Women of the Whoniverse

[carmen_lj]

One thing (amongst admittedly, Quite A Lot) that I'm loving about season five of New Who is the number and variety of older female characters. In nine episodes they've managed to drop the horrid stereotype of the Nagging Mother and Sexuality In Older Women Is Just For Laughs, and given us five very different characters who're female and over forty: three are people of colour, one (probably) died, one is a villain, two are flawed people trying to do better, one has her version of The Companion Story in two episodes, three clearly express their sexuality without being mocked for it and four are, for me, pretty damn awesome, and here is why:

The weakest of the bunch is Dr Ramsden. Alas, she is plot fodder, and probably dies. She was a snappy professional who never learned that Rory was right about some weird stuff going down in her hospital.

Liz Ten is Instant Awesome: she's confident, forthright, wears fantastic clothes and shoots stuff. She's clever, sneaky, determined, cares about her people and distrusts her own government. But the danger of A Strong Woman caricature is avoided because the whole mess is her fault in the first place - and she continued to endorse it throughout her reign - as she put what she considered to be her duty before her conscience.

River Song, still my favourite of the lot (just), manages to become even more interesting and enigmatic over her two episodes. We know she's been imprisoned for killing a man, and that she's working to earn her release, not just for her freedom but for her redemption too, since we see her expressing genuine regret for her actions. She can pilot a TARDIS, understands High Gallifreyan, and the timey-wimey nature of stuff sufficently to get the Doctor to pick her up after she's shot herself out an airlock into the slightly deadly vacuum of space. She snarks, she's self-assured and she bickers marvellously with the Doctor while, with Amy, we see her exhibiting a maternal streak.

Rosanna's a fantastic antagonist with a sensible (ish...this is Doctor Who after all), modest plan for saving her race. She just wants one little city and, while a lot of people are going to die, her motives are perfectly understandable. She's patient, a trait often lacking in Who villains, cunning and has awesome chemistry with the Doctor. She's a mother, who loves her son perhaps a little too much and she also gets the best clothes.

Nasreen's just brilliant. She gets everything awesome about being a companion compressed down into two episodes and it is great. She has a job, and a dream. Thanks to the Doctor her job is blown up but her dream opens up into an even bigger reality. She's determined and curious enough to convince the Doctor to take her underground, delights in the TARDIS and finds a rapport with the Doctor. She sees more amazing things under the earth than she could have imagined and acts as the first human ambassador to the reptiles. Having seen the Wonders of the Universe (or just how awesome it really is beneath the earth) and found love, she can't just go back to ordinary life, so stays with her dude so she can wake up in a thousand years time and continue her awesome adventures.

So, yes, five very different women, four excellent characters, and definitely a trend I want to see continue.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

"Cold Blood" made me very cross, but this season has been pretty win over all (and even Cold Blood had Nasreen being awesome), so thanks for reminding me that there's lots to be happy about!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It's been making me ridiculously happy, the season. There were some aspects of Cold Blood that I was Unthrilled by ("oh these irrational wummins ruining our chance for peace!") but I was expecting it to be All Fail in that department, and instead we got Nasreen and Amy resucing herself with cunning pick-pocketing skills.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

One thing that impressed me about Liz X was her not hesitating to take responsibility for problems that she sincerely had no memory of causing.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Yes! Her bravery is both physical and moral!

[such_heights]

Yes yes yes, exactly. <3

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I LOVE MA SHOW.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Dude, this.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

River is an awesome, awesome lady, Liz' commitment to her people was very winning for me right off the bat even though ultimately I can't really reconcile that part of her with the part that did...you know (out of plot holes or otherwise), and Rosanna is just...GAAAAH. Oh, I loved her. Her motivation and her logic and how she was more driven to extremes than purely thoughtless, and how much love was apparent in her. And Nasreen is lovely for being a nice mix of professional smart lady but not losing her wide-eyed spunk and, like you said, it's cool that "not finding herself able to go back to ordinary life" was done in a non-pathetic fashion.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It is a Very High Hit Rate that is most pleasing, yes.

it's cool that "not finding herself able to go back to ordinary life" was done in a non-pathetic fashion.

I suspect her keeping her agency was a Big Help there.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, yes. I especially love Nasreen and Liz Ten, for obvious reasons, but dammit, they're brown ladies and they're so awesome.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Nasreen gets such a fantastic storyline it makes me grin just thinking about it now.

[elisi]

Oh I love this post!

And not only are these women brilliant, the Doctor has unmistakable chemistry with/interest in them all (excepting Dr Ramsden, of course). :)

(I must also point out my love for Harriet Jones and Adelaide Brook, since they were awesome too!)

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I loved them too, but they were part of a pattern I hated: women with power either losing that power or dying.

[cidercupcakes.livejournal.com]

I loved Nasreen so much and I kept cringing and waiting for them to kill her or make her into a villain...and then they didn't and it was wonderful! I am just reduced to such ridiculous flailing love whenever I think of her. &flails;

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I fully expected her to end up dead and, lo, when I thought "oh, she's safe, brilliant! They can't kill now" she said she was staying and for an instant I thought, "omg she's going to stay and die with the man she loves, what is this?" but no she's going to have Adventures in the Future with her dude. ::flaily hands::

[fannishnonsense]

I approve of this post v. much!

[brokenangelred.livejournal.com]

Nasreen is amazing, I really liked her, I was so happy when she went with the Doctor and how she argued on behalf of earth. I would love to see her again. Rosanna was a good villain of the week I enjoyed that story a lot, second favourite of the new series.

I'm have to say I'm not a fan of River. I think that the character has potential depending on what her back story turns out to be but as it is I find her grading. Specificity the parking break joke irks me, I feel like they ripped a hole in the canon for a cheep one liner.

But on the whole, yes a lot of great ladies in the who-niverse this round. Nyssa and Donna still own time shares on my heart though.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I feel like they ripped a hole in the canon for a cheep one liner.

Or she fibbed! She found out where the button was that turned off the sound and lied about what it was to annoy the Doctor for laughs. It is my line and I'm sticking to it.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes. I think what's particularly striking is that pretty much EVERYONE assumed Nasreen would be toast in Pt II, and then she got to carry on being completely amazing and fabulous instead. Hooray!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Chibnall got Less Awful! It is an Amazing Plot Twist!

[arefadedaway.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes. ♥

[carawj.livejournal.com]

♥♥♥ this post!

[nonelvis]

I approve of this post very, very much.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

with Amy, we see her exhibiting a maternal lesbian streak

Fixed that for you. (:

Seriously, what a great post!

[alawston.livejournal.com]

Meera Syal being a shit-hot writer in her own right (I love Bhaji on the Beach), and almost certainly not in immediate need of BBC telly cash, I can't imagine her having considered doing Doctor Who for more than a minute unless she got something worth doing.

Nasreen was just utterly note-perfect throughout, and I love Syal more than ever. I may even write her a letter. She is, for the time being at least, my favourite one-off character ever.

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

The ladies definitely WIN this season. :D

:)
Jaydeyn

[dweomeroflight.livejournal.com]

Got here from Who Daily :)

It confuses me when people accuse Moffat of making Dr Who sexist. I think this season has had far too many interesting female characters involved to label him as a sexist writer.

You could write an essay about River alone. River is win :P

[oltha_heri.livejournal.com]

I loved Nasreen. I thought she was fantastic, but her fantastic wasn't a thing, it just was. If that makes sense, she wasn't a woman, or a poc who was awesome. She just was awesome.

while, with Amy, we see her exhibiting a maternal streak
And here I thought it was River trying to line herself up a threesome.

And Liz Ten was totally amazing.

[bewarethespork.livejournal.com]

This is an awesome post and you are an awesome person for writing it.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

I think Nasreen is my favourite thus far, partly because Meera Syal is just awesome but also because her arc is lovely. <3 this post!

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Here via recs from both laura_shapiro and such_heights.

This is a lovely post. I particularly love Liz Ten (oh, how I wish we would see her again!) and River Song and Nasreen Chaudry, for all of the reasons you list.

Rosanna I admit was an interesting and very well-played character. I would have been more enthusiastic if Isabella hadn't been fridged as a point in her plot arc, and if her character hadn't included whole woman-comes-up-with-a-plot-that-involves-raping-other-women plot, which is too familiar and too infuriating for me to swallow. And Dr. Ramsden struck me as existing to show how henpecked Rory is--a he-even-gets-bossed-around-by-a-brown-woman kind of thing.

Nevertheless there is a lot to celebrate this season, and this post does a marvelous job of speaking to that succinctly. Thanks so much!

[promethia_tenk]

I haven't been this happy with this many female characters in one show since Battlestar Galactica. Long may it continue!

[ebony-twilight.livejournal.com]

Came here via who_daily

Older females in Who are the best. Hope we get lots more!

I loved Rosanna the most. And River too actually. I didn't like River much in series 4 but I've completely changed my mind on her now. She's so much fun, I love the bickering with the Doctor and her maternal streak showing with Amy. She's a really interesting character and Alex plays her really well. Can't wait to find out exactly who she is!

Rosanna is fab. I'm gutted that we'll never see her again! I like that she wasn't pure evil. She had such a vulnerability about her and the Doctor seemed to like her. He could understand and was sympathetic and they had amazing chemistry, which I found very interesting. It was surprisingly sad when she killed herself, I really didn't want her to die. :( I wanted the Doctor to take her with him. Not sure how that could work exactly but I still wanted it to happen. :p And yes she definitely had the best clothes!

Liz 10 and Nasreen were good characters and I liked them, but they didn't interest me as much. I think it was probably because I didn't like the episodes they were in.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

I agree with a lot of this, but I am still irked that Cold Blood killed off Rory, who, girl power aside, was my favorite thing about Amy. The emotional maturity to realise that it's okay to love someone who isn't the Doctor, to understand that caring deeply for someone isn't a weakness--cutting that out of her takes away the emotional maturity I was really starting to appreciate.