Content area
Full text
Abstract
Science fiction has the potential to offer something new in terms of gender representation. This does not mean it always delivers on this potential. Amid the hype surrounding the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who (1963-89, 2005-present),1 the longest running science fiction series on television, a slightly critical edge is discernable in the media coverage concerning the casting of the Twelfth Doctor and issues of representation in the series. This paper examines Doctor Who in the broader context of TV drama and changes to the television industry, analysing the series' gender representation, especially in the 2005 reboot, and focusing largely on the female 'companions'.
Key words: gender representation, television, feminism, BBC
When I put together an earlier version of this article for a symposium two years ago, I discovered a surprising gap in the academic literature of Doctor Who around gender. Gender in science fiction has often been studied, after all, and Star Trek (1966-69)2 another science fiction television series starting in the 1960s and continued via spin-offs and reboots, has long been analysed in terms of gender.3 So why not Doctor Who? Admittedly, Doctor Who's creators have no clear philosophy about trying to represent a more equal society, as with the utopian Trek. The lack of scholarship on gender in Doctor Who may also be part of a lack of scholarship generally on the series - academic study of it is just gaining momentum, and only started to accumulate seriously in the last five years. Earlier booklength studies (such as those by Kim Newman4 and James Chapman5 ) as well as more recent monographs (by Matt Hills6 and Piers Britton,7 for example) take a broad approach, so have little time to analyse gender in detail. John Tulloch's work on Doctor Who audiences8 likewise only touches on gender issues as part of a wider study of reception and fandom.
The 2005 reboot has led to some analysis of the new, prominent and almost exclusively female, companions. 2010's Ruminations, Peregrinations, and Regenerations: A Critical Approach to Doctor Who9 includes a four-chapter section titled 'Companions: Gender and Race,' for example, and Gillian Leitch's 2013 collection Doctor Who in Time and Space10 features three chapters on gender focused on companions. Some analysis of masculinity is also...