to look like, so when they tried to heal Jamie they got it mixed up and started “healing” everyone they came into contact with in the same way.  Nancy is then revealed to be Jamie’s mother not his sister – and ok I love mothers but considering how reductionist this whole episode has been about sex, sexuality, and gender roles this reveal is just kinda “ugh” – then in a heartwarming moment, Nancy tells Jamie that she is indeed his mother who he has been calling for and the nano-genes recognize her biology as correct and everyone is saved.  But a bomb is about to fall on them, so Jack teleports to his ship and saves them all by taking the bomb into space, but he cannot diffuse it entirely or escape the ship so he prepares for death when the TARDIS materializes in the ship to save him.  The Doctor and Rose are dancing, and everyone flirts and dances and the episode ends.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Nancy

The Conversations:

Rose and Nancy: Rose lets Nancy in on the secrets that not only are the Doctor,  Jack, and her time-travelers from the future but also that England and its allies win the war against Hitler.  The rating: 2

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“Nancy, the Germans don’t come here.  They don’t win.  […]  You know what?  You win.” – Rose Tyler (to Nancy)

Yes, the Doctor and his companions regularly save the world, but it’s when they give hope to someone who has lost it completely is when I think they shine.  And the importance of this is shown just a couple minutes later when Nancy, despite having spent most of her time bonding with the Doctor, calls for Rose when the gas-mask people start breaking through the gates.

The Tally:

Episode 1x10 Total: 2

Series 1 Total: 15.5

9^th Doctor Total: 15.5

Rose as Companion Total: 15.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 15.5

For Further Discussion: Sexuality: Sexualization and Erasure

Spoilers for DW Series 1, Torchwood, DW episodes 4x09 & 4x10, and DW Series 5-7

Doctor Who: 1x08: Father's Day

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE EIGHT: “FATHER’S DAY”

And this is when we cry all the tears.

Doctor Who: 1x08: “Father’s Day” Written by Paul Cornell

The Summary:

Rose convinces the Doctor to take her to see her father before his death when she was just a baby on November 7, 1987.  Although the Doctor is hesitant because of timey-wimey stuff, he brings Rose first to see her parents’ marriage ceremony then to sit with her father while waiting for the ambulance to arrive on the day he was hit by a car.  On the first try, she is unable to move except to run away while her father dies alone on the street.  Despite his reservations, the Doctor brings her back one more time, but instead of waiting, Rose runs out and saves her father from being hit.  From her mother’s stories, Rose knows that her father was on his way to a wedding, so she convinces him that she too is on her way.  Pete brings Rose and the Doctor to his and Jackie’s apartment so he can change.  There Rose admires all of her father’s things which she’s only seen in storage, and she and the Doctor argue.  The Doctor storms out taking Rose’s TARDIS key with him.  Pete takes Rose to the wedding with him, and Rose learns her mother has been lying to her about Pete; he has apparently stepped out on Jackie and is somewhat of a failure of a businessman.  Jackie accuses Rose of being his latest mistress, and Rose is visibly shaken by this revelation.  Meanwhile the Doctor has discovered the TARDIS is just a phone box and some monster is eating people.  Toddler!Mickey runs to the church saying monsters are attacking people and the Doctor runs to Rose saying they need to get into the church before monsters attack them.  Weird vulture-flying-mouth-things, called Reapers, begin picking off wedding guests while the rest seek refuge in the church, which is old enough to keep the Reapers out for a short time while the Doctor figures out how to fix everything.  The Doctor lectures Rose since her saving her father’s life is probably what caused this.  While the Doctor thinks, Rose pouts, Jackie glares, and everyone else freaks out, Pete figures out that Rose is his daughter and she saved his life when he was supposed to be dead – obviously Rose got her attitude from her mother and her cleverness from her father in a pro-nature argument that doesn’t make me want to puke.  The Doctor warns Rose not to touch the baby version of herself, but when trying to prove to Jackie that Rose is their Rose, Pete shoves baby!Rose into Rose’s arms, thus letting the Reapers inside the church.  The Doctor sacrifices himself to protect the others, and Pete realizes that without the Doctor the only way to save everyone is to fix Rose’s mistake and die.  Pete runs out in front of the car that was originally supposed to kill him, and Rose gets to sit with her father at last.  Her memory is modified to include the new version of events, though Jackie didn’t remember Rose and the Doctor being there.  This episode is the sixth instance of the Bad Wolf meme.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Sarah Clark

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Jackie: Jackie tells toddler!Rose about her father Peter Tyler and how he died.  The rating: 0

2. Rose and Jackie: Jackie repeats her story to toddler!Rose, incorporating the hanges in the timeline.  The rating: 0

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“He was always having adventures.  Oh, he would have loved to have seen you now.” – Jackie Tyler (to Rose Tyler)

As always, gotta love the Jackie-Rose dynamic, especially how wonderfully Jackie is always doing her best to protect Rose and raise her to be the best she can be.  I think this episode really shows the roots of Jackie’s and Rose’s relationship and why Jackie fears Rose’s relationship with the Doctor so much because while she’s trying to recast Pete in a better light in her memories, she still lives in fear that Rose is going to turn out too much like him and will die like him.

The Tally:

Episode 1x08 Total: 0

Series 1 Total: 13.5

9^th Doctor Total: 13.5

Rose as Companion Total: 13.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 13.5

Doctor Who: 1x07: "The Long Game"

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE SEVEN: “THE LONG GAME”

Doctor Who shows what sci-fi is made of with an episode long indictment of news corporations and the influence of big banks. 

Doctor Who: 1x07: “The Long Game” Written by Russell T Davis

The Summary:

The Doctor brings Rose and Adam to the year 200,000, the middle of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, onto a space station called Satellite Five, where the news for the entire empire is broadcast.  The Doctor helps Rose pretend to know way more than she actually does to impress Adam, and basically the entire episode is one adorable Doctor-Rose moment after another.  The Doctor quickly figures out that the empire is not nearly as great and bountiful as it’s supposed to be, and he quickly finds a couple of ambitious journalists to help him figure things out.  While Rose and the Doctor investigate, Adam plots with some very heavy handed foreshadowing.  The Editor figures out someone should not be on Satellite Five, and instead of immediately noticing the non-employees who are just sort of standing around, he discovers that Suki is actually Eva, a self-professed anarchist and freedom fighter.  He “promotes” Suki to the Floor 500 (the apparent executive level, that is actually where they murder the employees they promote and set them to work as super-computers).  Adam wanders off to be greedy to the point of stupidity, and the Doctor, Rose, and reluctantly Cathica investigate Floor 500 and why the empire is set-back so far.  They get their answers when the Editor realizes the Doctor and Rose don’t belong and brings them up to Floor 500.  The Editor, and by extension the entire civilization, work for the Jagrafess and its investors.  The Editor interrogates the Doctor and Rose while Cathica sneaks in and figures out how to stop the corruption of Satellite Five.  Meanwhile, Adam is an idiot and nearly gets them all killed by creating a temporal paradox because he lets the Editor get his hands on information on the TARDIS and the TARDIS key.  Cathica destroys the Jagrafess and Suki’s dead body holds the Editor down so he is killed as well.  The Doctor and Rose leave Cathica to get everything sorted and bring Adam back to his parents’ home in 2012 England.  This episode is the fifth instance of the Bad Wolf meme and the set-up for the meme’s arch.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Cathica Santini Khadeni, Suki Mcrae Cantrell (Eva Saint Julienne)

The Conversations:

Plenty of conversations between women but none exclusively between women.

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

Nothing stand-out-ish… again.

The Tally:

Episode 1x07 Total: 0

Series 1 Total: 13.5

9^th Doctor Total: 13.5

Rose as Companion Total: 13.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 13.5

For Further Discussion: What Science-Fiction is Good For

No spoilers beyond this episode

First, let me just say that although this is another episode without a single conversation to pass the Bechdel Test, it’s still stand-out with women.  The Doctor is more like a facilitator to the real plot-solvers in the episode – Suki and Cathica, women whose roles and characterization have nothing to do with their genders. 

This episode is a prime example of what makes sci-fi/fantasy so fantastic; it gives us a chance to discuss real issues in society without alerting those that would censor it.  The entire episode is about news as business with big banks behind it all, and the main villains are called the Editor and Editor-in-Chief, and I seriously cannot get over how in love with this episode, and return to the morality play structure, I am.  Although morality and philosophy are part of every episode of Doctor Who so far, it’s these stories that I love when it comes to all sci-fi/fantasy and these stories that I think are some of the best stand-alone stories in Doctor Who.

Doctor Who: 1x06 "Dalek"

And we’re back to the regularly scheduled programming.

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE SIX: “DALEK”

For the first time in New Who, we meet the Daleks – the Doctor’s most hated enemy – and it is awesome. (But maybe not for equal representation)

Doctor Who: 1x06: “Dalek” Written by Robert Shearman

The Summary:
The Doctor and Rose follow a signal for help to an underground compound in Utah in the year 2012, which is the past now but was the future then. They discover that they have landed in a private alien museum/collection owned by a personification of capitalist greed by the name of Henry van Statten. The Doctor rather idiotically shows off and proves himself to be an alien expert. Van Statten then forces him to go, without Rose, to confront the alien he’s been torturing with hopes of learning what it is. Said alien turns out to be a Dalek, which looks rather silly with its weapons being a whisk and a plunger but is actually rather terrifying and sends the Doctor into a crazed frenzy. Meanwhile, Rose chats up Adam, the technology expert working for van Statten who really knows nothing about aliens and thinks Rose is completely ignorant. Rose gets Adam to spy on the cell van Statten takes the Doctor to, but instead of seeing the Doctor scream about how much he hates the Daleks, she sees one of van Statten’s employees torturing the Dalek. The Doctor has been taken to another cell to be tortured once van Statten figured out he was an alien. Rose convinces Adam to take her to the cell so she can help the poor alien. The Dalek tricks her into touching xim* which revives xim to full strength. A bunch of people die, like whoa, including almost Rose, who only survives because she tainted the Dalek into treating her like xir commanding officer. Using her power over the Dalek, Rose helps it realize that it wants something more than to kill, which shouldn’t be possible; at the same time, the Doctor has become obsessed with killing the Dalek. Eventually, the Doctor convinces Rose to convince the Dalek to blow xirself up, which is presented as merciful since the Dalek’s changes are torturous to xir nature. In the end, the Doctor and Rose, with Adam, disappear into the TARDIS once again. This episode marks the fourth instance of the Bad Wolf meme and the first episode in which no women interact only between themselves.

The Women:
Rose Tyler, Diana Goddard, de Maggio

The Conversations:
…

…

Ahem.

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:
:-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(

The Tally:
Episode 1x06 Total: 0
Series 1 Total: 13.5
9th Doctor Total: 13.5
Rose as Companion Total: 13.5
Russell T Davis Era Total: 13.5
Series 1 Half-Way Point Episode Average: 2.25 points/episode = One and a quarter conversations between only women without mention of men per episode

For Further Discussion: Compassionate Women are Wrong

This is the second episode in which a woman who acts out of selflessness and compassion unleashes something murderous. One of the major characteristics of the Doctor is his compassion – he always wants to give whatever/whomever he encounters a chance and hates to resort to violence. This has turned out both badly and well for him, but so far, when women do this, it turns out horribly. It’s probably too early to call foul and claim there’s a pattern, but it’s something I’m definitely going to be looking out for this in future episodes. As it stands now, it looks almost like an indictment against sentimentality, which is typically attributed to women over men



PS. De Maggio is awesome and I wish Rose became friends with her rather than with Adam.

Doctor Who: 1x04 "Aliens of London" & 1x05 "World War III"

[Note to Self: Have episodes in queue so when emergencies crop up the blog can still be updated.]

Welcome to the fourth episode review for Fandom Approved, Bechdel Tested.  I’ll be starting with a rewatch of Doctor Who.  In each review, there will be spoilers for the episode reviewed and all previous (obviously); any spoilers for future episodes will be highlight-to-read or under a “Read More” bar.

Come back at 3:30 today for the regularly scheduled episode review: “Dalek.”

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE FOUR: “THE ALIENS OF LONDON”

Doctor Who: 1x04: “The Aliens of London” Written by Russell T Davis

The Summary:

The Doctor once again gets it wrong when landing the TARDIS; instead of returning Rose to twelve hours after the events of the pilot, he returns her to twelve months after the events of the pilot.  Her mother, Jackie, has been obviously desperate in searching for her missing daughter.  Rose and the Doctor try to explain it off as “just traveling” and that Rose meant to call but forgot.  But then, an alien spaceship crashes through Big Ben and into the Thames!  While trying to escape dealing with the “domestics” between Rose, Jackie, and Mickey (who had been accused of murdering Rose), the Doctor figures out that the crash landing was faked, as was the “alien” thought to be the pilot.  Meanwhile, the Prime Minister (either a Tony Blair fill-in or Tony Blair himself) has gone missing, and some random people in the British government are put in charge.  Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, continuously tries to get into see them but is put off.  She is the first to discover the acting Prime Minister and his lackeys are the real aliens.  When Jackie discovers that the Doctor is in fact an alien, she calls the police.  Instead of taking the Doctor into custody, the police escort the Doctor and Rose to Downing St to help decide the best actions for Great Britain to take.  The Doctor figures out that the people in charge are the real threat until it’s too late and everyone’s getting electrocuted while Rose and Harriet Jones are trapped in a room with another alien and Jackie is being attacked by yet another.  This episode has the third reference to Bad Wolf.

The Women:

Rose, Jackie, Harriet Jones, Margaret Blaine/Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, Dr. Toshiko Sato    

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Jackie: Rose appears in her living room, thinking she’s been gone for only twelve hours, when for her mother, it’s been a whole year.  They reunite with tears on Jackie’s part and confusion on Rose’s.  The rating: 2

2. Rose and Jackie: After talking with the police, Jackie drags Rose into the kitchen and pleads with her to explain what happened.  The rating: 2

3. Harriet and Rose: Knowing that the acting Prime Minister is an alien and that the Doctor is an expert on aliens, Harriet offers to keep Rose company and asks her if the Doctor can help them.  The conversation is completely about the Doctor, the rating: 0

4. Harriet and Rose: Harriet brings Rose to the council chamber, where she explains what happened with the aliens.  The rating: 1

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“Did you think about me at all?” – Jackie Tyler (to Rose Tyler)

I love the whole Jackie-Rose relationship and Jackie’s worry and love for Rose in these scenes are just heartbreaking.

The Tally:

Episode 1x03 Total: 5

Series 1 Total: 13

9^th Doctor Total: 13

Rose as Companion Total: 13

Russell T Davis Era Total: 13

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE FIVE: “WORLD WAR III”

Doctor Who: 1x05: “World War III” Written by Russell T Davis

The Summary:

Picking up where “Aliens of London” left off, the Doctor is being electrocuted, Jackie is being attacked, and Rose and Harriet are being pursued by an unmasked alien.  The Doctor rips off the name tag that is electrocuting him and sticks it on one of the aliens, which magically electrocutes all the aliens at once, allowing Rose, Harriet, and Jackie to escape.  Jackie and Mickey hide from the aliens in Mickey’s flat while Rose, Harriet, and the Doctor lead two chases around Downing St which eventually collide and end with the three trapped, but safe, in the Prime Minister’s cabinet room.  Using a conference call with Jackie and Mickey, the Doctor manages to figure out the best way to defeat the aliens one-on-one: vinegar given that they’re prone to calcium decay.  Though that saves Jackie and Mickey, it can’t work on the large scale, so the Doctor must figure something else out.  He, Jackie, and eventually Harriet debate whether to launch a missile at Downing St to kill all the aliens (something that was actually Rose’s suggestion several minutes before).  Harriet Jones, being the only elected official in the conversation, takes responsibility and commands Mickey, who has hacked into the Royal Navy’s system, to launch a missile at them.  Rose gets the idea to ride out the blast by hiding in a cupboard, the walls of which are lined with three inches of steel.  They indeed manage to survive, and Harriet Jones immediately becomes a media darling, explaining everything that happened to the public.  At home, Jackie tries to make peace with the Doctor and Rose by cooking for them, but the Doctor gets Rose to run off with him before tea.  While Jackie begs Rose to stay, Mickey tells the Doctor that he’s too scared to go with them but doesn’t want Rose to know.  In the end, Rose and the Doctor disappear in the TARDIS, leaving Jackie and Mickey standing in the street.

The Women:

Rose, Jackie, Harriet Jones, Margaret Blaine/Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Jackie: At the end of the crisis, Jackie decides she must accept the Doctor into her life if she wants to keep Rose around, so she plans with Rose to cook tea for them all.  The rating: 0

2. Rose and Jackie: Jackie begs Rose to stay with her, promising to make changes to make life better for them, but Rose explains that she is not leaving because of Jackie but because the universe is too beautiful to stay away from.  Though the Doctor is not actually discussed, he and Mickey are standing nearby and the conversation is obviously about the Doctor, the rating: 0.5

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“I’ll get a proper job; I’ll work weekends; I’ll pass my tests, and if Jim comes around again, I’ll say ‘no’” – Jackie Tyler (to Rose Tyler)

“If you saw it out there, you’d never stay home.” – Rose Tyler (to Jackie Tyler)

Have I mentioned yet how much I adore the Jackie-Rose relationship?  Even though she understands she can’t keep Rose with her, she still desperately tries.  And Rose, instead of blowing her off, does her best to comfort and explain things to her.

The Tally:

Episode 1x05 Total: 0.5

Series 1 Total: 13.5

9^th Doctor Total: 13.5

Rose as Companion Total: 13.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 13.5

The Education of an Ignorant American:

So, this is my interpretation of Jackie Tyler, and I’m just wondering how correct it actually is.  Please let me know in the comments.

As I understand it, Jackie and Rose live on an “estate” which is similar to the American system of public/subsidized housing, or “the projects.”  Now, in American media, there are certain clichéd, offensive, and downright untrue ideas presented about the people who live in this type of housing.  Here are just a few… Idea one: people on welfare are lazy, unemployed-because-they-choose-to-be leeches.  Idea two:  poor, single mothers are sluts and terrible mothers.  Idea three: people are only in the situation they are in because they choose to be.

And at first, Jackie seems to be a big ball of these stereotypes, but as she’s developed further, she obviously subverts some of them, but others are preserved, mainly the amount of men she seems to be/have been involved with and her lack of employment.  And I don’t know exactly how I feel about all of these factors, but I do want to know, at least, how similar a British interpretation of her lifestyle is.

For Further Discussion:  Motherhood in Doctor Who

No Spoilers beyond these episodes

Doctor Who: 1x03 "The Unquiet Dead

Welcome to the third episode review for Fandom Approved, Bechdel Tested.  I’ll be starting with a rewatch of Doctor Who.  In each review, there will be spoilers for the episode reviewed and all previous (obviously); any spoilers for future episodes will be highlight-to-read or under a “Read More” bar.

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE THREE: “THE UNQUIET DEAD”

A fun little ghost story romp into the past with Charles Dickens.  Unfortunately the twist at the end is how idiotic everyone but Rose was.

Doctor Who: 1x03: “The Unquiet Dead” Written by Mark Gatiss

The Summary:

Meaning to land in 1860 in Naples, the Doctor takes Rose to Cardiff, 1869.  There, a funeral home director, Mr. Sneed, and his maid, Gwyneth, are dealing with the corpses rising, attacking people, and taking their bodies on joy rides.  Meanwhile, Charles Dickens is performing A Christmas Carol.  The latest zombie, Mrs. Peace, ends up in his audience, where the Doctor, Rose, Mr. Sneed, and Gwyneth all end up to fix whatever’s wrong.  When Rose confronts Gwyneth about stuffing an old woman into the hearse, Mr. Sneed kidnaps her.  The Doctor enlists Charles Dickens’s help in saving Rose.  When Rose wakes up, she is nearly killed by two zombies and narrowly escapes thanks to the Doctor.  While Charles Dickens complains the entire that what he’s seeing isn’t possible, the Doctor tries to figure out how to stop what’s happening.  After they figure out Gwyneth is psychic, he has her host a séance.  The zombies turn out to be created by an alien called the Gelth possessing them; the Gelth claim to be near extinction victims of the Time War and ask for the Doctor’s help in giving them dead bodies to possess permanently.  Despite the séance company including a genre savvy genius, the genre savvy genius, a man whose entire income is dependent on dead people staying dead, and a very religious woman who thought this was all unholy witchcraft until two seconds ago, and despite the first thing the Gelth have done once they get into a body is (attempting) to murder somebody, only Rose protests that this might not be a good plan.  The Doctor ignores Rose’s protests and has Gwyneth open the rift in time and space so that the Gelth could come through.  Surprisingly-not-surprisingly, the Gelth are actually not anywhere close to extinction and want to kill everyone in the world, starting with the Doctor and Rose, in order to take over.  Charles Dickens comes up with the idea to blow them all up at the last second and Gwyneth, who died a bit earlier, does it.  This episode is the second instance of the Bad Wolf meme and a more overt set-up for “Father’s Day.”

The Women:

Rose, Gwyneth           

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Gwyneth:  Rose confronts Gwyneth about stuffing Mrs Peace into the hearse.  Gwyneth tries to reassure Rose that everything’s fine before Mr. Sneed interrupts them to knock-out and kidnap Rose.  The conversation can barely be considered one, so the rating: 1

2. Rose and Gwyneth:  Rose and Gwyneth end up in the kitchen while the Doctor and Charles Dickens investigate the zombies.  While the essence of their conversation is comparing their lives and pushing forward the idea that Gwenyth is psychic as well as presenting the Bad Wolf meme again, the vehicles for their conversation are men – Mr. Sneed, the Doctor, Rose’s father, the butcher boy Gwyneth has a crush on.  The rating: 0.5

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“You would say that, miss, because that’s very clear inside your head, that you think I’m stupid … It’s true though.  Things might be different where you’re from, but here and now I know my own mind, and the angels need me.” – Gwyneth (to Rose)

Feeling empowered for possibly the first time, Gwyneth delivers this awesome line to Rose who is doing the same thing she always hates when it’s done to her – talking about Gwyneth like she isn’t there and has no say.  I wish this had more of a pay-off because Rose is, of course and really rather obviously, right, and Gwyneth really does not understand at all.

The Tally:

Episode 1x03 Total: 1.5

Series 1 Total: 8

9^th Doctor Total: 8

Rose as Companion Total: 8

Russell T Davis Era Total: 8

For Further Discussion:  Facts vs. Faith

I’ve said before that I think Rose’s biggest strength is her ability to quickly analyze all the facts she’s given and come to a usually correct idea about what’s going on.  This is often brushed off as her having a “feeling” about something, an annoyingly sexist concept that men have ideas and women have feelings, and it’s definitely done so in this episode.  Rose takes all her givens about zombies and how to treat the dead and analyzes that along with the Gelth’s attempted murder of her and figures out that this is not a great plan.  Of course, the Doctor doesn’t listen.

But I think the real battle of wills in this episode is between Rose and Gwyneth.  Rose’s greatest weakness is self-righteousness, and her assuredly in her own cleverness has only grown since she’s begun traveling.  Gwyneth, on the other hand, is all compassion and selflessness and faith in the goodness of others.  And Gwyneth delivers a great blow at Rose’s self-righteousness that ultimately… doesn’t pay off at all.  The audience can’t even entertain the idea that Gwyneth could be right, the set-up for the Gelth being not just out for their own self-interest but full on evil was way too obvious.

What really bothers me about this isn’t that one character was wrong; it’s that they set up Gwyneth’s downfall as being symptomatic of a lack of education and belief in God.  It’s not just the “educated” who are right, and what could have been a wonderfully feminist discussion ends up being rather classist.

Doctor Who: 1x02 "The End of the World"

Welcome to the second episode review for Fandom Approved, Bechdel Tested.  I’ll be starting with a rewatch of Doctor Who.  In each review, there will be spoilers for the episode reviewed and all previous (obviously); any spoilers for future episodes will be highlight-to-read or under a “Read More” bar.

Please comment, share, and subscribe!

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE TWO: “THE END OF THE WORLD”

Ok.  I’ve gotta say that on my very first watch, I nearly stopped at only a few minutes into this episode.  And I’m so glad I didn’t.  I think the episode really hit its stride when Cassandra is introduced, and I think this episode introduced me to the morality play that is Doctor Who much more than the first episode, in which everyone’s self-righteous and yelling at each other, did.

Doctor Who: 1x02: “The End of the World” Written by Russell T Davis

The Summary:

Picking up where last episode left off – with Rose running onto the TARDIS to join the Doctor in seeing the universe, for those with a crap short term memory – the Doctor brings Rose to the future, around the year five billion, after doing a bit.  They do a lot of bits.  Anyway, the place the Doctor brings Rose to is Earth – or technically a space station/observation deck orbiting Earth while it burns/dies from the sun expanding.  Which is kind of a dick move.  Rose gets totally freaked out at aliens who have come to watch the death of her home planet for fun – or “art,” which is a really interesting subject I wish I had time to talk about (maybe in the comments) – and she especially freaks out over the “Last Human,” Lady Cassandra, who is merely a flap of skin with just lips and eyes and who can still talk despite the lack of vocal chords.  It’s quickly revealed, at least to the audience, that The Adherents of the Repeated Meme (why the hell isn’t that a thing on Tumblr?) is sabotaging the space station!  It actually turns out it was Cassandra – since a meme is just an idea – who is confident she will escape any prosecution by turning it into a civil rights circus in the courts.  Of course, a lady-tree named Jabe sacrifices herself so the Doctor could save everyone and then kill Cassandra, the second of which is probably more unusual than the first.  In the end, the Doctor explains what happened to Gallifrey, and they go for chips in contemporary London.  This episode marks the first appearance of the Face of Boe and of the Bad Wolf meme.

The Women:

Rose, Jackie, Lady Cassandra, Jabe, Raffalo

The Conversations:

1. Raffalo and Rose: After running away from the other aliens for being too alien, Rose chats with an alien plumber who is only allowed to speak when given permission.  Now that she’s not surrounded by the richest rich people in the universe who are watching the Earth burn for entertainment, Rose bonds somewhat with Raffalo.  But most of their conversation is Rose realizing that she just jumped into a blue box that’s bigger on the inside than the outside to fly through time and space with a man she knows nothing about, which is, you know, valid.  Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to give the rating: 0

2. Jackie and Rose on the phone: Despite being five billion years in the future, the Doctor fixes Rose’s phone so she can call home to her mother.  Jackie and Rose have a cute mother-daughter chat that reassures Rose (for a little while at least) that this time-travelling-and-meeting-aliens thing is really something she can handle.  The rating: 1

3. Cassandra and Rose: In a scene that solidified for me that Doctor Who is something I wanted to watch, Rose confronts Cassandra about what humanity really is.  The rating: 2

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“'Cause you're not human. You've had it all nipped and tucked and flattened till there's nothing left. Anything human got chucked in the bin. You're just skin, Cassandra. Lipstick and skin.” – Rose Tyler (to Cassandra)

As I said previously, this episode really solidifies the morality play nature of Doctor Who (in New Who), and I think it’s at least partially this line that does it. Of course, it carries an unfortunate implication regarding the “natural” versus the “unnatural” woman. But I think the intended idea, and one that still gets across marvelously, is that humanity is change and progress and evolution and that trying to hold humanity back from that strips us of our humanity, in all senses of the word, and that trying to adhere to the “natural” state of humanity makes you “unnatural” – overall, an important message for a few social and political movements I could think of (remember that one of Cassandra’s main issues with other humans is their “breeding” practices).

The Tally:
Episode 1x02 Total: 3
Series 1 Total: 6.5
9th Doctor Total: 6.5
Rose as Companion Total: 6.5
Russell T Davis Era Total: 6.5

Doctor Who: 1x01 "Rose"

Welcome to the first episode review for Fandom Approved, Bechdel Tested.  I’ll be starting with a rewatch of Doctor Who.  In each review, there will be spoilers for the episode reviewed and all previous (obviously); any spoilers for future episodes will be highlight-to-read or under a “Read More” bar.

Please comment, share, and subscribe!

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE ONE: “ROSE”

I actually really like this episode.  I know a lot of people consider it sub-par as a Doctor Who episode and as a pilot, but I think without this episode I never would have gotten into the show because I didn’t know much about the show other than that it’s very, very British.  And I am not at all British.  And I need something to ground me, so having a character I can relate to as the POV character was rather reassuring. 

Doctor Who: 1x01: “Rose” Written by Russell T Davis

The Summary:

Rose is a super ordinary girl living a super ordinary life.  (And I don’t mean Hollywood I-have-a-job-people-would-kill-for-but-oh-my-god-I-hate-it-for-no-reason-cuz-that’s-what-ordinary-people-are-like-right? kind of ordinary.  Nor the-let’s-just-leave-her-as-a-blank-slate-for-the-audience-to-fill-in kind of ordinary.  She’s a nineteen year old girl who lives with her mother on an estate (public/subsidized housing for us USAmericans) and wakes up with bed head and goes to work a monotonous job and has a boyfriend who’s a mechanic and she has her own damn mind and way of observing and assessing the world.)  But then this ordinary girl’s life is turned upside down when the mannequins in her shop come alive and try to kill her!  She’s saved at the last second by a mysterious man who introduces her to the world as it is rather than as people think it is.  This wise man (who’s also a wise guy), The Doctor, reveals himself to be a gatekeeper to the universe’s mystery and wonder, but tells her to forget he exists.  This ordinary but clever and curious girl cannot be stopped and she investigates on her own, eventually regrouping with the Doctor (albeit slightly reluctantly since he just pulled off her boyfriend’s head without considering whether it would kill him… it makes sense in context).  Together, using Rose’s unique skills, they save the world.  So impressed by Rose’s quick thinking in a crisis, the Doctor offers her a chance to see all of time and space and become even more of a hero.  But wait… why does this sound so familiar?  Oh right.  Except – joy upon joy – they’ve allowed a woman to take the hero’s part!  Oh happy day!

The Women:

Rose, Jackie (remember that to count the character must be named and onscreen)

The Conversations:

1. Jackie and Rose with Debbie and Beth:  After the explosion at Henrik’s, Jackie talks with a couple friends on the phone ad interacts with Rose.  Their conversation is about Rose’s safety, the explosion and potential compensation.  They never mention a man, but as Debbie and Beth are not onscreen characters and Mickey is in the room, though not participating, the rating: 0.5

2. Jackie and Rose:  After Rose wakes up the next morning, Jackie reminds her that she no longer has a job, and the two discuss possible jobs.  Jackie harps on Rose more about getting compensation and Rose harps on Jackie about nailing the cat door down.  As much as the Doctor doesn’t want domestics on his TARDIS, I really love the domestic scenes between Rose and her mother.  The rating: 2

3. Jackie and Rose on the phone:  After the Doctor tells Rose the Nestene Consciousness is starting the invasion, Rose calls Jackie to warn her not to go into town.  Since they are on the phone, the rating: 1

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“Got no a-levels.  No job.  No future.  But I’ll tell you what I have got, Jericho Street Junior School’s Under 7’s gymnastics team.  I got the bronze.” – Rose Tyler (to herself) 

Ok, so that’s stretching the “woman to woman” part a bit, but this is one of my absolute favorite quotes of the episode, and a defining moment for Rose’s character.

The Tally:

Episode 1x01 Total: 3.5

Series 1 Total: 3.5

9^th Doctor Total: 3.5

Rose as Companion Total: 3.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 3.5

For Further Discussion: Rose’s Characterization and Motivations

Spoiler Warning: all of Series 1 

Fandom Approved, Bechdel Tested

Welcome to my new blog where I will be watching (well, rewatching in most cases) everyone’s favorite T.V. shows and subjecting each episode to the Bechdel Test – three simple questions created by Alison Bechdel (from an idea by Liz Wallace) in her comic “Dykes to Watch Out For” to test the representation of women in movies and other media.

The mission of this blog is to provide a rating system by which potential viewers can determine how representative a work is of women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals, and to provide a launching point for further discussion about how women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals are represented.

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THE BECHDEL TEST

1. Are there two or more women with names and lines?

2. Do they speak to each other? *

3. Is their conversation about something other than a man?

            *Caveat for this Blog: Do they speak to each other without the contribution of a man?

If all these questions are answered “yes,” then it passes the test.

Note that this does not measure how good the work is nor how feminist it is nor how well rounded women are in the work.  It only measures whether there is some representation of women and whether it has one aspect of quality representation, i.e. that the women have something, anything in their onscreen lives other than their relationships with men.

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DEFINING TERMS OF GENDER (for the purposes of this blog)

Woman: anyone who identifies as a woman regardless of her sexual organs *

Man: anyone who identifies as a man regardless of his sexual organs *

            *This means, therefore, that cis- and trans- individuals are counted equally when I use the terms “woman” and “man” or the related gendered nouns and pronouns.  If it is necessary to distinguish that a character is cis- or trans-, the prefixes will always be used.

Agender, Genderqueer, and Genderfluid: anyone who does not identify with any gender, anyone who identifies with multiple genders simultaneously, and anyone who identifies with different genders at different times, respectively.

Gender Unspecified: anyone who cannot determine their own gender, i.e. infants and toddlers.  This term may also be applied to a character whose gender is officially obscured, regardless of popular opinion.  See below in “Alien and Fantastical Creatures” for more.

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ALIEN AND FANTASTICAL CREATURES

Because many shows I am watching for this are sci-fi/fantasy, in order to deal with the possible myriad of aliens and fantasy races, I will have to make decisions about whether or not to include such characters within the parameters of the above gender identities, as they are very unlikely to out-right do it themselves.

For the purposes of this blog, if the alien or creature presents a human or closely humanoid form, regardless of original/natural/biological form, its gender will be considered whichever the cis-gender for the presented binary-sex would be.  UNLESS there is reason for the audience to believe the alien or creature is deliberately concealing their gender, or to believe the alien or creature took the form without any consideration of sex or gender, or to believe the alien or creature may have a specific gender but not one analogous to any human genders, then they will be considered Gender Unspecified. 

If the alien of creature does not have a form that resembles a human form closely enough for the above to be applicable, gender will be determined via context clues such as gendered pronouns or nouns (he, she, brother, sister, etc) as applied to the character and, when applicable, the gender of the (voice) actor.  If these context clues are not present or not sufficient in determining gender, the alien or creature will be considered Gender Unspecified.

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REVIEW FORMAT

For each episode I will begin by answering the first question (Are there two or more women?) by listing each woman in the episode’s cast of characters.

Then, one by one, I will present the conversations these women have with each other and rate each on a scale of zero to two. 

A zero would mean that the test failed, they don’t converse or the conversation is about a man.  A two would mean that the test past, they have a conversation about something other than a man.  A one will be given if, for example, the women conversing do not share a physical space, there is a man present though not contributing to the conversation, or a man is mentioned in a longer conversation that is not about him.  The scores for each conversation will then be tallied for the episode total.  Over time, each episodes total will be tallied for the season/series total, and then again for the show/program total.

At the end of each review, I will try to include a “For Further Discussion” section, which may or may not contain spoilers for more than just the episode (these will be marked and hidden), to bring up deeper (mostly) feminist issues or topics raised by the episode or series.

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MODIFIED BECHDEL AND BONUS POINTS

In an effort to catalogue and rate representation in popular T.V. shows, I will be using a modified version of the Bechdel Test to rate the representation of people of color (PoC) and LGBTQ individuals.

Modified Bechdel 1:

1. Are there two or more PoC with names?

2. Do they speak to each other? *

3. Is their conversation about something other than a straight white cis-man (SWCM)?

            Caveat: without the presence of a white individual

One point will be awarded to the episode for each conversation that passes the test.  Two points will be awarded for each conversation that passes with contribution from a woman of color (WoC).  Three points will be awarded for each conversation that passes and is between only WoC.

Modified Bechdel 2:

1. Are there two or more verified/out LGBTQ individuals?

2. Do they speak to each other? *

3. Is their conversation about something other than a SWCM?

            *Caveat: without the presence of a straight individual

One point will be awarded to the episode for each conversation that passes the test.  Two points will be awarded for each conversation that passes with contribution from an LGBTQ individual who is not a gay white cis-man (GWCM).  Three points will be awarded for each conversation that passes and is between only LGBTQ individuals who are not GWCM.

Negative Bonus:
For everything instance of on-screen violence against women (including physical and psychological/emotional/verbal violence), one point will be subtracted from the episode's score.  Two points will be subtracted if it is needlessly graphic.  And three points will be subtracted if it is glamorized, romanticized, or eroticized.