Doctor Who: 1x02 "Tooth and Claw"

Back to our regular schedule tomorrow.

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES TWO, EPISODE TWO: “TOOTH AND CLAW”

Rose and the Doctor fight a werewolf and Queen Victoria is not amused.

Doctor Who: 1x02: “Tooth and Claw” Written by Russell T. Davies

The Summary:

The Doctor and Rose are headed for Sheffield, 1979, but end up in Scotland, 1879, where they meet Queen Victoria and her entourage on the road to the Torchwood Estate, owned by Sir Robert and his wife Lady Isobel.  The Doctor scores himself and Rose, aka “the wee naked child,” an invitation in the carriage train with his psychic paper.  The Torchwood estate has actually been invaded by traditional English monks turned Asain martial arts experts, and Lady Isobel along with all the household staff have been locked in the cellar with something in a cage.  When they arrive, Sir Robert tries to convince Queen Victoria to go on by saying his wife and most of the staff have gone to Edinburgh for holiday.  The Queen doesn’t give a shit besides her late husband Prince Albert loved hanging out with Sir Robert’s father, and she wants to hear the stories her husband used to love.  So, Robert brings them up to the observatory where the Doctor admires Sir Robert’s late father’s love of astronomy and fairy tales, but comments that his telescope is not well made.  Sir Robert’s father’s favorite story was apparently one about a werewolf, and everyone wants to hear it, but Sir Robert is fairly reticent to tell it.  When they all go down to dinner, Queen Victoria sends Rose to get dressed into something proper.  There, Rose finds Flora hiding in a wardrobe and she explains what’s happened.  While they’re trying to get to the Doctor, they’re captured.  Sir Robert finally tells his story about the werewolf and the Doctor catches his clues that the manservant in the room was actually his captor and a worshiper of the werewolf.  Rose wakes up chained with Lady Isobel and the household staff.  The man in the cage is the werewolf – unchanged – and Rose tries to talk to him, realizing he must be an alien.  While the man begins transforming into a wolf, Rose gets everyone to begin their escape, only being assisted at the very end by the Doctor and Sir Robert.  Rose, Sir Robert, the Doctor, Queen Victoria and personal guard run through the house to escape the werewolf, while Lady Isobel and her maids are trapped in the kitchen.  The Doctor locks everyone in a room that the werewolf can’t get into for some reason.  Lady Isobel sees the monks garlanded in mistletoe and realizes the wolf is afraid of it; at the same time, the Doctor figures out that the wood in the room is varnished in mistletoe oil, which the werewolf has been conditioned to have a reaction to.  The women create their own weapon against the werewolf to help Sir Robert, and the Doctor figures out the entire house is a weapon against the werewolf.  Lady Isobel leads the maids in an ambush attack against the werewolf, narrowly saving Rose’s life, and Sir Robert gives his life to hold off the werewolf while the Doctor gets the telescope ready to take out the werewolf.  Just in the nick of time, the Doctor and Rose destroy the werewolf.  In the aftermath, Queen Victoria knights Rose and the Doctor then banishes them.  The Doctor suspects she might have been bitten by the werewolf after all.  The queen then uses the Torchwood Estate to form the Torchwood Institute in case any other aliens ever come to Great Britain.  Although this is only the third ever mention of Torchwood, we learn exactly what it is and what impact it might have on future storylines.  This is also the first major foreshadowing of Rose’s life with the Doctor coming to an end.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Queen Victoria, Lady Isobel, Flora

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Flora:  Flora explains to Rose what happened and Rose offers to get the Doctor involved so he can help.  The rating: 0

2. Flora and Lady Isobel:  While trying to escape Flora and Lady Isobel realize the brothers will not let them.  The rating: 0

3. Lady Isobel and Flora:  The Lady realizes that mistletoe is a defense against the werewolf and instructs the household maids in what to do with it.  The rating: 1

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“My apologies for my being so naked.” – Rose Tyler (to Queen Victoria)

I just will never be over that line.

The Tally:

Episode 2x02 Total: 1

Series 2 Total: 2.5

10^th Doctor Total: 2.5

Rose as Companion Total: 19.0

Russell T Davis Era Total: 19.0

For Further Discussion:  Women as Leaders

I just want to briefly say…

Fuck yeah Queen Victoria!

Fuck yeah Lady Isobel!

Fuck yeah Rose Tyler!

We can discuss in the comments if anyone would like.

Doctor Who: 1x02 "New Earth"

Check back in an hour for the review of "Tooth and Claw."

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES TWO, EPISODE ONE: “NEW EARTH”

On the tenth Doctor’s and Rose’s first trip, they go to New Earth, the consequence of the Earth being consumed by the sun, and relive their first “date,” providing some excellent continuity before moving onto new adventures.  Said date includes Lady Cassandra back from the dead and the Face of Boe being… Face of Boe-y.

Doctor Who: 1x01: “New Earth” Written by Russell T. Davies

The Summary:

Rose says goodbye to her mother and Mickey and then she’s off with the Doctor to New Earth.  When they arrive, they are completely adorable and show off the chemistry between Tennant and Piper before it’s down to business.  Someone has sent the Doctor a message on his psychic paper telling him to go to the hospital of New New York, Ward 26.  But while they’re chilling in the apple-grass, someone is spying on them and recognizes Rose as one of her murderers – it’s Lady Cassandra from “The End of the World”!  So, the Doctor and Rose go to the hospital which is run by felinoids,  and they get separated.  This is also the hide out of Cassandra and her companion/servant Chip.  Rose ends up in Cassandra’s basement where she’s immediately confronted with Chip – being intensely genre savvy while also being insanely curious, Rose picks up a piece of rebar as a weapon but follows him anyway.  There, she meets Cassandra, who through reverse psychology or some-such gets Rose in position to take-over her body.  Meanwhile, the Doctor has made it to Ward 26, where he learns the felinoid nuns are far more advanced in medicine than they should be and the Face of Boe is probably the one to send him the message as he’s apparently dying there.  (Novice Haim tells the Doctor that she can hear the Face of Boe singing “such old songs” some times and if he really is the billion-plus year old Jack Harkness, I desperately want one of those songs to be “Sexyback” by Justin Timberlake.)  He calls the now Cassandra-possessed-Rose (further refered to as Cass!Rose) to come up to Ward 26.  When she gets there, she snogs the Doctor then helps him figure out that he should check “intensive care.”  The ICU (ICW? ICD?) turns out to be a laboratory, where the felinoid nuns are using cloned humans (possibly?) to experiment on with diseases and come up with cures for them.  Cass!Rose attacks the Doctor when he figures out (finally) that something happened to Rose and sticks him in one of the pods (which had been emptied out earlier by the felinoid nuns).  She then tries to bribe the nuns (who are the real villains of the story) into giving her hush money.  They refuse, so she lets all the disease-ridden people (and the Doctor) free.  The Doctor saves Cass!Rose in order to save Rose because a single touch from any of the laboratory people would kill them instantly.  They get separated from Chip, and a mad chase ensues with Cassandra switching bodies back and forth between Rose and the Doctor and once one of the laboratory people, who she says simply crave to be held.  They end up back in Ward 26, where they get everyone to help them collect all the medications.  The Doctor with Cass!Rose’s help dumps all the medications into the elevator disinfectant which the Doctor uses to heal everyone through hugs.  While everyone is happy and celebrating, the Doctor remembers that the Face of Boe is dying, so he and Cass!Rose run up to see him, but he reveals he’d just punk’d! the Doctor and wasn’t really dying.  Then, it’s time for the Doctor to deal with Cassandra, who transfers herself into Chip’s body, which is failing.  The Doctor and Rose bring Cass!Chip back in time so Cass!Chip can tell past!Cassandra that she’s beautiful.  This is the second time we’ve seen the Face of Boe, or is it?

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Lady Cassandra, Sister Jatt, Novice Haim, Matron Casp

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Jackie:  Rose and Jackie say their goodbyes as Rose leaves for more adventures with the Doctor in the TARDIS.   The rating: 0.5

2. Rose and Lady Cassandra:  Rose and Cassandra recap their past on Platform One and discuss the state of humanity in the future-present.  Chip doesn’t really belong in the conversation, but does interject a couple times, the rating: 0.5

3. Rose and Lady Cassandra:  Cassandra takes over the Doctor’s body, and the two try to figure out how to save themselves from being killed by 1,000 diseases all at once, mostly by talking about what the Doctor would do.  The rating: 0

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“Good luck.” – Rose Tyler (to Lady Cassandra)

It isn’t much of a quote, but context is all.  Despite everything that Cassandra has done, Rose sincerely wishes her luck in her final moments so Cassandra can feel beautiful one last time.

The Tally:

Episode 2x01 Total: 1

Series 2 Total: 2.5

10^th Doctor Total: 2.5

Rose as Companion Total: 19.0

Russell T Davis Era Total: 19.0

For Further Discussion:  The Lady Cassandra: Meaningful Development of a Villain

No spoilers for future episodes

Doctor Who: 2x00 "The Christmas Invasion"

Ok, so I lied on Sunday.  Things got a bit rough, but we should be back on schedule Friday.  The official Doctor Who review schedule has been updated with these changes and with previous episode review links, if you want to catch up.  One Thursday, July 4th, I'll post two reviews to catch up with the schedule because there's no better way to celebrate USAmerican Independence than writing and reading reviews of British television shows!

We have made it to Series 2 of Doctor Who!  Starting next Sunday, every Sunday for the next six weeks, I will post reviews of Sherlock episodes, rather than Doctor Who episodes.  If you didn’t catch it earlier, I posted statistics for Series 1.

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES TWO, EPISODE ZERO: “THE CHRISTMAS INVASION”

The new Doctor is introduced, and some badass women get things done, and are then punished for it.

Doctor Who: 1x00: “The Christmas Invasion” Written by Russell T. Davies

The Summary:

Jackie and Mickey are going about their lives on Christmas Eve, when suddenly: the TARDIS engines!  They run to find the TARDIS on a crash course, and once it finally lands out stumbles a man they’ve never seen before but is wearing the Doctor’s clothes and seems to know them.  He then collapses in a dead faint.  Rose emerges and explains that the stranger is the Doctor and that he changed somehow.  They get him to bed in the Tyler apartment, and Rose and Jackie take care of him, neither understanding what’s happening.  Rose and Jackie talk a bit, and Rose finds out Harriet Jones won the election for Prime Minister and has made many great reforms as well as supporting a project to send out a probe to Mars.  Rose goes out with Mickey to get some Christmas presents since she hadn’t been expecting to be back for Christmas and has no money.  While out, they are attacked by a brass band dressed as Santa Clauses whose instruments are actually guns and flamethrowers.  They run back to the house.  When they get there, they find Jackie’s Christmas tree has been replaced with a killer Christmas tree.  They lock themselves in the bedroom the Doctor is sleeping in, and Rose tries to wake him up.  It isn’t until she whispers in his ear that she needs him that he wakes up, and defeats the tree just before they’re all about to die.  He stumbles out of the apartment to confront the killer Santa Clauses, who he refers to as pilot fish, and warns Rose there will be something bigger coming.  He passes out again.  Meanwhile, the Guinevere One space probe encounters aliens, and Harriet Jones runs the response team like the BAMF alien fighter that she is.  She reveals that she’s become even more competent since the last time we saw since apparently she’s read up on aliens quite a bit.  Rose, Mickey, and Jackie spend a long night in the apartment waiting for news or for the Doctor to wake up.  The aliens called the Sycorax make contact and demand that they surrender.  Harriet Jones, who rebuffs the USAmerican President’s attempts to take over the situation, sends a reply that’s basically a huge piss-off.  The Sycorax reply by somehow controlling a third of the world’s population into walking to the edges of tall building’s roofs.  The response team figures out that they are controlling the blood of type A positives, as that blood type was in a vial on the placard of Guinevere One.  Harriet Jones asks for help from something called “Torchwood,” since there is no sign of the Doctor.  She then makes an address to the people, and asks the entire world that if they can reach the Doctor to do so and ask for his help.  Rose breaks down while watching it, since it seems the real Doctor no longer exists.  The Sycorax ship breaks atmosphere, and Rose decides to hide Jackie, Mickey, and the Doctor on the TARDIS.  Harriet Jones and part of her team are teleported onto the Sycorax ship, but they recognize the TARDIS’s energy signature and teleport it on as well, without Jackie onboard.  Not realizing that they’ve moved, Rose goes to check on Jackie and ends up stepping onto the Sycorax ship, Mickey hears the commotion, drops the open tea thermos on the TARDIS floor and runs out after her.  Rose tries to threaten the Sycorax with the Shadow Proclamation, which she’s heard the Doctor do many times in the past, but the Sycorax realize she really doesn’t know what she’s talking about.  Meanwhile, the tea drips onto the console and wakes the Doctor, completely revitalizing him.  As the Sycorax are talking in Sycoraxic, the TARDIS suddenly starts translating it into English for all the humans, and Rose realizes the Doctor is awake.  Just as she turns to look, the Doctor exits the TARDIS.  He goes on a ramble, as he tries to figure out his new regeneration’s mannerisms and personality.  He releases the people on the roofs from the blood control then challenges the Sycorax leader to a duel, which he wins, but only after getting his hand cut off (and regrowing it).  Afterwards he commands the Sycorax to leave and gets the humans all back to Earth.  They all celebrate, but Harriet asks the Doctor how many more there are, and he tells her there are thousands of other races and to expect to get used to having visitors.  The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey begin to leave, when Harriet Jones orders Torchwood to fire on the retreating Sycorax.  The Doctor is an ass and dismantles her entire administration, then he picks out a new outfit and “does domestics” with Rose, Mickey, and Jackie by having Christmas dinner with them.  Though this isn’t the first reference to Torchwood (that’s one of the Weakest Link questions in “Bad Wolf”), it is the start to the Torchwood arch.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Harriet Jones, Sally Jenkins, Sandra

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Jackie:  Jackie brings Rose a stethoscope and they talk about the Doctor’s condition and how he has changed.  The continuing conversation becomes about Harriet Jones, who is the new Prime Minister.   The rating: 0.5

2. Rose and Jackie:  Rose tries to get Jackie to leave the apartment then notices the Christmas tree has changed.  Because Mickey is present for the conversation, the rating: 1

3. Rose and Jackie:  Rose breaks down in Jackie’s flat after Harriet Jones’ speech.  The rating: 0

4. Rose and Harriet:  Rose leaves the TARDIS to find herself on the Sycorax’s ship, and greets Harriet, who asks after the Doctor.  The rating: 0

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“Did more than that – stopped World War III with her.” – Rose Tyler (to Jackie Tyler, about Harriet Jones)

Nothing’s better than one badass woman admiring another badass woman.

The Tally:

Episode 2x00 Total: 1.5

Series 2 Total: 1.5

10^th Doctor Total: 1.5

Rose as Companion Total: 18.0

Russell T Davis Era Total: 18.0

For Further Discussion:  Harriet Jones, Prime Minister

Spoiler Warning for Series 3 and end of Series 4.

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: 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: 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: 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