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Women of the Whoniverse
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.
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.
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