Comments | watervole: Older Women in Dr Who

watervole

Older Women in Dr Who

May 25, 2011 08:41

I've been doing a rewatch of New Who and have been struck by one very strong point - which probably goes a long way to explaining why I like this show ( Read more... )

doctor who

Comments 14

lil_shepherd May 25 2011, 08:15:08 UTC

Yet, you know, during the RTD era, all these older women were either stupid, hysterical or came to a BAD END. That last even includes everyone else's favourite Donna.

We used to remark on it while watching...

la_marquise_de_ May 25 2011, 10:50:28 UTC

Yes, that was my sense, too. They are there, but with the exception of Sarah Jane (who I never liked), they are there to be reprimanded, squashed or controlled. Plus most of them conform to the norm that women should occupy as little space as possible by being thin.
One of the reasons I love the Swedish Wallander is that it's full of fully rounded, sensible, decent older women who are just people.

lil_shepherd May 25 2011, 11:15:50 UTC

Joyously, the Swedish Wallander is about to be released on DVD at a still-excessive but, at least, accessible price.

la_marquise_de_ May 25 2011, 11:27:09 UTC

Yes, I saw that. Good news.

Thread 8

coth May 25 2011, 09:40:38 UTC

I do agree in general, but they do seem to get a raw deal and sacrifice themselves to, or get squished by, the plot rather a lot.

sugoll May 25 2011, 20:44:54 UTC

That's true of Who guest stars generally, though - it's not confined by age or gender.

I got thoroughly sick of the trope which continually excused the Doctor from making a tough decision.

davidwake May 25 2011, 10:07:22 UTC

If you are saying that the older women come to a bad end, then you must also take into account that older men, younger women, and younger men also come to a bad end. There's a lot of death in Doctor Who.

jon_a_five May 25 2011, 10:27:48 UTC

I'm quite pleased that the two companions who are married. No 'will they, won't they?' nonsense. It's something that I loved in Firefly too (which has the nonsense as well, for those who like it).

watervole May 25 2011, 18:00:28 UTC

I adore happily married couples in SF. JOhn and Delen in B5.

Generally, married couples are like hen's teeth.

julesjones May 25 2011, 21:14:34 UTC

A lot of my irritation with the death of Ianto in Torchwood came from the fact that we had a show with not one but two happy couples, and they then proceeded to fridge the girlfriend with one of them so we could have lots of dramatic manpain. I shall be Annoyed if anything happens to Rhys this series, I like having a show with a happy couple.