She’s got it all except for being a crippled lesbian, and this being the acting universe we’re talking about, news that the latter requirement is fulfilled might soon surface (and there’s also time to put to literal use that old acting saw “break a leg”): a proposal for a British actress of Nigerian and Jewish descent who was in a movie about genocide for the part of Number 11 in the Doctor Who series. This is a riff off a recent proposal of a band of female scientists for a female Doctor, who with clunking earnestness declare that
…making a high profile sci-fi character with a following like Doctor Who female would help to raise the profile of women in science and bring the issue of the important contribution women can and should make to science in the public domain.
Never mind that for most Who fangirls one of the current main attractions of the show is the geeky-hot male star, with the attached fantasy of being his companion/girlfriend. The bad facts are that most girls don’t want to be in charge, they want to be with the guy in charge. Also, math is hard. And this is after decades of girls-can-do-it-too propaganda. They just ain’t listening, and that can’t be blamed on the culture anymore. (Besides, the show has already had plenty of female scientists — companions Jo, Liz, Romana — who was also a Time Lady — just to name a few. Don’t mess with fangirls. We know it all.)
7 Responses to “Everything that rises must converge”
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December 5th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
You’d think such intelligent women could come up with their own show (which I’m sure they would think is better) as opposed to tinkering with something that’s successful. Of course, we know the answer: they’d rather kill the show and blame sexist attitudes.
December 5th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
So having solved all other formerly intractable problems facing the world of science, these massive distaff brains are turning their sights on the last, and thorniest, one left?
Well done, ladies! Is petty whining how you all split atoms with your minds?
December 5th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
With all that goofy “science” displayed in the show, the writers can’t, say, clone the Doctor, mess with the chromosomes, and produce a female Doctor? Robert Heinlein set up the plot line; all they have to do is steal it. This idea is no sillier than what the band of female scientists.
Although I won’t speculate on the hottness of a female Dr. Who. Mere mortals such as I should not go there.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Well, the actress in the article does look hot. Personally, though, if I had my choice of the perfect actress to play a new Doctor, it would be Catherine Tate. She was already halfway there in the last episode of the recent series.
(Spoiler warning below — if you haven’t seen the recent series yet and don’t want to know, don’t read past this.)
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PS: they already did a girl-clone from the Doctor in the episode “The Doctor’s Daughter.” She came out with eyeliner and everything.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
PPS: none of it even made halfway much as sense as Heinlein’s scenario, if I remember it correctly, not having read any Heinlein since the early 80s.
December 6th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Just went to the Wikipedia link. Jee-zus, I’d forgotten what a sicko Heinlein was. Brother-sister clones who really weren’t having not-incest sex with each other but one thing, but I remember reading that story about how Lazarus Long goes back and has sex with his mother and I think that was the last Heinlein story I ever read. Why are so many science fiction writers so fucking weird?
December 7th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Haw! In that case, never ever read Heinlein’s final book, “To Sail Beyond The Sunset”.